[Congressional Record Volume 168, Number 46 (Tuesday, March 15, 2022)]
[Senate]
[Pages S1163-S1165]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
Energy
Mr. CORNYN. Mr. President, as all of America knows, prices at the gas
pump are skyrocketing. Over the weekend, the average gas price in Texas
exceeded $4 a gallon, and we typically have some of the cheapest
gasoline in the country. We didn't even cross that line during the
great recession of 2008. But we know that gas prices are not the only
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commodity that is growing and that family budgets are strained by.
Consumers are also paying more for everything from groceries to
clothes, to appliances.
Folks in Texas and across the country want to know, what is President
Biden's plan to address high gasoline prices? Last week, the President
was, appropriately enough, asked this very question. His response? He
said:
Can't do much right now. Russia is responsible.
That is a quote--``Russia is responsible.'' Well, people across the
country know that the price of gasoline, the spike that we are
experiencing now, preceded the invasion of Ukraine.
Folks across the country can't afford to fill up their gas tanks to
get to work, and the President points the finger at Vladimir Putin.
Well, there is no question that the war in Ukraine exacerbated what was
already an existing problem with the price of gasoline, but certainly
it was not the cause of it. But the President conveniently omits the
fact that gasoline prices were a problem long before Ukraine was
attacked. For example, the week the President took office, Americans
were paying an average of $2.38 a gallon. Month after month, those
prices steadily climbed. By mid-May, the average price exceeded $3.10 a
gallon, and by Thanksgiving, it was $3.30 a gallon. Just as a reminder,
this was months before Russia invaded, which did not happen until
February 24 of this year. Even in the last full week before the
invasion, gas prices were painfully high at $3.50 a gallon.
So, yes, prices have risen since the invasion, and there is no
question that the Russian aggression is a factor behind price jumps in
the past few weeks, but this was a preexisting problem for which
apparently the President had no solution. It is disingenuous for the
administration to blame recordbreaking prices entirely on Russia.
During Biden's first year in office, from January of last year to
January of this year, gas prices increased 40 percent--40 percent.
Those increases had nothing to do with President Putin and had
everything to do with President Biden.
One of the President's first actions after taking office was to
cancel the Keystone XL Pipeline. This pipeline would have given
Canadian crude a quick and affordable path to refiners and processors
in the United States and then to global markets through the Gulf of
Mexico. This increased supply would add to the domestic markets and top
off the Strategic Petroleum Reserve and even make its way to our
friends and allies overseas. Given the state of the world's energy
security today, it is easy to see how the Keystone XL Pipeline would
have helped if the President had given it an opportunity.
This project would have also brought serious economic gains in the
form of good-paying jobs right here in America, increased tax revenue,
and benefits for communities along the pipeline's route. But with the
stroke of a pen, the President killed the Keystone XL Pipeline and the
many benefits that would have been provided in terms of our energy
security and the price of gasoline at the pump.
Unfortunately, that was the beginning but not the end of the
administration's flawed energy policies. Just a few days later, the
Biden administration placed a temporary moratorium on all new leasing
permits on Federal lands, effectively sending more business to Russia
and OPEC producers whom he actually called upon to produce more oil.
That is right. Before the Russian invasion, President Biden called on
OPEC--of which Russia is a member and of which Saudi Arabia is a
dominant producer--to produce more oil overseas rather than to unleash
American energy right here at home.
Well, the administration later attempted to set the ``social cost''
of carbon, as they call it, at $51 a metric ton--a high and arbitrary
figure designed to hamper fossil fuel production right here at home--
and then it suspended oil and gas production in both Alaska and New
Mexico.
The administration even took aim at refiners. The United States
relies on an expansive network of refiners to supply gasoline, diesel
fuel, and other petroleum products. The renewable fuel standard
requires refiners to blend a certain amount of renewable fuel, which is
simply untenable for many small refiners. And small refiners
disproportionately actually produce gasoline, which means that the
pressure on these small refiners actually has a disproportionate impact
on higher gasoline prices.
