Rep. Troy Nehls says that Democrats 'despise' the oil and gas industry

Texas GOP Rep. Troy Nehls said that the Democrat Party hates the oil and gas industry and that the U.S. needs to move toward former President Trump's policies of being energy independent.

"We have to go back to Trump's policy," Rep. Nehls said on the John Solomon Reports podcast when asked about the Strategic Petroleum Reserve being at its lowest level since the early 1980s. 

"With Trump's policies we were energy independent," Nehls continued. "They (the Democrats) hate and despise the oil and gas industry. They want to get rid of it. They want everything to be electric. They don't want any carbon or any type of emissions fuel."

Nehls also said that it's unrealistic to expect Americans to completely go all electric and ditch carbon-emission fuels.

"You can't just start telling the American people that we're gonna have all electric cars in California," Nehls explained. "But then in the same sentence say, 'Hey, turn your refrigerator off and turn your air conditioning off between one and three, because it's a little hot. Also, we may have more rolling blackouts.' None of it makes sense to me."

Nehls said that he is a supporter of other forms of energy such as nuclear energy, and that it's just unrealistic to expect Americans to go all electric right away. 

"The idea that you're gonna have all electric cars by 2035 is a little ambitious," Nehls said. "I mean, we got to work together. We know that there are renewable energy sources out there. I'm a big supporter of LNG-liquid natural gas. I'm a big supporter of nuclear. I think that's a very safe energy, and we have to work together to do what's right."