Sen. Blackburn to Newsmax: Time for 'Operation Warp Speed' on Energy

The United States needs an "Operation Warp Speed" for American energy to boost production, but President Joe Biden is blaming the hike in gas prices on Russia because he's "always looking for someone else to blame" rather than his own actions, Sen. Marsha Blackburn said Wednesday on Newsmax. 

"Nothing is ever his fault," the Tennessee Republican said on Newsmax's "Wake Up America." "The average gas price on Election Day was $2.11 a gallon. Why is it that the price started to go up? Because Biden campaigned saying he was going to move us to a carbon-free future and the Green New Deal."

That meant shutting down the fracking industry and giving more powers to the Environmental Protection Agency, she continued, pointing out that his first order was to kill construction of the Keystone XL pipeline. 

But a "Warp Speed" initiative, she said, referring to former President Donald Trump's push on the COVID pandemic, would bring federal agencies and the oil industry together to work on solutions to the nation's energy issues. 

"You say, okay, the Keystone XL pipeline would give us 830,000 additional barrels a day," said Blackburn, echoing comments she made on Twitter on the matter. "We are flaring natural gas right now. When you go down in the Gulf Coast region, we need to be putting that into the pipeline. Let's get that done. We need to be capping wells in Florida and Mississippi, Alabama, Louisiana, Texas, Oklahoma. We need to be putting that into our supply chain. Let's get it done. Let's go back to fracking. Let's move this oil into our system."

But the shortages and higher prices, Blackburn maintained, are "all by design."

"They want to wean us off fossil fuels," she said. "They're trying to do it without having everything ready for the American people, other alternative energies for us to use."

Note: See Newsmax TV now carried in more than 100 million U.S. homes, on DirecTV Ch. 349, Dish Network Ch. 216, Xfinity Ch. 1115, Spectrum, U-verse Ch. 1220, FiOS Ch. 615, Frontier Ch. 115, Optimum Ch. 102, Cox cable, Suddenlink Ch. 102, Mediacom Ch. 277, AT&T TV Ch 349,  FUBO and major OTT platforms like Roku, YouTube, Xumo, Pluto and most smart TV’s including Samsung+, Sony, LG, Vizio and more – Find All Systems that Carry Newsmax – Click Here

• Gas Tops $4 per Gallon Average — First Time Since 2008
• Record Gas Costs Pose Fresh Political Challenge for Biden