Republicans are using this weekend’s deadly terrorist attacks on civilians in Israel as an opportunity to criticize President Joe Biden’s foreign policy platform — and his climate and energy agenda. Iran is a major backer of Hamas, the Palestinian group that launched the violent raids Saturday. That is prompting Republicans, including more than a dozen senators and newly ousted House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, to call for Biden to take tougher actions against Iran — and bolster the United States’ oil supplies as a hedge against overseas unrest. Among other actions, the GOP lawmakers are lambasting the administration’s decision last month to give Iran access to $6 billion in frozen oil revenue as part of an agreement to free imprisoned Americans. They’ve also complained that Iranian oil exports are growing despite U.S. sanctions, which they call a sign of lax enforcement. “Sanctions should go on Iran’s production of oil, and we should produce it with America's energy,” McCarthy told reporters Monday during his first news conference since losing the speakership six days earlier. “Unshackle the blessings that God has given America; let us be energy independent to supply our allies.” Secretary of State Antony Blinken has disputed Republican accusations that the $6 billion was funding the atrocities in Israel, telling CNN on Sunday that Iran can use the money only “for humanitarian purposes.” As Manuel Quinones laid out this morning, Republicans are also re-litigating Biden’s decisions to release 180 million barrels of oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve last year — a step that helped blunt rising prices but has left the emergency stockpile’s volume down 45 percent since he took office. They also cited his failure to impose tougher sanctions in 2021 against the now-defunct Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline between Russia and Germany. What’s old is new again
In reality, U.S. oil production is at a record high for the first three quarters of 2023. Biden cannot set global oil prices (which could rise amid the new war in the Middle East). And driving down fossil fuels is necessary to confront the climate crisis. But Republicans are still seizing on the opportunity to use recent events as an entry point to tout their own priorities in energy issues. They could even find fertile ground to remind voters of the House GOP's signature energy package — the “Lower Energy Costs Act,” or H.R. 1 — which passed the chamber along party lines in the first months of the year. It would, among other things, require the federal government to hold more quarterly oil lease sales in Western states and make it easier to site energy projects, such as pipelines.
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