[Congressional Record Volume 160, Number 115 (Tuesday, July 22, 2014)]
[House]
[Pages H6641-H6648]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                           ENERGY ACTION TEAM

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of 
January 3, 2013, the gentleman from South Carolina (Mr. Duncan) is 
recognized for 60 minutes as the designee of the majority leader.
  Mr. DUNCAN of South Carolina. Madam Speaker, as part of the House 
Energy Action Team, it is important for us to address the hardworking 
American taxpayers that are concerned about their rising energy costs 
and who want to know what their United States Congress is going to do 
about the issue of energy independence, the cost of fuel, the cost of 
electricity, and the fact that they have got less money in their wallet 
after a week of driving back and forth between work and taking the kids 
to school and ball games and church and all the things that we, as 
average Americans, do. After they pay for the fuel to do all of that, 
to drive their vehicles to and fro, they reach in their wallet for 
extra cash, and there is none left. What is the United States Congress 
going to do about the rising cost of energy?
  I came to Washington to focus on three things: jobs, energy, and our 
Founding Fathers.
  Jobs. How about unleashing and unbridling the innovative and 
entrepreneurial spirit of Americans that will actually turn this 
economy around by putting Americans to work, lessening the number of 
Americans on the welfare rolls, and actually having Americans earn 
their way? Jobs.
  Energy. Energy is a segue to job creation in this country. Look at 
the States that have energy-driven economies like Oklahoma, Texas, 
Louisiana, and North Dakota. North Dakota has a 3 percent unemployment 
rate or less. In fact, McDonald's is paying a finder's fee. If you have 
got somebody who wants to go to work at a McDonald's in North Dakota, 
they will pay you a finder's fee.
  Jobs and energy. Energy is a segue to job creation and putting 
Americans to work. We are not just talking about the men and women 
wearing the hard hats and the oil uniforms out on the drilling 
platforms or in the Bakken up in North Dakota, turning those drills and 
producing that, whether it is through horizontal drilling or hydraulic 
fracturing or shallow water or deep water offshore. Yes, those are 
good-paying jobs. Those are hardworking American taxpayers. But think 
about all the other jobs that support the offshore industry and the 
onshore industry.
  These are Americans that are working doing pipefitting and welding. 
And guess what. Pipes fall on truck beds,

[[Page H6642]]

and the beds have to be repaired. So there are auto body mechanics and 
engine mechanics. All these people work in that industry. It can be 
those in HVAC. Folks are going out on the rigs to fix the air 
conditioner or provide the food service or the transportation or the 
supply vessels carrying the drilling mud and the diesel fuel.
  Everything that it takes to support energy production in this 
country, guess what. Those folks are going to the local restaurants and 
they are eating and they are giving tips to the waitresses. They are 
going to their churches and they are tithing. They are joining the 
United Way and they are sponsoring ball teams. They are supporting our 
local communities.
  You see it all up and down the Texas and Louisiana highways. You see 
it in North Dakota and Oklahoma. And guess what. We want to see it in 
South Carolina.
  In fact, there are some gentlemen here that want to see it off their 
coast or may want to see it expanded in their States, whether it is 
onshore or offshore. They understand that energy production is a segue 
to putting Americans to work.
  Jobs, energy, and our Founding Fathers. Limited government, free 
markets, individual liberties, unleashing that entrepreneurial spirit 
that Americans have within us to go and create and do and put Americans 
to work and, yes, pay taxes to the government so the government can do 
its constitutional role.
  Jobs, energy, and our Founding Fathers is a great acronym. It spells 
``Jeff,'' and I am all about Jeff.
  We want to see the Atlantic Outer Continental Shelf opened up. We 
want to see some seismic work done first. That is the first step. Let's 
see what is out there.
  They are looking at 30-year-old seismic graphs, trying to figure out 
are there recoverable resources off the coast of South Carolina, North 
Carolina, Virginia, the States that want to see that area opened up.
  Using 30-year-old technology and 30-year-old graphs, let's see some 
21st century technology drug in the Atlantic, like 4-D and 3-D 
technology, to actually see down in the Earth and see what sort of 
resources might be recoverable.
  Let's allow the seismic work, and let's allow universities like the 
University of South Carolina do it. Being a Clemson graduate, it pains 
me to say that the University of South Carolina and Dr. James Knapp are 
leading the way, teaching the young, new minds to use that seismic 
technology and look at those graphs and figure out where those 
resources are. He is doing tremendous work there at the University of 
South Carolina. Let's open up more areas.
  It is hard for me to applaud the Obama administration on a whole lot, 
but I will applaud them on a transboundary hydrocarbon agreement signed 
by then-Secretary Clinton with Mexico that opened up a million and half 
acres in the Gulf of Mexico, shared resources right under that maritime 
boundary between the United States and Mexico.
  Mexico just denationalized their energy company, Pemex. They are 
opening up to more private investments. We are going to see great 
things happen in the transboundary area. But even though she signed 
that agreement, the administration failed to send to this Congress the 
implementing language to actually make it happen and to include those 
areas in the next 5-year plan. That took an act of Congress. That took 
a bill that passed out of this body last year. That took efforts like 
Paul Ryan had in the omnibus to get the transboundary hydrocarbon 
implementing language in the omnibus so that we could open up that 
million and a half acres and we could put more men and women here 
in America, hardworking American taxpayers, to work developing the 
energy resources that we have in this country.

