Canadian energy official is 'frustrated' Biden is looking to Venezuela and Iran for oil: 'We're right next door! We're here!'

 A Canadian energy official expressed frustration with the Biden administration for seeking to increase oil production from Venezuela and Saudi Arabia instead of looking to its neighbor to the north.

Sonya Savage, the energy minister for Alberta, made the comments in an interview with Lisa Fletcher of WJLA-TV.

"What did you think when President Biden called on OPEC and other oil drilling nations like Saudi?" asked Fletcher.

“I thought ‘what?’ ‘We're right next door. We're here!’" Savage responded.

"It's extremely frustrating when we see the United States administration reaching out to Saudi Arabia to ask for more oil production, to ask OPEC for more oil production, to look at Iran, to look at Venezuela when we're right next door here in Alberta," she explained. "They should be looking at us as the solution to energy security, not around, not Venezuela.”

Savage said that Canada could more than make up the lack of oil imports resulting from the ban on Russian imports over its invasion of Ukraine. 

She has previously criticized the Biden administration from her official social media account.

"US now looking to replace Russian barrels with Venezuelan? You can’t make this stuff up - desperate times require desperate measures," she tweeted. 

"A reminder of the folly of energy policy over the past decade. Canada, with the 3rd largest reserves, could have supplied the US and the world," Savage added.

Republicans and other critics have assailed Democrats for seeking to increase oil production from unfriendly countries while seeking to restrict domestic oil production that could have curbed the skyrocketing price of gas.

"The result of Biden's presidency has been that the enemies of America, countries like Russia, like Iran, like Venezuela are all getting stronger, getting richer, getting more aggressive, getting more hostile," said Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), "because the president is simultaneously weakening our own ability to produce energy and strengthening their ability to produce energy."

Here's more about the oil crisis:

High gas prices around the country are taking a toll on Americans | ABC Newswww.youtube.com