Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez made a claim so outlandish that she was fact-checked by a witness during a hearing Wednesday, the Daily Caller reported. The witness disputed the New York Democrat's claim that nearly 25% of greenhouse gas emissions were from gas and oil drilling on federal land.
In her opening statement, Cortez told the Subcommittee on Energy and Mineral Resources the false statistic to bolster her position. Cortez is a climate change zealot who has been pushing her leftist Green New Deal since 2019.
While it's true that a United States Geological Survey found that fossil fuel production is responsible for 23.7% of carbon dioxide emissions over a decade, it did not claim this came from solely federal lands. The survey also found that nitrogen and methane were produced in a smaller proportion from oil and gas production.
Kathleen Sgamma, president of the Western Energy Alliance, set Cortez and the committee straight during the hearing. "I just want to start off by correcting something the ranking member said in her opening statement," Sgamma began.
"[Cortez] claimed that oil and gas production on federal lands is responsible for about a quarter of greenhouse gas emissions. That’s a complete falsehood," Sgamma said.
"That’s based on a misreading of a USGS study of greenhouse gas emissions. And if you actually look at the numbers, production on federal lands and waters accounts for 0.6% of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions, not 'nearly a quarter,'" Sgamma went on.
"Even the Interior Department stopped using that number after I simply pointed out the numbers from the USGS report," she added. Sgamma said that the committee needed to look into the Department of the Interior's role in colluding with radical environmentalists.
"I urge you to submit formal requests for information on the coordination between the Department of the Interior, including its various offices and bureaus, and environmental and activist groups. I believe those requests would uncover a trove of information of inappropriate collusion outside the public eye and outside formal Administrative Procedure Act processes," Sgamma urged.
"The information would be very helpful as states and groups like Western Energy Alliance seek to overturn many of these regulations in court, a Herculean task given the sheer volume of them," she added. It's clear that this was misleading by design.
President Joe Biden is on a crusade to destroy America's energy independence. Recently, the administration canceled seven leases to drill on federal land that were signed during former President Donald Trump's administration, Fox News reported.
The purchase was done in the last days of his presidency through the Alaska Industrial Development & Export Authority but was nixed once Biden took office. Interior Secretary Deb Haaland approved the cancellation, citing climate concerns and protection for the indigenous peoples who supposedly have claims to the area known as the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.
Haaland justified the move in party by asserting that the Arctic region is warming at twice the speed of anywhere else around the globe. She said that shutting down the production of gas and oil that Americans rely on will "further [our] commitment, based on the best available science and in recognition of the Indigenous Knowledge of the original stewards of this area, to safeguard our public lands for future generations."
Cortez has similarly radical ideas for combating so-called climate change by impoverishing the human race and rolling back standards of living. She and Massachusetts Democratic Sen. Ed Markey are still trying to make their ill-fated legislation happen despite the political and economic consequences of such measures, The Hill reported.
Democrats have horrible ideas that will cause immense human suffering. The only way they can justify them is by using false information and twisting facts, and Cortez was called out on it this time.