  God bless the United States of America. He continues to bless us with 
the resources here to be truly American energy independent. We are 
working with our neighbors to the north with something like the 
Keystone pipeline--which should happen--to bring that Canadian oil into 
this country to the refineries where we have idle capacity and to put 
that oil into the marketplace in gasoline and plastic and asphalt and 
diesel fuel and all the other butanes and all the other elements that 
come out of a barrel of hydrocarbons when you put it under pressure and 
it separates naturally in all sorts of wonderful God-given elements.
  The Keystone pipeline should happen. That is a no-brainer for most 
Americans that I talk to, but apparently the administration just 
doesn't get it. They don't get that the Keystone pipeline will put 
Americans to work.
  We are talking about jobs. We are talking about energy. We are 
talking about less government. The Keystone pipeline and North American 
energy independence includes working with our neighbors to the south in 
Mexico as they decentralize, denationalize their energy industry, and 
more private investment, more American companies going down there 
developing those resources so we can possibly have North American 
energy independence, if not just American energy independence.
  I am joined by a number of Members of Congress here that are part of 
the House Energy Action Team. One gentleman from the neighboring State 
to my north understands what I talked about with the Outer Continental 
Shelf and that mid-Atlantic, south Atlantic OCS area that we believe 
has resources. If you look at the geology, North Africa and the Middle 
East and England were all together one time with the United States, and 
the resources and geology are very similar. We believe that in the 
south. I know in South Carolina we may have some recoverable resources, 
and we can be players in that.
  I know the gentleman from North Carolina (Mr. Hudson) wants to talk, 
I am sure, about that North Carolina offshore area.
  Mr. HUDSON. I thank the gentleman, my neighbor from South Carolina, 
Mr. Duncan. I appreciate your leadership on this issue. I couldn't 
agree with you more.
  Many of our constituents back home in North Carolina and South 
Carolina are entering the second half of the summer. They are preparing 
to take trips to the beach, maybe trips to the mountains, maybe going 
to visit relatives. Many of our constituents are contemplating those 
trips and, frankly, are experiencing a little sticker shock as they 
factor in the cost of gasoline and what it is going to cost their 
family.
  Many of our constituents are struggling. They either are not in the 
job they want to be in or they are looking for a job, and it is tough 
to make ends meet. If you add the high cost of energy to that, it is a 
real burden on people. It affects real people back home.
  Frankly, it doesn't have to be that way because we have got 
tremendous opportunities to have American sources of energy. It is just 
a shame we are not going after them.
  I agree also with my colleague there are not a lot of things that 
President Obama and I agree on, but I do applaud his decision to allow 
us to do seismic mapping off the shore of the Atlantic Coast. We have 
tremendous opportunities in North Carolina, as well as Virginia and 
South Carolina, to find these large reserves. We know there is natural 
gas there. We know there is petroleum there. We need to find out what 
is exactly there.
  So this is an important first step to get this seismic permitting so 
that we can know what kind of energy resources we have exactly. But I 
want to get North Carolina in the energy business. We have got the 
opportunity to put people to work.
  As my colleague mentioned, North Dakota pays a $2,000 signing bonus 
at McDonald's because they can't find enough people because everybody 
has a job, and I look at North Carolina and my neighbors who are 
struggling to find work. Let's put people in energy jobs. Not only will 
it bring down the cost of energy for us at the pump, but it will put 
people to work.
  There is another phenomena happening out there. We have lost a 
tremendous amount of manufacturing jobs in North Carolina, particularly 
in my part of the State, but we are seeing some of those jobs start to 
come back. The reason they are starting to come back is because of 
energy costs.
  Even despite the fact that the current President won't allow any new 
permitting on publics lands, through fracking and other technology, we 
find it on private lands. We are being able

[[Page H6643]]

to bring down some of our energy costs through exploration.
  Imagine what we would do if we could unleash American energy by 
allowing us to go after all of our resources, whether they are on 
public lands or offshore. We can have a manufacturing renaissance in 
this country by having affordable American energy. We can start 
creating jobs like you wouldn't believe. There is no reason why we are 
not doing that.
  So I am happy to be here tonight with my colleagues to talk about the 
importance of this. I am just ready to unleash the American energy and 
ready to bring those jobs back.
  Mr. DUNCAN of South Carolina. I thank the gentleman from North 
Carolina.
  This is a picture of the State newspaper in South Carolina. It says: 
Oil Exploration OK'd Off South Carolina and the Entire East Coast.
  The Department of the Interior has actually said: You know what? We 
are going to allow some seismic to actually happen off the coast of 
North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, and Virginia so we can see 
what is out there.
  This is good news, America. This is good news because we are actually 
going to see that there are recoverable resources of our coast.
  And I ask the question again of the Americans that may be tuned in: 
How much more is your regular travel costing, with gasoline prices 
being well north of $3 a gallon in this country? Or to ask a different 
way: How much less money do you have in your wallet after you travel 
back and forth to work--your normal travel and not summertime vacation 
travel--your normal travels from home to work and back, taking the kids 
to school, taking them to the ball games, going to church, going to the 
grocery store, all the things that you do, how much less money do you 
have?
  I know in North Carolina and South Carolina, our constituents have 
experienced that.
  Another member of the House Energy Action Team from Texas--and Texas 
gets it, because, God bless Texas, with Spindletop, Eagle Ford, 
Barnett, and a lot of other resources, they understand energy and they 
understand the jobs that come about from energy production.
  I yield to Mr. Weber of Texas, because I know he has got a great 
story to tell.

