Economist Larry Summers, a top adviser to President Obama, said last week that President Biden’s reluctance to build oil pipelines is “insane.”
THE QUOTE
Summers, who served President Clinton’s Treasury Secretary and as the chairman of the National Economic Council for Obama, made his comments about the U.S. economic outlook at the Harvard Kennedy School in Cambridge, Massachusetts, during the Boston Globe’s Globe Summit.
- While noting that the U.S. is better off than many European countries, which are entirely dependent on foreign fuel imports, he said, “It’s kind of insane that we have truck and trains carrying oil all over this country, rather than constructing pipelines, which would permit accessing more resources and cheaper, safer transmission.”
- In spite of his deep ties to the administrations of two Democratic presidents, Summers has been a vocal critic of Biden’s economic plans, taking him to task on domestic energy, student debt relief and inflation.