The Environmental Protection Agency has the authority to grant
temporary exemptions to small refiners if compliance would cause them
to suffer serious economic hardship. Those exemptions used to be pretty
standard practice. President Obama and President Trump each granted
dozens of exemptions while in office. But so far, President Biden has
refused to grant a single exemption to small refineries. Small
refineries are hurting, and unless President Biden finally grants some
of these exemptions, some of them may be forced to close their doors,
exacerbating again high energy prices. If fewer refiners are operating,
gasoline prices will go up, not down.
President Biden and his administration aren't the only ones who have
taken aim at oil and gas production here in America in the last year.
Many of our colleagues who have argued that oil and gas production is
somehow unnecessary or obsolete and could be replaced today with solely
renewable energy have been misleading the American people in believing
that we could make that transition today or anytime in the near future.
While renewable energy is an important part of our energy sources--in
Texas, we produce more electricity from wind than any other State in
the Nation--we believe in an ``all of the above'' energy policy.
I actually have heard members of the administration say one of the
solutions for eliminating the importation of Russian oil would be to
move entirely to renewables. Well, the Energy Information
Administration, which is the official spokesman on these matters for
the U.S. Government, says that by the year 2050, 74 percent of our
energy sources in America will still be fossil fuel. That is four times
the amount of energy that can be produced by renewables.
That doesn't mean we are going to stay stuck on where we are now. We
will continue to look for new and innovative ways to add to our energy
diversity and improve our climate and environment at the same time. But
to suggest disingenuously to the American people that one way we can
deal with cutting off Russian imports is simply to do away with oil and
gas in America is a ludicrous statement.
Other regulatory measures promoted by the administration have also
discouraged American energy production, like the reckless tax-and-
spending spree to pile even more costs and regulations on American oil
and gas; for example, a methane tax on energy companies, banning
offshore drilling, increasing onshore royalty fees, and putting
domestic oil and gas producers in a choke hold.
Now that gas prices have gone through the roof, some of our
colleagues have come up with another unhelpful solution. They want to
temporarily suspend the gas tax through November, which happens to be
the elections. That is no coincidence. This idea has been soundly
rejected a number of times over the years by both Republicans and
Democrats.
In 2008, gas prices were soaring and the then-Presidential candidate,
Barack Obama, attacked his opponents for endorsing a gas tax holiday,
as many of our colleagues here in the Senate have endorsed currently.
At the time, Candidate Barack Obama, Senator Barack Obama, said:
This isn't an idea designed to get you through the summer,
it's an idea designed to get [you] through an election.
In short, this isn't a fix for high gas prices; it is a talking point
for political campaigns and candidates.
This is a gimmick to create the illusion of action, while really
doing nothing but draining the highway trust fund that we rely upon to
build our roads and bridges.
Still, a few of our colleagues in the Senate have offered a bill that
would suspend the gas tax through the end of the year. I am sure it
comes as no surprise that a majority of the bill's sponsors are on the
ballot this year.
For more than a year now, Republicans have warned about the potential
consequences of the attack on domestic energy production. We have
highlighted the ways the policies could
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drive up prices, harm our energy security, and threaten that of our
allies. Even as gas prices rose month after month, the Biden
administration did nothing. They didn't attempt a midcourse correction.
They didn't open this topic up for debate. They just stayed the course.
Back in November, the Secretary of Energy was asked about increasing
U.S. oil production. She literally laughed and said:
That is hilarious.
Well, it certainly isn't funny now. Gas prices are now averaging
$4.32 a gallon, and our allies are frantically trying to reduce their
reliance on Russian oil and gas, which in many cases is their sole
source.
President Biden has tried to pin these problems squarely on Russia
and Vladimir Putin, but the American people are smart. They know the
truth. They know that high prices predated Russia's invasion of
Ukraine, and they know about the war being waged on domestic energy
production by some of our colleagues across the aisle.
And they are smart enough to know that you can't believe President
Biden when he says you can't do much about it because Russia is
responsible.
I yield the floor.
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