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Latest GOP Talking Point: Russia's Ukraine Invasion Happened Because of “Green Agenda”

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Latest GOP Talking Point: Russia's Ukraine Invasion Happened Because of “Green Agenda”

Not wanting to let a crisis go to waste, the Fossil Fuel lobby pounces on Russia's invasion of Ukraine to go after climate activists.

Adam Johnson
Feb 24, 2022
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Latest GOP Talking Point: Russia's Ukraine Invasion Happened Because of “Green Agenda”

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Never letting a crisis go to waste, those long-opposed to the White House’s limited opposition to fracking and drilling for oil on U.S. federal lands are using the Russian invasion of Ukraine to insist that the modest shift of Europe, Canada and the U.S. to green energy has empowered and emboldened Russian President Vladimir Putin. 

Twitter avatar for @AmericaNewsroom
America's Newsroom @AmericaNewsroom
"The reality is that Joe Biden is now seeing his climate change agenda collide with this national security foreign policy crisis overseas." @KatiePavlich on how Ukraine-Russia tensions could implicate already elevated gas prices @BillHemmer @DanaPerino
2:40 PM ∙ Feb 23, 2022
274Likes72Retweets
Twitter avatar for @marcorubio
Marco Rubio @marcorubio
Biden’s war on American oil & gas made #Russia’s energy more valuable, #Putin more powerful & the U.S. more vulnerable to what’s happening in #Ukraine
8:25 PM ∙ Feb 23, 2022
3,539Likes690Retweets
Twitter avatar for @PoliticalShort
Nick Short ‎‎ @PoliticalShort
When the “climate crisis” is at the center of U.S. foreign policy, you no longer have an actual foreign policy. Expect countries like Russia, China, Iran, and North Korea to take advantage of our non-existent leadership and our foreign policy that isn’t based in reality. https://t.co/DZwWqyksal
Twitter avatar for @StateDept
Department of State @StateDept
The #ClimateCrisis has negatively impacted global food insecurity, infrastructure, and public health. Our whole-of-government response puts climate at the center of United States foreign policy and national security. https://t.co/AgTftYoKYa https://t.co/nhcb1IRdlh
2:46 PM ∙ Feb 24, 2022
623Likes240Retweets
Twitter avatar for @Lancegooden
Lance Gooden @Lancegooden
Russia supplies 7% of U.S. oil imports. If it wasn't for Joe Biden's war on American energy, that percentage would be 0.
10:01 PM ∙ Feb 22, 2022
8,201Likes1,676Retweets
Twitter avatar for @larryelder
Larry Elder @larryelder
FLASHBACK (2018) NATO Summit: President Trump and NATO Secretary General Stoltenberg Get Into Tense Exchange About Europe’s Enrichment of and Dependence On Russia—While Europe Simultaneously Asks the U.S. To Defend Europe AGAINST Russia youtu.be/Vpwkdmwui3k #Ukraine @NATO
youtu.beTrump and Stoltenberg get into tense exchange at NATO summitPresident Trump attacked NATO allies on July 11, during an exchange with NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg. Read more: https://wapo.st/2ujsAS0. Subscri...
3:07 PM ∙ Feb 24, 2022
207Likes86Retweets
Twitter avatar for @RonFilipkowski
Ron Filipkowski @RonFilipkowski
The foreign policy genius that is Kristi Noem claims that Biden caused Russia to invade Ukraine when he canceled permits to expand the Keystone Pipeline from Alberta, Canada to Nebraska. “From the very day he got into the WH, he gave Putin all the power.”
5:36 PM ∙ Feb 23, 2022
1,953Likes333Retweets
Twitter avatar for @VivekGRamaswamy
Vivek Ramaswamy @VivekGRamaswamy
The green agenda is partly responsible for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, actually. Shutting down projects like Keystone makes the West more reliant on Nordstream. The scope of “sanctions” on Russia is limited by the Europe’s dependence on Russian natural gas. And Putin knows it.
2:51 PM ∙ Feb 24, 2022
2,586Likes515Retweets
Twitter avatar for @business
Bloomberg @business
If Biden announced that energy security is as important as climate security, says @karlbykarlsmith, it would help the fracking industry — and curb Russian aggression trib.al/6NfgfGK via @bopinion
trib.alBloomberg - Are you a robot?
9:09 PM ∙ Feb 24, 2022
44Likes18Retweets
Twitter avatar for @GOP
GOP @GOP
In a matter of months, Biden waived sanctions on Nord Stream 2, cemented Europe’s dependence on Russian gas, and gave Putin the “green light” to invade Ukraine. Biden failed.
8:38 AM ∙ Feb 1, 2022
1,348Likes293Retweets
Twitter avatar for @APIenergy
American Petroleum Institute @APIenergy
As crisis looms in Ukraine, U.S. energy leadership is more important than ever. Here are four things the @WhiteHouse can do right now to ensure energy security at home and abroad.
Image
2:17 AM ∙ Feb 24, 2022
10Likes3Retweets
Twitter avatar for @FordOConnell
Ford O'Connell @FordOConnell
The Democrats "green agenda" is not only crushing Americans ability to get to work & feed their families, but it is killing America's power/leverage on the world stage.
3:39 PM ∙ Feb 24, 2022
7Likes1Retweet
Twitter avatar for @MattWalshBlog
Matt Walsh @MattWalshBlog
I’m so glad that the west gave up on energy independence because Greta Thunberg yelled at us. That’s really looking like a smart move today.
12:22 PM ∙ Feb 24, 2022
42,405Likes7,102Retweets

