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I hope you saw my latest weekly column.



ROGER WICKER: Climate Agenda Drives Up Gas Prices, Weakens Power Grid
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Paying an arm and a leg for gasoline has become a fact of life under President
Biden. For four straight months, gas prices in Mississippi have topped $4 per
gallon – more than double what we were paying just two years ago. Electricity
costs are soaring as well. Over the past year, electricity rates have risen
13.7 percent, eating up a larger share of our budgets. These heavy costs are
falling especially hard on lower-income Americans, retirees, and those on fixed
incomes. Recently, when asked how long Americans will have to stomach these
prices, President Biden said bluntly, “As long as it takes.”

These high energy prices are a direct result of the President’s climate
agenda, which he has refused to abandon in the face of mounting costs. Mr.
Biden put his cards on the table in 2019 when he told his supporters, “We are
going to end fossil fuel.” He has since shown that he is serious. As President,
he has aggressively sought to block oil and gas development across the nation
and has waged a relentless war on coal. Many of us had hoped he would alter his
course amid out-of-control energy prices, but he has simply resorted to
band-aid solutions to try to hide the harmful effects of his policies.

Gimmicks Fail to Lower Prices

Since November, President Biden has released more than 150 million barrels of
oil from our Strategic Petroleum Reserve in an attempt to lower gas prices.
Predictably, this has not worked. Americans are still paying over $4 per
gallon, yet now our oil reserve – which was designed strictly for emergencies –
has been largely depleted, leaving us more vulnerable in the future. It is also
reported that over five million barrels of this oil were sent overseas,
including to China.

President Biden has proposed other short-term gimmicks as well. He has floated
a national gas tax holiday, which would save drivers at most 18 cents on the
gallon, and which President Obama once derided as a political stunt. He has
urged foreign countries, like Saudi Arabia and Venezuela, to boost oil exports
even as he is crushing American oil production. Recently, he even tried to tell
gas stations to lower their prices unilaterally, as if somehow they could
control the global oil market. President Biden is in total denial that his
anti-energy policies are the real problem.

Green Agenda Could Lead to Blackouts

In addition to hurting the economy, the President’s war on energy poses a
growing risk to our power grid. Natural gas and coal currently provide 60
percent of our electricity, yet these are the very power sources President
Biden is targeting with heavy regulations. According to the Energy Information
Administration, 85 percent of power plant closures this year are expected to be
among coal-fired plants – a direct result of the President’s war on coal. With
our power supply shrinking, experts say more than half of the country now faces
a higher risk of power outages this summer.

Ten years ago, the German government attempted to move away from coal and
nuclear power the way President Biden is trying to do. After a few years, they
found it unworkable. It became clear that renewable energy sources are not yet
reliable and cannot provide 100 percent of a major country’s power needs.
President Biden should heed this lesson. Until he shifts course and decides to
unleash the full range of our abundant energy resources, we will all continue
to suffer.



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Senator Roger Wicker






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