Biden Energy Secretary Confirms Americans Will Pay More to Heat Their Homes

Jack Phillips
By Jack Phillips
November 7, 2021Business News
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Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm confirmed Sunday that Americans should expect to pay more to heat their homes this winter than during previous ones.

Responding to a question on CNN about whether consumers will be paying more, Granholm replied in the affirmative.

“Yes,” the former Michigan Democratic governor said. “This is going to happen. It will be more expensive this year than last year. We are in a slightly beneficial position, certainly relative to Europe, because their chokehold of natural gas is significant. They’ll pay five times higher.”

Granholm added that the United States has “the same problem” regarding fuel transportation and supply before attempting to cast blame on oil and gas companies. At the same time, Granholm pushed the Biden administration-backed $1 trillion infrastructure bill that was recently passed in the House and a larger social spending package.

Granholm courted controversy last week after she laughed during an interview with Bloomberg News about boosting U.S. domestic oil production.

“As you know, of course, oil is a global market. It is controlled by a cartel. That cartel is called OPEC, and they made a decision yesterday that they were not going to increase beyond what they were already planning,” she said.

Since taking office in January, President Joe Biden signed executive orders that shut down the Keystone XL pipeline construction, which would be able to transport oil from Alberta, Canada, oilfields to the United States. The administration also placed a freeze on some new drilling sites, prompting a recent lawsuit from the Alaska Industrial Development and Export Authority (AIDEA) against the mandate.

Biden in October, meanwhile, asked OPEC+—the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and its allies—to pump more oil to cool high energy prices. The Saudi-led alliance, however, rejected Biden’s plea on Nov. 4, deciding to instead stick with its plan for cautious monthly increases.

“Our view is that the global recovery should not be imperiled by a mismatch between supply and demand,” a White House National Security Council statement said last week. “OPEC+ seems unwilling to use the capacity and power it has now at this critical moment of global recovery for countries around the world.”

But Saudi Energy Minister Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman told The Associated Press that its member countries were “underscoring their commitment to market stability.”

Republicans have criticized the Biden administration for forcing the United States to rely on OPEC+ to deal with rising gas prices in its attempt to shift to electric vehicles as well as wind and solar power, rather than boosting domestic oil production.

From The Epoch Times

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