Ron DeSantis traveled to an ally red state recently to announce his plan for energy policy. The presidential hopeful made an appearance at an oil rig site in Midland, Texas declaring over the sound of drills that he would focus on bolstering “American energy dominance” while seeking to undo the policies of President Joe Biden’s administration.
Ron DeSantis Blasts Biden Energy Policy
DeSantis criticized the current administration’s green policies that he says have “exacerbated the inflation that so many families have been laboring under for these last few years,” and claimed Joe Biden has “waged war on domestic energy production.”
He also called the Biden administration’s climate initiatives “part of an agenda to control you and to control our behavior.”
“They’re trying to circumscribe your ambitions. They are even telling our younger generations to have fewer children, or not to even have children, on the grounds that somehow children are going to make our climate and planet unlivable — and that’s wrong to say,” he told a crowd of a few dozen rig workers and reporters.
The Governor’s Plan
DeSantis’ plan includes opposition to federal policies to redirect the auto industry toward manufacturing more electric vehicles; withdrawing from the Paris climate agreement to counteract the warming of the Earth – a deal that conservatives say harms business without properly regulating China or India – and streamlining the environmental review process for energy and infrastructure projects.
DeSantis also set the record straight in a sit-down in an interview with an ABC News reporter who questioned him on his earlier stance as governor to push electric vehicles.
“As governor, I got money from the Volkswagen settlement to do EV infrastructure so I could either use it or lose it, so that’s why we did it. We put in the charging stations, but I would never support mandating the production of EV’s. I think that should be driven by the market.”
According to DeSantis, the issues of inflation and fragile national security could both be alleviated through energy dominance.
The Governor’s ultimate goal, he claimed, is to lower gas prices to $2 by 2025.
“We have gas close to $4 nationally, let’s get it down to $2, that’s the goal.”
Predictably, the Biden camp accused DeSantis of “climate denialism” (Democrats do love their “isms” don’t they?), blamed Florida’s recent hurricanes on the governor’s energy policy in Florida, and declared his goal unrealistic.
Ammar Moussa, a spokesman for the Biden campaign, said in a statement. “Voters need look no further than DeSantis’s own state — where his agenda is leading to skyrocketing energy costs for his constituents and natural disasters are causing tens of billions of dollars in damages — to know what DeSantis’s plan would mean for the country.”
Never mind that The Sunshine State has incurred hurricanes every single year since America has existed.
DeSantis Losing Support?
The announcement comes at a time when support seems to be waning for Florida’s favorite governor on a national scale, despite his continued popularity at home.
A CNN/University of New Hampshire poll published Wednesday revealed that DeSantis holds 10 percent of the state’s likely GOP primary voters — a drop of 13 points since the last UNH survey in July, which poised him as Trump’s chief rival.
According to the results of the latest poll, Ramaswamy is poised in second place at 13 percent, and former Governors Nikki Haley (SC) and Chris Christie (NJ), both ahead of DeSantis, just behind him.
However, in Iowa, the first primary caucus state, DeSantis continues to lead the runner up pile with 15% of primary voters, but still falls behind Trump by 31 points.
Jennifer Galardi is the politics and culture editor and opinion writer for 19FortyFive.com. She has a Master’s in Public Policy from Pepperdine University and produces and hosts the podcast Connection with conversations that address health, culture, politics, and policy. In a previous life, she wrote for publications in the health, fitness, and nutrition space. In addition, her pieces have been published in the Epoch Times and Pepperdine Policy Review. You can follow her on Instagram and Twitter.
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