Trump on oil, 'clean coal': US is sitting on 'liquid gold,' yet Biden won't use it

Former President Trump argued Monday that America is sitting on "liquid gold" when it comes to oil and coal, and slammed President Biden for not using it.

During an exclusive interview with "Varney & Co." Trump said that, because the "crazies" don't want to use U.S. natural resources, it makes America non-competitive. 

"We became energy independent when I was president, first time ever, and that involved a lot; but what nobody really understood was we were going to be double the size of Saudi Arabia and Russia combined, much bigger than both combined," Trump told host Stuart Varney on Monday. 

"And you never even heard the term ‘OPEC’ during my administration. Nobody talked about it. It was dead and now OPEC is …  dictating the terms and we’re going begging OPEC for oil. It’s so ridiculous." 

Trump made the comments as crude prices climbed midday Monday with Ukraine and Russia in day 26 of conflict.

Ticker	Security	Last	Change	Change %
USO	UNITED STATES OIL FUND L.P.	75.13	-0.80	-1.05%
BNO	UNITED STS BRENT OIL FD LP UNIT	30.83	-0.27	-0.87%

U.S. oil hit $109 per barrel, while Brent, the global benchmark, rose to $114. Gas prices, per AAA, hovered below $4.30 per gallon. 

The Biden administration has flirted with lifting oil sanctions on once-shunned Venezuela to temper surging oil prices, yet it appears unwilling to encourage investment in domestic energy production. 

White House and State Department officials traveled to Caracas earlier this month to meet with Venezuela’s authoritarian President Nicolás Maduro after Biden banned imports of Russian oil over Russian President Vladimir Putin's invasion of Ukraine. 

After some backlash, the State Department claimed that the visit had merely been about the release of detained Americans and "championing the democratic aspirations of the Venezuelan people." 

BIDEN'S OIL BLAME GAME BACKFIRES

Despite the State Department’s denial, a source briefed on the meeting in Caracas told The Financial Times that a partial lifting of oil sanctions had been on the agenda, after all.  

Trump told Varney that "we want clean air [and] we want clean water" before explaining what he called the "biggest misconception." 

"Here we are fighting to have a clean country, but if the fumes are dirty in China and dirty in India and dirty in Russia and other places, with the winds, in three days they are right over the center of the United States," Trump argued. "And it makes us totally non-competitive." 

He stressed that the only way the world can be more clean is if everyone did it together. 

"The problem is the green technology isn’t powerful enough to power our great planet," Trump continued. "So if we want to stop being a great manufacturing capital, let’s go green, let’s go to the windmills." 

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Trump argued that "the windmills are all made in China and Germany" and said making the "massive structures" generates significant carbon emissions. 

"The wind is very intermittent, it doesn’t work well and it’s the single most expensive form of energy," Trump went on to argue. "And we have clean, natural gas. We have more energy than any other country and we have clean coal, they have technology now, coal technology, which is incredible." 

The former president told Varney that the U.S. is sitting on top of what he calls "liquid gold" and that makes the country "more than competitive" because China "doesn’t have that; they have to go and buy everything." 

Trump stressed that the U.S. has so many natural resources "under our feet," but the radical left, which he referred to as the "crazies," make it very difficult to access and use.  

In his interview with Varney, Trump also discussed the conflict between Russia and Ukraine and argued that the war would have never started if he was president. He stressed that the U.S. needs to get off the sidelines in order for Ukraine to survive. 

He also asserted that other countries are taking advantage of the United States, including on trade, under President Biden. 

While speaking about the potential of restoring the Iran nuclear deal, Trump argued that the Biden administration is responsible for "destroying" the country and "may be responsible for destroying the world." 

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The 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) set limits on Iran’s nuclear activity in exchange for a significant rollback of international sanctions. The Trump administration pulled the U.S. out of the deal amid concerns that the agreement did not do enough to curb Iran’s nuclear ambitions -- including the sunset clauses on restrictions.

As part of the Biden administration’s attempts to restart negotiations with Iran, it recently announced it will drop a Trump-era push to "snap back" U.N. sanctions on the regime in Tehran.

A White House spokesperson did not immediately respond to FOX Business’ request for comment. 

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FOX Business’ Bradford Betz and Fox News’ Rich Edson and Adam Shaw contributed to this report.