GOP presidential hopeful and North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum says the Biden administration’s energy policies are “100% backwards,” accusing the administration of intentionally hindering U.S. production while buying more oil from America’s enemies.
Burgum, a long-shot candidate for the Republican presidential nominee in 2024, told FOX Business’ “The Big Money Show” on Thursday that if he makes it to the White House “the first thing we would do is start selling energy to our allies and stop buying it from our adversaries.”
Burgum noted that Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and Secretary of State Antony Blinken both made recent trips to China, but he said he has seen no reports of any energy discussions during the talks with Chinese officials. He then pointed out that China, which is completely dependent on other countries for energy, is the largest importer of gas and oil in the world.
The United States “could be a huge energy powerhouse if the Biden administration wasn’t trying to shut down the U.S. industry,” Burgum said.
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The North Dakota governor also hit out at the Biden administration for a lack of pipelines to New England before saying that “at the same time, when Russia invaded Ukraine, there was 400,000 barrels of oil a day of dirty Russian heating oil coming in to New England to heat their homes.”
Burgum said New Englanders are spending too much for energy “and the policy is just 100% backwards.”
He went on to criticize the Biden administration for courting oil-rich Venezuela, which he says “doesn’t even have an EPA [Environmental Protection Agency], but they’re saying they’re shutting down energy here because it’s good for the environment.” He added, “If you care about the environment, you would want to have every drop of energy produced here in America.”
Burgum has been an outspoken critic of U.S. energy policies under President Biden and co-wrote an op-ed last year in which he called for a “homegrown” energy plan that includes renewable, fossil fuels and nuclear power.
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The piece concluded, “We should be able to sell cleanly produced energy to our friends and allies, rather than rely on buying dirtier energy from our adversaries and competitors. It’s that simple.”