                              {time}  2045

  Mr. WEBER of Texas. I thank the gentleman for yielding.
  Mr. Speaker, the things that make America great are the things that 
America makes.
  Now, how do we do that?
  We have a stable, reliable, affordable energy supply.
  Mr. Speaker, I want you to think with me here for a second. We have 
to have a strong America. Whether it is a typhoon or whether it is a 
hurricane or whether it is famine or flood or pestilence or civil war--
no matter what it is--when the world has a catastrophe and they dial 
911, who is it who answers?
  It is the Americans--isn't it?--with our military, with our might, 
with our goodness, I would argue. So I would argue that, for the world 
to be a safer place, we must have a strong America.
  How do we do that?
  Like I said, a stable, reliable, affordable energy supply.
  Mr. Speaker, this is not just about jobs and the economy. This is 
about a strong America that leads this world and makes the world a 
safer place to live in. I would further argue, Mr. Speaker, that you 
are seeing the result of an administration's policy. Around this world, 
we are seeing the results of people who understand that the current 
policy is weak, ineffective, and to be trampled upon.
  It is bewildering to me and, quite frankly, to many Americans that 
the President and his administration continue to stand in the way of 
the potential that this country has to offer with respect to domestic 
energy production for the reasons I just stated. In fact, the President 
has canceled lease sales and has effectively closed off 85 percent of 
our offshore resources from exploration. Yet the majority of Americans 
support tapping these resources so that we can make our country more 
energy independent--and again, so the world is a safer place to be.
  This country needs a President who will empower our energy sector, 
not suffocate it. I always say, as I did in my opening remarks, that 
the things that make America great are the things that America makes. 
Mr. Speaker, when more things are made in America, more Americans will 
make it in America. When government gets out of the way, we can create 
thousands of good-paying jobs and a whole lot of affordable, reliable, 
dependable, secure energy. Then and only then, when more things are 
made in America, more Americans will make it in America.
  The energy sector, as the gentleman said, is one of our Nation's 
leading job creators, and much more can be done to unleash our energy 
in these United States. Just look at my home State of Texas. Texas has 
been responsible for close to half of all new jobs created in the 
United States since the end of the recession. Texas has allowed the 
energy industry to flourish while, at the same time, protecting the 
environment.
  Shale gas development, which is booming because of innovations like 
hydraulic fracturing and horizontal drilling--despite this 
administration--is leading to billions in new investments in my 
district alone, billions in my District 14 on the gulf coast of Texas, 
for example. Chevron Phillips Chemical Company is investing $6 billion 
to build two polyethylene plants in Sweeny, Texas, bringing 400 new 
permanent jobs and 10,000 new construction jobs to my district alone. 
You all know polyethylene is used to produce common plastic products we 
use every day, and it is derived from natural gas. In addition to many 
other projects, two companies in my district are waiting to invest 
billions--with a ``b''--of dollars in liquefied natural gas export 
facilities, which would bring an untold number of new construction jobs 
to my State and the Nation.
  It is a puzzle to me that this administration, instead of encouraging 
more of this kind of private investment nationwide, has decided that 
what we need now are more regulations. Are you kidding me? Just this 
past March, the administration announced that it is in the process of 
developing regulations on methane emissions from various sources, 
including from hydraulic fracturing sites. This is despite the fact 
that methane emissions have fallen by 11 percent since 1990. Such 
government overreach, which, undoubtedly, will also encompass emissions 
from cattle--if you can believe that--will raise costs for consumers, 
destroy jobs, and hurt energy production. This administration is so 
extreme it is proposing to regulate cow emissions. Now, in Texas, we 
call that a lot of bull. This Obama administration is out of touch with 
everyday Americans and is out of control with energy regulations. The 
administration's announcement on methane emissions is just one small 
piece of a much larger regulatory strategy.
  Take the EPA, for example. The EPA is requesting millions of dollars 
to conduct a study of hydraulic fracturing, which is a technology that 
has been safely utilized by the oil and gas industry in Texas since at 
least 1947. In at least three cases, the EPA has blamed hydraulic 
fracturing on water contamination. In all three of those cases, they 
were forced to retract their conclusions. Therefore, I suspect the 
purpose of their study is only to justify further regulatory actions.
  Most importantly, we cannot forget that the administration is 
planning to repropose a new rule on ozone this December. When 
originally proposed in 2010, this regulation was widely cited as the 
most expensive regulation in history, which would cost hundreds of 
billions of dollars and put over 80 percent of our Nation out of 
compliance--80 percent of our country in nonattainment when it comes to 
ozone regulations. Mr. Speaker, I would offer that the EPA needs to use 
common sense when it comes to the common sense of their nonattainment.
  Unlike our counterparts in the Senate, the House has passed 
legislation to expand domestic energy production. It has acted to hold 
the Obama administration accountable for its regulatory agenda. On June 
26, with my support, the House passed H.R. 4899, Lowering Gasoline 
Prices to Fuel an America that Works Act. If enacted, this legislation 
will require the administration to move forward on the new offshore

[[Page H6644]]

production that the gentleman was referring to in areas that are 
projected to contain the most oil and natural gas resources by 
requiring new lease sales and by streamlining permitting. I could go on 
and on and on.
  I will tell you, Mr. Speaker, even though, when he was running, the 
President said he had an all-of-the-above energy strategy, the truth is 
it is none of the above. He is in the process of killing the coal 
industry. Make no mistake. Fossil fuels will be next.
  Let me close by saying I call on the President, as the gentleman did, 
to permit the Keystone pipeline. Let it get built. Let America continue 
to be an energy leader in the world. Let America be solid and strong, 
and let us, once again, have a safe world.
  Mr. DUNCAN of South Carolina. I thank the gentleman from Texas. As I 
said earlier, Texas gets it.
  I remember a colleague of ours from Louisiana who said that drilling 
equals jobs. That sums it up--drilling equals jobs. I appreciate the 
gentleman from Louisiana, Jeff Landry, our former colleague, for 
sharing that with us.
  I drive a diesel truck. I was filling up just recently back in the 
spring, and there happened to be an off-road diesel pump right beside 
the on-road diesel pump that I was at. I was paying about $3.59 a 
gallon for diesel fuel for my pickup, and I noticed the off-road diesel 
fuel price was about 10 cents less, about $3.49. I took a picture of 
it, and I shared it on Facebook because I wanted folks to realize 
America's farmers are paying $3.49 a gallon for off-road diesel fuel. 
This is a fuel you can't run on the highway because the Federal 
Government and the States don't collect any highway taxes from off-road 
fuel. It is just pure diesel fuel. If this is what America's farmers 
put in their tractors, it is off-road for a reason. If they are paying 
$3.49 a gallon for off-road diesel fuel, that is an input cost. That is 
a cost of production.

