Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida ripped President Joe Biden Wednesday during a Fox News interview, saying that reversing the president’s energy policies was one of his top three priorities were he to be elected president.
“I have always rejected the politicization of the weather and I think what we should be doing in the United States is focusing on being energy-independent and making sure that we are utilizing the resources… and oh, by the way, when you have market-based solutions and when you innovate, in Florida we have seen emissions go down dramatically in the last 10 years, but that is through market and innovation,” DeSantis told Fox News host Trey Gowdy.
DeSantis announced his candidacy Wednesday in a glitch-filled Twitter Spaces event, which saw over 600,000 people initially try to listen to the announcement and follow-up questions.
President Joe Biden signed the Inflation Reduction Act into law in August, which included a tax credit for electric battery production and tax credits for various energy-efficient appliances and electric cars.
“What Biden wants to do, he wants take us in a direction where we are like Germany where we don’t have a reliable power grid, where prices spike,” DeSantis said. “California for example, they have a tough time keeping the lights on, and yet they want to ban the internal combustion engine?”
California has pushed to ban gas stoves, diesel trucks, and gas-powered lawn mowers and leaf-blowers in the name of combating climate change. In August, the state advised citizens not to charge electric vehicles to avoid potential blackouts.
Despite Biden’s push for electric vehicles, the Biden administration blocked efforts to start mining for copper and nickel near the Boundary Waters Canoe Area in January, The Wall Street Journal reported. In addition, the Environmental Protection Agency made a determination Jan. 31 that would block the mining of 1.4 billion tons of copper, gold, molybdenum, silver and rhenium in Alaska in order to protect salmon.
“We have to be real here, we gotta understand that reliable energy is something that is absolutely essential for a free society and we will make sure to deliver that as president,” DeSantis said.
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