Milwaukee North News

Major policy decisions and positions taken by the Biden administration has led to a shortage in the domestic supply of oil in the U.S., causing the price of gasoline to skyrocket and now President Joe Biden is looking at foreign oil sources as a quick fix to the problem.

Key domestic oil pipelines have been shut down and federal land drilling leases have been halted by Biden in the last year. Major policy decisions and positions taken by the current administration have impacted the supply of oil in the U.S. As gas prices remain around the $4 mark in Wisconsin and the rest of the nation, the Biden administration is turning to countries such as Iran, Venezuela and Saudi Arabia for fossil fuels instead of relying on U.S. oil producers, as reported by Fox Business on March 14.

Biden has previously expressed that he wants to move away from fossil fuels. During a campaign event in New Castle, New Hampshire in September 2019, Biden told a questioner, “I guarantee you we’re going to end fossil fuels.”

According to E&E News, in December 2021, the Biden administration announced plans to put an end to federal funding for most international fossil fuel projects in an effort to try to exert global leadership on climate change.

The Keystone XL Pipeline was officially shut down in June 2021 after Biden revoked a key permit needed for a U.S. stretch of the 1,200-mile project on his first day in office. The pipeline was expected to bring 830,000 barrels per day of Alberta oil from Canada’s Western tar sands to U.S. refiners, as reported by CNBC.

"The hypocrisy of this administration to continue to consume fossil fuels knowing full well that we can produce them here cleaner, safer, more environmentally sound and yet go to rely on tyrants around the world to produce them for the United States is just terrible," Sen. Matt Rosendale of Montana told Fox Business.

In a newly unearthed video from May 2020, Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock of Georgia told Brionte McCorkle, Georgia Conservation Voters executive director, that the United States needs to move away from using fossil fuels and that he's open to discussing a carbon tax to get there.

"Raphael Warnock helped kill the Keystone Pipeline and American energy development—causing Georgia’s gas prices to spike and our country to lose its energy independence," 34N22’s Stephen Lawson told the Washington Free Beacon.

The national gas price average is still well above $4 per gallon. According to the American Automobile Association (AAA), Wisconsin's average is just below $4 at $3.933 per gallon as of March 30.