Hello everyone and welcome to this episode of Ignition Time.
You know it, I know it.
Gas prices are through the roof.
What is the government doing to try
and lower gas prices and why are we in this situation?
Well, folks, because Russia invaded
Ukraine and because President Biden and just announced that there would be
a ban on Russian oil and gas imports into the United States of America.
Well, folks, that has led to gas prices
going through the roof because this is a supply and demand problem.
The US did import oil and gas from Russia and now that the US is going to stop doing
that and we continue to consume a lot of oil and gas.
Well, folks, that's why prices are going up.
In fact, Fox New's is Peter Doocy
specifically asked the White House press Secretary, hey, what's going on?
Why are prices going up?
In fact, prices were going up even before this Ukraine situation.
Let's see Jen Psaki's response.
And she said, let me give you the facts here
and I know that can be inconvenient, but I think they're important in this moment.
Let's watch this segment and I want you to tell me what you make of this.
Let's watch.
Hi, Jen, it sounds like you guys are blaming Putin
for the increase in gas prices recently. But weren't gas prices going up anyway
because of post pandemic supply chain issues?
Well, I think there's no question that as we have seen and outside analysts have
conveyed this as well, the increase in the anticipated continued
increase, which is, I think what some of your colleagues were
asking about, that is a direct result of the invasion of Ukraine.
And also there was an anticipation of that
that was factored in as gas prices have gone up.
So you say that you're going to do everything that you can to reduce
the impact that high gas prices have on Americans.
We're asking other countries to think about maybe pumping more oil.
Why not just do it here?
Well, to be very clear,
federal policies are not limiting the supplies of oil and gas.
Let me finish.
Let me give you the facts here.
And I know that can be inconvenient, but I think they're important in this moment.
To the contrary, we have been clear that in the short term,
supply must keep up with the demand here and around the world where we make
the shift to a secure, clean energy future.
We are one of the largest producers with a strong domestic oil and gas industry.
We have actually produced more oil.
It is at record numbers.
And folks, a few days ago,
Senator Joe Manchin, the Democrat from West Virginia, said,
"we would gladly pay $0.10 more a gallon for gas to help Ukraine."
Well, folks, I can tell you it's a lot more than $0.10. It's upwards of $0.50,
maybe even upwards of $1 in some parts of the country.
I've read reports of gas being as high as $7 a gallon on the West Coast.
Let's roll the tape and see what Senator Joe Manchin had to say.
Let's watch. You need a horsepower to run a country.
You need a horsepower to be the superpower
of the world and be able to have your allies depend on you.
And we haven't been there for that.
We've throttled back and never throttled back up.
That's what I'm saying. And I'll just say this for my own.
I would gladly if there's a poll being
taken, they said, Joe, would you pay $0.10 more a gallon
to support the people of Ukraine and stop basically the support of Russia?
I would gladly pay $0.10 more a gallon. In the meantime, folks,
the President trying to promise Americans, I quote, I'm going to do everything I can
to minimize Putin's price hike here at home.
And the President said this after banning Russian oil.
Let's roll the tape and hear from President Biden.
I'm going to do everything I can to minimize Putin's price hike here at home.
In coordination with our partners, we've already announced that we're
releasing 60 million barrels of oil from our joint oil reserves.
Half of that 30 billion
is coming from the United States.
Here's another quote from President Biden
where he makes a direct appeal to oil and gas companies and the finance firms
that are backing these oil and gas companies.
Russia's aggression is costing us all,
and it's no time for profiteering or price gouging.
Let's roll the tape and see what President Biden had to say to the oil
and gas companies and to the finance firms that pack them.
We understand Putin's war against
the people of Ukraine is causing prices to rise.
We get that. That's self evident.
But.
It'S no excuse to exercise excessive price
increases or padding profits or any kind of effort to exploit this situation
or American consumers exploit them.
Russia's aggression is costing us all,
and there's no time for profiteering or price gouging.
And, folks, in the meantime,
you can imagine and you can expect many Republicans to seize on this.
They're talking about the Keystone pipeline, which, by the way,
would not have been operational for many, many years.
But this did not stop lawmakers
from turning it into their latest commercial and another focal point
for them to criticize the current administration.
I want you to know that the Keystone pipeline, which was paused under the Biden
administration, would not have been operational for many years.
But again, Republican lawmakers have seized on this.
Let's roll the tape and see what they've been saying.
Let's watch. The Biden administration has declared war,
a full frontal attack on oil production, on gas production, on LNG, on pipelines.
Literally.
The first week in office, Joe Biden shuts down the Keystone pipeline.
He canceled the Keystone pipeline on day one of his presidency,
killing the Keystone pipeline and locking down the energy sector.
They are funding Putin's war why can't we open up Keystone pipeline?
Representative Buddy Carter saying Ukraine is our ally and we need to protect them.
I'm calling on President Biden to restart the Keystone XL pipeline.
I think we should have built that pipeline.
I still think we should be able to build that pipeline.
So, folks, the big question is, are President Biden's claims about oil
production under him versus Trump misleading?
And according to Fox Business, I quote,
Biden administration spins record on oil production amid soaring gas prices.
In fact, let's take a look at what John Cornyn is saying about this.
And he said, I quote, the US is seeing the results of Biden's flawed energy policy.
Now, Senator John Cornyn is
a Senate Intelligence Committee member and he discusses the president's view
on energy during this really important interview with Fox Business.
Let's roll the tape and see what Sandra Cornyn had to say.
Public consideration.
John Cornyn, what do you want to do first, since you're from Texas.
