(Headline USA) The White House issued a memo last month prohibiting administration officials from traveling to international events that encourage the use of fossil fuels, according to Fox News.
The guidance, developed by the National Security Council and sent to Energy Department staffers on Sept. 15, explained that those working in the administration must publicly align themselves with President Joe Biden’s energy agenda.
“This guidance sets out a presumption that agencies and departments will pursue international energy engagement that advances clean energy projects,” wrote Deputy Energy Secretary David Turk. “It also outlines a process for seeking limited exceptions to pursue carbon-intensive engagements on a justified geostrategic imperative or energy-for-development/energy access basis.”
The guidance specifically prohibits “any U.S. government engagement related to unabated or partially abated coal generation.”
Other “carbon-intensive international energy engagements” that are banned include those “directly related and dedicated to the production, transportation, or consumption of carbon-intensive fuels that would lead to additional greenhouse gas emissions,” the memo added.
The memo is in line with the rest of Biden’s aggressive “clean energy” agenda, which Republicans have blamed for skyrocketing gas prices and lingering inflation rates.
“The Biden Administration cannot continue to treat the fossil fuels industry as an enemy,” Daniel Turner, the founder and executive director of Power the Future, said in a statement.
“Millions of people are employed in this industry which powers our entire nation, our military, our national security, and allows Joe Biden to jet off every weekend to his beach house,” Turner added. “This war on American fossil fuels is making us poorer, weaker and more reliant on China and OPEC for our energy.”
Oil executives have also blamed Biden for the record-high gas prices.
“The Biden administration is waging a war against oil that makes it far more difficult to invest in drilling that would boost production and bring down prices,” Chuck Duginski, CEO of Oklahoma-based shale driller Canvas Energy, told the Financial Times over the weekend.
