Last August, I stood with Colorado Republican leaders from around the state at a gas station in Denver to warn of the dangers of rapidly rising prices at the pump.
Unfortunately, the Democrats running Washington, D.C., and our state capitol didn’t listen.
Instead, they continued their all-out assault on American energy security. During the 2020 campaign, President Joe Biden pledged to end fossil fuel and he’s lived up to that promise. He cancelled the Keystone XL Pipeline, rejoined the deeply flawed Paris Agreement, and banned new oil and natural gas leasing on federal lands – a move that comes with severe consequences for communities on the Western Slope of Colorado.
His message has been received loud and clear by the energy industry. There is no confidence in the Biden/Harris administration to create a safe business environment for the industries that have built Colorado.
The result is that consumers are paying a hefty price as gas prices in Colorado have skyrocketed to the highest levels in a decade and the national average has soared to a record high of $4.32 per gallon. And they’re still rising.
What are Biden’s allies in Congress doing? In October, as gas prices continued to rise, the House Oversight and Reform Committee held a hearing with energy company leaders about no, not rising prices, but instead about “climate disinformation.”
You can’t make it up.
In that hearing, Rep. Ro Khanna from California (of course) pressed those energy companies to decrease oil production. Yes, you read that right. As gas prices were hitting a seven-year high last fall, a top Democrat wanted energy companies to shrink their output, which – as basic supply-and-demand tells us – would only make gas prices rise even higher.
Now, Khanna has teamed up with Colorado’s senior U.S. Senator, Michael Bennet, to introduce legislation that would raise taxes on companies that are producing more oil in the United States.
This is an outrageous piece of legislation that would disincentivize stronger American energy production, and again, lead to higher prices for consumers.
So, what have the rest of Colorado leaders said in response? Crickets.
Gov. Jared Polis won’t stand up for our Western Slope communities. U.S Sen. John Hickenlooper won’t push back against the Biden administration. They stand by while Michael Bennet hurts Colorado.
When Interior Secretary Deb Haaland, who is failing to oversee responsible energy production on federal lands, visited Colorado last month, she was joined by Bennet and Hickenlooper at a news conference.
Despite Russia’s illegal invasion of Ukraine being just days away that would send gas prices even higher, no one made a single comment about the energy crunch facing consumers. And they didn’t get a single question from the media about it.
Where was Colorado’s hard-hitting media then? Why didn’t they show up to ask Haaland, Bennet, and Hickenlooper what their plan was to relieve the pain at the pump?
The answer is the Democrats in charge don’t have a plan. They’re not offering any answers, unless, as Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg recently suggested, you have $62,000 to buy an electric car.
This is how out-of-touch Democrats in Washington, D.C. are today. They want to restrict and tax oil production despite soaring gas prices and then tell you to buy some car you probably can’t afford when you complain about it.
And it’s all happening without a whisper from Polis, Bennet, and Hickenlooper.
Coloradans need leaders who will step up for the mom who has to drive to the office every day and the dad who has to take his kid to baseball practice without blowing a hole in their budget.
Republicans will prioritize energy independence and save Coloradans money.
This article was originally posted on Bennet, Polis are also responsible for Biden’s failed energy policies