Energy Independence

Floor Speech

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Mr. DUNCAN. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding, and I thank him for doing this Special Order hour on energy.

Mr. Speaker, there is no national security without energy security. I didn't come up with that. The Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff said that, and Americans know it.

Energy is foundation to everything in American life. Americans really take our energy for granted. They expect the lights to come on when they flip the switch, they expect their refrigerator to have a cold beverage in it, and they demand that they have affordable energy.

Whether it is power generation or transportation fuels, the gas and diesel fuel that they put in their cars to travel to work to earn the income that is taxed by this government or to take their kids to school or attend a ball game or go to their house of worship, they know now that they are paying more for their transportation fuels than they were before the Biden administration. They know now that they are paying higher utility rates than they were before the Biden administration.

So, Mr. Speaker, you have to ask yourself: Why?

It is because President Biden on day one declared war on energy. Actually, before day one, on the campaign trail, he was going to end fracking. He was going to target the fossil fuel industry, and he did.

On day one, they canceled the Keystone pipeline that would bring Canadian oil down to the refineries in the United States to be refined into all of the miraculous products that come out of a barrel of oil or hydrocarbons. It is not just gasoline and diesel fuel, but it is all sorts of miraculous products that help us have items like these glasses. These are things that help make our homes safer and things we utilize to make our lives better.

He ended the oil and gas leases on Federal land both offshore and onshore.

Just recently, because he was required by law to do so, they issued a 5-year drilling plan on Federal lands offshore on the OCS. In that 5- year plan they issued a plan that will only have three lease cells, the fewest lease cells on the OCS, the Outer Continental Shelf, and the Gulf of Mexico in the history of the country.

There is no leasing off the coast of Alaska. They don't want us to go after the National Petroleum Reserve, the oil and gas that is in Alaska in a small sliver of property set aside for energy production to help Americans lower their energy costs.

Before Biden came into office, America was a net exporter of oil. We have so much natural gas in this country that it is immeasurable. That means we can't really tell you how much it is, Mr. Speaker, because it is so much. America could be, once again, a leader of exporting oil and natural gas.

Now, the Democrats are going to say that it was Putin's price hike. When gas prices went up it was because Vladimir Putin invaded Ukraine. Yes, that caused some volatility in the world that affected gas prices, but gas prices and energy prices in general already were on the rise before Putin invaded Ukraine because of the Biden policies and their attack on American energy production.

There are four things we have to think about when we think about energy production and energy in this country, and that is production. Let's produce the resources that we have in oil and gas in the Marcellus shale formation, the Permian Basin, off the coast of Alaska, onshore in Alaska, other Federal lands, and in the Gulf of Mexico. Anywhere we can find those resources, let's produce those but then we have to deliver those resources, and that is where pipelines come in.

Pipelines deliver resources in the safest mode and manner, whether it is liquid fuel or gas, than any other mode of transportation of those resources. We can produce those resources and deliver those resources either to the refinery to be refined into the miraculous products that we have in oil and gasoline, but then utilize those resources to produce that electricity that we talked about 1 minute ago that Americans expect.

We don't have intermittent power here in this country. They do in South Africa, and they do in many places in Europe where at certain times during the day the power is not on. It goes off. They have a brownout and a blackout.

The Democrats' policies are doing away with reliable and dispatchable energy such as oil and gas and natural gas-fired generators. They are moving more toward renewables. I don't know a Republican on our side of the aisle who doesn't like renewable energy.

I like the fact we can harness the sun and harness the wind and create energy. I think it is groovy. Nonetheless, I also know that in South Carolina we have renewables. We have solar generation in South Carolina.

Guess what, Mr. Speaker?

It starts at zero every day, but when the sun comes up it starts generating power.

Guess what, Mr. Speaker?

When the sun goes down, then it goes back to zero. It starts at zero and ends at zero every day so that at least one-half of the day, solar isn't producing any energy, and the utilities need to provide that energy that we expect, so they need to have dispatchable energy, stuff that they can ramp up and down and draw on when it is needed. That is why natural gas-fired power plants are so important in this Nation as a supplemental to the renewables or renewable is supplemental to gas to save money.

Nonetheless, we need to produce more resources here in this country. We need to deliver those through pipelines. We have a tremendous need to build our pipeline infrastructure in this country to send those resources to where they can be utilized by the utilities or the refineries for the products that we need; produce, deliver, and utilize.

Be that as it may, then we have such an abundance of natural gas that we could help improve the quality of lives of folks all around the globe by exporting American-produced and cleaner burning natural gas to help folks in Africa finally have stable and reliable electric generation. There is energy poverty in this world, and we could help solve that by exporting cleaner burning, American-produced natural gas that burns cleaner than any other natural gas.

It definitely burns cleaner than Russian gas. When Vladimir Putin invaded Ukraine, Europe looked West to the United States and said: Send us your gas. Send us your LNG so we can lessen our dependence on a foreign adversary, Russia.

Actually, Mr. Speaker, U.S. gas burns cleaner so you are helping your carbon emissions as well, if you approach it that way. However, because of the Biden policies, they couldn't count on the United States. We just saw a pause in LNG terminal permitting.

What did they do?

They looked to Norway, and Norway built a pipeline across the ocean to Poland in 1 year's time.

Mr. Speaker, imagine building a pipeline in this country in 1 year's time that length and that magnitude.

We need to export more LNG. We need to help our friends and allies around the globe, help American energy producers create American jobs, and help the climate because American gas has actually helped us lower our carbon emissions in this country. We can continue to do that through cleaner burning natural gas and something that is dispatchable that will always be there and always be on.

This is energy week, and we have approached a number of things. We just had a big markup on the Pipeline Safety, Modernization, and Expansion Act where we can actually start building out pipelines and improving pipelines that are in existing rights-of-way and providing that resource to the utilities that much need it.

In energy week, we just passed a no fracking bill so that future Presidents and this President can't ban fracking in this country because fracking has actually helped our energy revolution.

There is so much we can do, and I can tell you, Mr. Speaker, Republicans are focused on returning America to energy dominance to lower your prices at the pump, to lower your utility bills, and provide reliable, affordable, and cleaner energy in this country for moms, dads, and businesses so that America can be successful.

We do it starting with energy, because if we don't have low energy prices, then I promise you, Mr. Speaker, you are paying more at the grocery store and at other retailers because most goods around this country are transported by something that runs on diesel fuel.

Diesel fuel is a product of refining that fossil fuel we produce here. However, when diesel fuel goes up, that cost is passed on to the consumer. That is why we are paying higher prices. It is because the Biden administration has driven up energy prices in this country and limited our production in this country.

This has hurt us on the global stage because countries are going to get energy from somewhere, and they will get it from adversarial countries like China, Russia, Iran, or Venezuela when they can get energy from the United States.

We can be a global leader again. We will be, and I look forward to the day that America reasserts its dominance in the energy sector.

I appreciate the gentleman for yielding to me today, and we are going to continue to focus on American energy.

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