Lower Energy Costs Act

Floor Speech

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Mr. OBERNOLTE. Mr. Chair, the problem of increasing energy costs is a critically important issue for my constituents. Many of the members of my community are paying natural gas prices over twice as high as they were a year ago, and they count themselves lucky, because some of the people in my district have natural gas bills three times higher to heat their homes than they were a year ago. Also, gasoline prices in my district are almost twice as high as they were just a few years ago.

Mr. Chair, I represent over 100,000 people who commute over an hour, each way, back and forth to Los Angeles every day. They are not doing this because they want to. They are doing this because that is what is required to put food on the table for their families. They can't afford to buy a new car, much less an electric car. Every time the price of energy goes up, these people feel the effects the most acutely.

This is not unique to my district. In fact, a survey released several weeks ago showed that over 30 percent of Americans had to make the incredibly difficult decision between paying a higher energy bill or buying basic necessities for their family in the last 12 months.

This bill is a meaningful step toward improving that situation. It would streamline the production of energy here in America.

Mr. Chair, the problem we have here is a classic one of supply and demand. Unfortunately, at both the Federal and State levels, we have actively sought to constrain the supply of domestic energy here in America over the last several years.

Economists will tell you that when you do that, when you have a fixed demand and you constrain the supply, prices have to go up. That is exactly what has been happening, and it is disproportionately impacting the segment of our population who can least afford to pay it.

Mr. Chair, we produce energy more cleanly in America than anywhere else on the planet. When we force our constituents to import a barrel of oil from Venezuela, it has a 50 percent higher life cycle greenhouse gas emission than a barrel of oil produced here. This bill will meaningfully improve that situation.

Mr. Chair, I urge support of H.R. 1.

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