The Biden Administration’s Energy Policies Have Empowered Russia

February 22, 2022

Last week, President Biden told Americans to brace for even higher gas prices as a result of the escalating tensions between Ukraine and Russia. “I will not pretend this will be painless,” Biden said at a press conference. As ABC News reports, others in his administration echoed the warning:

“If Russia decides to invade, there could be consequences here at home, and that could have an impact on energy prices…” [Jen] Psaki said.”

That’s looking more and more likely. Over the weekend, Putin ordered his troops into Ukraine. In response, Germany has halted work on the Nordstream 2 Pipeline that would bring Russian natural gas to Western Europe. In the lead-up to this conflict, President Biden’s regulators have played a key role in empowering Russia.

The Wall Street Journal writes:

We live in strange and contradictory times. President Biden is trying mightily to deter a Russian invasion in Ukraine at the same time his regulators are working to give Vladimir Putin more leverage over global energy supplies. Obsessive climate politics gets more self-destructive by the week.

In an act of bizarre timing, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) on Thursday revised its policy for approving natural gas pipelines and export terminals. FERC by law must vouch that projects are in the public interest and won’t have a significant environmental impact. But now the agency plans to include greenhouse gas emissions in this analysis.

The Journal continues to point out that the Biden administration’s worsening war on American energy production is doing little more than punishing America’s workers and helping Vladimir Putin. The Journal Continues:

FERC is diminishing U.S. geopolitical leverage against a revanchist Russia, which supplies about 40% of European gas imports. Russia is rapidly building pipelines and LNG export terminals to make Asia as dependent on its gas as Europe is so it can extort U.S. allies. Moscow is already using gas exports to pressure Japan not to join Western sanctions if it invades Ukraine.

Rest assured, Mr. Putin’s apparatchiks won’t be analyzing gas-project emissions. The climate obsessions of the left have already raised energy costs for hundreds of millions of Americans and are making the electric grid less reliable. Now they are actively aiding and abetting a dictator who may launch the biggest war in Europe since World War II.

The Biden administration’s policies have resulted in skyrocketing energy prices for the American people. Putin uses Russian energy as a geopolitical weapon against his enemies. President Biden has used American energy against the American people.