Today millions of Americans will head to the ballot box and their votes will determine what party will hold power in Washington DC and state legislatures for the next two years. According to a poll from C3 Action, reducing inflation and gas prices is the most important issue to 51% of American voters. With the need to reduce costs and bolster domestic energy security being so prevalent, conservative, free-market solutions can play a pivotal role in reaching these goals. Drew Bond explained how on a recent episode of The Daily Signal Podcast.
When asked by host Rob Bluey on how leaders can reduce pain at the pump and costs at grocery stores, Bond said it all starts with American energy.
“I’d start by increasing American energy production. America actually is the largest energy producer in the world, we do it cleaner than anybody else in the world.” Unfortunately, regulations are in place that hamstring production. As Bond explains:
“There’s environmental laws and permitting restrictions in the United States that are actually keeping clean energy projects from being deployed, being built. And not just clean energy, I mean, pick your energy, whether it’s natural gas or nuclear, or solar, wind, hydro, you name it…And so we really need to unleash the private sector to be able to build more faster, and here in the United States, and be able to export that around the world for when we have excess, and particularly with our allies.”
>>>READ: America Needs Affordable, Diversified, Reliable Energy
On the topic of our allies, Europe, and Germany in particular, is in the midst of an energy crisis. This crisis is largely a result of the continent’s over-dependence on Russian energy which stemmed from bad climate policies. Bond called this crisis a “warning of what could happen in America and anywhere else in the world.”
“I mean, I would say that, look, climate change is real and let’s consider the fact that bad climate policy is actually potentially more dangerous than bad climate change. I’ll say it again, bad climate policy is potentially more dangerous than bad climate change,” he added.
In the U.S. we have seen dogma-driven climate policies overtake energy realities. From halting the Keystone XL pipeline to rolling back permitting reform from the previous administration, President Biden has made it more difficult for American producers to address the issues of climate change and energy security.
To Bond, stifling energy production is the wrong way to address these issues. “[I]nnovation really is the key. Energy diversity, energy abundance, reliability, all of those things, we need to check the boxes on it.”
Given the conservative movement’s dedication to free-market principles, Bond added, “I would argue that many conservatives are, in fact, better environmentalists than many in the environmental community.”
Listen to the full interview on The Daily Signal Podcast here.
The views and opinions expressed are those of the author’s and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of C3.
