South Atlanta News

One of the biggest and most effect conservative SuperPACs in the country recently launched a new TV ad campaign linking the Democrats’ war on domestic energy production to skyrocketing gas prices throughout the state of Georgia and the rest of the country.

Restoration PAC’s ad highlights Democrats like President Joe Biden, Sen. Raphael Warnock and other supporters of Biden’s energy policies.

"American energy production kept gas prices down," the ad states. "More and more, we are going overseas for oil that is right under our feet. That’s the Democrat green energy plan. High gas prices? Joe Biden did that. And with his support for Biden’s policies, Raphael Warnock did that, too."

National gas prices were $2.33 per gallon when Biden and Warnock took office in January 2021, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA). Gas prices have been steadily rising since mid-2020, the EIA reports.

Today, gas prices in Atlanta averaged $3.96 per gallon, according to the American Automobile Association (AAA).

Doug Traux is a former U.S. Senate candidate and the founder of Restoration Action, a nonpartisan political action committee that sponsors political activities advocating for policy changes and/or the election or defeat of candidates on the basis of conservative principles.

“We were energy independent and gas prices were in the $2-per-gallon range until Joe Biden and Rafael Warnock came along,” Traux said in a statement. “Through a series of deliberate, ideological steps, they stifled the production of American energy and have us begging for oil from hostile countries.”

According to the EIA, 2019 marks the year the U.S. became a net total energy exporter for the first time since 1952. The country maintained that position in 2020.

In an interview during his campaign in 2020, Warnock stated, “I think we need to be moving away from an economy that’s based on fossil fuels, that’s the way of the past and we need to be moving toward the future.”

Senate Democrats, including Warnock, voted to block the Keystone XL Pipeline in February 2021. Warnock and Democrats also voted twice against protecting fracking/natural gas from being banned.

The U.S. is not energy independent. "We consume roughly 20 million barrels of crude oil each day," economist Edward Hirs told Houston Public Media in January 2020. "We only produce about 12.5 million barrels of crude oil each day."

This week, national gas prices averaged $4.24 per gallon, according to the AAA.