President Joe Biden has fueled this Russian-Ukraine crisis by canceling the Keystone XL Pipeline his first day in office and waiving sanctions on the Nord Stream 2 Pipeline, Putin's "lifeline," according to Sen. John Thune, R-S.D.
"Somebody once described Russia as a gas station masquerading as a country," Thune told "The Cats Roundtable" WABC 770 AM-N.Y.
"If you take energy out of their economy, it would be a crushing blow."
Yet, Biden has handed Putin billions with the increased costs of oil and the future energy income off Germany with Nord Stream 2, Thune lamented to host John Catsimatidis.
"This is how the Russian economy goes; this is how Putin became a billionaire; this is how he funds all the activities and the military that we're now seeing on the Ukrainian border," Thune continued.
"The notion that the United States of America would shut down an American pipeline and yet support one that Putin is using to keep his economy going – the irony of that and the absolute hypocrisy of that you can't even fathom."
Thune surmises Democrats have an ulterior motive here to push the world against oil and Russia and toward electric vehicles and still more-costly renewable energy.
"I think that's part of [their] strategy — to push people out of fuel-based vehicles," Thune said. "But you are absolutely going to crush the economy and a lot of middle-income families, many of whom are not going to be able to buy [electric vehicles]."
Thune said even optimistic green-energy supporters note the transformation will take years, if not decades. Electric vehicles have a place, but they should be a choice and not a mandate, according to Thune.
"If people want to convert to electric vehicles [by 2035] more power to them," he said. "But that means between now and then we're going to need a lot of fuel. Why would we not be developing American resources to do that?"
The urgency of shutting down the Keystone XL Pipeline in the meantime is a costly mistake by Biden, Thune continued.
"The [energy] requirements that we're going to have to meet in this country for the foreseeable future will have to be met with fuel oil," he said.
"But, because of policies that are out of whack relative to what the real economy is dictating, [it's] not being developed. It's unfortunate and sad that the United States of America is going to hat-in-hand to countries in the Middle East like the Saudi's asking them to produce more energy so that we can fuel our economy here in the United States when we can do it on our own."
Also, Thune noted, there is not enough electricity in America to even power the Democrats' intentions.
"If everybody converted to electric vehicles, they won't have enough juice to keep their houses warm in the winter months, which is a pretty big deal in South Dakota," Thune added. "It's a false economy right now built around a set of assumptions that are not realistic."
Eric Mack ✉
Eric Mack has been a writer and editor at Newsmax since 2016. He is a 1998 Syracuse University journalism graduate and a New York Press Association award-winning writer.
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