[Congressional Record Volume 168, Number 60 (Tuesday, April 5, 2022)]
[Senate]
[Pages S1963-S1964]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                                 Energy

  Mr. BARRASSO. Madam President, I come to the floor today to talk 
about the need for more American energy.
  On Thursday, President Biden announced that he is going to release 
even more oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve. To me, this is 
another desperate Hail Mary pass. It is a short-term effort to deal 
with their midterm election crisis. It is a crisis that has been 
created by the policies of this administration.
  The real crisis is the cost-of-living crisis, and it is a crisis that 
is punishing American families. Inflation is at a 40-year high. Gas 
prices recently hit the highest price ever. Why is it happening? It is 
economics 101. The supply of energy is not keeping up with the demand 
for energy.
  We are now producing about 1.3 million barrels of oil per day fewer--
less--than we were in 2019. Yet, for the last 14 months that Joe Biden 
has been in the White House, he has done absolutely nothing to increase 
the supply of American energy. He has not sold one lease to produce 
energy on public lands--not one. President Obama, at this time into his 
first term, had already held 47 Federal lease sales--in his first 14 
months in office. For Joe Biden, the number is still zero.
  This just shows that when it comes to energy, Joe Biden is to the 
far, far left of any previous American President. Joe Biden is already 
the most anti-American energy President we have ever had. He refuses to 
do any of the things that would actually help our country in terms of 
our energy needs. He won't increase oil production by a single drop. 
No. He wants to release some from the strategic reserve but not 
actually produce any more American energy.
  What he is essentially doing is burning through our savings account. 
This is now the third time that President Biden has released energy 
from the strategic reserve. He is on pace to burn through a third of 
our oil savings in less than 2 years in office. Soon, we are going to 
have the smallest amount in our reserve, the smallest amount in our 
savings account, since 1984.
  In November, Joe Biden conducted the largest release in history from 
the strategic reserve. He released 50 million barrels. So what was the 
result? He made a big announcement of it. The Secretary of Energy did 
as well. The price of gas went down by 2 cents--2 cents. The White 
House was so proud of itself that they actually sent out a press 
release congratulating themselves. Prices went back up almost 
immediately. The result was an utter failure. So now Joe Biden said he 
is going to release 180 million barrels over the next 6 months, which 
is a million barrels a day for the next 180 days--in other words, 
between now and right before the elections.
  The strategic reserve is meant for emergencies. It is not meant for 
the cynical, political coverup of what the President has done to our 
American energy policy. Some people call it an election-year gimmick. I 
call it dangerous--dangerous because we are going to be less prepared 
for emergencies and be less secure as a nation. We will be less safe.
  Now, 180 million barrels sounds like a lot. It is about the amount we 
use on an average of 9 or 10 days. We use about 20 million barrels a 
day in the United States. We are currently importing a lot more than 
that.
  Even the President admits that it won't have a big impact, but he 
doesn't know what else to do. On Thursday, he said this would reduce 
prices by as little as 10 cents a gallon. We are still over $4 a gallon 
nationwide in terms of the national average. I expect it is going to 
remain that high, over $4 a gallon, through the summer.
  So who do the American people blame for this? Well, in poll after 
poll, they blame Joe Biden because he is the one who proudly stood 
there and beat his chest and said: I have killed the Keystone XL 
Pipeline.
  The day Joe Biden took office, gasoline was $2.38 a gallon. America 
was energy independent for the first time in 70 years. We were energy 
dominant. We were exporting energy. We were selling it to our friends 
instead of having to buy it from our enemies. Joe Biden took office and 
started attacking American energy, and things have deteriorated ever 
since.
  That is why it is no surprise that energy and gas prices were up 13 
out of the last 14 months. By the time Vladimir Putin invaded Ukraine, 
the average price of a gallon of gas had gone up from $2.38 gallon to 
$3.53 a gallon. So it was already up over $1.15 a gallon in just over 
that first year in office for President Biden. Today, the average price 
of a gallon of gas is about $4.18.
  Prices may actually go higher if Joe Biden gets his way in terms of 
energy policy. That is because, when the President put out his budget, 
we found he wants to raise taxes on American energy. The budget that 
the President has proposed for the next year contains 36 new taxes, and 
11 of them are directly on American energy. It would cost about $45 
billion, which, of course, would be carried on to the people who buy 
American energy. It would be paid by working families in the form of 
higher gas prices, higher oil bills. It would cost more to heat your 
home.
  Even Nancy Pelosi, when she looked at the budget, said:

       Consumers pay for that.

