John Boehner 8TH DISCTRICT OF OHIO

Vice President Biden wins this week’s #ObamaGap award for claiming America’s “energy policy is the best it’s ever been” -- in response to a question about $4 gas prices. Watch him via Real Clear Politics:

REPORTER: “Gas prices are above $4.00 a gallon, you were asked this question, and you gave an answer. But there’s a new commercial out that says 'since Obama has become president, prices have nearly doubled.' Four years in, should you all have a better energy policy in America?

VICE PRESIDENT JOE BIDEN: “I think our energy policy is the best it’s ever been.”

Gas prices have doubled on President Obama’s watch. But instead of doing “all of the above” to address the problem, the president’s policies have sent energy production on federal land plummeting by seven percent. See this Natural Resources Committee list of efforts by the Obama administration to block or delay new production.

For sure, President Obama has lauded production increases on state and private land, or projects where he has limited control. But as Charles Krauthammer explained, any increase is “the result of Clinton- and Bush-era permitting” and has “occurred in spite of [President Obama’s] restrictive policies.”

President Obama also rejected and then personally lobbied against the Keystone XL project, which would create tens of thousands of jobs by delivering energy from Canada and the upper Midwest to Gulf Coast refineries. Instead, the jobs and energy will go to countries like China.

And while it blocked Keystone, the Obama administration “rushed” the taxpayer-backed Solyndra loan. According to Bloomberg News, the Treasury Department “was given one day” to review the Solyndra loan “in order to “accommodate an Energy Department press release.”

Similarly, the White House refuses to answer for the billions spent on Section 1603 “stimulus” grants. While the administration says these grants created thousands of jobs, the Wall Street Journal says some of the plants that received cash payments actually “laid off workers” while “others closed.”

Higher gas prices … less production … no Keystone XL … failed taxpayer-backed loans and grants … this is the “best” energy policy has “ever been?”

Republicans have a better way to stop policies that drive up gas prices and create new jobs. Learn more and “like” theAmerican Energy Initiative on Facebook today.