Much of President Biden’s disastrous economic agenda is a giveaway to climate extremists, one of the most valuable voter blocs in the Democrat Party. Progressives pray for pain at the pump because they want to cram taxpayer-subsidized electric vehicles down our throats.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) tried and failed to get the government to block a merger that would lower your gas prices. Now, Schumer is attempting a do-over by lobbying the Department of Justice to launch an investigation into “Big Oil,” a cheap political stunt to grease the skids for Green New Deal passage.
In November, Schumer and two dozen Democrats sent a letter to Federal Trade Commission Chair Lina Khan urging her to block a pending merger between ExxonMobil and Pioneer Natural Resources. Instead of focusing on American energy consumers, the letter urges the FTC to block the merger because Democrats are worried lower gas prices would get in the way of their radical climate agenda.
The letter implores the FTC to “protect Americans from Big Oil,” accuses oil and gas companies of “subverting our democracy,” and generally inveighs against fossil fuel production.
In response, 38 Senate Republicans sent a letter to Khan urging her to conduct a fact-based review of oil and gas mergers, including the Exxon/Pioneer deal. The Republican letter dismantles the notion that the Exxon/Pioneer deal would harm competition, noting that the combined entity would account for less than 6 percent of domestic oil and gas production.
Additionally, the Republican letter corrects the record on several Democrat lies about the oil and gas industry, and points out that blocking the Exxon/Pioneer deal would increase American dependence on “dirtier” foreign oil.
In a rare stroke of fairness toward private industry, Khan shocked the world and approved the Exxon/Pioneer merger. However, Khan could not leave Schumer and his army of climate busybodies empty handed, so she had to extract a pound of flesh as a condition of approving the merger.
In a complaint drafted by FTC Democrats, the agency accused Pioneer CEO Scott Sheffield of colluding with the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) to hike oil prices, ordering Exxon to bar Sheffield from serving on Exxon’s board after the merger is consummated.
As noted by the Wall Street Journal editorial board, while Sheffield’s private communications with OPEC are private, a fair review of Sheffield’s public comments central to the FTC’s complaint shows that the agency’s accusations do not hold water. FTC Republicans issued a joint dissent to the Democrat majority’s complaint, saying that Khan improperly leveraged merger review authority to nail Sheffield.
For his part, Sheffield has accused the FTC of scapegoating him because it could not find anything wrong with the merger, and said that the agency did not ask him about communications with OPEC during a four-hour interview while Sheffield was under oath.
In a new letter to Attorney General Merrick Garland, Schumer and 21 Democrats used the Sheffield episode as justification for a new DOJ investigation into the oil industry. Americans should see this ruse for what it is – sour grapes. Schumer and his band of fossil fuel haters failed to pressure the FTC to put the kibosh on the Exxon/Pioneer deal, so they are attempting a do-over at the DOJ.
Schumer uses Sheffield as a whipping boy because he provides a convenient distraction from the Democrat Party’s ultimate climate policy goal: passing the Green New Deal. Schumer wants Biden’s weaponized DOJ to crawl all over the oil and gas industry in the hopes that they will uncover politically damaging information. In turn, Schumer and the Democrats will use information gleaned from a hopelessly biased DOJ investigation to sell the Green New Deal to the American people.
Attacking the oil and gas industry is the only chance Schumer has at building public support for the Green New Deal because it is impossible to make a positive case for the package. Democrats tried to create a taxpayer-funded “Civilian Climate Corp,” a makework program for 300,000 climate activists to knock on your door and tell you to turn off your air conditioner. The Green New Deal calls for jettisoning the use of all fossil fuels and nuclear within the next decade, and mandates that every building and home in the United States be retrofitted or rebuilt to onerous new climate standards.
For Democrats, demonizing the oil and gas industry is far easier than putting lipstick on the Green New Deal pig. Anyone hoping for lower prices at the pump should see Schumer’s gambit as the cheap political stunt that it is.