North American Energy Security and Infrastructure Act of 2015

Floor Speech

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Mr. BARTON. Mr. Chairman, I thank Chairman Upton for yielding me the time.

I want to commend him for his leadership on this initiative and for getting it to the floor. This has been a long process, and the gentleman is to be commended for going through the regular order of the subcommittee, of the full committee, and now to floor consideration.

I support H.R. 8, as reported out of committee and as amended in the manager's amendment that the gentleman presented to the Rules Committee.

I have requested--and I think it will be made in order--an amendment to that bill to include a provision that we passed as a stand-alone bill several months ago, H.R. 702, which would repeal the current ban on crude oil exports.

My amendment, if made in order by the Rules Committee--and I hope that it will be--takes what the floor passed with amendments--and we had a number of Republican and Democrat amendments that were added dealing with terrorism, national security, and things of this sort. I am asking that the Rules Committee make in order H.R. 702, as amended, and put it on the floor tomorrow as an amendment.

Mr. Chairman, in the United States, we currently produce a little over 9 million barrels of oil per day. That makes us number 3 in the world in terms of daily crude oil production, but we are not allowed to export any of that crude oil. We can export refined products and we do export up to 3 or 4 million barrels per day of refined products, but we cannot export crude oil.

If my amendment is accepted by the Rules Committee, made in order, voted on in a positive way by the House, sent to the Senate, and the Senate passes H.R. 8, and it is signed by the President, we could then begin to export our crude oil.

We have the capability to easily produce 15 million barrels a day, and some experts say we could go up to 20. That would be a strategic asset vis-a-vis OPEC, vis-a-vis ISIS, vis-a-vis the Russians, in that we could use our oil in the international oil markets.

It would help our economy, would literally create hundreds of thousands of jobs, and would, surprisingly, minimize or lower gasoline prices here in the United States because more U.S. oil in the world market would lower the world price, which would lower gasoline prices at the pump.

Mr. Chairman, I appreciate your support. I ask that the Rules Committee make my bipartisan amendment in order, which is cosponsored by Mr. Cuellar, Mr. Conaway, Mr. Flores, and Mr. McCaul, and that we add it to your excellent bill on the floor tomorrow.

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