BUCK: We are looking at the highest gas prices ever and really day in and day out we’re gonna keep hitting, it seems, new records. And it would be one thing if the people who were so involved in regulating the fossil fuel industry had even… Put aside that they are zealots who believe that the world will end because of climate change unless they are hyper-regulatory in their approach to fossil fuels — which are our economy, right?

I mean, 80% of our energy needs plus comes from fossil fuels. The idea that we’re anywhere near transitioning to net zero carbon emission, this is all fantasyland stuff. But it would be nice if they at least put aside the ideological overhang of we’re all gonna die because of climate change or extinction and whatever. “Existential threat” is a term they like to use. They’ve used that phrase all the time.

It’s an existential threat if we don’t take care of climate change, humanity, to anybody. They don’t have the most basic understanding of how the industry works that it’s necessary for all other industries in a modern economy. Without oil and gas, the entire U.S. — and, yes, global economy — comes to a screeching halt. So it’s pretty important, it is the lifeblood of a modern economy. Do they even understand…?

When I say “the basics,” I mean do they understand what you would think a fifth grader would understand? I think the answer, unfortunately, is “no.” They just said yesterday, the Biden administration said, that they want more output from the gas companies and that it’s their patriotic duty to produce more and charge less. Here just about an hour ago is White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre saying: We’re not saying they need to actually drill more.

JEAN-PIERRE: “We don’t need to” drill more oil in the U.S.

REPORTER: “The president once said he’s going to end fossil fuel. Is that now off the table?”

JEAN-PIERRE: “No. We are going to continue to move forward…” pic.twitter.com/CGGKVmfW9l

— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) June 16, 2022

CLAY: Buck, she has no idea what she’s talking about. Basic logic, nothing that she said… By the way, credit to Peter Doocy for continuing to do a phenomenal job of holding White House officials accountable for their idiocy. But, Buck, you can’t even add up the responses to what she just did in that 30 seconds and make it in any way logically connected.

BUCK: It doesn’t make any sense. I mean, the notion that refineries are just not refining what their output could be… The price of gas right now is very high. So refineries aren’t actually going to their maximum production right now for what reason, do they think? And the U.S., meanwhile, the Biden administration is saying, “Well, let’s go to foreign sources.” You trace all this back to what she started to get into there, which is this administration…

I think Doocy even pointed out, Biden said we’re gonna get away from oil and gas entirely. They can’t say and smile and pat themselves on the back in this White House, they can’t say, “We’re moving fossil fuels because they’re going to destroy the planet,” and then the next day say, “Hey, man, no problem with the fossil fuels! You guys just gotta produce a little bit more from the refineries. We’re not…” Clay, they actually have to get government permission to refine more than they currently are.

The regulations… The more I’ve been digging into this, the regulations for exploration, the leases on different land, offshore, on shore — the regulations for refining — the SEC disclosures that are required in order to expand and to get money together to expand operations because of the climate change impact that these industries have, it’s Byzantine. The whole thing… Government makes all this harder, more expensive, and slower. And then when people say, “My gosh this is expensive,” they turn around and say, “It’s just those greedy corporations’ fault, man!”

CLAY: Remember when Democrats were furious at Sarah Palin for saying, “Drill, baby, drill”? Now all of a sudden, the Biden administration is simultaneously I’m trying to say, “Drill, baby, drill.”

BUCK: Or “refine, baby, refine” as the case maybe.

CLAY: But also we don’t want any oil and gas to exist in this country basically at all. It’s too diametrically opposed perspectives. And Bidens needs to come out and just say, “I like the idea of long-term energy independence. We aren’t there and we aren’t close to being there — and, in the meantime, I like the idea of lower the gas prices far more. We need to unlock all restrictions.” He’s not gonna do it because his base is crazy, and they will be furious at him if he in any way fully endorses the idea of producing as much oil and gas as we can.

BUCK: How much do you think at this point, whether it’s on the issue — covid is a huge one clearly, and the lockdowns and the masking and the vaccines — but also progressive prosecutors, defund the police, crime, the wide-open border, and now energy policy, it’s so clear that they were wrong. But do you think it’s, more than anything else, they just don’t want to admit that we were right? Is that really the psychological stumbling block, more than their true belief in these dumb ideas?

CLAY: I think covid they don’t want to admit they were wrong. I think the oil and gas issues reflect a fundamental lack of comprehension about how business works, because if you listen to what all they’re saying, “We need a 95% profits tax.” It is such a Venezuelan, Maduroesque policy. If you are removing all incentive to make money, then there’s no basis for companies like these to exist.

And so I don’t think in their minds they can conceptualize the way that business works and what incentives promote more business. People want to invest when they can make more money. That’s the entire basis of capitalism, and the problem that Democrats have right now is, they almost have no one who knows business well that speaks loudly in the party. Think about it, Buck.

Who is the foremost Democrat capitalist with a voice in the room right now? We talk about Elizabeth Warren, profit tax. Bernie Sanders, effectively a socialist. Joe Biden, not smart enough to have any understanding here. Nancy Pelosi may be a capitalist, but it only seems to exist when she’s making her stock trades and taking advantage of that. I can’t speak to someone who is a really successful businessperson and is driving Democrat policy. Whether you liked Trump at all or not, he surrounded himself with successful businesspeople who understood basic rules of business.

BUCK: He made the former CEO of Exxon secretary of state, who some people think didn’t necessarily do a great job in that role but he did understand global energy policy, that he did know as well as other things, and I just point out that the prices of gas are a pain that everybody feels. There’s also that pain out there that a lot of folks don’t personally have to deal with. But those who do, it is acute, it is real, and that’s the baby formula shortage, which continues to this day. The White House press secretary KJP asked about this. Here’s how that went.

Pressed by @KarenTravers on when families will see baby formula on the shelves again, White House press sec. Karine Jean-Pierre says, “I don’t have a timeline for you.”

“We’re doing everything that we can from here.” https://t.co/xHP6FOuZlv pic.twitter.com/JuWOBBiDyl

— ABC News Politics (@ABCPolitics) June 16, 2022

BUCK: Last summer we had Hot Vax Summer, Clay? That’s what everybody was saying? This summer, it may be Baby Formula Shortage still.

CLAY: Unfortunately — and also, as we talked about earlier in the week, Tampon Shortage Season. You’re a woman out there and you or your friends are voting Democrat, I, frankly, don’t know how you can make a worse decision for you and your family right now when it comes to baby formula shortage and not even being able to find tampons. It’s incompetence on a epic scale.