Communism or Climate Care? Biden’s Oil Authorization Raises Dissent

On Saturday, the U.S. Department of the Treasury gave American energy company Chevron the green light to drill for oil again in Venezuela. Previously, the United States had targeted sanctions on the country due to the communist regime under President Nicolas Maduro. According to the Treasury Department’s press release, this move towards natural resource extraction will help “alleviate the suffering of the Venezuelan people and support the restoration of democracy.”

Now, with the resumption of these operations in Venezuela as a means of reducing American energy costs, critics of Biden’s energy policies are saying this was never necessary in the first place. Former President Donald Trump’s prioritization of U.S. energy independence led him to authorize drilling permits for the Keystone XL Pipeline, which Biden cancelled on day one.

In contrast, one of President Biden’s campaign promises was to get rid of fossil fuels as a means of combatting the “threat of climate change,” such as global warming. Yet many critics point to this sanction relief as a nod towards communist dictators that not only threatens American jobs, national security, and energy independence, but incidentally, the environment.

Rep. Andy Biggs (R-Ariz.) took to Twitter to express his disdain with the foreign energy dealings: “The Biden Administration cannot be getting our oil and gas from Russia, Iran, and Venezuela. These are our adversaries — not friends. Let’s drill at home.”

On Wednesday, Rep. Bob Good (R-Va.) joined Family Research Council President Tony Perkins on “Washington Watch” and argued that America-first policies that promote energy independence should not be a partisan issue.

“Here you see the fraud of the climate, environmental energy, extremism of the Left and of the Democrat Party, where they don’t care about how dirty energy is produced around the globe,” he told Perkins. “They just want to penalize reliable energy here at home.”

“We’re the cleanest large producer of energy. Our emission standards are stronger than they’ve ever been. We’re producing energy more cleanly than we ever have. But this president declared war on American energy, declared war on reliable fossil fuels, and has this pipe dream that we’re ever going to move to renewables. That’s never going to be the solution.” The president’s climate strategy first lists “ensur[ing] the U.S. achieves a 100% clean energy economy and reaches net-zero emissions no later than 2050” as a means of addressing the alleged threat.

Despite Biden’s stated goal of ending fossil fuels, Good says natural resources are meant to be put to use. “God put hundreds of years of fossil fuel energy in the earth for us to harvest it,” he explained. “We need to do it here in America.”

But dissenters believe otherwise. Good says that, while Biden adheres to the wishes of “environmental climate extremists,” the American people suffer the consequences in their wallets and within the weakened security of their nation.

Good is not the only person in Washington concerned about Biden’s “America-last” energy policies. When Fox News White House correspondent Peter Doocey questioned why the Biden administration opposed harvesting energy from American soil, he was met with rebuttal from National Security Council spokesman John Kirby, who insisted that the president has also issued drilling permits for U.S. energy harvesting. Kirby also claimed that the president’s reasoning was not environmentally focused.

Former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich noted that there are plenty of home-based options for energy drilling that don’t include linking arms with Maduro or any other communist dictator. “Just one more anti-American act by the Biden administration,” he lamented on “Fox and Friends.” “Texas doesn’t have a dictatorship problem. North Dakota doesn’t have a dictatorship problem. Western Pennsylvania doesn’t have dictatorship problem. Why is it that the place they select to buy more oil happens to have a dictatorship, and by the way, the idea that he is going to give up the dictatorship because Biden lets him pump oil is just silly.… There’s a continuing process here of weakening America and finding a way to help dictators.”