AEA Statement on President Joe Biden’s State of the Union Address

Mr. President,

Considering the attacks of Vladimir Putin’s Russia on Ukraine, you have an obligation to direct your administration to cease your attacks on America’s energy producers who are willing and have proven themselves capable of meeting our energy, economic, and national security needs.  A stronger, more self-reliant America makes for a more safe and more prosperous world.  

Between 2010 and 2019, the U.S. and Canada – one of our strongest allies – provided 91% of the world’s marginal increase in oil production.  We could do that again.  The U.S. is already the world’s largest producer of natural gas and could assist in meeting the needs of our allies in Europe as we have enormous amounts of recoverable resources.  And, we will discover and produce more, if allowed.  

The State of the Union is stressed.  Consumers every day notch in their memories the increasing costs they see at the pump, the grocery store, and their utility bills.  They see the shortages of goods in the ‘Land of Plenty’ and wonder what is going wrong?  They worry about their future, and the future for  their children.  They worry even more as they see the faces of Ukrainian children and their scared-to-death parents seeking refuge from an invasion from totalitarian Russia – fueled, in part, by the sale of oil to the United States.  

Last year oil imports from Russia increased 29%, even as you, President Biden, waged war on the U.S. energy industry, including your pipeline blockade on the border with our Canadian allies and friends who are our largest source of oil and our largest trading partner.  With all due respect, Mr. President, this madness must stop.  It is time to reconsider your Keystone decision. As partners with Canada, we can contribute to peace and stability in the world.  

Much has been said already on how a refocus on “renewable energy” might provide relief, and you will no doubt talk about that tonight.  It will not, Mr. President.  Europe has found this out the hard way. Putin’s invasion of Ukraine comes after an economically-crushing winter for Europe which has already engineered the deployment of renewable energy and whose consumers and industries are reeling from spiking energy input costs.  Instead of providing more jobs, this more expensive energy has cost jobs and is offshoring those jobs to China. 

There’s a little secret some of your aides may not be telling you, Mr. President.  If you are worried about the economic and national security consequences of energy policy, you should know that a “green energy future” is – at least currently – a Chinese energy future.  At the peak of U.S. dependence on foreign oil, we imported 23% from the Middle East.  Already the U.S. is 80% dependent upon China for its rare earth minerals and materials which make renewable energy work.  Your executive actions to date give us no assurances, in spite of what you say, that you intend to do anything meaningful with respect to sourcing these materials here at home.

At a time when the world is witnessing the horror of energy dependency and what it has wrought on the European continent, it is prudent to ask what the costs to the United States might be – and the kind of life we would leave for the generations to come – if we allow ourselves to become almost four times as dependent upon China for our renewable energy as we ever were on the Middle East for oil. 

In closing, we would remind you that the fascination with weak, intermittent, and renewable energies is not something new. You will recall that as a Freshman Senator from Delaware, you heard President Richard Nixon address it in his State of the Union Address on January 30, 1974.  In the five decades since, it has been repeated time and again. Yet, the only thing that has really and truly led us to energy security has been when Americans have been free to work our way out of the problem, as they did when we reached Energy Independence in 2020 under your immediate predecessor.  

We can do it again, with your help, Mr. President.  It will take courage on your part to go against the green-at-all-cost special interests that have captured your political party, but America will be better off for it.

 Tom Pyle, AEA President