  They are putting $3.49 a gallon of diesel fuel in their tractors to 
plant our crops and, in the fall, to harvest our crops. I think about 
the cost of fertilizer right now, which should be low because natural 
gas is abundant in this country--and I think the gentleman from 
Pennsylvania is going to talk about this in just a minute and what they 
have found in Pennsylvania. Natural gas is a huge component in the 
production of fertilizer, but fertilizer is at an historical high 
still. So you have got the input cost for farmers of off-road diesel 
fuel at $3.49 a gallon--that input cost and the cost of fertilizer.
  We know of the regulations the gentleman from Texas was talking about 
that the EPA continues to push down on Americans, and America's farmers 
are feeling the brunt of it on where they can spray their pesticides or 
their herbicides and how far from ditches they need to be. There is 
some common sense there, I understand, but there is regulation after 
regulation. We have even combated, since I have been in Congress, the 
regulation of farm dust. Now, can you believe that the EPA would want 
to regulate dust created through the normal agricultural process?
  The input cost of farmers will be affected and will affect the price, 
rather, of the commodities that moms and dads buy when they go to the 
grocery store this fall after harvest time. You think about commodity 
prices being high, and we are already seeing historically high milk 
prices, historically high beef prices, historically high fuel prices to 
go back and forth to the grocery store just to buy those commodities. 
It means less money for the hardworking American taxpayers at the end 
of the day who are having to pay extra for ObamaCare, extra in taxes to 
pay for the large government and government spending that we see. We 
can help. This Congress can help by lowering the price of fuel--
gasoline for America's truckers and for America's moms and dads who 
travel back and forth.
  We have got an abundance of natural gas in this country. It gets a 
bad rap when you use words like ``hydraulic fracturing.'' I will tell 
you it is working in Marcellus in Pennsylvania and Ohio. It could work 
in New York if they would get off their can and open up those areas.
  The gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Rothfus) understands. He 
understands the area of Marcellus, so I yield to the gentleman so he 
can talk about that area.
  Mr. ROTHFUS. I thank the gentleman from South Carolina for yielding 
and for organizing this important discussion about energy.
  Mr. Speaker, I talk a lot in my district, District 12 back in western 
Pennsylvania. Western PA is where you had the start of the oil industry 
back in the 19th century and, of course, the development of coal, and 
we are seeing this explosion in the development of the gas industry out 
there that is creating lots of jobs.
  I talk a lot about energy in western PA because I contend that we can 
relight America from western Pennsylvania. We need to relight America. 
We need to boom again. A lot of people have given up on the idea that 
America can boom again, but for us to get this economy growing, energy 
is a huge part of it.
  Again, we are seeing thousands of jobs throughout Pennsylvania 
because of the gas industry, and we are seeing people who are able to 
stay on their farms. Imagine that. They are fracturing the shale in 
Pennsylvania to release the energy. They are not fracturing families, 
because the families can stay on those farms and get the revenues from 
that gas to help them keep their farms in business. Growing our energy 
economy means more family-sustaining jobs and lower energy prices for 
families in western Pennsylvania and around the Nation. Developing our 
Nation's plentiful natural resources and being good stewards of the 
environment need not be mutually exclusive.
  I want to bring attention, Mr. Speaker, to a little known area of 
energy that uses something known as refuse coal. Refuse coal was coal 
that was mined decades ago, often for the steel industry, and it was 
determined not to be of sufficient quality for use in the industry, so 
it was left. It was left on hillsides throughout Pennsylvania, 
throughout Appalachia, but technological advancements have allowed 
certain power plans to turn piles of this low-quality coal that has 
been left throughout Pennsylvania's countryside into cheap domestic 
energy. This has allowed for cleaning up the environment and restoring 
landscapes and rivers.
  Just take a look at the remarkable difference here in these before 
and after pictures of the Barnes-Watkins coal refuse pile in Cambria 
County, in my district.

                              {time}  2100

  Plants across Pennsylvania and States including Illinois, Montana, 
Utah, and West Virginia are doing tremendous work to clean up the 
environment and generate affordable electricity.
  Unfortunately, the unelected Federal elites at the EPA with their 
one-size-fits-all rules are threatening to shut down the plants that 
use this waste coal and stop the progress on cleaning up places like 
what you see right here.
  This will cost middle class jobs. It will raise energy prices for 
many Americans and put an end to the positive work that these plants do 
to clean up our environment.
  To address this very problem, I introduced H.R. 3138, the Satisfying 
Energy Needs and Saving the Environment; it is the SENSE Act, S-E-N-S-
E, because it makes sense.
  This commonsense legislation recognizes the important energy and 
environmental benefits that power plants like the ones in Cambria 
County provide. The SENSE Act offers a reasonable balance that keeps 
these plants open, saves local middle class jobs, preserves important 
domestic electricity generating capacity, and helps to continue 
cleaning up the environment.
  I would urge my colleagues to take a look at this legislation and 
help us get it through.
  But, again, we need to boom. We need to boom again because when 
America is booming again, that is when the jobs come in. And when we 
get people back to work, every person we get back to work, that person 
is paying Social Security tax, that person is paying Medicare tax, that 
person is paying income tax that allows us to pay for the critical 
social service programs that we need like Social Security, Medicare, 
veterans benefits.
  A booming economy is going to do that, and a key to the booming 
economy is the booming energy sector.

