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Press booted from Cabinet meeting during questions on Russian oil; Psaki snaps at reporter over it

March 4, 2022 | | Print Article

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The Biden administration intends to both not ween America off Russian oil/gas and not increase America’s domestic oil/gas production. This much was made clear twice on Thursday — first by White House press secretary Jen Psaki, and later by President Joe Biden’s staffers.

“[W]e don’t have a strategic interest in reducing the global supply of energy. … [T]hat would raise prices at the gas pump for the American people, around the world, because it would reduce the supply available,” Psaki said during Thursday’s White House briefing.

“And it’s as simple as less supply raises prices, and that is certainly a big factor for the president in this moment,” she added.

She wasn’t wrong. Cutting off all the incoming oil/gas from Russia would indeed further spike already exorbitant gas rates across the states.

Listen:

However, Fox News’ Jacqui Heinrich pushed back by asking why the administration doesn’t apply the same logic to domestic gas/oil production, which the administration has jumped through hoops to try and weaken.

“On gas, you just said that, you know, less supply raises prices, it’s not in our strategic interest to reduce the supply. We also know, you know, the president as recently as yesterday talked about increasing domestic manufacturing to bring down prices on inflated items like goods. So why not apply the same logic to energy and increase domestic production here?” Heinrich asked.

Psaki replied by deflecting.

“Well, there are 9000 approved oil leases that the oil companies are not tapping into currently. So I would ask them that question,” she said.

But as noted by Kathleen Sgamma of the Western Energy Alliance, those leases mean nothing “if permits aren’t approved” and/or the process is being drastically slowed by the “myriad [of] other delays the administration puts in the way of American producers.”

Delays as in unnecessary, burdensome regulations and bureaucratic red tape.

Moreover, not every leased piece of land contains enough oil or gas to make drilling worthwhile:

Ignoring Psaki’s deflection, Heinrich pressed forward by asking whether there’s “nothing that the administration can do to get those providers back to pre-pandemic levels?”

This time the White House press secretary replied by taking a blatantly partisan dig at the oil/gas companies responsible for keeping America’s homes heated.

“Do you think the oil companies don’t have enough money to drill on the places that have been preapproved? I would, I would point that question to them and we can talk about it more tomorrow when you learn more,” she asked.

Heinrich responded by surreptitiously suggesting that the administration stop being so virulently against the traditional energy industry.

“Do you think that opening the Keystone pipeline and having more energy-friendly policies might do that?” she asked.

Since his first day in office, President Joe Biden has been taking swipes at the energy industry. These swipes have resulted in lost jobs and exorbitant gas prices.

The effects of his policies have been so disastrous that some have even speculated that he “wants” higher gas prices so that the American people will be forced into adopting far less reliable “green energy” sources instead.

Psaki replied by dismissing Heinrich’s argument.

“The Keystone Pipeline has never been operational. It would take years for that to have any impact. I know a number of members of Congress have suggested that, but that is a proposed solution that has no relationship or would have no impact on what the problem is,” she said.

Several Republicans and “energy experts” have argued that had both former President Barack Hussein Obama and current President Biden not delayed/halted the Keystone XL Pipeline’s construction, it’d be pumping nearly a million barrels of oil a day right now, as reported earlier this week by Fox Business Network.

Heinrich pushed back again by basically asking if the administration’s plan therefore is to do nothing but remain subservient to the Russians.

“So during those years where it would take to bring down prices, as you’re saying, we should just continue to buy Russian oil?” she said.

Psaki responded by touting the administration’s decision to make “a historic release from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve.”

Not mentioned by her was that the “historic release” was for just 13.4 million barrels of oil, which is reportedly less than the United States consumes in a single day.

Continuing her reply, Psaki then called for … “green energy.”

“What we can do over time … is there’s a need to reduce our reliance on oil. The Europeans need to do that. We need to do that. If we do more to invest in clean energy, more to invest in other sources of energy, that’s exactly what we can do to prevent this from happening in the future,” she said.

In the meantime, Heinrich pushed back, “aren’t we financing” Russia’s invasion of Ukraine by continuing to buy their oil/gas?

Psaki replied by restating the objective, which is to keep gas prices low. Incidentally, this objective coincides with the Democrat Party’s need to keep its disapproval rating low as well.

President Biden meanwhile was also asked during a Cabinet meeting Thursday whether he’ll “ban Russian oil,” but members of the press were booted from the room before he could reply —  assuming that he’d even intended to reply.

However, one Biden staffer did yell out, “He said no! Let’s go!”

“No, he didn’t. He didn’t respond to anything,” some of the reporters complained in response, but to no avail.

Watch:

Vivek Saxena
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