  On Thursday, Joe Biden asked Congress to charge fees on oil and gas 
leases that aren't even being used. Now, this is another gimmick. 
People want to use those leases, but the administration is blocking the 
permission to drill to use the leases. This is just a continuation of 
the Biden blame game.
  If you want to explore for energy in America, the lease is just the 
first step, the first of many. You need to apply for a permit to drill. 
In Wyoming, people know all about this. They call it an APD, 
an application for the permission to drill. You have to pay to apply 
after you have paid the rent on the lease.

  So you apply, and somebody has to make a decision. Those decisions 
used to be made at the local level. Not anymore. Now the Biden 
administration has said: We know better than any of you people out 
around the country. We will make all of the decisions out of 
Washington.
  The decision they have made is they are not going to give any of 
these permits to drill. That is why the President could say: They are 
not drilling.
  Well, you are not letting people drill.
  Now, we are not talking about a couple of leases; we are talking 
about thousands and thousands--over 4,000 leases--that are tied up that 
way.
  We have another group of leases that is tied up by environmental 
activists who love to sue to stop energy exploration. They want to keep 
it in the ground.
  So companies are paying their rental fees. They want to explore for 
energy, but they are being blocked by the administration. Then they are 
being blamed by that same administration for not exploring for energy.
  The President says: Use it or lose it.
  Well, that is the law of the land right now. If it doesn't produce 
oil or gas within 10 years, you actually lose the permit. He doesn't 
want to explain that to folks.
  If the lease does produce energy, if it does produce oil, then the 
government actually reaps the benefits from that. They get tax money 
from that. That helps to pay for many of the things that we do as a 
government. In Wyoming, in our State areas, we use it to help with 
paying for education, with paying for healthcare. These are vital 
services in the community that are paid for by the successful 
exploration and recovery of energy that is currently underground and 
that Joe Biden wants to keep underground.

[[Page S1964]]

  In the President's budget, he wants to charge an additional fee on 
top of all of this. So he refuses to let them drill, and he wants to 
charge them for not drilling. This is something out of ``Alice in 
Wonderland.'' More fees will mean producing less. We need to produce 
more. That is the way to get down the price at the pump--to produce 
more American energy.
  Democrats refuse to admit that the percentage of leases that are 
actually being used today has never been higher. These are old leases. 
The Democrats' excuses on this issue are what I would put in the 
category of the Big Lie--the Big Lie to support an anti-American energy 
agenda. It is an agenda of less American energy, more taxes, and higher 
prices. It is the reason millions of American families today are 
struggling to get by. They are feeling the pain.
  According to one estimate from economists at Bloomberg, American 
families will spend an extra $5,200 this year--that is $100 a week--
compared to last year, just to stay even. It is all due to inflation in 
the cost of groceries, the cost of gas, the cost of goods. All of those 
things are squeezing American families. People are getting crushed. 
Their dreams are being crushed. Potential savings to send kids to 
college--that is going away. The savings for a vacation--that is going 
away. You have to empty your wallet to fill your tank under Joe Biden's 
energy policies, and the extra $100 a week is on top of last year's 
inflation whereby people across the country said they were paying more 
and more to get less and less and that even if they got a raise, they 
couldn't keep up. They have kept falling further and further behind.
  People across the country are already living paycheck to paycheck. 
They can't afford more price increases. They need real solutions, and 
they are not getting them from this White House. The answer seems 
pretty simple: Stop the reckless spending here in Washington. Unleash 
American energy.
  President Biden needs to do a couple of things right away to unleash 
American energy.
  The first is to have a long-term commitment to produce more American 
energy. Energy companies aren't going to invest if they think Joe Biden 
is going to shut them down tomorrow, and in a recent speech, he said 
that is what his goal is. He wants them to produce more today so he can 
shut them down tomorrow.
  He does need to open up our Federal lands. We should auction off 
leases right away, and Joe Biden should approve those 4,600 drilling 
permits, which, today, are still stuck in limbo. He put them there and 
locked them in.
  It takes months to get production up and running. You have to get the 
right permits. You have to tap the pipelines. You have to speed up the 
process for pipelines as well. Although we did see the Federal Energy 
Regulatory Commission--all of the Commissioners--come to the Energy 
Committee, they don't seem to be very interested--at least the ones in 
the majority don't seem to be very interested--in speeding up the 
pipeline process or in allowing pipelines at all.
  Finally, Joe Biden needs to stop attacking the hard-working men and 
women of this country who continue to produce energy, who go to work 
every day to keep the lights on and to keep us warm in winter. We need 
these workers out there, and Joe Biden needs to stop attacking them on 
a daily basis. They are the ones who can get us out of the crisis. They 
are the ones we need for the economic recovery.
  Instead of spending our savings, it is time to unleash American 
energy. We need more American energy, and we need it now.
  I yield the floor.
  I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The bill clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. SCHUMER. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the order 
for the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.

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