[[Page H6645]]

  I, again, thank my colleague from South Carolina for highlighting the 
important role that the energy economy is going to play in relighting 
America.
  Mr. DUNCAN of South Carolina. I thank the gentleman from 
Pennsylvania. He has been a leader in his short time in Congress as a 
freshman on energy issues because he gets what is going on in his home 
State.
  I keep returning to the State of Texas because Texas, they have been 
developing energy resources for a very, very long time. When you think 
about Texas and Oklahoma, that is where it began in this country, the 
immense resources they have.
  I yield to the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Poe), one of my heroes and 
good friends who wants to talk about what is going on in his home 
State.
  Mr. POE of Texas. I thank the gentleman from South Carolina (Mr. 
Duncan) for sponsoring this leadership hour and bringing the issue of 
energy to the attention of the House and the American public.
  Yes, Mr. Speaker, we consider where I live, Houston, Texas, the 
energy capital of the world because it is the energy capital of the 
world. And it is because of our location. Fifty percent of the Houston 
ship channel exports exports are energy-related, not just energy 
itself, but everything that is used in the development of energy 
throughout the world. Fifty percent of the economy of Houston is based 
upon the Houston ship channel.
  We are experiencing a phenomenon in this country that nobody thought 
would happen 5 or 6 years ago, and that is the abundance and surplus of 
natural gas and what we call Texas sweet crude, or light crude, an 
abundance of it in this Nation. There is so much natural gas being 
produced in this country that in south Texas, in the Dakotas, they are 
flaring gas wells. They are capping wells in west Texas.
  What does that mean?
  That means that when they flare wells, there are over 1,500 wells 
that are being flared. That is enough energy to take care of a million 
homes. We are talking about a lot of energy. We are talking about a lot 
of natural gas.
  So what do we do with that?
  Well, we should sell it.
  There is an ice cream company down in Texas. It is a little creamery 
in Brenham, Texas, a German community, called Blue Bell Ice Cream. It 
is the best ice cream in the world, Mr. Speaker, by the way. Their 
motto is simple about their ice cream: We eat all we can and we sell 
the rest.
  Well, that should be the American motto for our natural gas: use all 
we can, then sell the rest throughout the world. And yes, there are a 
lot of buyers who want to buy American energy, natural gas.
  When I was in India, I talked to the Prime Minister, and all the 
Prime Minister wanted to talk about was getting natural gas from the 
United States to India. Mr. Speaker, there are a billion more people in 
India than there are in the United States. They can take it all. They 
will buy it all if we will just make it happen.
  When I was in the Ukraine, right before the Russians invaded the 
place, that is all that the Ukrainians wanted to talk about: getting 
natural gas from the United States, mainly from Texas, to offset being 
held hostage by the Russians where they get gas from. You know, the 
Russians turn off the gas in the Ukraine when they don't like the 
politics in Ukraine.
  Give them an alternative. Give them a free market alternative. Sell 
them American natural gas. The same with other Eastern European 
countries. Same with Western Europe. Give them an alternative to 
Russia. It is not only an energy independence thing for those 
countries, but it takes them politically away from the stranglehold of 
Russia. That is one thing we can do to offset Russian aggression: sell 
American natural gas throughout the world.
  Then why aren't we doing it?
  Well, we are, but it is slow. It is very slow. It takes forever to 
get the Department of Energy now to grant those permits.
  Here is the way it works. Since we are now permitting to sell natural 
gas or exporting that product, it not only takes FERC to have a permit, 
but then the company has to get the Department of Energy to permit them 
as well, and it takes too long. So we don't get to sell the gas, and we 
lose out on that opportunity to competitors throughout the world who 
will sell their natural gas, who don't have to deal with the Department 
of Energy.
  We need to expedite that, expedite the sale of natural gas. That 
helps the United States with jobs, as the gentleman from South Carolina 
has said. It helps us with American jobs. But it also makes us energy-
independent.
  We can make, Mr. Speaker, the Middle East irrelevant, not just their 
energy and all the turmoil. We can make them politically irrelevant 
because we can take care of ourselves, not only exporting natural gas 
but, of course, exporting what we call Texas sweet crude, or light 
crude, throughout the world. That is what we should do.
  We should export. We should be willing to use all we can and then 
sell the rest. We should adopt the motto of the best ice cream company 
in the world.
  A couple of other matters, if I may. The Keystone pipeline: How 
ridiculous is it that we haven't started building it? You have got to 
get that crude oil to market some way. What do you want to do, put it 
on ships? We have already found out that is not such a good idea.

  How about railcars? Well, I think we have had some problems with 
railcar transportation of crude oil.
  You want to use thousands and thousands of trucks to move that crude 
oil around? That is kind of dangerous too.
  The safest way to move crude oil is through a pipeline. There are 
thousands of miles of pipeline. The XL pipeline, why it hasn't been 
done is because of political reasons, not because there is common sense 
involved in it. We ought to get through the politics and build the 
Keystone pipeline.
  It comes from Canada down to southeast Texas to where the refineries 
are. My former district, Mr. Weber now represents that area where they 
are waiting.
  How much crude oil are we talking about? We are talking about as much 
crude oil, Mr. Speaker, as we get from Saudi Arabia. Now we are talking 
about a lot of crude oil.
  Once again, make America energy-independent but energy-secure, and it 
is a national security issue as well. It is just sense. It is common 
sense. It also brings in revenue to America, to the American people to 
be able to sell throughout the world natural gas and crude oil.
  I want to thank the gentleman for the time.
  And that's just the way it is.
  Mr. DUNCAN of South Carolina. I thank the gentleman from Texas. He 
has been a leader as long as I have known him on energy issues, 
representing Houston. I have been to Houston. I have seen the activity 
around the oil and gas industry, and I can tell you there are some 
States that want a little piece of that. South Carolina is one of 
those.
  You are exactly right on the LNG terminals. Ukraine, Western Europe, 
Eastern Europe, they are all reliant on Russian gas now and they are 
concerned about the posturing of Russia, and they are concerned about 
whether that spigot might be turned off, that pipeline might be 
interrupted that supplies the much-needed energy that they enjoy 
currently.
  They are looking west. They are looking to the United States. How 
about exporting your natural gas? You have got a ton of it. How about 
giving us some of it? We will buy it. We will pay you for it.
  India, as the gentleman said. It is a geopolitical advantage that the 
United States has.
  I was mentioning earlier about the areas that are opened up for 
development, and I wanted to show America this. I know it is small, but 
you can see the orange. That is right around South America. All that 
area in orange is open for energy development.
  But look at North America. There is a lot of blue water. There are a 
lot of areas outside of the Gulf of Mexico, outside of the area off of 
Alaska, that are not available to energy production. They should be and 
they could be.
  We have got a letter, a Dear Colleague letter, that we are sending to 
Secretary Jewell, saying, Look, we need a new 5-year plan for leasing 
the Outer Continental Shelf area. We want to see certain areas like the 
mid- and South Atlantic included in that area, want to continue opening 
up more and more of the gulf.

