ICYMI: Sullivan Blasts Biden Energy Secretary for Condescending Response to Americans Struggling from Colonial Pipeline Cyberattack and Fuel Shortages
Senator also discusses cybersecurity, energy issues on Fox Business Network’s “Kudlow”
WASHINGTON—On Tuesday at a White House press briefing in response to the recent cyberattacks on the Colonial Pipeline and the resulting gas shortages, U.S. Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm said, “You know, if you drive an electric car, this would not be affecting you, clearly.” In a speech on the floor of the Senate yesterday, Senator Dan Sullivan (R-Alaska) criticized Sec. Granholm for her apparent lack of awareness of the high cost of electric vehicles for average Americans, that the U.S. electricity grid is supported, in large part, by hydrocarbons, and for the Biden administration’s broader policies targeting pipeline construction and domestic energy production.
Today, Sen. Sullivan joined Larry Kudlow on Fox Business Network to discuss Sec. Granholm’s comments, cybersecurity issues, the Biden administration’s attacks on the domestic energy sector, and the latest on infrastructure negotiations in Congress. Click here to watch Sen. Sullivan’s interview on Kudlow.
FLOOR REMARKS TRANSCRIPT
Madam President, I would like you to hear a quote: “You know, if you drive an electric car, this would not be affecting you, clearly.”
That was from our Secretary of Energy, Jennifer Granholm, yesterday, as she told reporters all about the cyber attacks on the Colonial Pipeline and the ensuing gas shortages and price spikes.
Think about that, America.
Of course, the media just let her go. They didn't ask her if she knew that, just as meat doesn't come from a grocery store, energy just doesn't come from a wall. It doesn't just appear like magic when you plug into it. It comes from many sources, including from natural gas, including from oil.
The media didn't ask about natural gas--yes, and oil--needing pipelines.
The media didn't ask her if she knew that all energy, including alternative energy, requires transmission lines--lines that are also subject to being attacked like the Colonial Pipeline.
They didn't ask her if she knew that the cost of an electric car, the average price, is more than $55,000. Maybe that is a bargain for her, but for the people the Biden administration is putting out of work in the energy sector, that is a huge pricetag.
The media certainly didn't ask the Secretary of Energy how this cavalier, condescending attitude, once again, about our energy sector--one of our country's huge strengths that employs hundreds of thousands of hard-working Americans--is received by the average American who is being hurt right now.
There are so many questions that were not asked, so many questions that aren't being asked about the Colonial Pipeline issue, and so many that continue to not be answered by the administration when it comes to this specific situation and how this administration's energy policies threaten to make this short-term disruption of our energy supplies into a long-term reality across the country.
The cyber-attack on the Colonial Pipeline is a warning for America not just from a cyber security standpoint but from a broader energy perspective standpoint.
I participated yesterday in the briefing of U.S. Senators by the Secretaries of Energy, Transportation, and Homeland Security on this cyber-attack that is creating disruptions in energy supplies across the country, particularly on the east coast. Here is the advice I gave these members of the Biden administration: Respectfully, I said that I fear that this is going to be commonplace, this kind of disruption--and not just from a cyber standpoint--if we don't change the Biden administration's energy policies for America.
What was I talking about? They are restricting the production of American energy. That is one of the great comparative advantages of our country--that of producing more in oil, more natural gas, and more renewables than any other country in the world. They are restricting the production of oil and gas.
You have senior administration officials going to Wall Street saying: Don't invest in energy companies. You have Federal Agencies that are either killing pipelines or slow-rolling pipelines. None of this is good for the country.
So here is the advice I gave them. Pipelines are good. We need them, as this Colonial Pipeline shutdown certainly demonstrates. Importing more oil from our adversaries like Russia is bad, but, by the way, that is what is happening with the Biden policies. So we need a change.
We have plenty of oil and gas for Americans. We should produce it, as we do, with the highest environmental standards for the benefit of our own citizens and not restrict it or, this issue, this kind of disruption is going to be much more commonplace in our country.
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