Rep. Jim McGovern denounced as “bulls—-” the GOP’s claim that President Biden has made the United States more reliant on Russian energy by shutting down the Keystone XL pipeline.
“The Keystone pipeline wasn’t even finished. I mean c’mon gimme a break,” the Massachusetts Democrat told The Washington Times after Mr. Biden’s State of the Union address Tuesday night.
“That’s a bunch of bulls—-,” he said.
The Republicans’ “response to everything is more oil or more fossil fuels. I think the American people have had it if we don’t wean ourselves off,” he said.
Mr. McGovern praised Mr. Biden’s response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine saying, “listening to Biden today on Ukraine … thank God he’s president and not the other guy.”
He later added, “the bottom line is, let’s remember [that] Donald Trump tried to extort President Zelenskyy.”
Mr. Biden announced at the State of The Union that the U.S. has worked with 30 other countries to release 60 million barrels of oil from reserves around the world and to release 30 million barrels from our own Strategic Petroleum Reserve.
Russia supplies almost one-third of Europe’s natural gas and supplied 7% of U.S. crude oil imports in late 2021.
“These steps will help blunt gas prices here at home. And I know the news about what’s happening can seem alarming,” Mr. Biden said.
Republicans excoriated Mr. Biden on Tuesday, saying he failed to prevent the Russian invasion of Ukraine and closed the Keystone XL Pipeline, causing the price of gas to increase.
“On day one of his presidency, Joe Biden killed the Keystone XL pipeline and launched his war on American energy independence. And then Joe Biden gifted Putin the Nord Stream 2 pipeline while importing a record amount of oil from Russia last year,” Rep. Elise Stefanik, New York Republican and GOP Conference Chair told reporters.
“Mr. President, it’s time to unleash American energy independence,” she said.
• Kerry Picket can be reached at kpicket@washingtontimes.com.
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