America Needs to Mobilize Domestic Energy to Help Families, Lower Inflation and Punish Putin (David Holt Op-Ed)

The Russian invasion of Ukraine has laid bare some home truths about global energy security, the risk of letting unrealistic, extremist ideas dictate our energy policies and the everyday costs imposed on Americans by the intentional hampering of our oil and gas industry. Let’s not buy into the fiction that Russia caused the highest inflation in 40 years and put oil prices at more than seven-year highs. Things were already bad in late 2021, and The White House continuously signaled to markets that oil and gas were out of favor.
 
 No one disagrees that global factors including pandemic fallout contributed, but the Biden Administration’s actions have certainly fueled the high energy prices we now pay.
 
 Russia’s invasion is just the accelerant that has turned our economic situation into a four-alarm fire requiring an emergency response. Gasoline prices are over $3.70 a gallon and are surging toward the level at which the Great Recession started – $4.50. High energy prices have preceded the last six recessions here.