Republican presidential hopeful Marco Rubio traveled to Oklahoma City Wednesday to preview his national energy strategy.
The junior Republican Senator from Florida’s plan centers on expanding the oil and gas industry and rolling back regulations championed by President Obama.
Rubio’s speech to an audience of oil and gas executives and Republican lawmakers at the Oklahoma Independent Petroleum Association was — not surprisingly — pro oil and gas.
If elected, the Florida senator promised to move quickly to end the U.S. ban on crude oil exports and vowed to dismantle President Obama’s Clean Power Plan — the Environmental Protection Agency’s first-ever rules limiting carbon emissions from power plants.
Borrowing a term often used by environmental groups, Rubio argued that eliminating regulations is the best path towards “sustainable” energy.
“This is because the true path to an economically and environmentally secure future is not through regulation, it is through innovation,” Rubio said. “And innovation comes from less government, not more government.”
Rubio took a few shots at Democratic rival Hillary Clinton, who he says has pledged to defend and expand Obama’s environmental regulations.
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