Nikki Haley tears into Biden for ‘demonizing’ American energy producers

2024 GOP presidential candidate Nikki Haley denounces President Biden for “demonizing” energy producers and touting her own plan to put the US on a path to total energy independence, which she says will help the country assert dominance against its enemies on the global stage to apply.

DailyMail.com joined Haley on a tour of a massive oil rig just outside Midland, Texas, on Thursday, where she discussed energy independence, calling it “hugely important” to national security.

Haley said that once Biden took office, he began “demonizing” energy producers, which she says is “the wrong thing to do.”

“I mean, look at this beautiful rig,” she told DailyMail.com in an exclusive post-tour interview, pointing to the back.

Haley, who was a former ambassador to the United Nations under the Trump administration, said while she was at the UN enemies of the US didn’t want “we had a strong military” and “they didn’t want us to be energy independent .’

The former South Carolina governor discussed a top criticism she has of the Biden administration, which she says has pushed its green policies over promoting national security through a strong independent energy policy.

When Biden took office in 2021, he immediately shut down the Keystone XL pipeline, placed control permits on federal lands and waters and added a slew of green subsidies, Haley said.

“In my administration, we would stop criminalizing these energy producers and make sure we partner with them and do whatever it takes to be energy independent,” Haley promised.

‘We would make sure that we no longer controlled where they produce and how much they produce. We would reverse the green subsidies that we see today. And we would make sure we are focused on speeding up the pipeline licensing process and getting the EPA out of the way.”

“A fully-fledged foreign policy is good for energy policy,” she reiterated during the DailyMail.com interview.

“That’s why we came to Midland today. And I hope every American can see what we saw today.”

Her comments came hours after it emerged that China is funneling billions of dollars to Cuba to establish a “spy base” just 100 miles off the Florida coast.

DailyMail.com got its first reaction to China’s hostile move.

‘Wh“Is everyone surprised that China is putting a spy base in Cuba?” she replied. “I mean, this is the same country that sent a spy balloon over America.”

“I mean, it wasn’t about South Carolina because we have beautiful beaches, and we do. It was about South Carolina because we’re a military state,” Haley added.

China steals “$600 billion in intellectual property from us every year,” she continued, saying the Biden administration is doing absolutely nothing about it.

‘We have to put an end to it. We need to let them know we’re on their trail. We have to stop all this,” Haley said.

The hopeful president added that if Cuba continues to help the Chinese set up the espionage center, it would ensure “they will feel even more pain and they feel it today” and that China should be met with sanctions. beaten.

“Let’s build a strong military and become energy independent so we can be on the leadership side again and not allow China to get us in trouble,” Haley said. Ukraine.

During the tour of the rig, Haley interacted with workers and discussed their day-to-day jobs, challenges, and learned about the constraints energy producers face based on government policies.

“It’s beautiful to see up close,” she remarked during the tour atop the rig in the so-called “dog house” where the operations originate.

The Helmerich & Payne (H&P) Rig 480 is located in Stanton, Texas, about a 20-minute drive from Midland and employs a total of approximately 1,000 workers who maintain six major wells that will yield approximately $60 million every seven months.

Employees on the platform told DailyMail.com that they work 12 hours a day for 14 days in a row and then have 14 days off to spend with their families. There are living quarters for the rig crew on site.

In addition, many of the employees live in neighboring states, including Louisiana, and drive more than 9 hours every two weeks to Texas.

They say it’s an excellent job – extremely labor intensive hard work but rewarding.

“I’ve never felt like I’ve made a dollar more in my life than I did in this job,” one employee remarked to DailyMail.com.

Rig workers can earn a high six-figure salary and still be able to work their own land thanks to the shift schedule, which runs day and night for a full round-the-clock operation, seven days a week.

Rig executives say there is a “lack of understanding” from the Biden administration on energy, and that they are committed to safety and protecting environmental standards and should not be penalized.

The instability of not knowing the energy policies of the next administration, especially as the oil industry continues to struggle with a massive reduction in workforce since the COVID-19 pandemic, is particularly difficult.

On Thursday, the Haley campaign presented a five-point plan for “American energy dominance,” which includes getting rid of the government and speeding up pipeline permits.

Standing up to “energy dictators in Russia, Iran and Venezuela” is also critical, she argues.