Source: United States Senator Kevin Cramer (R-ND)
BISMARCK – U.S. Senator Kevin Cramer (R-ND) joined Larry Kudlow today to discuss energy policy and Democrats’ Build Back Broke on Fox Business. Excerpts and a full video are below.
On Biden Energy Policies:
“[Democrats] believe by choking the supply, that somehow they are going to diminish the demand and, of course, we know that is not the case. Demand is rising all over the world for the type of energy we produce in the United States of America. In fact, what they’re really doing is making us dependent once again on foreign sources of energy, including the greatest amounts of oil and natural gas we have ever imported from Russia. There are lots of ways to solve this problem. They’re doing it exactly the opposite way.”
On Energy Tax Code:
“Remember one of the things they want to do is extend production tax credits for solar energy for 10 years. Never mind 75% of the value chain for solar energy comes from China. Again [this] helps our adversaries, but hurts ourselves… The tax code can be a sort of wonderful tool for doing the right thing, but you have to do things in a way that is – in my view – at least fuel neutral. You shouldn’t pick the winners and losers like the Federal government want to do. That’s why 45Q for carbon capture utilization and storage is something I support. Wind and solar have had decades of production tax credits that have elevated that energy source to a height they would have never gotten to in a free market system. We should look at entire tax code and see if can’t find a reasonable way between people on the left and the right to be fuel neutral. Maybe pick some standard – how about an American standard. We produce energy, cleaner, greener than pretty much everywhere else in the world. Let that be the standard. Help people get there without picking the winning formula and losing formula.”
On America First Energy Policies:
“If we want to do solar energy and it works here great, but let’s bring the manufacturing of the entire value chain into the United States. Let’s do the mining for critical minerals in the United States. We’re going to do it better, cleaner, more efficiently. We’ll do it with a great deal more freedom. We’ll be able to export not only the products, but export the technologies and innovation that can only be developed here in the United States of America as long as we don’t kill the innovator in the process. Remember the Biden crowd, they just want to kill fossil fuels. It is not emissions that they’re concerned about, otherwise you wouldn’t have John Kerry running over to Asia or running to Japan telling our allies don’t buy American energy, buy it from Vladimir Putin or green-lighting Nord Stream 2 where Vladimir Putin’s natural gas emits 41% more greenhouse gas emissions than American natural gas through the life cycle. Some of this stuff is pure nonsense. America First works because we’re the best at it.”