In the wake of soaring gas prices and Western sanctions on Russia, Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) suggests it might be worth investigating whether the Russian government is backing “green alarmists” who advocate against projects that could boost energy production in the United States. [bold, links added]
During an appearance on Newsmax TV, Paul was asked about a theory that Russia, the world’s second-largest producer of natural gas and third-largest producer of oil, is backing “green groups” pushing the U.S. government to act on climate change and suppress domestic fossil fuels industries.
The theory is that a Europe lacking U.S. oil and gas imports would have to keep relying on Russian energy products.
In response, Paul said he found such allegation more plausible than the false “Russian collusion” story the Democrats used to undermine Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign.
“Maybe we should get a special prosecutor. Maybe we need to spend about $100 million investigating [Vladimir] Putin’s contributions to the green alarmists in our country,” the senator said jokingly.
According to a 2019 filing (pdf) by the U.S. Justice Department, the nearly two-year probe of alleged Russian election interference cost about $32 million in total.
Special counsel Robert Mueller and his team of prosecutors ultimately found no evidence of conspiracy or coordination between Trump or his campaign and Russians.
“I don’t have any information. I don’t know if it’s true,” Paul continued. “But can you imagine, there’s probably more truth to that than any of the BS they put forward about trying to connect the Russians to the Trump campaign.”
When asked about rising gas prices—which continue to break new records at the national, state, and local level—Paul said this issue is just a part of the inflationary effects of the Biden administration’s massive spending.
“Inflation is not complicated,” he said. “What happens is we spend money we don’t have and the Federal Reserve prints money to buy the debt. When they flood the country with all this new money, when we pass out free stuff and free checks to everybody, it’s not free. We’re paying the penalty now.”
Paul’s comments come as President Joe Biden—while pushing plans for addressing climate change by curbing the scale of domestic oil and gas drilling—signed an executive order to ban Russian energy imports in an attempt to take away Russia’s ability to fund its military offensive against Ukraine.
“We’re banning all imports of Russian oil and gas and energy. That means Russian oil will no longer be acceptable at U.S. ports, and the American people will deal another powerful blow to Putin’s war machine,” President Joe Biden said in a statement announcing the ban on March 8.
“This is a move that has strong bipartisan support in the Congress and, I believe, in the country,” Biden added. A group of 17 members of Congress, including 2 Democrats and 15 Republicans, voted against a similar measure.
Read rest at The Epoch Times
Oddly enough, the first time I heard the suggestion the Russians were funding some of our domestic environmental NGO’s was in Hillary Clinton’s failed 2016 presidential bid. She had suggested that intelligence sources had potential evidence the Russians were trying to undercut American production to enhance their trading position with the EU. Up to that time, I had never (really) considered that possibility, but I agree with Senator Paul. It is every bit as (or more) plausibl as the Russian collusion narrative with Trump. However, without a strong Republican majority after the November mid-terms, there will be little appetite or intellectual curiosity to investigate the environmental activists. They lead a charmed life. RARELY do they face any scrutiny by the Democratic party members or their mainstream media “enablers.” How ironic these groups continue to get a complete “hall pass” regarding their conduct and the mountains of misinformation they continue to belch out on climate, environmental & energy issues. Too bad. Our nation is being done a huge disservice, to put it politely…
Re. HC. One report (that I haven’t tried to authenticate) was that the largest contributor to the Clinton’s ‘Foundation’ was Ukraine. Plus she sold, what was it, 25% or 50%, of US uranium to Russia. She probably knows exactly who paid and who followed orders.
What kind of dirty deals between Russia and Greenpeace