Florida Sen. Marco Rubio previewed his energy plan Wednesday, telling Fox News that his forthcoming proposals will create millions of jobs in the energy sector if he is elected president.
Ahead of a speech to industry leaders in Oklahoma Wednesday afternoon, Rubio’s campaign said the Republican presidential candidate’s energy agenda includes reducing federal regulations of energy production, blocking implementation of the Environmental Protection Agency’s Clean Power Plan and lifting the crude oil export ban.
Such changes would “make America a cheaper place to live, and it would make America a more cost-effective place to do business,” Rubio told Fox News’ “America’s Newsroom” Wednesday morning.
“We have been blessed with an abundance of oil and especially natural gas,” he said during the interview. “Quite frankly, it is reckless and irresponsible if our government does not allow us to fully utilize our energy resources that we have been blessed with.”
In an op-ed for National Review Wednesday, Rubio described Oklahoma as one of the key states responsible for turning America into the leading global producer of oil and natural gas. The Southern state joins North Dakota and Texas as states where hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, and horizontal drilling have fueled a shale revolution, leading to an unprecedented upsurge of oil production and natural gas.
To expand the benefits of the “shale revolution,” the junior senator says he would begin by enabling states to regulate their own energy production and eliminate duplicative regulations imposed by the federal government.
“Washington is currently on a crusade to take control of the production of energy, especially oil and gas, away from the states,” he wrote. “[But] when I take an oath to uphold and defend the Constitution of the United States, I am going to take that oath very seriously — and that will include allowing the states to control their own energy futures.”
According to Rubio, halting the EPA’s Clean Power Plan is another “common-sense step” to promote job growth, reduce energy costs and continue to push the U.S. in the direction of becoming energy independent.
As president, Rubio says another priority of his would be to permanently lift a Nixon-era ban that currently prevents the U.S. from exporting crude oil, which he describes as the “perfect example of just how outdated Washington has become.”
“President Nixon signed it into law in the 1970s — long before the economy had been fundamentally transformed by globalization and technological innovations, long before the hydraulic-fracturing and shale revolutions had launched a new era of American energy,” Rubio wrote in National Review.
A report by the Energy Information Administration confirmed Tuesday that ending the crude oil ban would not result in increased gas prices, contrary to what proponents of it have often asserted.
The Florida Republican’s scheduled remarks in Oklahoma come as President Obama finishes up a three-day swing through Alaska where he’s met with locals to discuss climate change and drum up support for his administration’s plan to force states to reduce a third of their carbon emissions by 2032 — a move Rubio describes as “an outrageous misalignment of priorities.”
“This week, President Obama traveled to Alaska to talk not about seizing our energy potential, but about limiting that potential through environmental policies that grow government and raise costs,” he wrote.
Rubio’s campaign says voters can expect him to provide further details on his comprehensive energy agenda later this fall.
