Gov. Ron DeSantis is promising to return America to the days of $2-a-gallon gasoline if he becomes president by unleashing domestic energy production, even though he’s opposed offshore drilling and fracking in his own state.
DeSantis’ energy record has come under scrutiny as presidential rival Nikki Haley accuses him of not matching his campaign rhetoric with action.
DeSantis signed an executive order opposing offshore oil drilling and fracking just two days into his first term as governor. The order instructed the Department of Environmental Protection to “oppose all off-shore oil and gas activities off every coast in Florida and hydraulic fracturing in Florida.”
DeSantis also has worked to block drilling in the Everglades.
DeSantis styled himself as a “Teddy Roosevelt” conservationist when he first ran for governor in 2018. His 12-point environmental plan included banning fracking, a controversial process that involves injecting water, sand and chemicals at ultra-high pressure to extract oil and gas trapped in rocks.
His campaign website stated, “With Florida’s geological makeup of limestone and shallow water sources, fracking presents a danger to our state that is not acceptable.” He vowed to fight fracking on Day One of his administration.
Fracking increases energy production, but environmentalists oppose it because of concerns about groundwater pollution and other issues.
During the second GOP presidential debate last week, Haley slammed DeSantis’ energy record.
“What you don’t need is a president who is against energy independence. Ron DeSantis is against fracking. He’s against drilling,” said Haley, the former Republican governor of South Carolina and U.N. ambassador during the Trump administration.
DeSantis, though, counters that he isn’t against fracking and offshore oil drilling elsewhere in the United States. He said he was following the will of Florida voters who overwhelmingly approved a 2018 constitutional amendment banning offshore drilling in state waters.
“That’s not saying I think that should apply to Louisiana, Texas and all that,” DeSantis during a campaign stop in New Hampshire.
During that event, he called fracking “something that’s been very effective” in making the United States a leading energy producer.
Although DeSantis took executive action on fracking, no legislation banning it has made it to his desk.
In a statement, campaign spokesman Bryan Griffin defended DeSantis’ energy platform.
“Ron DeSantis is the only candidate in this race to roll out an energy plan that he will enact as our next president to once again make America energy dominant and bring relief to hard-working Americans with a return to $2 gas in 2025,” he said. “That’s leadership you can count on.”
His plan calls for streamlining the environmental review process for energy projects, greenlighting mining and oil development on federal lands and withdrawing from the Paris climate accord, a global pact that aims to avert the threat of catastrophic climate change.
National gas prices last averaged at or below $2 a gallon in May 2020 when the pandemic shuttered much of the nation’s economy, federal statistics show.
Republicans have blasted President Joe Biden over his energy policies, but U.S. crude oil production is projected to break records set during former President Donald Trump’s tenure, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration
Oil production is expected to rise to 12.8 million barrels a day this year, which is about half a million barrels higher than the 2019 record set before the pandemic.
The United States produces more crude oil than any other nation, according to federal statistics.
Gas prices are subject to a global oil market that extends beyond the U.S. borders, economists say.
Saudi Arabia and Russia have slashed oil production, leading to an increase in prices. Meanwhile, China’s demand for oil has risen as it lifts pandemic lockdowns and restrictions.
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