Amid record gas prices, lawmakers divided over US energy future

As gas prices in the U.S. hit a 14-year high, Democrats met GOP resistance Tuesday during a hearing on the Biden administration’s push for electric vehicles. 

House Energy and Commerce subcommittee members sparred over the international implications of a potential U.S. shift away from oil and gas, how hard to push electric vehicles (EVs) as an alternative and how Russia’s war on Ukraine is changing the world’s energy landscape. 

“Americans are facing sticker shock at the gas pump. Russian president Putin’s premeditated invasion of Ukraine is  driving up gas prices all over the world,” said full committee chairman Rep. Frank Pallone Jr., (D-N.J.), echoing sentiments coming out of the White House. 

“These prices remind us yet again that we must kick our oil habit and free ourselves from the price and volatility of fossil fuels.”

Gas prices reached an average of over $4 per gallon this week, the highest since 2008. President Biden on Tuesday announced a ban on Russian oil, “targeting the main artery of Russia’s economy,” while the House is also set to vote on a Russian fuel ban Tuesday. 

Rep. Michael Burgess (R-Texas) said the U.S., which was importing about 700,000 barrels of Russian oil per day before the invasion of Ukraine, had become overly reliant on foreign oil, rather than increasing domestic production. 

He described U.S. energy policy as “a voluntary descent into an energy crisis when there’s no real restriction on the resource that’s causing it.”

However, Democratic lawmakers at the hearing pushed for renewed focus on electric vehicles  to protect from future oil shocks related to geopolitical conflicts or disasters. 

“It’s very clear to me that the U.S. cannot drill its way out of this crisis,” said Rep. Scott Peters (D-Calif). 

Biden signed an executive order in August of last year setting up goals that half of all new vehicles sold by 2030 would be zero-emissions vehicles and that 500,000 electric vehicle charges would be deployed in the same time frame.

“If we want to reduce Putin’s power… then we need to double-down on alternatives, not on the same old failed policies of the past,” Pallone said, adding that with the bipartisan infrastructure bill passed last November, “we have the historic opportunity to charge forward on EVs.”

The bill set aside $7.5 billion for electric vehicle charging infrastructure and a $2.5 billion competitive grant program with funding designated for rural and underserved communities.

Pallone said the U.S. must make “smart investments to usher in the post-oil era as quickly as possible.”

Republicans largely disagreed, at least in the short term. 

“Today, America is the world’s leading producer of oil and gas, not Russia. Republicans and Democrats should embrace this fact and use American oil and gas to deter Putin,” said Rep. Fred Upton (R-Mich.).

Republicans advocated for renewed investment in American oil to signal U.S. power.

“Our allies should not have to depend on energy from regimes that attack freedom. Nor should Americans,” said Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-Wash.), of Europe’s reliance on Russian oil.

Democrats pushed back, saying that their colleagues across the aisle were using the Ukraine conflict to push the U.S. back toward reliance on the oil and gas industry.

The parties also sparred over whether electric vehicles would be cost-efficient: Upton argued that electric vehicles aren’t feasibly priced for everyday Americans, while Pallone argued they would save consumers money at the pump long-term.

Experts at the hearing also weighed in on what the shift to electric vehicles would mean for U.S. competition against China.

Natalie King, CEO of Dunamis Clean Energy Partners, said American workers could “make a superior American-made EV charging product, which will also lessen our dependency on outside countries like China.” 

But Thomas Pyle, president of the Institute for Energy Research, said electric vehicles would increase dependence on China — because of China’s dominance in the global battery supply chain.

“The idea that pipelines are somehow dangerous and unnecessary, you know, that started a long time ago and we really need to get out of that idea,” he said.  

Others argued that the solution isn’t cut and dry, saying the key to U.S. energy resilience was diversification. 

“Diversification is good for the United States. We shouldn’t just look to oil and gas to solve our problems. I think we should’ve learned that lesson by now,” Peters said.