Source: United States Senator Kevin Cramer (R-ND)
WASHINGTON – U.S. Senators Kevin Cramer (R-ND), member of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, Dan Sullivan (R-AK), and Cynthia Lummis (R-WY) today urged the Biden Administration intends to work with the European Union to help reduce European reliance on Russian natural gas. The senators called on the Administration to take serious steps to reverse their anti-American energy policies and implement a plan that offers realistic and achievable solutions to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, lower energy costs, create millions of jobs, and provide energy security to America and our allies.
“We have a geopolitical opportunity right now to cut Putin’s malign influence and we should be taking full advantage of it. The Biden administration should pursue a long-term solution by working with us to implement the American Energy, Jobs & Climate Plan. It will reduce global greenhouse gas emissions and the West’s reliance on dirtier fuels from our adversaries. Doing so avoids unilaterally disarming our own economy and losing ourselves to a 2050 fantasy. The Biden Administration is finally beginning to understand energy security is both national security and economic security, but if they are serious about real change we look forward to working with them on the principles in this plan,” said Senator Cramer.
“Today’s announcement suggests the Biden administration has finally acknowledged—albeit half-heartedly—the need for America to leverage its unique energy strengths,” said Senator Sullivan. “Their announcement still falls short of the course correction required to unleash American energy and resolve the energy crisis facing Americans and our allies. American resource development, especially natural gas, needs to be part of the long-term solution if we want to realistically solve the crisis at hand. We need to implement an all-of-the-above energy plan that prioritizes the infrastructure and permitting reform needed to leverage our world-class energy resources—which we have in abundance in the great state of Alaska. That’s exactly what our American Energy Jobs & Climate plan will do, while also creating millions of good-paying jobs. The administration should take immediate action to increase energy production at home, as outlined in a letter 22 of my colleagues and I sent three weeks ago, and work to implement the America Energy, Jobs & Climate Plan as quickly as possible.”
“Instead of half measures, President Biden should commit his administration to unleashing clean American energy to free our allies from dependence on dirty Russian energy,” said Senator Lummis. “Our resources and ingenuity can solve the current energy crisis hitting not only the United States but our allies around the world. The American Energy, Jobs & Climate Plan is the perfect roadmap for how to do this, and Senators Dan Sullivan, Kevin Cramer, and I are ready to help President Biden to implement it.”
Originally introduced last November, the plan offers an alternative to the unrealistic and harmful ambitions of policy-makers seeking to shut down natural resource development in the United States. Instead, the plan leverages America’s many unique strengths and positions America back on a path to provide energy to the world. The plan would also restore America as a leader in reducing global emissions. If implemented, the plan could reduce emissions by up to 40% by 2050 by building upon what has already worked—U.S. natural gas, technological innovation, and the free market.
Background:
Last month, Senators Cramer and Sullivan sent a letter to President Joe Biden pressing him to change course on his failing energy policy. In the letter, the senators outline 12 specific actions the president can announce to unleash domestic energy production in order 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.
In December, Senator Cramer and Lt. General H.R. McMaster outlined an America First approach to trade and energy production by aligning climate and national security policy in an op-ed for Foreign Policy. Looking through the lens of trade with the European Union, the op-ed highlights opportunities to be a global leader on emission reductions by producing and exporting American energy, which enhances the United States’ economy, national security, and geopolitical interests. They further discussed this concept in a fireside chat with the Bipartisan Policy Center in February.
Senator Cramer also penned an op-ed with Senator Bill Cassidy (R-LA) on the Biden Administration’s disastrous and counterproductive energy policy putting Americans out of work and strengthening geopolitical rivals. The Administration’s policy increases global greenhouse gas emissions by sending production and manufacturing to countries like China with worse environmental and labor standards.