Do you want to do oil? Do you want to do banks?
Well, let me just say, John,
that I think we're seeing the product of flawed energy policy.
We've thought about absolutes either renewables or oil and gas like it's a zero
sum game and hadn't paid any attention to energy security.
I think even Germany now has learned the lesson of dependency on Russian oil.
And we've seen huge spike in prices even before the invasion of Ukraine.
So I think this is a major
reason for a reset when it comes to how we view energy security, including price.
And you've really got to check
with the White House says when they say there are 9000 leases that are going
on topped we saw earlier today the reasons why many of those leases go untapped,
because there's just much more than sticking a drill bit in the ground.
You've got to have the infrastructure to back it up.
You've got to have the equipment to back it up.
And then the White House said today that we're pumping out oil at a record level.
We're not we're 1.3 million barrels a month below record levels.
Here's what the American Petroleum Institute said about all this.
We share the goal of reducing reliance on foreign energy sources and urge
policymakers to advance American energy leadership and expand domestic production
to counter Russia's influence in global energy markets.
So they're saying we'd like to do it.
We just need the policies to be able to do it.
In the meantime, we're hearing from the administration,
well, maybe we should buy some oil from Iran again, or maybe we should reduce
sanctions on Venezuela, that corrupt dictatorship and get more oil from them.
That's a product of our bad policies here at home when it comes to domestic
production, that we would have to turn to Saudi Arabia or Russia or Venezuela
in order to get the energy we need to help bring down gas prices at the pump.
Again, I think this administration views
energy policy as a zero sum game, that you're either for green energy or
reducing emissions or you're for carbon producing fossil fuels.
The truth is we need all of the above.
We need intermittent sources of energy
like solar and wind when the wind is blowing and the sun is shining.
But sometimes that doesn't happen.
And you need a base load of power
for electricity city for your economy and for your national security.
And that's what I think the administration is still missing.
One day we're all going to be driving electric cars probably powered by nuclear
power or solar or wind, because eventually we're going to run out of oil.
But it's difficult to make that transition overnight.
Let me ask you about Poland saying that it's going to send all of its MiG 29
fighters to Ramstein Air Base and hand them over to the United States or NATO.
And Poland is basically saying,
we don't know what you're going to do with them, but here you go.
And then backfill the Swiss and American fighter Jets, F 16.
That's great news. That's great news.
Ukrainians have inspired all of us with their willingness to push back
against Putin's invasion and to challenge them on the ground.
We've been supplying and our NATO allies
have been supplying weapons, Javelins and other anti tank missiles,
anti aircraft weapons that have allowed the Ukrainians to stall a lot
of the convoys, the efforts to invade the country.
But they maintained air superiority.
But they need these planes in order which they're accustomed to flying because
they use the same Russian era planes in Ukraine that they do in Poland.
But this is part of producing the defensive,
lethal weapons that the Ukraine need in order to defend themselves.
This doesn't imply NATO is going to get
involved in the fight or the United States is getting involved in the fight directly,
but this is an important part of our commitment and obligation.
So Vladimir Putin issued an explicit
threat to NATO members, to the EU to say if you get involved
in a no fly zone where you're providing the aircraft to fly stories
and potentially get into conflict with Russian Jets or Russian ground
forces, you're going to be considered a combatant.
Do you think that he will expand that definition to if you provide
the Ukrainian air force with the means to be able to fly?
Again, we're going to consider you a combatant.
Well, it's hard to know what Mr.
Putin is going to do.
We know that he's the one who would make a decision whether to use, for example,
a tactical nuclear weapon, which is part of Russian military doctrine.
We hope and pray that that never happens.
But I think this is a Bluff,
because I don't see any difference in providing Stingers and Javelin missiles
and other lethal defensive equipment than providing them airplanes.
So I think as long as it's the Ukrainians
flying the airplanes, it's not NATO partners
actually in Ukraine fighting on the ground that we should call Mr.
Putin's Bluff.
Now, I mentioned this earlier, but the white house press Secretary, Jen suck.
He said during a recent press briefing that I quote, the US produced more oil
this past year than in President Trump's first year.
President Biden also said something
similar as he announced a ban on Russian energy imports.
President Biden said this even amid the pandemic,
companies in the United States pumped more oil during my first year in office than
they did during my predecessor's first year.
That is what President Biden said.
But according to Fox business, the white House's framing omits a very
important fact that while domestic oil production in 2021 was higher than
in 2017, It was lower than it was in 2018, 2019, and 2020.
And by the way, our consumption kept increasing every single year.
In fact, President Biden warned that this is going to hurt American families.
President Biden said this Putin's war is already hurting American families
at the gas pump since Putin began his military build up on Ukrainian borders.
And with this action, it's going to go up further.
I'm going to do everything I can
to minimize Putin's price here at home and in coordination with our partners.
Now, obviously, Republicans aren't happy.
Here's a quote from Morgan Griffith, Republican from Virginia.
Historically, inflation works against the party in control of Washington.
In fact, the house minority whip, Steve Scalise,
who is a Republican from Louisiana, said this Speaker Pelosi
and President Biden's radical green new deal agenda will be a major issue
in November's elections and you can start to see how different politicians are
already starting to focus on the upcoming midterm elections at the end of this year.
Let me know whether you think
President Biden is doing what he can or whether the Democrats are spinning what is
a very bad situation, what is a very poor handling of our oil
and energy needs and trying to spin it and hide the facts.
Let me know where you've this is indeed a crude awakening.
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Thank you so much for watching.
I'm looking forward to seeing you in the next episode of ignition time.
Take care, bye.