Biden Climate Actions Fail to Respond to Economic Crisis Facing American Workers
In less than 48 hours, President Biden made it clear that he intends to make Democrats' hostility towards America's energy sector a hallmark of his administration, announcing steps to rejoin the Paris Climate Agreement, block the construction of the Keystone XL Pipeline, and issuing a 60-day moratorium on oil and gas leases that affect all federal lands and waters.
This comes against the backdrop of newly released jobless claim numbers, which continue to illustrate the devastating toll the COVID-19 pandemic has taken on workers across America. The impact of this pandemic has hit Texas and its thousands of energy workers especially hard.
On Wednesday, during his inaugural address, President Joe Biden discussed the millions of jobs that have been lost throughout this economic crisis. And yet in his first acts as president, he chose to target the jobs of thousands of blue-collar energy workers at the behest of Green New Deal enthusiasts.
President Biden is putting dogma before the American worker and ideology before the American family. Here's how:
- Rejoining the Paris Climate Agreement will destroy hundreds of thousands of American energy and manufacturing jobs while surrendering control of our energy future to other countries. Meanwhile, the agreement allows China, the world's largest polluter, to avoid the same terms as the United States.
- Blocking construction of the Keystone XL Pipeline and preventing further expanding energy trade with our USMCA trade partner, Canada, President Biden is eliminating the jobs of up to 11,000 hardworking Americans while making the United States more reliant on certain types of oil from overseas countries.
- Banning oil and gas leases and drilling permits, the Biden administration is blatantly ignoring the vital role that natural gas has played in creating good-paying jobs, boosting our economy, and providing cleaner, more affordable, and more reliable energy across the country.
And let's not forget, President Biden has called for an emissions-free power grid by 2035 and his top climate advisers proposed policies that would eviscerate Texas's hydraulic fracturing industry.
FLASHBACK: Kamala Harris: "Joe Biden will not ban fracking. That is a fact"
WATCH: A Ban on Fracking Would Be Bad for the Economy
According to estimates, implementing all of the policies and regulations needed to reach the goals of the Paris Agreement would likely result in a total income loss of more than $20,000 for a family of four while raising electricity costs for American households between 13 and 20 percent. In addition, the fuel for our cars and many other common products we use in our daily lives would become dramatically more expensive, squeezing families across the country.
That's why in the early days of the pandemic, Sen. Cruz took action to protect small and independent refiners facing bankruptcy by working with the Trump administration to make sure energy producers had access to critical capital and successfully pushed for the Federal Reserve to establish a new lending facility to provide immediate emergency liquidity for oil and gas businesses.
BOTTOM LINE: Our energy industry needs the Biden administration's support at this critical time, not its scorn. Amid a devastating pandemic that has stretched many hard-working families far too thin already, Americans who depend on a vibrant energy sector simply cannot afford to move backwards. It is unfortunate that President Biden has chosen a day one agenda that threatens America's energy independence and our blue-collar economy. Sen. Cruz remains committed to championing America's energy independence and supporting the hundreds of thousands of blue-collar energy workers across the country while promoting affordable energy for American families, clean energy for our environment, and abundant energy for America's future.
READ: Democrats: Abandoning Blue-Collar Workers
WATCH: Democrats Have Declared War on America's Blue-Collar Boom
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