Clearly a memo went out—dozens of members of Congress and conservative commentators are repeating this line meant to connect the so-called “green agenda” to the invasion of Ukraine, pinning the deaths and disaster not on the party that actually did the invasion, Russia, but those ideologically strong-headed environmentalists. As Media Matters’ Zachary Pleat and Allison Fisher pointed out on Feb 10, this line of attack began in earnest weeks ago as GOP-aligned Sinclair Broadcasting Group began blaming the pending invasion on weak-kneed liberals’ climate policies.

It’s a clever line because it avoids a glaring messaging problem: a rising, more overtly white nationalist element in the Republican party that views Russia and Putin admirably. Former President Donald Trump has implicitly praised the invasion, and the most popular Fox News personality, Tucker Carlson, has as well. This leaves Republican Party messengers in a tough spot: They cannot call for direct NATO involvement because this would counter their de facto leader Trump, but they cannot look too pro-Putin either because of traditional neoconservative elements in the party (which they selectively call on to ding Biden over his Afghanistan withdrawal). They are thus torn between Owning the Libs and Staying On Message with Their Erratic White Nationalist Leader. So they have found a non sequitur third way: make this about bashing climate activists and promoting “energy independence,” a fossil fuel industry talking point designed to promote domestic production by playing to nationalist currents in America’s politics. 

Oil industry consultant and Council on Foreing Relations board member ​​Daniel Yergin argued in the Wall Street Journal last week this position for the middle brow set:

Today there is no doubting the geopolitical importance of America’s new oil-and-gas position. The Ukraine crisis and Europe’s energy crisis shine a light on the global impact of U.S. oil-and-gas production. Some saw this significance much sooner than others. At the 2013 St. Petersburg International Economic Forum, Vladimir Putin was on stage with German Chancellor Angela Merkel in front of several thousand people. I asked Mr. Putin how Russia planned to diversify its economy from its dependence on oil and gas export revenues. In the course of asking my question, I mentioned the word “shale.” Before I finished, Mr. Putin reacted sharply, denouncing shale gas as a grave threat that should be stopped. 

Reflecting afterward, I realized he had two strong reasons to oppose U.S. shale gas. First, it would compete with Russian gas in Europe. Second, shale gas and oil would enhance America’s global strategic position. Given how events are unfolding in Europe today, one would have to say he was prescient.

​​You see, Putin is scared of shale gas production! If you oppose the horribly inefficient, environmentally destructive methane producing fossil fuel, you’re basically a Kremlin asset. It’s not the first time the oil and gas industry has used the specter of Helping the Bad Guys to demagogue against climate activists. In 2018, during Congressional investigation into Russian meddling in U.S. politics, Republicans seized on allegations Russian troll farm IRA “sowed division” in the U.S. by supporting protests against the TransCanada Corp.’s Keystone XL pipeline, insisting Russian intelligence “stirred opposition against the Dakota Access, Sabal Trail, Colonial and Bayou Bridge pipelines.” In 2014 when Russia annexed Crimea, Senators from both parties, including Democrat Mary Landrieu, argued the annexation showed the U.S. had to move forward with the XL oil Pipeline or else it would be empowering Russia.

In the coming weeks, concern trolling along these lines will no doubt intensify. One of the bleak byproducts of war—in addition to the civilians whose lives will be upended, and lost—is that it not only puts the urgent issue of climate chaos on the back-burner and makes global coordination that much more impossible, it actively weaponizes nationalist sentiment to carry out long existing hatred of climate movements. It’s war, and opposing America’s “energy independence” means you’re aiding the enemy. Never mind the fact that robust and stable domestic green energy—for all countries—would be the most effective long term strategy to remove fossil fuel politics from the equation for all violent actors, whether they be Russian or Western. Fossil fuel advocates will exploit this crisis like they’ve exploited all previous crises, and argue that the best way to prevent Putin from wielding fossil fuels isn’t to accelerate global cooperation to urgently wean off of fossil fuels, but shore up our own and use our leverage of earth warming against Putin’s leverage of earth warming.

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Latest GOP Talking Point: Russia's Ukraine Invasion Happened Because of “Green Agenda”

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