On the campaign trail, Joe Biden vowed to eliminate fossil fuels, and since then, he has intentionally worked to accomplish just that. But Biden’s push to fulfill this particular promise has come at a colossal cost to the American people. This winter, U.S. households can expect to pay more than they have in 25 years to heat their homes. 

Earlier this month, President Biden announced a slew of new attempts to curb the energy crisis he created. In response to OPEC’s plans to cut their oil production by 2 million barrels per day, Biden released 15 million more barrels of oil from the U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR), and what did it get us? The SPR is now at its lowest level since 1984. To repeatedly drain oil from the SPR is incredibly dangerous, and it isn’t a permanent fix. There is only one way to lower energy costs for good: make America energy independent again. 

President Biden has made it his mission to do the exact opposite. From day one of his administration, Joe Biden has waged war on American energy independence. Within his first few months in office, he canceled construction of the Keystone XL Pipeline, paused oil and gas leasing on federal lands, moved to rejoin the Paris Climate Accords, and directed The Department of the Interior to halt oil and gas leasing in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. Biden’s Democratic allies in Congress have proven happy to assist him in making things worse, most recently by forcing passage of a spending spree that included $369 billion for the Green New Deal. The left wants the United States to look more like Europe, but Europe’s energy crisis should be their wake-up call. 

If you need more proof that we’re headed in the wrong direction, look no further than the crumbling state of California. Through his own radical climate agenda, Governor Newsom is forcing his state into a situation where they cannot keep up. Besides mandating a transition to all-electric vehicles by 2035, Governor Newsom recently urged the state legislature to accelerate greenhouse gas reductions and reduce oil dependence. This heavy reliance on renewable energy has yielded nothing good for California residents but is consistent with years of woke policymaking. From 2011 to 2020, industrial electricity prices grew42% — 7 times more than the rest of the United States. Even worse, Californians are at a heightened risk for blackouts, as they experienced this August, because of the state’s unwillingness to prioritize reliable electricity over “green” gimmicks. It begs the question: how does the left expect Californians to charge their electric cars when they can't even keep the lights on? 

Make no mistake: California is only the beginning. The state of New York has announced a plan to adopt the Golden State’s 2035 electric vehicle plan, and it won’t stop there. How the Democrats could watch the fiasco in California andstill conclude that these failed policies are the foundation for a national standard is beyond me. 

The American people cannot afford another crisis, especially one that depletes their pocketbooks and forces them to choose between filling up their cars or heating their homes this winter. Unfortunately, all signs point to another crisis. In August, the National Energy Assistance Directors Association found that more than 20 million families are behind on their utility bills and owe approximately $16 billion. Last month, a Bank of America study indicated that around 20% of U.S. households missed or submitted a late payment on their utility bill in the last month. 

Americans should feel insulted by President Biden’s insistence that anyone but himself is to blame for this. While deflecting responsibility, the White House continues to intentionally pile on burdensome policies that make U.S. energy more expensive. After nearly two years of watching oil and gas prices skyrocket, there is no mistaking that they know exactly what they are doing, and they just don’t care. They have decided that unsustainable utility bills and pain at the pump are a small price to pay to win their “green” crusade. Meanwhile, Tennesseans are left to wonder, how far is the left willing to go before they break us?

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