Biden deflects blame for high gas prices, Vivek Ramaswamy slams his 'senseless' energy policy

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On CNBC, Vivek Ramaswamy hits Biden for policies targeting oil production

Appearing on CNBC’s Squawk Box Friday morning, author and biotech entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy blasted the Biden administration for blaming oil companies for current high gas prices and less oil production.

Appearing on CNBC’s Squawk Box Friday morning, author and biotech entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy blasted the Biden administration for blaming oil companies for current high gas prices and less oil production.

The businessman reminded viewers that less oil production had always been a "specific policy aim" of the Biden administration, before calling the current White House energy policy "senseless."

Ramaswamy spoke to CNBC anchor Joe Kernen, who began the discussion by slamming President Biden for telling the American people he’s doing everything he can to lower the price of oil, even though Biden’s previously stated policy was to "cut oil production."

"Vivek, do you think that the Biden Administration has done all it can to try to get U.S. domestic production rolling? It just – the pivot from ‘we want to cut production to transition to clean energy’ that they’re so proud of, ‘I’m going to shut down the fossil fuel industry,’" Kernan asked, referring to Biden’s green campaign promise. 

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PHILADELPHIA, PA - OCTOBER 05: Vivek Ramaswamy, Founder & CEO of Rolvant Sciences speaks at Forbes Under 30 Summit at Pennsylvania Convention Center on October 5, 2015 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. (Photo by Lisa Lake/Getty Images)

"Suddenly they seem to distance themselves from that. ‘No, it never happened. We never tried to cut production,’ when that was a stated goal," the anchor added, referencing Biden’s recent letter to oil CEOs. The president lectured to the company executives that they "have an opportunity to take immediate actions to increase the supply of gasoline."

The businessman agreed with Kernan’s point, claiming, "I find it ironic that the Biden administration is now blaming oil companies for producing less oil when this was an explicit policy aim, one of the top policy aims of the administration."

Throughout the 2020 presidential campaign, then-candidate Biden promised to transition American energy away from fossil fuels.

During a trip to Tokyo, Japan last month, the president also mentioned that current high gas prices represent "incredible transition that is taking place that, God willing, when it’s over, we’ll be stronger, and the world will be stronger and less reliant on fossil fuels."

Vivek Ramaswamy told CNBC's Squawk Box that the Biden administration has 'senseless' energy policy 

Ramaswamy continued, "And you can listen to John Kerry this week, saying that we absolutely should not be drilling for more oil. Not only the revoking of permits to drill on federal land, I’ll also remind you the subsidies for wind and solar of course increase the relative cost of capital for any kind of oil production project."

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He then pointed to Biden’s cutting of the Keystone XL Pipeline as hampering the energy supply in the country. "And furthermore if you think about the Keystone pipeline project – this is the one that hurts me personally as I view the situation as a citizen the most – that would have been 840,000 barrels of oil per barrel a day from the tar sands of Alberta to the Gulf Coast of Mexico."

The entrepreneur then slammed the Biden administration for trying to get the world’s dictators to supply us with energy over constructing the pipeline between America and Canada. "Let’s keep in mind that Canada is a democratic nation and ally and instead you have this administration now, shamefully in my opinion, begging dictators from countries like Venezuela to Saudi Arabia to produce more oil."

"But the worst part of this geopolitically actually, Joe," the businessman continued, "… it was the fact that the Biden administration was among the few parties lobbying the EU against adopting the Russian oil import ban. Keep in mind this is what’s actually financing Putin’s war machine even as the United States with the other hand sends $40 billion to Ukraine to fight against Russia."

Fuel prices at a Chevron gas station in Menlo Park, California, US, on Thursday, June 9, 2022. Stratospheric Fuel prices have broken records for at least seven days with the average cost of fuel per gallon hitting $4.96 as of June 8, according to the American Automobile Association.  (Photographer: David Paul Morris/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

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The Squawk Box guest added, "I think this is senseless policy, it’s clearly an ironic criticism because this was the exact policy aim implemented by the Biden administration in the first place."