-9999
Floor Speech
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
Mr. MARSHALL. Mr. President, well, summer is in full swing, and all across the Midwest, people are preparing for lake vacations, for family barbecues, but new to this year's agenda, they are also preparing for Biden blackouts.
The shocking new inflation numbers show Americans already paying 42 percent more for energy than this time last year, but now, due to the White House policies, we may not be able to generate enough electricity to meet demand.
Now, let us not forget that under Republican leadership, we had a nation completely in control of our energy security. We were the global leader in energy production, and we were a net exporter of oil products.
However, under Democratic leadership, we are making plans for the lights to go out, and I hope everybody has their candles ready to go at home.
But it isn't this administration's fault, of course, so just ask them--just ask them. No, this White House states they are powerless to the whims of a global marketplace, and don't bother asking them to own the consequences of their actions.
Did President Biden actually believe canceling the Keystone XL Pipeline on his first day in office would not have negative effects on the global energy markets? Think about it. The United States, the largest oil producer in the world, stopping the transport, the importing, of nearly a million barrels a day, over 5 percent of our supply--who could have ever predicted decreasing supply could impact the cost at the pump?
And who could have predicted that halting all leasing on Federal lands would impact global supply? I even asked the Interior Secretary if this policy made it more difficult for oil companies to drill, and she couldn't give me an answer. She didn't care. This administration doesn't care about the cost of gas at the pump; that is, until they get it high enough to make driving electric cars more comparable.
Don't even think about implying that John Kerry, Biden's climate envoy at COP26, would cause private companies to take coal-powered plants offline and eliminate baseload without a plan going forward. After all, he said in Glasgow:
By 2030, in the United States, we won't have coal. We will not have [any] coal plants.
Well, we may not have coal, but we will have blackouts.
And it was Joe Biden on the campaign trail, in his own words--I am sure you all remember--who said:
Kiddo, I want you to just take a look . . . I want you to look into my eyes. I guarantee you, we are going to end fossil fuels.
And we wonder why Americans won't invest tens of millions--hundreds of millions--of dollars into this energy sector to drill new oil. Yet this President has declared war on American energy, and every American is paying the price at the gas pump. And yet this President wonders out loud why companies won't invest in any more exploration when it takes 5 or 10 years for a payback on these types of investments. He continues to create uncertainty.
It doesn't have to be this way. Republicans have been sounding the alarm on the negative impacts of this administration's policies since President Biden took office. Honestly, this should be surprising to no one. Yet the left seems confounded, stupefied, and without a plan except to turn off your air conditioner and your freezer.
Even more, they have resorted to outright lies. In fact, they repeat these lies over and over, hoping America will eventually fall for them. They repeatedly claim they have not been interfering with American energy production and now deceivingly spout they support the industry that they have been vilifying for years.
It is clear, we need more traditional fuel production. I know it; the American people know it. And to be completely clear, I think the White House knows it as well.
Why else would he have gone overseas to Saudi Arabia to beg for more oil? Why is the White House reaching out to dictators in Venezuela or countries that sponsor terrorism like Iran instead of supporting American production in places like my home State of Kansas?
When I asked the Secretary of Energy in committee about the price of gas, she cheekily replied that she drives an electric vehicle. This is the same Secretary of Energy that laughed and found it ``hilarious'' when asked about her plan to increase oil production in America. That is how this administration responds to the pain of the American people: laughing as they ride away in their fancy electric vehicles.
All that said, I truly hope that those of us forced to experience a Biden blackout are able to get safely through it. For many, a short- term blackout might prove a mild inconvenience. But with the seasonal heat waves we are seeing across the State of Kansas, across this Nation and the rest of the Midwest, it could lead to life-threatening complications. These Biden blackouts show that it is well past time for the President to stop the climate extremism, stop the anti-American policies devastating our communities, and stop looking overseas to fix problems that we have the answers to right here in America.
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
Source