“Biden’s energy policies have dangerously played into Putin’s hands.”- Rep. Drew Ferguson, 2-28-22
“President Joe Biden waged war on America’s energy independence by tying the hands of American oil and gas producers – which caused an energy crisis”- Rep. Drew Ferguson, 1-29-23
It rained today. And Ferguson blamed Biden for flooding. It was sunny yesterday and Ferguson blamed Biden because there was not enough rain to grow crops. It’s too hot in the summer and too cold in the winter. Once again, Biden’s fault, per Congressman Ferguson.
My assumption is that Rep. Ferguson must not drive a car and occasionally fill it up. He is still moaning about gas prices- although they have stabilized, even gone down a bit. At the end of the first week of January of 2022, the average price at the pump was $3.28 and for the first week of January 2023 it was $3.22 (https://www.eia.gov/dnav/pet/hist/LeafHandler.ashx?n=PET&s=EMM_EPMR_PTE_NUS_DPG&f=W ). I bought gas in Coweta for $3.17 last week. But Ferguson isn’t the only GOP politician ignoring the facts for political gain.
The truth is that Biden has little to do with petroleum prices, which are set internationally, not by the USA. During the pandemic, there was little demand, so prices went down, When the covid-19 crisis was over, demand rose. In addition, Ukraine was invaded by Russia, causing a supply issue. And Russia and Saudi Arabia pushed OPEC (Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries), to reduce their oil production, cutting supply even more. As for the Keystone XL pipeline, it was never operational, so obviously did not affect existing gas pricing.
Further, anyone with a brain does not agree with Ferguson’s premise that big oil and energy corporations will put public benefit before their profits. Ferguson, who always favors corporations over Georgians, simply repeats outrageous lies that he gets from Big Energy corporate front organizations, like the totally biased American Petroleum Institute.
A few years ago, GOP lead Texas deregulated its energy industry- leading those corporations to increase their profits by not winterizing their coal and gas plants. We all saw how that has turned out for the Texas public. Under corporate types like Ferguson, we have seen the same preference for big business on the national level disguised as “cutting regulations”.
Ferguson wants to go back to the bad old days of Trump. Ryan Zinke was appointed Trump’s Secretary of the Interior. As any good steward of public lands would do, he quickly moved to dismantle needed regulations which protected public lands and wildlife. He also proposed reducing funding for the Land and Conservation Fund from $425 million to $8 million. He advocated opening vast portions of national monuments (parks) to for-profit corporations for them to initiate coal, natural gas and petroleum mining on taxpayer lands.
Meanwhile, the US (and our world) is facing ever worse air quality. Heat waves are sweeping across the world. Fires are breaking out at a record pace. Hurricanes are hitting our shores and the sea-level is rising rapidly. And the GOP has no response to climate change other than to say that for-profit companies will somehow police themselves.
Jack Bernard was the first Director of Health Planning for the State of Georgia and then served as an executive with several healthcare firms. Jack is a local activist, previously serving on the Jasper County Board of Commissioners and Board of Health. He's now Chair of the Fayette County Board of Health.
