It’s hard to deny the effort underway in Washington, D.C., to change America’s role as a global energy giant.

This effort has taken many forms. The latest push by some Democrats is to coerce banks to pull back funding to fossil-fuel companies through a process termed “de-banking.”

One proponent of de-banking is Sarah Bloom Raskin. She is President Joe Biden’s pick to serve as vice chair of the Federal Reserve Board, a position that would give her authority over the nation’s banks.

Raskin has a record of opposition to fossil-fuel companies. In a May 2020 commentary in the New York Times, she questioned why the federal government, through its relief programs as businesses were being shuttered due to COVID-19, would allow any of the funds to go to the “dying” fossil fuel industry. She called those industries a “terrible investment.”

In another report for the investing firm Ceres, she called for financial regulators to “do all they can” to “allocate capital and align portfolios toward sustainable investments that do not depend on carbon and fossil fuels.”

From onerous emissions rules to halting interstate energy pipelines, unelected bureaucrats have pushed to end the use of coal, oil and natural gas — reliable energy sources found in abundance in West Virginia, Ohio and Pennsylvania that provide for hundreds of thousands of families — with no plan as to how to replace the energy those sources create or the jobs they provide. (In 2021, 61% of all domestic energy generation came from fossil fuels, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.)

Under Raskin’s direction, the Federal Reserve could institute policy changes to force the nation’s banks to pick winners and losers based not on investment risk but instead on what she sees as the right path forward with energy policy.

That would constitute a major overstep of the Fed’s authority.

Opposition to Raskin’s nomination has been strong.

“I have serious concerns that (Raskin) would abuse the Fed’s narrow statutory mandates on monetary policy and banking supervision to have the central bank actively engaged in capital allocation,” said Sen. Pat Toomey, R-Pa., ranking member of the Senate Banking Committee. “Such actions not only threaten both the Fed’s independence and effectiveness, but would also weaken economic growth.”

America was well on its way to total energy independence in recent years. That has been derailed by the Biden Administration.

Now, if we’re not importing oil from Russia, we’re instead looking to Venezuela or Saudi Arabia to supplement our energy needs.

That’s unacceptable and weakens our country. At a time when we have the technology and expertise to cleanly extract and process these fuels to not only meet our own needs but also the needs of much of Europe, we’ve stalled the process.

The facts are clear: Raskin’s confirmation to the Federal Reserve Board would be bad for America. We cannot afford such thinking if we want to continue to lead the free world. Senators should oppose her nomination.