Republicans never waste a crisis. Their goals for putting Russia’s invasion of Ukraine to work for them are just emerging, but one is increasingly clear: Republicans think this is a chance to tank the fight against climate change.
You might think that the fact that much of Russia’s leverage with the rest of the world comes from its ability to supply fossil fuels would be an argument for a transition to clean energy. But not to Republicans. Rising oil prices due to sanctions on Russia are, for them, an argument to drill more in and around the United States.
“AMERICA NEEDS ENERGY INDEPENDENCE we had energy independence b4 Biden energy policy killed it,” Sen. Chuck Grassley tweeted, falsely. How false? “Even when demand plummeted in the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic, the U.S. still imported 7.9 million barrels per day, about double the daily use of Japan, the world’s fourth-largest oil consumer,” Politico reports.
”What’s happening in Russia and Europe is a stark reminder of the need to support American energy development, not hinder it,” Sen. Steve Daines said in a statement. “Energy security is national security, and a global energy-dominant America is a safer world. Biden must restart the Keystone XL pipeline now.”
The Keystone XL pipeline was never finished, so stopping construction on it didn’t cause prices to rise, and U.S. imports of Canadian petroleum products have risen pretty steadily without it. And about that: Since Keystone XL was a pipeline from Canada, it’s not clear how it fits with “American energy development.” Unless Daines thinks Canada is so beholden to the U.S. that there’s no difference.
Ahead of the State of the Union, a group of 23 Republican senators sent President Joe Biden a list of 12 demands to “lower skyrocketing energy prices and to help America’s European allies be less dependent on Vladimir Putin’s regime for their energy supply, especially in light of the Ukraine crisis.” Most of the points amount to “drill, baby, drill” (a sentiment echoed on Rep. Lauren Boebert’s State of the Union outfit), but just for good measure, they also called on Biden to fire the White House climate adviser, Gina McCarthy, and the special presidential envoy for climate, John Kerry, because they’re doing their jobs and focusing on fighting climate change. On top of that, the Republicans called on Biden to withdraw Sarah Bloom Raskin’s nomination to a position at the Federal Reserve because of her support of renewable energy.
We’re seeing in real-time how reliance on fossil fuels can be dangerous not just to the climate but in its international implications. And we know that, with its current reliance on fossil fuels, the United States will continue to also rely on imports. The way out of that is not to drill promiscuously right now, right up until every well runs dry and we’re left with no Plan B for energy in addition to the increasingly devastating effects of climate change. The way out is to decrease our reliance on fossil fuels right now, and build up our renewable energy infrastructure. But Republicans aren’t worried, because all they care about is political power, and they’re absolutely ready to try to turn the coming climate crisis—once it can no longer be ignored—into some new angle to seize more power.
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