Albany Standard

With energy costs on the rise across the country, Functional Government Initiative (FGI) members are now expressing concerns that some of President Joe Biden’s energy policies may be doing more harm than good, in terms of gaining control of the situation.

“Last week, we expressed our concerns regarding the reluctance to sanction the Russian energy market and announced that we would be seeking information surrounding that decision,” FGI spokesman Peter McGinnis said in a press release. “However, the current situation creates the fear that we may be moving from funding Russia’s war machine to paying the dictator in Venezuela and the state sponsors of terrorism in Iran. The concerns of the Functional Government Initiative remain. We will continue working to expose the dysfunction of government and investigate the impact of today’s energy policy on our foreign policy and near-record levels of inflation.”

As the war in Ukraine rages on, White House officials recently announced the administration's plans to ban imports of Russian oil into the country.  

“While FGI commends this decision, the American people have legitimate concerns about the impact of energy policy on rising prices, not only on energy but also across the economy,” FGI officials said in the release. “Concerns don’t end there. News about the decision to move away from Russian imports came alongside developments that may simply result in Americans’ depreciating dollar being redirected to another set of hostile foreign governments.”

With inflation rates as high as they’ve been in the last four decades, FGI added that residents across the country now view out-of-control gas prices as the most pressing issue of the day.

With that in mind, the organization recently said it is forwarding a series of new information requests to several federal agencies, in hopes of affecting change. Some of the reasons believed to be responsible for the current situation are more than $5 trillion in federal spending pumped into the country from COVID relief bills and the lingering supply chain crisis.

“For years, Washington’s dysfunction has enraged the American public,” McGinnis said. “The Functional Government Initiative exists to explore what is driving that dysfunction and shine a light on the key decisions causing it. Right now, inflation is front and center in this discussion. The public almost certainly understands that the pandemic has played a part in driving inflation, but if it turns out government policies are supercharging that spike in their cost of living, then they deserve to know. A strong economy and a healthy America are goals all Americans share. As we get records back on these key decisions impacting inflation, we will soon find out whether actions of the federal government are aiding or impeding those goals.”

During his recent State of the Union address, Biden outlined his plan for combatting climate change and fostering clean energy solutions, though some like Rep. Dan Newhouse (R-Wash.) see things differently.

“His actions are undermining any positive environmental achievements we have made over the past decade, while directly causing an exponential increase in gas prices,” Newhouse said on his website. “The Biden administration increased our reliance on foreign countries for our energy needs, increased global emissions, and increased gas prices for American families.”

Newhouse said he hopes the administration will come to understand what many others already have.

“Climate change is not a local or national issue; it’s a global one,” he said. “That means we cannot make decisions to address it in a vacuum. As I continue to push in Congress for the U.S. to ban Russian imports of energy, President Biden is asking Venezuela, a U.S.-sanctioned country, to increase their oil extraction. This is far more detrimental to our environment than any production we do here in the United States.”

As of March 16, the average gas price in Georgia was $4.27 per gallon, according to the American Automobile Association (AAA).