The GOP's Biggest Whoppers About Biden And Fossil Fuels

LOADING ERROR LOADING Republican lawmakers and right-wing media have responded to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine by waging a misinformation campaign about the Biden administration being “at war with fossil fuels.” The goal, of course, is to leverage the crisis in Eastern Europe to provide more access and regulatory relief to an oil and gas sector that is already very profitable, heavily subsidized, has enormous sway in Washington, and is sitting on unused permits to drill across millions of acres of land and water. Sen. John Kennedy accused President Joe Biden of leading “a frontal assault on oil and gas.” Sen. Shelley Moore Capito bemoaned Biden’s “backwards, America-last energy policies.” And numerous other industry-backed members of the GOP have spent the days since Russia launched its violent war peddling industry talking points and demanding Biden “unleash” America’s full oil and gas potential. The Biden administration ‘destroyed’ America’s energy industry In a post to Twitter this week, House Minority Whip Steve Scalise wrote that rising prices at the pump during Biden’s presidency “is what happens when you destroy America’s energy industry” — part of a broader argument that Biden is waging “war” on domestic fossil fuel companies. Biden ‘ended’ oil and gas drilling on federal lands In an interview late last month with right-wing news outlet Newsmax, Sen. Marsha Blackburn claimed Russian President Vladimir Putin decided to invade Ukraine because of Biden’s energy policies, including “ending drilling on federal lands.” Biden did not end federal drilling — far from it.