The Ohio Republican Party chairman is criticizing U.S. Rep. Tim Ryan, a Democratic Senate candidate, for his energy policies, including supporting President Joe Biden’s decision to use 50 million barrels from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve as gas prices soar.

“Tim Ryan long supported the closing of the Keystone XL pipeline, which eliminated thousands of jobs and unilaterally increased energy prices across the country,” ORP Chairman Bob Paduchik said today. “Now, Tim Ryan is singing Joe Biden’s praises for tapping our nation’s oil reserves for one day worth of production and waging war on America’s energy industry.”

Paduchik also criticized Ryan, D-Howland, for being “seemingly indifferent to soaring energy prices” by supporting the “shutdown (of) yet another domestic oil pipeline, Line 5.”

But Ryan said on a Toledo radio show Nov. 18 that Enbridge’s Line 5, which is in Michigan and serves refineries in northwest Ohio, should remain open.

“I’m not for shutting down Line 5,” he said. “We need to rebuild it. I’m for us rebuilding it with American union labor.”

Izzy Levy, Ryan’s campaign spokeswoman, said: “Instead of making up lies about Tim, who is focused on getting people back to work and bringing down costs for hardworking Ohioans, the Ohio Republican Party should spare a thought for their country club buffet of out-of-touch millionaires whose messy Senate primary gets nastier and more expensive by the day.”

Paduchik said: “Tim Ryan’s nonsensical policies only serve to empower our adversaries, undermine American workers and cost Ohioans more to heat their homes and fill up their gas tanks.”