Amid soaring gas prices, Republicans in U.S. Congress bring up Keystone XL decision
Global News
Republicans are doing their best to resurrect the controversy around the long-dead Keystone XL pipeline expansion, using it as an election-year political cudgel against Joe Biden.
Republicans are doing their best to resurrect the controversy around the long-dead Keystone XL pipeline expansion, using it as an election-year political cudgel against Joe Biden in hopes of convincing voters that soaring gasoline prices are the U.S. president’s fault.
Members of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce took turns Wednesday grilling a group of senior oil and gas industry leaders summoned to testify before the committee about the apparent disconnect between crude oil prices and the cost at the pump.
READ MORE: Biden to order record release of oil from strategic reserve to tame gas prices
The lines of questioning depended on political affiliation: Democrats excoriated the executives for doing little to help, banking billions in profits without boosting production, while Republicans looked for ways to pin the blame on the White House.
Keystone XL — the cross-border project Biden killed on his first day in office — proved a popular talking point.
“What happened is we denied Canada access to our market,” said H.R. McMaster, one of Donald Trump’s former national security advisers and the only one of Wednesday’s panel of witnesses who wasn’t an oil and gas executive.
“What’s Canada going to do? They’re going to have to sell oil elsewhere — maybe to China, for example, which will give China maybe more power over Canada’s economy.”
READ MORE: Keystone XL pipeline is officially dead. What does this mean for Canada?
