Rep. Buddy Carter, R-Ga., told Newsmax Friday that President Joe Biden's White House is "desperately" trying to blame skyrocketing gas prices on Russian President Vladimir Putin and his invasion of Ukraine, while it is the administration's policies that are causing the hikes.
"This is a desperate move by the administration to try to shift blame," Carter said during "Prime News" Friday. "Look, since day one [of his administration] Joe Biden has declared war on fossil fuels. He's declared a war on energy independence here in America.
"That's what got us into the mess we are in right now. Before he took office, we had energy independence, we had energy dominance, and we were actually exporting oil. We were doing what we should be doing, and yet when he took office, he ended all that."
Biden ended work on the Keystone XL pipeline and reversed several policies of former President Donald Trump that allowed more oil drilling on federal lands, CBS News reported.
GOP governors have recently called on Biden to reverse his policies and allow the United States to produce more oil.
"As governors, we call on President Biden to reverse his policies and restore America's energy independence for our citizens as well as our allies abroad," the governors said in a statement obtained exclusively by CBS News. "By removing his bans on new oil and gas development on federal lands, building the Keystone XL pipeline, and reinstating regulatory reforms to streamline energy permitting, we can protect our national energy security and sell to our friends rather than buy from our enemies — specifically Russia."
Carter said that instead of allowing the nation to produce more oil to combat the record gasoline prices, the administration and Democrats would rather see the American people drive less and buy less gas.
"[Democrats] are loving this," he said. "This is exactly what they want. [It] is high gas prices because they want you to go and buy an electric vehicle. It is ridiculous. The American people aren't stupid. They understand what's going on here.
"This is a direct result of the policies. Elections have consequences. Policies have consequences. We are suffering the consequences of the policies of the Biden administratiion right now, and we're paying for it at the pump."
Carter said that as far as Russia goes, hitting its oil and gas industry really hurts the country, but the U.S. must be careful Russia doesn't turn to China as a new market.
"Let's face it. Russia is nothing more than a gas station masquerading as a country,"
he said. "You hit them where it hurts them, and that is in there all in gas sector. That's what's going to get their attention. That's what's getting their attention now.
"We need to be very careful here. We need to make sure that they don't go to China, and all of a sudden, we got this relationship between China and Russia. That's something we have to be very careful about, but we are hitting them where it hurts when you hit them with the oil and gas sector."
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