Denouncing the Harmful, Anti-American Energy Policies of the Biden Administration
Floor Speech
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Mr. DUNCAN. Mr. Speaker, pursuant to House Resolution 1085, I call up the resolution (H. Res. 987) denouncing the harmful, anti-American energy policies of the Biden administration, and for other purposes, and ask for its immediate consideration in the House.
The Clerk read the title of the resolution.
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Mr. DUNCAN. Res. 987.
Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of H. Res. 987 to denounce the harmful anti-American energy policies of the Biden administration, led by Congressional Western Caucus Chairman Dan Newhouse.
From day one, the Biden administration has waged war on American energy. Their actions and policies have jeopardized our grid security, caused America to become more dependent on foreign adversaries like Iran, Russia, China, Venezuela, and others, and increased energy costs for everyday Americans.
Energy is foundational to everything in American life. American energy powers our country, employs our workers, and drives our economy.
When the cost of energy goes up, so does everything else. Since President Biden took office, the administration has taken over 170 regulatory actions to make it harder to produce and deliver American energy.
President Biden and House Democrats are doing everything in their power to regulate American energy workers out of existence, and they don't care how it negatively impacts communities in South Carolina or any other State around the country. They are putting the needs of the radical climate lobby over hardworking Americans.
Americans know gas prices hit a 4-month high this week, with a national average of $3.46 a gallon. In May 2023, it was calculated that nearly 20 million households in the United States were behind on their utility bills. That means they couldn't pay them or were having trouble paying them.
In President Biden's first 26 months in office, energy prices increased roughly 27.2 percent, the largest increase of any of the past seven administrations.
President Biden's policies have directly contributed to these unaffordable energy bills. He started his first day in office by canceling the Keystone pipeline, eliminating the potential for 11,000 energy sector jobs.
He continues to block domestic mineral development while simultaneously forcing a rush to green agenda, which makes the United States reliant on foreign countries like China that use child labor, have inhumane working conditions, and do their mining in a very environmentally insensitive way.
To distract from high energy prices, President Biden directed the largest drawdown of the Strategic Petroleum Reserve in the Nation's history.
Now, the SPR, the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, is there for national emergencies--in time of war, hurricane, and other natural disasters. He drew it down for political purposes.
Under Democratic control, the SPR has been drained to its lowest level since 1980 as an election year gimmick. It puts America at risk, though, not having that Strategic Petroleum Reserve available.
President Biden's anti-American energy policies know no end. They are taxing natural gas, blocking pipelines, banning LNG exports, which help American producers but also help our friends and allies around the globe, and imposing aggressive EPA regulations.
Just yesterday, the Biden administration announced a rule that would mandate that nearly two-thirds of new vehicles must be all-electric by 2032, regardless of cost, functionality, or consumer choice, which should drive the market for automobile production.
Congressman Newhouse's resolution denounces these policies and encourages domestic energy production of reliable and affordable energy sources.
Republicans have solutions, and those solutions will reverse the Biden administration's war on energy. The House recently passed H.R. 7176, the Unlocking our Domestic LNG Potential Act, to reverse the Biden LNG export ban.
We also will be taking up this week H.R. 1023, the Cutting Green Corruption and Taxes Act, to repeal both the EPA greenhouse gas reduction fund and the EPA's recently proposed natural gas tax.
Republicans are leading to unleash American energy and deliver more affordable and reliable energy to all Americans.
Mr. Speaker, the hardworking Americans, the taxpayers in this country, know that the rush to green policies of the Biden administration have made energy more expensive.
The Democrats are going to say: Well, oil and gas production is higher than it has ever been in this country.
Yes, it is, but it has nothing to do with the policies coming out of the Biden administration, which started a war on American energy on day one.
There is not a single policy you can point to that the Biden administration has put forward that would increase oil and gas production. In fact, they have done everything to harm oil and gas production in this country.
