President Joe Biden's likely call in tonight's State of the Union address for energy independence from hostile nations like Russia will be meaningless unless he drops his administration's opposition to new domestic oil and gas production, according to congressional Republicans who spoke with the Washington Free Beacon.

The crisis in Ukraine, the lawmakers said, would not hurt so many Americans at the gas pump if the federal government used an all-of-the-above energy strategy and allowed new oil and gas drilling. Gas prices sit at an eight-year high, and many analysts expect them to go up.