Gas prices start around $7 a gallon at The Village service station in Montecito. A station representative told the News-Press that the $7.09 price is for regular, self-service gas and that prices go as high as $8 a gallon for premium, full-service gas. On Saturday, the average cost of gas in Santa Barbara County was $6.35 a gallon, according to the American Automobile Association.
Mark Brnovich
The author is the Arizona attorney general
Middle-class Americans don’t need an economist or political scientist to tell them there’s something wrong with the economy. They realize it every time they put gas in their tanks or have to pay more for groceries.
The financial security of many families is now in jeopardy because the Biden administration cares more about appeasing radical environmentalists rather than securing America’s energy independence.
It didn’t have to be this way.
Under the previous administration, the United States was essentially energy independent. That all changed, however, on Jan. 20, 2021, with the Biden administration’s unlawful recession of domestic energy production on multiple fronts, and it has further deteriorated throughout his first year in office and into this worldwide chaos centering on the Russian war in Ukraine.
Unfortunately, the Biden administration refuses to restart the energy independence it inherited. On its first week in office, it halted all new oil and gas leases on federal lands, which federal courts held was unlawful. Then, after sanctioning importation of Russian oil, liquefied natural gas and coal to the United States, a White House delegation traveled to Venezuela to discuss “energy security,” according to former Press Secretary Jen Psaki. But the United States should never be dependent on murderous thugs or despotic regimes for its energy needs.
President Joe Biden remains beholden to leftwing climate activists, which is why he is vigorously opposing a return to successful energy policies. Many of these radicals, who are now influencing or directing energy policies, are actively hampering production from private companies through market manipulation or allocation based on investment firm imposed environmental, social or governance factors. That’s why our office has launched an investigation of this potentially unlawful behavior.
There are many imprudent extreme energy policies of the Biden administration, and the list continues to grow as this crisis broils into a catastrophe. President Biden revoked a key permit to the Keystone Pipeline, ceased drilling for oil in Alaska, ballooned the “social cost of carbon,” and paused new oil and gas leases. With a legacy like this on such a vital component of a functioning nation, it’s no wonder why Americans are being financially devastated at the gas pumps.
Though energy production is largely a federal matter, many states, like Arizona, have stepped up to use our tools to mitigate this administration’s harmful actions and to hold it accountable to the rule of law. Our office has taken numerous actions to challenge the Biden administration’s sabotage of domestic energy production.
We joined a challenge to the administration’s “Social Cost of Carbon” regulations, which are employed to limit energy production. We similarly filed suit to challenge the administration’s cancellation of the Keystone Pipeline. We opposed the Biden administration’s attempt to repeal rules allowing for transportation of liquid natural gas by rail, which expands the access of U.S. citizens to the energy production of our own nation.
Americans deserve a president who is defending their interests and upholding the rule of law.
Tragically for Americans, Biden and his bureaucratic henchmen appear poised to double down on their radical energy policies to appease the chorus of fanatical special interest groups. And it is particularly pernicious that this administration’s lawlessness in the United States may be used to subsidize the lawless and brutal repression of the people of Venezuela.
Mark Brnovich is an American attorney and politician who has served as the 26th attorney general of Arizona since 2015. This commentary was provided to the News-Press by The Center Square, a nonprofit dedicated to journalism.
