01.29.21

Sullivan Speaks to Fox News’ Neil Cavuto on Biden Energy Orders

WASHINGTON, D.C.—U.S. Senator Dan Sullivan (R-Alaska) appeared on Your World with Neil Cavuto yesterday afternoon to discuss the recent executive orders and actions taken by the Biden administration targeting Alaska and other resource development states, the energy sector, and thousands of good-paying middle class American jobs.

Senator Sullivan also led 25 of his Senate colleagues in a letter to President Joe Biden yesterday voicing their concerns on behalf of their constituents, and requesting a meeting with the president. Today, the president’s spokesperson Jen Psaki indicated in a White House press briefing that the president would not be meeting with the senators any time soon.

Transcript

Cavuto: Mitch McConnell isn’t the only one worried. So too is Alaska Republican Senator Dan Sullivan, who is kind enough to join us right now. Now, Senator, your big concern is throwing out the baby with the energy bathwater here, that we were making great progress on energy independence, and you feel this could be stymied, if not stopped, with these anti-fossil fuel decisions, right?

Sullivan: That’s right, Neil. And, look, it’s a policy that doesn’t make any sense. Heck of a first week for President Biden, massive layoffs for hard-working Americans in the energy sector, and then targeting energy production, one of our strengths, one of our great American strengths. That’s only going to drive up costs for families, for businesses, and it’s going to drive up imports from countries like Venezuela, Russia. So, it’s a policy that doesn’t make sense. And we’re working hard to get the president to realize that he’s really damaging not just the economy, but the American worker, during a pandemic and a recession. It makes no sense.

Cavuto: You know, Senator, what did you make of John Kerry, now, I guess, the administration’s climate czar or whatever, saying that a lot of these workers who are being displaced, I mean, there are good solar-related power jobs out there? It seems like especially they have to – they’re going to have to be retrained for. So, what did you make of that?

Sullivan: Well, look, I think you listen to him, you listen to Gina McCarthy, it’s condescending, and it’s really cavalier, this idea that, hey, you need to make better choices. The secretary of energy nominee talks about jobs being sacrificed. First of all, these are really important jobs. These are the men and women in Alaska and America that built our country, energy independence. They have to pay mortgages. They have to pay tuition.

And there’s this fallacy that somehow a wind turbine technician has the benefits and the pay that somebody, for example, working on the North Slope does. And it’s just not the case. I have talked to a lot of our union leaders in the building trades. They completely reject the idea that these jobs are equivalent or that these jobs even exist. 

So, right now, you have an administration targeting people, putting them out of work, when there’s no job to replace their jobs. And I think that, again, it’s a huge mistake that we need to fix. And the administration needs to come around and make sure they’re focused on jobs during this recession.

Cavuto: All right, we will watch closely, Dan Sullivan, senator from the beautiful state of Alaska.

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