With gas prices higher than most would like and energy rates through the roof, just about everyone is looking forward to the end of what people call an “energy crisis.” Well, everyone but the political left, as Biden has just refused to sit down with House Speaker Kevin McCarthy to discuss the issue.
The refusal comes after the House of Representatives, which the Republicans now lead, passed a bill on Thursday that would seek to lower America’s currently high energy costs. In fact, the bill is aptly named the Lower Energy Costs Act or H.R. 1.
As House Majority Leader Steven Scalise said of the bill, it would seek to increase the United States’ ability to produce energy domestically by streamlining oil and natural gas drilling permits on both federal lands and offshore.
Additionally, it would reverse Biden’s ban on federal land fracking. The measure would also make it easier to get mining permits for much-needed minerals like lithium used to support Biden’s push for electric cars.
Should the bill be passed in the Senate and signed into law by Biden, it would make a huge dent in efforts to become energy independent and not have to rely on nations like China, where some 75 percent of the world’s lithium-ion batteries come from.
But despite the House giving the bill plenty of bipartisan support, Biden says he’s determined to veto it should it make it through the Senate and arrive on his desk. According to him, it “would take us backward.”
Yeah, back to a time when America could provide for itself, when the people weren’t unable to pay electric bills, and when the energy grid wasn’t in shambles.
As for the bill’s chances in the Senate, Majority Leader Chuck Schumer says it is a “partisan, dead-on-arrival and unserious proposal for addressing America’s” needs.
But McCarthy has said that he’d be more than willing to meet with Biden to negotiate the bill a bit. Hell, he even said he could bring “soft food” and make it a working lunch. Presumably, this is a slight towards Biden’s known love of ice cream, which he says he has a full freezer.
But the indication is clear, McCarthy is willing to do whatever is needed to meet with Biden and come to a solution. But it seems Biden isn’t nearly as willing.
