Fighting against Biden's war on affordable energy

Have you filled up your gas tank recently? Noticed a higher price at the pump? More people across the country and in Missouri are noticing higher prices and feeling the pain at the gas pump -- there's a reason for this. Instead of maintaining energy independence charted by President Trump, the Biden Administration has opted to implement job-killing policies and executive orders to quench Washington D.C.'s thirst for a Green New Deal. You can effectively kiss cheap, affordable energy goodbye.

Fortunately for Missourians, my Office is taking a proactive approach to defending Missouri industries, agriculture and manufacturing from Biden's fiat by executive order. In just the first few months that he has been in office, the Missouri Attorney General's Office has sued Biden and his Administration three times to fight back against his job-killing environmental policies.

On March 8, I led 12 other states in filing suit to rein in President Biden's proposed massive expansion of federal regulation by imposing a "social cost" for three greenhouse gases. Through executive order, Biden gave nameless, faceless bureaucrats in Washington D.C. the authority to calculate "interim values" for the "social cost" of greenhouse gases. These "interim values" will be used to justify billions, and potentially trillions of dollars in regulatory costs for Missouri, as well as the entire country.

From refrigerators to cars and much more in between, these regulations could impact nearly every single Missourians, all while we foot the bill.

The bigger, and more sinister, effects of these regulations resulting from Biden's executive orders could include massive job loss, the stifling of domestic energy production, increased reliance on unreliable foreign energy sources, and untold damage to agriculture, manufacturing and working families.

Next, President Biden canceled the presidential permits for the construction of the Keystone XL pipeline. This decision immediately killed jobs, putting thousands of hard-working Americans out of work. Additionally, the cancellation of the pipeline -- a clean and safe way of transporting petroleum -- undoubtedly will spike Missourians' energy bills in the midst of a crushing pandemic. On March 18, we took swift action and filed suit against the Biden Administration for the cancellation of the Keystone construction.

It's important to me that Missouri leads the way in ensuring that Missourians have access to cheap, affordable energy, and that energy sector jobs are protected -- President Biden can't unilaterally, and adversely, impact energy jobs and energy affordability unchecked.

Unfortunately, President Biden didn't stop there. The Biden Administration decided to impose a moratorium on future oil and gas leasing and drilling permits on federal land. We took immediate action and filed suit against the Biden Administration on March 24. These leases helped America reach its full energy-production potential and provided significant environmental benefit as portions of the lease proceeds were invested into vital state environmental defense and restoration. In fact, each year the federal government returned billions of dollars to the states and environmental reclamation projects.

As President Biden continues to take radical action that threatens jobs and drives energy prices up, my Office will continue to fight back.

Our farmers and producers in Missouri are the original stewards of the land, working the land in a way that will preserve it for generations to come. They have accomplished this while also reducing their environmental impact. Our farmers and manufacturers know how to take better care of our land than bureaucrats in Washington who have never stepped foot on a farm or into a manufacturing facility in our state.

As Missouri's Attorney General, my office will continue to fight back against President Biden's war on cheap, affordable energy.

Eric Schmitt is the attorney general for the State of Missouri.