FIRST ON FOX: America's energy future is "under threat" from Biden administration policies that "hinder growth of domestic energy production" and cause greater costs for Americans, according to a House Committee on Oversight and Responsibility report.
Titled "The Biden Administration’s Green New Deal: Paying More for a Dimmer Future," the report released Thursday aims to show that the administration's energy policies have led to higher gas prices, uncertainty in America’s power sector, confusion about new cars and appliances, and pricey regulatory hurdles that have increased costs for American consumers and businesses.
The 32-page report, which was first obtained by Fox News Digital and comes ahead of Energy Sec. Jennifer Granholm's appearance before the House Oversight Committee, calls out the Biden administration for its "shortsighted energy policies" and what it describes as a failure "to recognize the potential of American energy."
"The Administration purports to pursue policies aimed at increasing electrification while simultaneously stymieing growth potential for power producers necessary to support these initiatives. Permitting challenges threaten access to resources and bringing new power generation infrastructure online. And massive, costly new regulations stifle innovation and growth," the report states. "This report details major problems facing critical sectors of the U.S. economy exacerbated by the Biden Administration’s shortsighted energy policies and the resulting impacts on American businesses and consumers."
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House Oversight chair James Comer, R-Ky., said the Biden administration "weaponized" the executive branch to "wage a war against" domestic energy production.
"The Biden Administration weaponized the power of the executive branch to wage a war against American-made energy production and cement in place radical, far-left energy policies that jeopardize domestic energy development, overload America’s power grid, and raise costs on all American consumers and businesses," Comer told Fox News Digital.
"From day one, the House Oversight Committee has worked to expose the Biden Administration’s radical climate agenda," he added. "The Committee will continue to fulfill its responsibility to hold this Administration accountable for its detrimental Green New Deal policies that are impacting Americans across the country."
The report first highlights a rise in gas prices since 2019. Laying blame at the Biden administration's feet, the report says the Biden administration has contributed to the rise in gas prices "through rising production and transportation costs, pricey regulatory actions, and supply manipulations, thereby ceding American energy potential and harming consumer spending power simply to curry favor with radical climate activists."
Citing AAA National Gas Averages data, the report outlines how gas prices have skyrocketed compared to when former President Donald Trump was in the White House.
"Gas prices were $2.39 per gallon the day after President Biden took office on January 20, 2021. On February 25, 2022, the day following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the national average for a gallon of gas had already reached $3.57—indicating that gas prices were already sky-high and rising under the Biden Administration despite protestations from President Biden that Russia was solely responsible for domestic fuel inflation. On June 14, 2022, average national gas prices surged to an all-time high, with the price of a gallon of regular unleaded gas reaching $5.016," the report noted.
The report added, "When President Trump took office in January 2017, the average price of gas was $2.47 per gallon. The average for his entire four-year term was only slightly higher, at $2.57. According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, retail gasoline prices never exceeded $3.039 on a weekly average throughout the Trump presidency."
The report also took aim at Biden's "misguided actions" related to the price of gas prices, insisting that "he sought to abuse government resources—like the Strategic Petroleum Reserve—to manipulate gas prices in the short-term to avoid political backlash."
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The report also highlighted the rise in electricity prices, which it noted has led to a less stable electrical grid.
"The Bureau of Labor Statistics has indicated that over the past year electricity prices have risen faster than the pace of inflation and more so than any other commodity. Sweeping electrification initiatives—such as for electric vehicles (EVs) in the automotive sector—scaling of artificial intelligence utilization, enormous data center expansions, and federal incentivization of onshore manufacturing in the industrial sector, have dramatically increased the demand facing our nation’s electrical grid," the report stated.
"Even as use efficiency improves, the U.S. Energy Information Administration projects U.S. utility-generated electricity demand to continue growing at an average annual rate of one percent through 2050," the report added.
The report also noted the Biden administration's efforts to eliminate consumer choice, pointing to an executive order implemented by the president with a goal that "50 percent of all new passenger cars and light trucks sold in 2030 be zero-emission vehicles, including battery electric, plug-in hybrid electric, or fuel cell electric vehicles."
"EVs made up about 7.6 percent of U.S. auto sales in 2023, but remain an even smaller percentage of all cars on the road nationwide. Stricter emissions standards—the ‘most ambitious pollution standards ever for cars and trucks’— implemented by President Biden’s EPA seek to fundamentally restructure the vehicle market to favor EVs," the report stated.
The report also highlighted how the Biden administration is imposing "stricter energy requirements" on several products like gas stoves, lightbulbs, dishwashers, clothes dryers, washing machines, and refrigerators.
Lastly, the report targeted the Biden administration for pursuing a "'whole-of-government' regulatory blowout with substantial compliance costs for businesses and consumers."
"Across all agencies, the Biden Administration has already imposed over $1 trillion in additional total regulatory costs and added millions of hours of new annual paperwork demands," the committee's report noted.
"As the regulatory onslaught compounds, the most impacted are low-income communities through increased electricity prices and vehicle costs, and people on fixed incomes based on savings or investments—like retirees—through climate disclosure mandates and Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) rules suppressing returns," the report continued. "As firms pass along tax obligations to consumers, regulatory compliance serves as an additional "hidden tax" impacting both consumer prices and wages."
"Forcing more and more resources to be spent navigating the ever-growing and complex regulatory burden diverts time and money away from growing businesses and fostering economic mobility," it added.
Fox News' Liz Elkind contributed to this report.
