Biden's energy plan would return US to 'state of dependence' on foreign nations: Brouillette

Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden’s energy plan would force the U.S. back into dependence on oil from the Middle East, Energy Secretary Dan Brouillette argued Monday.

Brouillette told Fox News Radio’s “The Brian Kilmeade Show" that the “amount of jobs lost would be enormous” under Biden's plan.

During last week’s presidential debate, Biden said that he plans to “transition” away from the oil industry because “the oil industry pollutes significantly.”

“It has to be replaced by renewable energy over time,” Biden continued.

In three separate local news interviews in the key battleground state of Pennsylvania on Saturday, Biden stressed that he will not completely ban fracking, but would only ban fracking on federal land.

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Host Brian Kilmeade asked Brouillette on Monday, “Is it a big deal that Joe Biden wants to ban it and upon further review says just ban it on federal land?”

“It’s an enormous deal,” Brouillette responded. “What it would do is move us back to dependence on foreign nations. It moves us back into a state of dependence on the Middle East.”

The secretary added that Americans need to ask themselves the “fundamental question” if that’s “what we want to go back to?”

During a 2019 Democratic primary debate, Biden was asked whether there would be "any place for fossil fuels, including coal and fracking, in a Biden administration?"

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"No," Biden responded. "We would -- we would work it out. We would make sure it's eliminated and no more subsidies for either one of those, either -- any fossil fuel."

Brouillette told Kilmeade that since Trump took office 2017, the U.S. has become a net exporter of energy and fracking had played an "enormous role" in that success.

“His [President Trump's] goal at that point in time was to make us energy independent and that’s exactly what we’ve done,” Brouillette said.

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“This is the technology that allowed us to become the number one producer of oil and gas in the world,” Brouillette said.

“Now we’re larger than Saudi Arabia, larger than Russia and that’s given us not only economic opportunities here in the United States, in places like Pennsylvania, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Texas [and] Ohio, it’s produced energy security and national security for the nation, it’s given us foreign policy options that we didn’t have just a decade ago.”

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“So it’s a very, very important technology,” he continued. “I would dare say that it is the technology that has produced the economic boom over the last three years.”

Brouillette added that “the past administration, they nearly killed coal.”

“They did everything they possibly could to kill coal so when they say they want to kill oil and gas, word to the wise, believe them,” Brouillette said.

Fox News’ Ronn Blitzer, Morgan Phillips and Sam Dorman contributed to this report.