Oil and gas production increases are due to the policies of the last administration and policies that were set forth over the last decade-- nothing to do with the Biden rush to green policies that have made energy more expensive.
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Mr. DUNCAN. Madam Speaker, it is interesting that the gentlewoman across the aisle mentioned Ukraine because as the majority leader so succinctly pointed out, Joe Biden's policies of shutting down American energy production is actually funneling money to Vladimir Putin to help him pay for the war in Ukraine, to pay for the Russian Army to go in and kill Ukrainians.
It is hypocritical for them to talk about Ukraine in the light of American energy production.
The gentleman from Washington State, the chair of the Western Caucus has a great resolution that points out all of the things that the Biden administration has done to kill the American energy golden goose laying the golden egg, helping the economy.
Madam Speaker, I yield 5 minutes to the gentleman from Washington (Mr. Newhouse).
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Mr. DUNCAN. Madam Speaker, in World War II, we stopped the Germans in the Battle of the Bulge by running them out of fuel. We can influence the war in Ukraine by stopping the flow of money to Vladimir Putin through his sale of oil and gas by becoming an energy leader once again. America has the ability.
Madam Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Carter), a member of the Energy and Commerce Committee.
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Mr. DUNCAN. Madam Speaker, I yield such time as he may consume to the gentleman from Georgia.
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Mr. DUNCAN. Madam Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Weber).
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Mr. DUNCAN. Madam Speaker, I yield an additional 15 seconds to the gentleman from Texas.
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Mr. DUNCAN. Madam Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Idaho (Mr. Fulcher).
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Mr. DUNCAN. Madam Speaker, I yield myself the balance of my time.
Madam Speaker, my friend and colleague from South Carolina, Trey Gowdy, when he served in Congress said this: There is a stubborn thing about facts. It is that they are facts.
This resolution is facts.
Things the Biden administration has done to hurt American independence are costing Americans more of their hard-earned dollars to pay their basic utility bills and transportation fuels to go to work, take their kids to school, to ball games, or to go to their houses of worship.
It is costing them more today to fill their tanks than before the Biden administration took office. In fact, as we pointed out, on day one, the Joe Biden administration started a war on American energy by stopping the Keystone pipeline. He has had fewer lease sales in the Gulf of Mexico than any other President in decades. He had three. President Obama had 20 lease sales.
As the majority leader said, instead of President Biden getting on Air Force One after the invasion of Ukraine when energy prices were going up and we were approaching a congressional election cycle, President Biden, instead of getting on Air Force One and going to the OPEC cartel in Saudi Arabia and begging them to produce more fossil fuels--they claim to hate fossil fuels--but we are going to beg OPEC to produce more so that we can consume more.
Instead of going to Saudi Arabia in the Middle East, President Biden should have got on his plane and gone to North Dakota, or gone to Pennsylvania to the Marcellus shale, or gone to Louisiana, or gone to the Permian Basin in Texas and begged American producers to produce more so that Americans could use American-produced resources.
That is a winning strategy for America: to be energy independent.
I am glad the Democrats on the other side of the aisle are talking about energy production being up right now; it is, but it has nothing to do with the Biden administration policies. There is not a single policy or regulation that the Biden administration has put forward that has done anything to help American producers produce more and increase that production.
All that production is the result of the Trump administration and past administrations that have leased more property and produced more resources. It takes years to produce a well. It takes years to go out and find the resources, develop that well, and get that oil and gas online.
That didn't happen overnight, and it didn't happen in the last 3 or 4 years. It has happened because of policies in the past.
I thank my friend for praising President Trump's ability to unleash American energy potential. That is a winning solution. Americans know it. They know what they were paying at the pump before the Biden administration, and they know what they are paying now. This bill points it out. These are the facts, and the facts are undisputed.
Madam Speaker, I urge my colleagues to vote ``yes'' on H. Res. 987, and I yield back the balance of my time.
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