(Bloomberg) – Florida Governor Ron DeSantis plans to unveil a major proposal for energy policy at an event in Midland, Texas next Wednesday during a fundraising swing in the oil-rich state, according to a campaign official.
DeSantis is expected to call for ramping up domestic energy production, including increased mining of natural gas, as a way to combat rising inflation, according to people briefed on the speech who requested anonymity to speak about its contents.
DeSantis will promise to roll back President Joe Biden’s green policies, many of which are embedded in the Inflation Reduction Act, the people familiar said. The landmark Democratic law provided billions of dollars to address climate change and to transition the U.S. economy to electric vehicles and other green technology,
A major thrust of the speech is intended to focus on how energy policy can bring jobs back to the U.S. and will look at the issue through the prism of both the economy and national security, according to the people.
DeSantis and other Republican candidates have been critical of Biden’s green-energy push, saying it will cost American workers jobs and raise prices for consumers. The president’s effort to spur production of electric vehicles is at the center of a contract dispute between the United Auto Workers union and Detroit’s legacy automakers with a strike looming if the two sides do not reach a deal.
DeSantis will be delivering his speech in a town that has been hammered by inflation, a persistent political liability for Biden, and where the local economy is heavily reliant on oil. He will deliver the speech at a rig, said one person briefed on the plans.
The energy speech will be the Florida governor’s fifth policy rollout since launching his campaign, and it is expected to offer more details on the energy ideas he touched on in his economic speech in New Hampshire this summer. The new speech will center on three themes: restoring U.S. energy dominance, saving the American automobile and reforming environmental permitting.
DeSantis’s energy policy speech comes at a critical time in his campaign, with only four months until voters caucus in Iowa, the first state to vote in the Republican presidential race.
Donors in Texas are intensely interested in his oil and gas policies, as well as hearing more about his plans for the U.S.-Mexico border.