[[Page H6646]]

  But we would love to see the areas that are reflected in blue and not 
open on the map I just showed. Countries like Canada and Mexico and 
China, they are ramping up their efforts to develop their offshore 
resources and will be directly competing with the United States.
  It is past time, America, that we develop the resources that we have 
been blessed with here in this country.
  This letter, I am a leader on it. I am asking my colleagues, I am 
asking Americans to contact your Congressman and say, how about get on 
that letter to Secretary Jewell that Congressman Duncan has got, and 
let's encourage her to open up more areas that might be available in 
the next 5-year plan.
  Five years out, let's open up more areas for energy production. Let's 
have lease sales. Let's allow exploration.
  I know the next gentleman from Virginia, he gets it as well because I 
have dealt with Virginia for a long time. Senator Frank Wagner, from 
over near Norfolk, I met early on in my delving into the whole energy 
spectrum and arena.
  I went offshore on the Gulf of Mexico with the Senator, and he taught 
me about what Virginia was doing. They were leading with an energy plan 
for the State of Virginia. They were leading with looking toward the 
offshore areas.
  I know the gentleman that represents that area in the United States 
Congress, Mr. Rigell, fully understands that. I yield to the gentleman.
  Mr. RIGELL. I thank my friend for his leadership in this critical 
area, and for having us out here tonight to talk about the tremendous 
opportunity to really shape the direction of our country in such a 
positive way by responsibly opening up our coastal regions for energy 
exploration.
  The potential is great in job creation. 25,000 local jobs in the 
Hampton Roads area--that is southeast Virginia, jobs that would be 
going to some of those who need so desperately to have job 
opportunities, for our veterans who are coming out of our military 
right there in Norfolk and in Virginia Beach and other areas of our 
district.
  Let me frame this discussion, Mr. Speaker, with this quote. It was 
said in this very Chamber. ``This country needs an all-out, all-of-the-
above strategy that develops every available source of American 
energy.''
  Mr. Speaker, that was shared by President Obama in 2012. So, in words 
and in speeches, it surely looks like there is common ground. Now, 
there is a disconnect in what the President's been saying and what the 
truth is and what reality is. We will get to that in just a moment.
  But let's look for a moment at the tremendous opportunity that 
coastal Virginia energy represents and really, across the country, if 
we open up our shore lines in a responsible, environmentally 
responsible, way to improve the lives of Americans, to set our country 
on a far better fiscal path that gives us the revenues we need to 
strengthen Medicare and Medicaid and Social Security, and our national 
security as well.
  I am an entrepreneur in a season of public service, and I have had 
these incredible opportunities to look so many in the eye and say, you 
are hired. And I have also known the great joy, myself, of being on the 
other end of that and having somebody say to me that I have been hired, 
and I go home and say, I got the job. We want to hear that more and 
more in our country.
  These are the kind of jobs we need in America. They are high-paying 
jobs. They are skilled jobs. They are tradesman jobs, jobs that we need 
in our country.

