The Biden administration does not have a specific plan to address record high gas prices; however, it touted renewable energy options as an alternative.
As The Daily Wire’s Ian Haworth recently reported, OPEC — the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries — is slowly increasing its output amid robust consumer demand, resulting in the highest global oil prices in several years.
On Thursday, a reporter asked White House Deputy Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre about the administration’s actions to “keep rising prices on oil and natural gas and gasoline in check.”
“The reality is we continue to monitor global energy market supply, and we’ll work with our agency partners to determine if and when actions are needed,” she responded. “We will continue to look for ways to relieve the burden of energy costs on the American families, but we have no announcement at this time.”
However, Jean-Pierre noted that the high prices underscore “the continued need to diversify our energy and fuel sources.”
“We can’t take our eye off the ball, as you can imagine, so we must invest and deploy in clean energy solutions at home and around the world to strengthen both energy security and mitigate economic volatility,” she continued.
The Biden administration — as well as Democratic leadership in Congress — have emphasized a pivot toward renewable energy in the interest of preventing climate change.
Indeed, the Democrats’ pending $3.5 trillion reconciliation package would create a “Civilian Climate Corps” — a $70 billion program crafted by Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) that would hire a “diverse and equitable” group of 1.5 million young Americans to “complete federally-funded projects that help communities respond to climate change and transition to a clean economy.”
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) argued in The Wall Street Journal that the reconciliation bill will parry climate change through Ocasio-Cortez’s legislation.
“Perhaps most important, we will begin the process of shifting our energy system away from fossil fuels and toward sustainable energy to combat the existential threat of climate change,” wrote the lawmaker, who presently chairs the Senate Budget Committee. “This effort will include a nationwide clean-energy standard that moves our transportation system, electrical generation, buildings and agriculture toward clean energy. We will also create a Civilian Climate Corps, which will hire hundreds of thousands of young people to protect our natural resources and fight against climate change.”
According to Ocasio-Cortez’s office, the Civilian Climate Corps has “explicit antiracist language” and will prioritize hiring from “labor groups.”
This article has been revised for clarity.