Recently, Matt Foley, the “motivational speaker” character on “Saturday Night Live,” was circulating in a conservative meme.
The meme shows Foley, played by the late Chris Farley, bellowing “Turn the [oil] pipeline back on!” in the face of President Joe Biden, who dismissively looks away.
Florida Republican Attorney General Ashley Moody is among a slew of top state-level law enforcement officials who now urge Biden to do the same thing.
According to The Washington Times on Monday, Moody and 15 other Republican state attorneys general are calling for the Biden administration to restart the Keystone XL pipeline.
The project would have piped Canadian crude from Alberta down the middle of America to Gulf Coast refineries. To appease climate-change activists, Biden killed the Canadian project on his first day in office by canceling a permit needed to move it forward through the United States.
Media reports recently indicated Biden was considering boosting Canadian oil imports to help offset the crushing, record-high gas prices. But Biden’s plan did not include restarting the pipeline.
As the Times reported, the state officials, led by Montana Attorney General Austin Knudsen, wrote Biden a letter saying his “misguided” policy ought to be reversed.
“[W]e have repeatedly asked you to reconsider this misguided (and we continue to believe unlawful) decision,” the attorneys general said to Biden. “We warned you then if your decision was not reversed, Americans would ‘suffer serious detrimental consequences,’ consumers would pay higher prices, and our allies would become further dependent on Russian and Middle Eastern oil.”
“We hate to say we told you so,” they said.
“Just over a year later, new record high gas prices are seemingly set every day, economy-wide inflation — the highest in 40 years — is straining the budgets of American families, and European countries are unable to impose oil and gas sanctions on Russia without risking an economic recession. Instead, European countries are spending $1 billion per day on Russian oil and gas and literally funding Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine in the process,” the letter continued.
“The oil you now want to import from Canada is the same oil that would have flowed through the Keystone XL pipeline, which would have transported nearly a million barrels per day — not only from Canada but from the Bakken oilfields in Montana and North Dakota — to American refineries. The hypocrisy would be stunning if it weren’t so insulting to American energy workers and those in rural communities who benefited from the pipeline’s many economic opportunities.”
“Recent events have made it strikingly obvious that more domestic energy development is needed to prevent future economic hardship for Americans. Your decisions, however, have stripped Americans of the manifold benefits the Keystone XL pipeline would deliver — jobs, tax revenue, and new and sustained economic opportunities,” the letter concluded.
“There is no end in sight to the painfully high energy costs or inflation that Americans are now enduring because of your failed policies. Stop the quiet conversations with foreign powers and oligarchs. The solutions are right here at home. On behalf of the citizens of our states, we demand you immediately take the actions outlined above to reverse the damage you have done and provide relief for struggling families and businesses. It’s never too late to admit your mistakes.”
Besides Knudsen and Moody, the letter also was signed by attorneys general in Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, Indiana, Louisiana, Missouri, Mississippi, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Texas, Utah, West Virginia, and Wyoming.
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