                              {time}  2115

  I have seen it firsthand, Mr. Speaker. I led a bipartisan delegation 
to go down to Port Fourchon in Louisiana. They are so proud of their 
economy. They are proud that their young people are having 
opportunities. It is just a bustling place. I think of it as booming 
and growing and optimism.
  They are also proud of their schools and their roads and their 
bridges. Why? Because they have got the revenue that they need--this is 
how they are generating their revenue, through growth.
  They are also, Mr. Speaker, so proud of their environment. They are 
so proud of the fisheries that they have there and the gulf waters that 
are such a part of their lives and have been for generations.
  Some would present it to us as we are faced with this choice: either 
you are for the environment or you are for job creation and coastal 
energy.
  Look, I reject the premise, Mr. Speaker. It is a false premise. We 
have a moral obligation to leave our children with clean air and clean 
water and clean soil. This is common ground, and we also have an 
obligation. Indeed, I think it is a moral one, to have a strong economy 
and to leave our children free from a heavy burden of debt, and energy 
really represents, I think, the principle way that we can grow our 
economy.
  There are some, as I mentioned earlier, who present this false 
argument about either we protect the environment or we grow jobs 
through coastal energy. We need to really wrestle with these issues of 
safety, and I am ready for the debate, Mr. Speaker. I welcome the 
debate.
  As I mentioned, I have been to Port Fourchon, and that was really the 
epicenter of the Macondo challenge that we faced there, so much of what 
we have learned from that has been integrated into the safety policies 
that we have.
  We can open up the coast and also create jobs, like they are doing in 
Norway, like they are doing in Canada. It is not this either-or 
proposition.
  So what we have to do is we have to make the words that were spoken 
by the President--to go beyond a talking point, and to make it a 
reality, and I thank my friend from South Carolina for his leadership 
on this issue. I am with you on that letter, and I appreciate your 
leadership.
  Mr. DUNCAN of South Carolina. I thank the gentleman from Virginia for 
getting on the letters, the right letter to include that area.
  Energy production in the United States means lower energy costs for 
Americans. It is as simple as that. Energy independence through 
production here at home in our own backyards keeps Americans safe from 
the turmoil around the world.
  The U.S. Atlantic and the entire OCS is a missed opportunity, but it 
is not an opportunity we are going to continue missing. It is an 
opportunity we are going to continue to propose, we are going to 
continue to support, because when Americans are free to dream and 
innovate, they will always find a cheaper, safer, cleaner, and more 
efficient way to produce energy and use energy. We need to make it 
happen.
  I will now ask my colleague from Oklahoma--who I believe will be the 
next Senator from Oklahoma and will take a tremendous amount of 
experience over to the United States Senate, where I know he will talk 
about what is going on in Oklahoma now and what has gone on in Oklahoma 
in the past because he has educated me.
  They have been fracturing down in Oklahoma for about 50 years. I 
remember the comments he made to us on the floor one day, right here in 
a HEAT Leadership Hour. He said: come to Oklahoma, and drink our water.
  So I will now yield to the gentleman from Oklahoma (Mr. Lankford).
  Mr. LANKFORD. I thank the gentleman from South Carolina, and the 
invitation still stands. Come to Oklahoma. We have been fracking since 
1948, and I would encourage folks to come drink our water, see the 
beautiful land, breathe our beautiful air, and understand that you can 
do this.
  Oklahoma is one of the places where we do all-of-the-above energy. We 
have solar. We have wind. We have coal. We have oil and gas. We 
understand all-of-the-above energy, and we understand all that can work 
together.
  For viewers that are on C-SPAN and the lights in this room, we 
understand that energy drives our economy. We don't interact with 
anything in our economy, whether it is food, whether it is 
transportation, whether it is home heating, whatever it may be and 
however we operate, it operates because of energy.
  If at some point this administration's policies are fully 
implemented, we will watch the price of energy, the price of food, the 
price of everything we do in America go up, simply because of 
preferences, not because of reality.
  We can do this in an environmentally friendly way and also build a 
strong economy. If you want to come to Oklahoma, unemployment right now 
in

[[Page H6647]]

Oklahoma is 4.5 percent. We are one of the top energy producers in the 
country.
  If you want to go to North Dakota, the unemployment rate is 2.7 
percent. In fact, technically, they have a negative unemployment rate. 
They actually have more job listings than they have unemployment there. 
Why? Because they are finding a way to be able to tap American energy 
to produce an American economy that can grow and thrive, and in those 
places where energy is thriving, the economy is also thriving.
  Just look at one simple statistic here: from 2007 to 2012, private 
sector employment increased by 1 percent or about 1 million jobs. In 
oil and gas, however, they added 162,000 of those jobs and had an 
increase of 40 percent in employment. Just in that one sector, there 
was a 40 percent increase in employment.
  What affect does that have on us? Obviously, that is Americans that 
have jobs, those are families that are taken care of, but it is also 
our trade deficit.
  From 2012 to 2013, just in Saudi Arabia, our trade deficit declined 
13 percent. That is oil and gas produced here in the United States, 
offsetting what we are purchasing from the Middle East. The positive 
effects of that are overwhelming, and we understand it full well.
  We understand that, in the 1990s, our economy had a huge boom from 
the Web. The Internet and the expansion of the Internet created 
incredible entrepreneurial opportunities and an incredible expansion of 
our economy.
  That boom in the economy right now is solely around energy, and the 
energy development that is happening and the revolution that is 
happening and the opportunity for people to be able to get good-paying 
jobs is happening strongly in one sector in our economy, energy.
  Let's not blow it. Let's expand it. In the days ahead, we should be 
able to export oil and gas. That should be a prime something that we 
do.
  You can send grain all around the world, just like you can send 
flour, but right now, you can't send oil all around the world. You can 
only send gasoline or diesel. You have to literally refine the oil 
before you can send it out.
  Well, let's fix that. If you send grain, you should be able to send 
flour as well. If you can send timber, you should be able to also send 
lumber. It makes basic sense that you can send oil as well as you can 
send gasoline out.

