WASHINGTON, DC—U.S. Representative John Rose (TN-06) spoke on the House Floor Monday to highlight various regulatory burdens and executive actions under the impacting American energy producers and their consequences for American families and the globe.
The full remarks, as prepared for delivery, are below:
Mister Speaker, I rise today to shed light on the ongoing war against American energy producers. The Biden Administration recently announced a pause on all pending non-FTA export permit applications for liquified natural gas (LNG) export projects. This policy will no doubt have a negative impact on job growth and consumer prices, but it will also empower our adversaries.
By curtailing our energy dominance in the natural gas sector, we’re making our economy more dependent on countries like Russia and Iran energy production. For obvious reasons, we should want to do everything within our power to hinder – not help – their cashflow. But this is more than a strategic failure. It’s also contrary to the goal of reducing carbon emissions.
We know American natural gas is cleaner than that of many other producers, especially Russia. In fact, ours is 41% cleaner. The benefit of exporting more – not less – energy would remove hundreds of tons of emissions into the atmosphere, and it would also pose an economic benefit here at home.
This isn’t a problem just for the natural gas industry. All of America’s energy producers, putting aside the renewable sector, have taken negative regulatory hits from the Biden Administration. And we’ve seen energy prices soar as a result.
On the campaign trail in 2019, then-candidate Biden vowed to end fossil fuels. This helps explain why he killed the Keystone XL pipeline on his first day in office. It explains why he went on to put a moratorium on new oil and gas leases on public lands and raise taxes by nearly $150 billion on oil and gas producers. For those who don’t remember, this anti-energy agenda resulted in the President of the United States asking OPEC+ to increase their supply. It’s important to note that we were not just energy independent under the Trump Administration, Mister Speaker, we were energy dominant and a net exporter of oil.
Gas prices averaged $2.39 the day of President Biden’s inauguration. Today, the average is $3.15. Let’s not forget, as a direct result of this anti-American energy agenda, prices reached an all-time high of $5 in June 2022.
The president is also responsible for the largest-ever draw-down from our strategic petroleum reserve, of 180 million barrels of oil over six months. Our reserve is supposed to be for weather or national security emergencies, not to combat bad policy and harmful regulations from the White House. That reserve, which is now depleted by more than 40%, is at its lowest level since the early 1980s.
Even more recently than the pause on natural gas permits, the president announced he would no longer hold court-ordered offshore oil and gas lease sales in the Gulf of Mexico and Alaska. This assault on domestic energy producers destroys any incentive for investment, growth, and they’re going to continue to lead to price volatility.
House Republicans see the pinch this causes working families, which is why one of the first things we did after taking the majority was pass H.R. 1, the “Lower Energy Costs Act.”
H.R.1 makes sense to most people. It’s not radical or extreme. It would unleash American energy and get government out of the way by reforming our permitting system and removing red tape. It fosters more economic growth and job creation while lowering prices for American families.
Yet, this administration seems committed to doing the opposite. Since President Biden’s inauguration, his administration has finalized 812 new regulations, costing the U.S. economy about $451 billion annually and 283 million hours of additional compliance paperwork.
I continue to support an all-of-the-above energy approach to fueling our economy. In a time when prices are still hurting families and despots around the world are looking for our weak spots, we should be unleashing – not overregulating or kneecapping – American energy production.
This week, House Republicans will vote on H. Res. 987, which denounces the harmful, anti-American energy policies of the Biden Administration. I urge my colleagues to support the resolution to send the White House a message.
Thank you, Mister Speaker, I yield back.
You can watch the full speech here.
This is a companion discussion topic for the original entry at https://johnrose.house.gov/media/press-releases/rep-rose-condemns-ongoing-war-against-american-energy-producers