Lng Ban Hurts Americans

Floor Speech

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Mr. MEUSER. Mr. Speaker, I thank my good friend, Dr. Joyce of Pennsylvania, for his leadership.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to express my very serious concerns over the Biden administration's misguided, out-of-touch decision to pause pending approvals of liquefied natural gas exports, the latest assault by this President on American energy.

I represent the Ninth District of Pennsylvania, which encompasses a large portion of the Marcellus Shale natural gas region, one of the largest reserves of natural gas in the world. Not only does the natural gas industry support over 125,000 jobs in Pennsylvania, Mr. Speaker, but it also contributes $25-plus billion to the Commonwealth's GDP, meaning Biden's continued assault on American energy, including on the natural gas industry, is truly an assault on Pennsylvania's workforce and economy.

The President's gas-backward energy policies directly impact companies in my district like Coterra, Seneca Resources, Chesapeake, Southwestern, and the many thousands of people they employ, including their families.

Yet, Joe Biden doesn't seem to care. Since taking office, he has issued a moratorium on natural gas leasing activities on various of the United States' resources, increased regulatory building codes that disincentivize the use of natural gas, issued an ESG rule hindering investments in natural gas companies, and implemented a new $8 billion tax on companies that produce, process, transmit, or store natural gas. He significantly raised requirements for assessing proposed natural gas pipelines.

The list goes on. He has proposed overly stringent natural gas infrastructure project reviews and proposed a rule to severely restrict power generation at new and existing gas-fired power plants. Outside of that, he is wonderful.

Now, on January 26, the Biden administration announced its most harmful and inexplicable energy decision yet--to pause all approvals on LNG exports, which threatens our economy, our national security, and our ability to reduce carbon emissions.

On an economic front, the benefits of natural gas for America cannot be overstated. The U.S. natural gas industry is a powerhouse, supporting over 10 million American jobs and contributing $1.8 trillion in U.S. GDP.

By fostering a robust natural gas industry, we stimulate investment, drastically enhancing domestic American-made goods and manufacturing and, of course, creating well-paying jobs across various industry sectors.

The Biden administration's decision will hinder all of this. This heavyhanded, Big Government approach is going to cause a great disruption to long-term LNG infrastructure initiatives.

At a time when we should be growing the industry, increasing production, and boosting exports, the Biden administration instead wants to limit our ability to be a world leader on the natural gas stage.

Beyond the economic implications, resuming the consideration of LNG export applications is crucial to our national security and strategic interests. Our allies depend on a secure, reliable source of LNG. By withholding these approvals, we risk pushing them into the arms of less stable, potentially adversarial suppliers like Russia, as my colleagues have been bringing up.

LNG export projects are indispensable for ensuring that we continue to function as the economic arsenal of democracy during geopolitical incidents, such as the war on Ukraine. Simply put, energy security is national security.

Mr. Speaker, while this administration claims to want to reduce carbon emissions, their actions related to natural gas are doing the exact opposite.

Clean natural gas emits almost 50 to 60 percent less carbon emissions than other fossil fuels. Let me tell you, the way we extract and process natural gas here in the United States of America is far cleaner than it is in Russia, Iran, China, or Venezuela. Does anybody doubt that? Of course not.

Joe Biden's crusade against the natural gas industry is not only detrimental to consumers and producers, but it is detrimental to America's ability to regain the energy dominance we secured under President Trump.

We must embrace an all-of-the-above and all-of-the-below energy solution. The only people who benefit from Joe Biden's anti-American policies are our adversaries overseas.

Joe Biden, Mr. Speaker, is choosing Moscow over communities in my district like Montrose, Pennsylvania. He is choosing Tehran over Towanda. He is choosing Venezuela over Pennsylvania and Saudi Arabia over Sayre, Pennsylvania. This makes absolutely no sense.

The global uncertainty caused by Biden's pausing of LNG export hinders our ability to bring American natural gas to the world markets and limits our strategic advantages that the United States can provide to our allies.

We must support our economy. We need to be looking out in a serious way for our national security. We want to support Pennsylvania's workforce. I urge the Biden administration to reverse its pause.

Mr. Speaker, lastly, the administration needs to check their extreme ideology at the door and focus on outcomes, not ideology. We need to wake up and woke down.

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