  This would help our economy. It would also reduce the price of oil 
globally. That price would drop because of the competition in the 
United States, estimated to be about 8 cents per gallon for a gallon of 
gas, if we get on the world market and start pushing back to bring the 
price down.
  The same thing happens in liquefied natural gas, in natural gas. We 
are talking about the production, just to allow the enhanced production 
and export of oil and natural gas, around 1 million additional jobs in 
our economy.
  Now, in a Nation that is looking for jobs, we literally have the jobs 
under our feet, and it is time we stand up and provide the opportunity 
to be able to explore for additional oil and gas, continue to expand 
our use of coal, to be able to export that worldwide and allow the 
United States to be the economic leader and the energy leader that she 
should be.
  Mr. DUNCAN of South Carolina. I thank the gentleman from Oklahoma for 
sharing that. He is exactly right.
  It is simple. It is supply and demand. That is simple economics. 
Let's put American oil and natural gas out there on the world market, 
and I believe you will see the spigot turned on by others that don't 
want to see us become energy independent, and I think you will see the 
price down go.
  You know, I will get criticized because I want to allow seismic to 
happen off the Atlantic coast in the OCS areas, and they will say: oh, 
you are going to hurt the marine mammals, the dolphins and whales and 
other things.
  Well, the environmental impact statement came out. There is good 
mitigation in there that industry can live with to mitigate any damage. 
If the whales are migrating north, they could stop those activities, 
but even with that, there hasn't been a single proven instance.
  Now, we have been doing seismic all over the Gulf of Mexico, off the 
coast of Africa, in the Mediterranean, in the Red Sea, in the Persian 
Gulf. All over the world, they have been doing seismic work and not a 
single proven instance where seismic testing has caused permanent 
deafness or any other injury to a marine mammal, not a single one, but 
yet that is the criticism that we will take for wanting to actually 
look down on the Earth and see if there are recoverable resources.
  I will tell you where there are recoverable resources, and that is in 
the great State of Wyoming, where they get energy--about $1 billion of 
revenue back to the State of Wyoming through revenue sharing, through 
the development of their natural resources and those oil and gas and 
coal deposits they have, and the single Member representing the State 
of Wyoming (Mrs. Lummis), I am sure can talk about that.
  Mrs. LUMMIS. I thank the distinguished gentleman from South Carolina 
for gathering us to talk about American energy.
  I want to talk about it from a couple of perspectives. My State of 
Wyoming had the first national park in the Nation, Yellowstone National 
Park; the first national forest, the Shoshone National Forest; the 
first national monument, the Devils Tower. We have an abundance of 
beautiful scenery and natural resources. We have the smallest 
population in the Nation. Our State is pristine.
  What you may not have known is that Texas' production of energy is 
here. Wyoming's is here, and the next State catching up on us is far 
behind those two States. We know how to produce energy responsibly.
  Mr. Speaker, I am here tonight because I want to talk about the 
people that are affected by the price of energy. I want to talk about a 
woman I met at a gas pump.
  She pulled up in a very old car. She had a little baby in her back 
seat that she was taking to the sitter's before she went to her job, 
earning minimum wage, at a convenience store. Her husband, a young man, 
was also working at a very lower middle-income job. They were trying to 
make ends meet.
  She only put $5 worth of gas in her car. I asked her why. She said: 
well, I can only afford enough gas to get me to work after I drop my 
child off, and while I am at work, I will get enough money to put a 
little more gas and pick my child up.
  That is how a lot of Americans are living. That is how a lot of our 
seniors are living. They are living on an amount of money that squeezes 
them every time the price of gasoline goes up, the price of electricity 
goes up, the price of heat goes up, the price of air conditioning goes 
up.
  That is the price of energy to the American consumer. Those are the 
people we need to be looking out for. Those are the people who need 
abundant, affordable, reliable electricity, gasoline, diesel fuel, 
heating oil, and other resources like natural gas, so they can be warm 
and protected from the cold, so they can be cool and protected from the 
heat, so they can get to work and the grocery store and to their 
doctors.
  This is the American story, and it is American jobs that pay American 
taxes that can help those people make ends meet, that can help fund our 
social safety net.
  We need Americans to work. We need American energy to put Americans 
to work. If it wasn't for the energy economy, there would be no 
economic recovery at all in this country. I know that it is a rather 
anemic recovery. It would be zero recovery without the energy industry.
  The importance cannot be overstated of energy in our economy. The 
importance of energy in our daily lives cannot be overstated.
  I want to thank the gentleman who recognizes that we can have a clean 
environment and we can have affordable, abundant energy, so our quality 
of life in America is proudly second to none.
  Mr. DUNCAN of South Carolina. I thank the gentlewoman from Wyoming. 
She does a fabulous job.
  That is one of the things I enjoy about serving in the United States 
Congress, is meeting the congressmen from all of the other States that 
can educate me and can educate America about what is going on in their 
States--what is going on in their

[[Page H6648]]

States to help meet Americans' energy needs, to help us truly become 
energy independent, to do all of the things that we have talked about 
here this evening.
  You know, people back home may say: What have y'all done in Congress? 
What have you done in the House to address these issues?
  We have sent numerous bills over to the Senate, where they languish 
in Harry Reid's office. The majority leader fails to bring the bills 
that the House has passed--even if you differ with the elements in 
those bills, bring them up. Bring them into a committee hearing, and 
let's have a markup.
  Let's change those bills and pass whatever meets your desires for 
American energy independence or a lack thereof in the Senate. How about 
change the bills and send them back? We will go to conference, and we 
will work something out.
  Instead, we have got a logjam. All these bills are right behind the 
dam, and then we could unleash all that power behind the dam by 
unleashing the American energy independence potential that you have 
heard talked about here tonight.
  We just recently passed an offshore energy jobs bill, Lowering 
Gasoline Prices to Fuel an America That Works Act, to open up these 
areas.
  I want to commend Chairman Doc Hastings for his work on the Natural 
Resources Committee to really open up those Federal areas where we talk 
about those resources. I would like to give a moment of praise to my 
Senator Tim Scott who has got the SEA Jobs Act that would address a lot 
of the all-of-the-above energy issues that I have got in the EXPAND 
Act, to expand Americans' opportunities to pursue their resources and 
become energy independent, and it provides resources back to the State 
and revenue sharing and jobs. It works, America.
  Energy is a segue to job creation, and that is what we are here to 
talk about tonight, putting Americans to work, meeting our energy 
needs, using those geopolitical levers that we may have to influence 
politics around the world, to help our friends and allies in Ukraine 
and in Europe that need America's energy resources, that want America's 
energy resources.

                              {time}  2130

  So as we wind down our time here tonight, energy production in the 
United States means lower energy costs for Americans.
  I started out with a very simple question: Americans, how much more 
is your regular travel costing you? How much more does it cost you to 
drive from your home to work and back, from your home to school and 
back, from your home to church and back, and how much less do you have 
in your wallet at the end of the day because of the amount of money it 
has taken you to meet the energy needs of just transportation and 
electricity costs because of EP regulations?
  You heard the gentlewoman from Wyoming talk about it and others. We 
could do something about it. We could solve it here today by meeting 
our energy needs with energy production. That is why the House energy 
action team is leading on this issue.
  I appreciate the other colleagues being here tonight, and with that, 
Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

                          ____________________