ABOUT A BIDEN SAUDI TRIP

News that the European Union has reached an agreement to sharply curtail the purchase of Russian oil is a welcome development that signals the continent is not only united against the genocidal attack on Ukraine but that its political leaders are prepared to make hard choices in response.

It’s a choice worth remembering as Americans labor under high gas prices this summer. And it’s a reminder of why we need a robust domestic energy industry that includes the continued development of oil and gas production as well as investment in renewable energy research and infrastructure. …

But we also recognize that higher prices will be borne by us all. Reports early last week suggested President Joe Biden would travel to Saudi Arabia in hopes of persuading its leader to put more oil into the market. The president dialed that down later in the week when he said he had “no direct plans at the moment.”

The president shouldn’t go at all. The Saudi regime is a pariah state. U.S. intelligence under Biden determined Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman was personally responsible for the murder of Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi. In March, Human Rights Watch reported that the Saudi regime killed 81 men in a mass execution. More than half of those were of the Shia Muslim minority. …

Instead of getting on a plane to Saudi Arabia, the president would do better by the country if he stayed home and worked on delivering a domestic energy policy that maximized all of our resources and generated a more powerful American future.