President Joe Biden's letter to oil companies to demand that production be increased to bring gas prices down was "all hat and no cattle," Rep. Beth Van Duyne said on Newsmax Thursday, using a Texas saying to discuss her thoughts on how he's handling the gas price crisis.
"He blames everybody but himself," the Texas Republican said on Newsmax's "National Report." "This is a short letter. It's about a page-and-a-half and in it, he blames Putin for price hikes and gas four times."
The problem with that is that gas prices started rising "nearly every single week since Biden has been elected," said Van Duyne. "That's because of his campaign rhetoric that the oil and gas industry will have no future in America.
"On day one, he closed down the expansion of the Keystone XL pipeline. Regulation after regulation is being mounted against these companies that have prevented them from being able to produce as much as they could."
The administration also "incentivized the closing of refineries and shut down drilling on federal lands at the same time that they're sending this letter demanding that these oil companies produce more," she said. "They are also appealing a judge's case that would allow more federal drilling on federal lands. They say one thing and yet in the background, they're doing another to fight everything they can on the oil and gas industry."
In its response to Biden, ExxonMobil called on Biden, in the short term, to take action to meet the emergency and said in the "longer term, the government can promote investment through clear and consistent policy that supports U.S. resource development, such as regular and predictable lease sales, as well as streamlined regulatory approval and support for infrastructure such as pipelines.''
But instead of taking these steps, Biden has chosen to blame the war in Ukraine for the gas prices, rather than his administration, said Van Duyne.
"[He should] work with the companies who are here, figure out how together you can partner to be able to meet all of the excessive demand that we have seen," said Van Duyne. "Most years we have the ability to do that here. We create, and we produce more oil and gas and cleaner American [energy], than any other country in the world."
But still, the administration continues to seek solutions from other countries, said Van Duyne.
"Not only is this an attack on the oil and gas industry here, but it's also an attack on American workers," said Van Duyne. "This administration needs to, I think, accept the fact that their policies have completely failed, revamp them, and start partnering with their U.S companies as opposed to demonizing them."
Van Duyne on Thursday also spoke out about the mounting situation at the U.S.-Mexico border, saying that as with the gas price issue, the administration is blaming "everybody else" and saying there is nothing to do.
But, she said, Biden can return to building the border wall, use Title 42 to help control the flow of immigrants, and reinstate the remain in Mexico policy.
"Even more important than that, you could send a message to all of these migrants that you see coming up in these caravans that you see coming up that the border is closed," the congresswoman said.
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Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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