A pair of House Republicans bound for Glasgow for the United Nations’s COP26 blamed President Joe Biden’s policies for high energy prices and higher emissions.
Reps. Garret Graves of Louisiana and Dan Crenshaw of Texas sent Biden a letter on Thursday, calling on him to “reverse course” on his energy and climate agenda, which he pitched on behalf of the United States during his own visit to Glasgow earlier this week.
“Energy policies of your administration, including your multiple Executive Orders, directly impact energy costs by reducing supply and signaling to markets an intent to further constrain supply and make production more expensive. Markets respond to actions and energy has become more expensive,” the lawmakers, who will arrive in Glasgow on Saturday, wrote in the letter, which was exclusively obtained by the Washington Examiner.
“Without an immediate change of direction from your administration, this winter American families are going to see huge spikes in utility bills, increased pain at the pump, and even further inflation impacting the cost of almost all goods and services,” they added.
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Graves and Crenshaw, both members of the House Select Committee on the Climate Crisis, drew a link between Biden’s policies and increasing carbon emissions, citing data from the Energy Information Administration showing that 2021 will account for the first year-over-year increase in coal-fired electricity generation since 2014 due to elevated prices of natural gas, which emits less than coal.
The letter builds on arguments congressional Republicans have been making in the last several weeks against Biden and his “Build Back Better” agenda, which calls for some $555 billion in clean energy spending to support the administration’s aim of cutting greenhouse gas emissions in half by 2030.
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The Biden administration has disputed that its clean energy goals are responsible for current energy commodity prices, which have hit their highest levels in years.
“The idea that the climate action and energy transition caused a fossil fuel crisis to me has no — that’s a political talking point,” Amos Hochstein, the Biden administration’s senior energy security adviser at the State Department, said during an energy forum last week.
