The cutbacks in domestic oil production have created a lack of security in the United States by allowing the OPEC+ nations to once again control the price of oil, just a few years after they were asking the United States to cut back because prices went too low, Rep. Markwayne Mullin, who is running for the U.S. Senate, told Newsmax on Sunday.
"When we control the oil industry, we can set prices ourselves, when we, and not be dependent on OPEC," the Oklahoma Republican said on Newsmax's "Wake Up America." "Now these same individuals see an opportunity to take advantage of a weak president, which we have."
When gas prices went down slightly this summer, the Biden administration was quick to claim credit, but now, regulations in the United States under the president's watch have climbed to make the country more dependent on Saudi oil, said Mullin.
"California has been cutting oil production for years," and is now buying almost as much oil from Saudi Arabia as has been cut in domestic supplies, he added.
"They have made it nearly impossible to get a rich resource that they have in their ground, out of the ground, and therefore they are now importing more Saudi oil than all the other 49 states combined … they are not going to allow combustible engines to be sold after 2035. They even know what they've done isn't working."
The Biden administration is also discussing cutting back on sanctions against Venezuela to increase oil imports from there, even though that country "has some of the dirtiest crude oil in the world," said Mullin.
"We all know that. The United States has what we call a sweet crude, which is very easy to refine," he said. "It has a very low carbon footprint. We're saying that we don't want to produce our oil because of the green energy, but we need Venezuela to do that, and they're going to import it."
He also warned that if the United States keeps going down the path it's on now, gas prices will "easily" rise by another 30%. Further, Biden's move to release oil from the national reserves must stop, because "we're going to pay these high prices" to replace it.
"You can't just continue to dump it on the market," Mullin 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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