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Sen. Chuck Grassley has been known to publish curious messages to social media from time to time, but the Iowa Republican’s missive on energy policy, published yesterday afternoon, stood out as especially notable.
To translate a bit, the GOP senator appeared to argue that under President Joe Biden’s administration, the United States has deliberately moved away from energy independence. This, of course, is something Grassley opposes.
I reached out to the longtime lawmaker’s office yesterday afternoon, asking for some clarification on his message. A spokesperson said she’d get back to me, and I’ll update this post accordingly when I hear back. [Update: See below.]
But in the meantime, it’s worth noting the gap between Republican rhetoric on energy policy and what’s actually happening. I’m reminded of this Associated Press report from the fall:
The U.S. Department of Energy’s Energy Information Administration reported that American oil production in the first week of October hit 13.2 million barrels per day, passing the previous record set in 2020 by 100,000 barrels. Weekly domestic oil production has doubled from the first week in October 2012 to now.
The newly set record, the AP report added, “conflicts with oft-repeated Republican talking points of a Biden ‘war on American energy.’”
Yes. Yes, it does. In fact, the United States under Biden is not only producing more energy than any other country, the United States under Biden has never produced as much as energy as it does now.
What’s more, it’s not just oil. U.S. production of natural gas, solar, wind generation, and battery storage have all reached record highs under Biden.
To be sure, whether one sees these developments as good news or bad news is a matter of perspective. There is, of course, a planetary climate crisis underway, creating an urgent need to cut carbon emissions. To prevent intensifying catastrophes, we’ll need to burn fewer fossil fuels, not more.
That conversation, however, is muddled to a ridiculous degree, not only by those who reject and deny climate science, but also by Republicans who keep telling the public that the Biden administration is dramatically scaling back production, even as production reaches record highs.
Politico published a report last summer with a memorable headline: “The U.S. is pumping oil faster than ever. Republicans don’t care.” In context, it wasn’t that Republicans were indifferent to increased energy production; it’s that Republicans apparently didn’t care that their rhetoric was false.
The Washington Post’s Catherine Rampell added in a column soon after:
If “energy independence” means exporting more than you import, we’ve achieved it in spades. The United States has been exporting more crude oil and petroleum products than it imports for 22 straight months now, far longer than was the case under Trump. If this is what waging war on fossil fuels looks like, Democrats apparently aren’t very good at it.
I won’t speculate as to why Republicans keep pushing brazenly untrue claims about energy policy, but there is no doubt that their talking points on the issue bear no resemblance to reality.
Update: I did, in fact, hear back from Grassley's office, and his spokesperson said that the senator's "tweet mentioned 'energy dominance and independence,' both of which are reflections of energy security."
She added that the Biden administration has taken from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR), while taking steps that do "not strengthen the United States’ energy security." Among those steps were the White House's decisions to cancel the Keystone XL pipeline, and attempting to discontinue oil and gas leasing on federal lands.
Her email went on to quote Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia criticizing the Biden administration on energy policy.
This post updates our related earlier coverage.