ICYMI: Rubio Joins America Reports

Interview

U.S. Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL) joined America Reports to discuss President Biden's refusal to expand America's energy production. See below for highlights and watch the full interview here.

On the Biden Administration's claim that American energy companies face no impediments to increasing energy production:

"I guess I'm a little bit more cynical than I used to be, being around [Washington] for a while now…. I've never seen such a level of disingenuity [than I have seen with this White House]. First of all, not every [existing] lease is approved. Companies apply for all kinds of leases and then they make the determination, that area is more productive, it makes sense to expense it. Others may not make as much sense.

"You've also got a bunch of these places tied up in litigation. And then you've got an unfriendly administration. You have an administration that has made [it] very, very clear that it wants America to produce less natural gas and less oil and to become greener. That has been a fundamental fact. Who is going to risk capital under an administration whose entire administrative power is focused on making it harder than ever to explore and produce fossil fuels like oil and natural gas? They are not going to do it. That's what [the people in the Biden Administration] are not recognizing.

"They keep pointing back to [the existing leases]. That's just a talking point and a way to spin it, because it's a complicated industry, but it's just not true [that American companies face no impediments to increasing energy production]. The fact of the matter is, today we are producing 1.2 million barrels of oil less a day than we were in 2019. If we just got half of that back, it more than makes up for whatever we were getting from Russia, and it would help lower prices.

"And it would have an immediate impact … on oil prices if the President were to announce, "America is going hard on this, I'm going to start waiving a bunch of red tape and fight through it.' It would have an immediate impact -- not a huge one -- but it would have an impact, because the futures markets would say America is going to be ramping up production because OPEC won't."

On the Biden Administration's plan to buy oil from Iran, Venezuela, and Saudi Arabia instead of increasing domestic energy exploration and production:

"It makes no sense. A barrel of oil from Iran, Venezuela, Russia or anywhere else is no less damaging to the climate than a barrel of oil from America. The only difference between a barrel of oil from America and [one from] those places is we get the money and we get the jobs [for American oil].

"This Iran deal would do nothing for oil. The markets have already priced in an expectation that a deal is going to happen, so that discount is already in there for the most part.

"And Venezuela barely produces any oil. This is not Venezuela from 15 years ago, this is a corrupt, decrepit industry that produces less than 700,000 barrels a day. Almost all of it goes to China, because they have to pay [their loans to China] with oil, and 10 percent of it, the remainder, goes to Cuba for free, in exchange for fake doctors. They don't have any oil to send us, even if they wanted to.

"And they cannot ramp up production, because their machines are outdated, their engineers have left the country, and their industry has become a decrepit mess run by incompetents. It's become a personal piggy bank for a narco-dictator … who is very close to Iran, Russia and China, but not the United States."

On the logistical impossibility of transitioning the U.S. economy to green technology in the Biden Administration's timeframe:

"The problem the administration has is they know the answer to the question. They know what the right decision is, but they cannot make it, because it means going to war with the Radical Left, and they don't want to do it. They are committed to the Green New Deal and all this radicalism.

"If you asked radicals like John Kerry and others on this issue -- because for them, they have this religious adherence to this notion -- they don't have a problem with gas being five or six dollars a gallon, because they think all that's going to do is push more people into renewables, and in essence, lead to less people driving [and] more mass transit. That's the argument you're gonna hear from them.

"[The Left] may not say it publicly, but it's okay [in their mind] if gas prices are more expensive, because that means more Americans will have to use trains and buses. [This will lead to] less people driving and more people looking for electric vehicles.

"[With electric vehicles,] you have to generate the power for it, and the batteries [used in electric cars] depend on … earth minerals that we don't produce enough of in the United States. You'd have to [import] those from China as well.

"The lack of availability around the world of oil is not good for the environment. What happens for developing countries that don't have access to oil and natural gas [is] they rely on coal. Coal emits a lot more carbon than oil and natural gas [do]. That's what [developing countries] are forced to do. They're not going to starve or freeze to death to make John Kerry happy."

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