Senator Maggie Hassan (D. NH) wrote to subscribers to her newsletter to celebrate an extremely regressive and ill-advised policy by the Democratic administration. Here’s her email and my response:

Maggie Hassan’s email

Families are reeling from the impact of Putin’s war and supply chain challenges, and Granite Staters are paying the price at the pump. It’s clear that we need to take additional action to bring down costs for families.

To help bring down high oil and gas prices, I have been pressing the Biden administration to release more oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve. The Strategic Petroleum Reserve was created for times like this to help mitigate harm to the U.S. economy from disruptions to oil supplies, and we have an obligation to use it to protect our small businesses and to help American families.

I’m pleased to share that this week, the administration heeded my calls with the largest release yet – one million barrels are set to be released each day for the next six months.

This is one important step forward to address high oil and gas costs, but it cannot be the last. We need to hold Big Oil accountable for padding their pockets at the expense of American families, and I continue to push for suspending the federal gas tax while we’re seeing sky-high prices at the pump.

I’ll keep working to create solutions that can help families now, while also building an independent, clean energy economy so that we are not reliant on Big Oil or foreign countries.

Email from Senator Maggie Hassan, April 1st, 2022

My letter

I am appalled that you and the Democratic administration think that it is important to lower gas and oil prices. While the rest of the developed world is reducing its reliance on fossil fuels often by using high fossil fuel prices as a disincentive to their use, you are celebrating the release of reserves that will reduce those already-low prices.

It is obviously unconscionable that the poorest in our society might not be able to afford fuel to heat their homes, or travel to work, but the answer to that is not to subsidize climate-changing inducing materials that are already killing 5 million people per year (source below signature). Your vote against increasing the minimum wage violated the most basic expectations Democratic voters might have had of you. If that had not been done, a higher oil price would have been more affordable for the very people this oil-release claims to be helping.

I have spoken to people throughout New England who have said they are driving more efficiently, less often, and grouping errands in order to avoid spending money on gasoline that they do not have to spend. Surely this is exactly what we need? Rather than reducing oil prices, we should be introducing carbon taxes that allow and encourage people to move from oil, petroleum, and natural gas, towards cheaper alternatives such as solar, wind, and hydro.

As relatively recent homeowners, my spouse and I are looking at how to reduce our reliance on climate-change inducing energy sources. The lack of financial support to do that is entirely as a result of the lack of carbon taxes which would combat the tragedy of the commons (source below signature).

As science is the only way humans know that can tell us what is true, what works, and what is wishful thinking, I hope you can start to take seriously science-based policies. If you cannot, please expect a strong, sustained, and grass-roots effort to replace you with someone who can discern truth from money.

Kind regards
Gavin Ayling

References

• Monash University: https://www.monash.edu/medicine/news/latest/2021-articles/worlds-largest-study-of-global-climate-related-mortality-links-5-million-deaths-a-year-to-abnormal-temperatures
• Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tragedy_of_the_commons