It is "absurd" that the White House would blame the rise in gas prices on Russia's attack on Ukraine, as former President Barack Obama declared a war on energy years ago, even before Russian President Vladimir Putin invaded Crimea, Rep. Claudia Tenney said Monday on Newsmax.
"The price of gas and the inflation was happening long before Putin decided to invade Crimea, and I want to add invading Ukraine," the New York Republican said on Newsmax's "National Report," while pointing out that President Joe Biden's first act in office was to shut down construction on the Keystone XL pipeline.
"[It would] pump 830,000 barrels of oil every single day into this country, which is more than what we're getting from the Russians," said Tenney. "He also got off all fossil fuel leases and said, We're not going to have fossil fuels. What he's done to the American public is put our economy in a tailspin. We have record inflation, and we have record-high gas prices."
Overall, she said she wishes people would realize that "fossil fuels are not the enemy."
Tenney also pointed out that in upstate New York, responsible natural gas drilling practices could unleash the "abundant" potential for the energy source, but "we've shut down pipelines."
"We've vilified natural gas, which could provide us with energy independence, but the Biden administration is putting out tweets, saying everybody should get an electric car. Just go get an electric car that will solve the problem," said Tenney. "Those electric cars are fueled by fossil fuels."
Tenney on Monday also discussed the crime reports that are increasingly coming out of New York City and blamed them as a "direct result of the pro-criminal anti-victim crime laws" such as cashless bail and other reforms that are keeping people out of jail.
"I remember I lived in New York City in the ’80s," Tenney said. "This problem was cleaned up by Mayor [Rudy] Giuliani. And now we're back in the situation; only it seems even worse and more tragic."
Tenney also commented on the worsening situation in Ukraine and called it a disaster.
"I feel like we're in the biggest crisis that we've been in in my lifetime," she said, adding that she doesn't "remember ever seeing anything this bad," including the U.S.-Mexico border situation.
"Across the world, we have chips made in Taiwan," Tenney said. "We have our batteries, our resources for green energy made in China. And where are we? We are dependent on these countries."
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Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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