Sen. Dan Sullivan (R-AK) considered President Joe Biden’s latest executive order on drilling “no surprise,” suggesting the president has been opposed to U.S. energy.
Two weeks before President-elect Donald Trump returns to the White House, Biden announced that the United States would ban new drilling off the East Coast and the coasts of California, Oregon, and Washington state, with some areas off Alaska and the eastern Gulf of Mexico also barred. The president cited “the climate crisis” facing the world as reason for his decision to protect coasts from “irreversible damage,” though Sullivan deemed the president’s decision “no surprise,” citing his track record in the White House.
“From day one, this administration has sought to shut down American energy,” Sullivan said on Fox News’s America Reports. “I think President Biden’s legacy is going to be the worst president in American history in terms of American energy. And what they did, their policies lead to dramatic increases in inflation, weakening America’s strength. One of our great strengths is American energy, as you know, John, and killing thousands of American jobs. So this is no surprise.”
Ahead of Trump’s Jan. 20 inauguration, Sullivan shared some “good news” following Biden’s announcement, being that multiple lawmakers from the House and Senate are “very excited” to implement Trump’s plan to unleash U.S. energy. The president-elect spent time on the campaign trail hyping up increasing oil drilling if he won, touting the phrase “drill, baby, drill” ahead of the election.
For Sullivan’s part, he has been speaking to Trump ahead of the inauguration and is also set to speak with former North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum on Tuesday. Burgum was nominated by Trump to be the incoming administration’s secretary for the Department of the Interior and will also chair the newly formed National Energy Council, the latter deemed by Sullivan as “a great idea.”
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Trump’s reaction to Biden’s eleventh-hour drilling ban was largely negative, accusing the current president of attempting to make the transfer of power as difficult as possible. He also cautioned, however, that Biden’s orders would be “terminated shortly.”
Karoline Leavitt, Trump’s nominee for White House press secretary, also condemned the president’s “disgraceful decision,” suggesting it was made by “radical Left environmental extremists in his administration.” The incoming president is looking into possible avenues to rescind Biden’s executive order, according to Leavitt.