by Casey Harper
A newly released report shows that the Biden administration’s energy policy is increasingly costly for Americans.
The chairman of the U.S. House of Representatives Oversight Committee, Rep. James Comer (pictured above, left), R-Ky., released a report arguing that Biden’s energy policies have increased costs for Americans and hurt the economy.
“The Biden administration has used the power of the executive branch to wage war on American energy production and entrench radical, far-left energy policies that threaten domestic energy development, overwhelm the U.S. energy grid, and raise costs for all American consumers and businesses,” Comer said in a statement.
In particular, recent President Joe Biden (pictured above, right). pause on liquefied natural gas exports, increased gas prices and an aggressive push to switch to electricity are among the main criticisms of Biden.
Comer’s office quotes analysis from the right-wing American Action Forum published in April. AAF reports that in 2024 alone, Biden’s Environmental Protection Agency had proposed 38 up-to-date regulations at the end of April and had finalized 63. According to AAF, these rules total 33,138 pages and will cost the U.S. economy over a trillion dollars.
The report it also highlights the costs of shifting more and more of America’s energy needs to the electric grid.
From the report:
The U.S. Energy Information Administration projects that demand for electricity generated by U.S. utilities will continue to grow at an average annual rate of one percent through 2050. But radical up-to-date policies and regulations announced by the Biden administration aim to transform generation energy and electricity markets. The Biden administration intends to replace highly reliable and affordable existing energy sources with up-to-date sources that are typically less reliable and more steep. For consumers, the results of these initiatives will, predictably, be higher utility bill costs, higher costs for goods and services that consume electricity, the undetectable costs of energy subsidies covered by income and other taxes, and economic costs as high electricity prices push some business opportunities abroad.
The White House has cited climate change concerns in implementing several policies, including pausing construction of up-to-date liquefied natural gas export sites.
This LNG outage was particularly controversial, with a coalition of state and congressional leaders rallying opposition against it. The lawsuit challenging the constitutionality was filed by a coalition of states.
Biden’s Energy Department defended the decision and emphasized that it would not inhibit any sales that currently exist. The White House also argued that the United States is already a leading exporter without up-to-date sales.
“Before issuing any new decisions on LNG exports, DOE is initiating a transparent process to ensure that we are using the most up-to-date economic and environmental analyzes to determine whether additional permits to export LNG to non-FTA countries are in the public domain.” form of “interest,” the DOE said in a February post defending the decision.
Meanwhile, federal climate-related spending has come under fire.
During a press conference last week, U.S. Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, D-Va., made headlines by revealing that federal funds went to a climate group that actively supported Hamas’ October 7 attack on Israel, which included the rape, killing of children and taking hostages.
“We went to the Climate Justice Alliance website. On this website, we discovered that our taxpayer dollars go to organizations like this,” she said, referring to a pro-Hamas photo that allegedly appeared on the group’s website.
Comer’s reporting comes after Biden’s Energy Secretary, Jennifer Granholm, fielded questions from lawmakers about Biden’s energy policy last week.
Republicans sharply criticized it for the increased costs Americans face. Energy costs have increased by more than 35% since Biden took office, according to federal data.
During the hearing, Granholm defended her agency’s work, including Biden’s decision to deplete the nation’s strategic petroleum reserves early in his term to lend a hand address rising gas prices.
“The Administration remains committed to maintaining a robust and well-functioning SPR. In 2022, in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the resulting oil market disruption, the President ordered the sale of 180 million barrels,” Granholm said in her written testimony. sent to the committee. “The emergency sale provided certainty of supply and acted as a bridge until domestic production increased, which in turn helped mitigate cost increases for American families.”
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Casey Harper is a contributor Central Square and Washington Bureau reporter.
“Joe Biden” photo by President Joe Biden. Photo “James Comer” by James Comer. Cover photo “US Capitol” by Architect of the Capitol.
