[Congressional Record Volume 168, Number 41 (Tuesday, March 8, 2022)]
[House]
[Page H1337]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                WE NEED TO RETURN TO ENERGY INDEPENDENCE

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
California (Mr. McCarthy) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. McCARTHY. Madam Speaker, what would you do with $1,300? Would you 
go on vacation? Save for your kids' college? Maybe buy some new 
appliances?
  Well, under the Democrats' new America last energy policies, most 
Americans have little choice but to spend $1,300 extra on gas to fill 
up their cars over the course of the next year. Today, the price of gas 
hit an all-time high.
  Democrats want to blame surging prices on Russia. But the truth is, 
their out-of-touch policies are why we are here in the first place.
  Remember what happened on day 1 with one-party rule? The President 
canceled the Keystone Pipeline, and then he stopped new oil and gas 
leases on Federal lands and waters. Then he gave the green light to 
Putin's pipeline. These knee-jerk decisions had damaging effects up and 
down the supply chain.
  Now, Democrats are creating a fake choice between sanctioning Russia 
and lowering gas prices. In their twisted thinking, Americans must feel 
the pain at the pump in order to punish Putin. It doesn't have to be 
this way.
  When Democrats' one-party rule started last year, they inherited an 
energy independent America. Average prices at the pump were $2.53 a 
gallon. Oh, do we wish we had those days again.
  It is still possible to get back to that, which is why Republicans 
offered a bill last week that would approve the Keystone Pipeline, fast 
track oil and gas production on Federal lands and waters and remove all 
hurdles to exporting American natural gas.
  Do the American people wonder what happened when we offered that? Two 
hundred twenty Democrats voted against it.
  Then we offered targeted solutions to the immediate crisis, like 
approving the six natural gas export permits that are being held up by 
the Department of Energy. Just approving those six permits could 
increase U.S. natural gas exports by 25 percent.
  But Democrats refused to listen. They think our Nation's future is 
better with leaving our resources in the ground, even if that requires 
us to buy oil from Iran or Venezuela and batteries from China.
  It is obvious which party is championing clean, affordable American 
energy and which party has given up on it. It is interesting that 
American natural gas is 41 percent cleaner than Russian natural gas. 
Why wouldn't you want that to go to Europe and everywhere else?

  If we want to lower prices and protect the environment, we must 
prioritize American energy independence.
  What is worse, it is not just the Biden administration; it is 
complete throughout the Democrats' administration, for those who are in 
governorships as well. Just take a look at my home State, Madam 
Speaker, California.
  Now, the United States imports from Russia 209,000 barrels of crude 
per day. That is 76.3 million barrels of crude per year. Of that, 
California imports from Russia 50,265 barrels of crude per day. In 
fact, California imported twice as many barrels of oil from Russia in 
2021 than from Canada. So that means this money went to Putin to pay 
for his war.
  Just as the Biden administration chose to stop the Keystone XL 
pipeline, apparently Governor Newsom thinks it is better to buy oil 
from Russia than from Canada. California domestic production was 
374,000 barrels of crude per day in 2021. That has decreased under 
Gavin's administration, 89,000 barrels of crude per day less than in 
2018.
  If you take the analysis, looking at the data, if California rolled 
back the Newsom/Biden regulations that are crippling oil production in 
California, California could more than offset its use of Russian crude 
and then some. The United States could offset 43 percent of its 
dependence on Russian crude if California produced its full capacity.
  You see, we don't have to be where we are. If the Democrats would 
change their policies of harming America and harming the environment by 
buying more Russian oil and gas, we wouldn't be where we are today. The 
prices would be lower, there would be more Americans working, and the 
world would be safer.

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