State Republican Group Hits Democrat States' Energy Crippling Policies

Jacob BlissMarch 24, 2022

The Republican State Leadership Committee (RSLC), a state Republican-aligned campaign arm, launched a series of digital ads in Democrat states to emphasize their failed far-left policies at the state level that have crippled domestic energy production.

The RSLC’s digital ads are a five-figure buy in the Democrat-led states of Colorado, Maine, Nevada, and New Mexico. The ad highlighted the far-left policies that have led to record-high gas prices and dependence on foreign oil.

These ads are a part of the state Republican group’s first spending after announcing their legislative targets for the 2022 midterm cycle at the beginning of the month.

The ads follow a report from the National Review exposing how President Joe Biden has “been following in the footsteps of blue-state Democrats, whose policies began undermining domestic energy production long before Russian president Vladimir Putin decided to invade Ukraine, ramping up pressure on already strained global markets.”

The ad explicitly targeting Colorado has a voiceover of different news reports explaining the “insanity” behind the skyrocketing price of oil and gas. During the ad, the screen shows: “This is Colorado. And here gas costs more than ever. Why? Because Democrats control Denver. And they run D.C. too.”

“Even though we can produce more than enough here at home. Democrats have been fighting against American energy for decades. Outsourcing production to dictators, while you pay the price. Energy independence now,” the text in the ad says.

Watch the Colorado digital ad:

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The RSLC Communications Director Andrew Romeo slammed the Democrat legislators in a statement.

“Voters across the country who are furious with President Biden for crippling America’s energy independence also have Democrat legislators in blue states across the country to blame for skyrocketing prices at the pump,” Romeo stated.

The Colorado Gazette Editorial Board explained that when the Colorado General Assembly passed Senate Bill 181 in 2019, they sequentially imposed “sweeping regulations that crippled Colorado’s oil and gas industry.” The editorial board added that “Within six months of the bill’s enactment, approval permits for oil wells plummeted by 57%; approved well-drilling permits dropped 58%.”

In Maine, Governor Janet Mills (D) signed a bill into law nicknamed the “State-Level Green New Deal” in 2019. Mills’s office argued the new law would “help achieve [the] Governor’s goals of 80 percent renewable energy by 2030 and emissions reductions of 80 percent by 2050.”

In 2019, Nevada’s legislature also passed SB 254, which would require the Division of Environmental Protection to create a yearly inventory of greenhouse gas emissions and develop strategies to reduce the state’s greenhouse gas emissions. The goal is to reduce the emissions by 28 percent by 2025 and 45 percent by 2030, from a 2005 baseline.

The New Mexico legislature passed Senate Bill 8 last March, which “allowed the State to set environmental standards more stringent than federal law,” which would align the state with Biden’s policies on air pollution, the Carlsbad Current-Argus noted. A Santa Fe-based spokesman for Power the Future said that the “constrictive energy policy at both the state and federal level were responsible for rising prices of gasoline and other sources.”

“Radical liberal energy policies enacted at the state level are part of the reason why the United States is at the mercy of dictators when it comes to oil production,” Romeo added. “The American people will reject state Democrats and their war on domestic energy in November.”

Jacob Bliss is a reporter for Breitbart News. You can follow him on Twitter.