Why Democrats Want High Energy Prices

BIDEN: We’re banning all imports of Russian oil and gas and energy. That means Russian oil will no longer be acceptable at U.S. ports and the American people will deal another powerful blow to the Putin war machine. This is a move that has strong bipartisan support in Congress, and I believe in the country. Americans have rallied support — have rallied to support the Ukrainian people and made it clear we will not be part of subsidizing Putin’s war.

BUCK: It’s gonna get a whole lot more expensive to fill up your tank with gas. Welcome back to the Clay and Buck show. That was Biden just before we came on air telling the American people that now we are banning the import of Russian oil. My understanding is that this will not include the EU, and that they will continue to import Russian oil and gas. Russian’s biggest export partners for fossil fuels are the EU and China. So that hasn’t actually changed.

So this is now going to make gas more expensive for us, going to hurt our economy, and is going to do what, exactly, for Vladimir Putin? These are all the realities of what we face right now. I’d also note that while they’re talking about this, Biden also, Clay, when he announced embargo said, “You know what we really need to do is focus on clean energy right now!”

BIDEN: This crisis is a stark reminder, to protect our economy over the long-term we need to become energy independent. I’ve had numerous conversations over the last three months with our European friends of how they have been — to wean themselves off of Russian oil. It’s just not… (sputters) It… It… It’s just not tenable. It should motivate us to accelerate a transition to clean energy. This is a perspective (mumbling) and our European allies share.

BUCK: I mean, first of all —

CLAY: It barely reads, first of all. It’s getting worse and worse.

BUCK: — it’s embarrassing that he’s president. It’s not embarrassing ’cause I disagree with him. It’s embarrassing that he’s not up for this, he’s too old, and this is elder abuse. So we can start with that. Beyond that, though, Clay, if they’re not talking nuclear, they are unserious about any transition from fossil fuels.

CLAY: A part of me, Buck, at this point feels like they want the price of gas to get so insanely massive that they can argue we have to do away with oil and gas forever. Right? Is that a crazy hypothesis here, that, yes, in the short term it will be bad electorally for Democrats in the midterm.

But if we have $8 or $9 a gallon gas for your average person out there, then Biden in 2024 — or whoever the Democrat is — is going to run on the Green New Deal predicated on the huge cost of gas, right? The problem with all of this clean energy is it’s way more expensive than oil and gas, right? And so a higher cost of oil and gas in some way serves as a legitimizing factor for the idea of the Green New Deal.

BUCK: I had assumed, Clay, that Democrats would make decisions for which there are tradeoffs that would make me say, “I still disagree with what they did, but I will admit that this is a little bit better or this is a little bit improved.” Everything is worse!

CLAY: (laughs)

BUCK: Joe Biden has made everything worse.

CLAY: The Bidas touch.

BUCK: It’s remarkable. It is, the Bidas touch. It’s absolutely absurd.