[Congressional Record Volume 168, Number 69 (Wednesday, April 27, 2022)]
[Senate]
[Pages S2179-S2180]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                                 Energy

  Mr. BARRASSO. Mr. President, I come to the floor today to talk about 
the need for more American energy.
  Since his first day in office, Joe Biden has been on a war--an all-
out war--against American energy.
  In his very first week in office, he stopped all new leases of oil 
and gas on public lands. That was completely illegal for the President 
to do that. A few months later, a Federal court told the President that 
what he had done was illegal.
  The law states that the American people may explore for energy on 
Federal lands, and the law calls for ways that it can be done. So here 
we are now, 15 months into the Biden administration, and, finally, Joe 
Biden has grudgingly agreed to follow the law. He is going to sell a 
bare minimum of leases to obey the court order.
  So how much is a bare minimum? Well, for the entire State of Utah--my 
neighboring State--they are only offering one single parcel to the 
entire State. And at the same time, Joe Biden is raising the cost of 
American energy production to the point that he is raising Federal 
royalty rates on the energy produced on that Federal land by 50 
percent.
  When we produce less American energy, the American people end up 
paying more for the energy they use. This is Joe Biden's economy in a 
nutshell, the economy that has given us the highest cost inflation in 
40 years.
  In the last hundred years, no President has ever raised these royalty 
fees for producing American energy until Joe Biden. It just shows that 
when it comes to energy, Joe Biden is further to the left of any 
previous American President.
  So who is going to pay for these higher fees on Joe Biden's attack on 
American energy? People understand it. They know that they are going to 
be the ones who are going to have to pay for it, and often it is the 
people who can least afford it in our home States and across the 
country.
  These higher costs for American energy--thanks to Joe Biden--are 
going to be paid for by working families, people who are already 
struggling to keep up and falling further behind in Joe Biden's 
economy. Producing less, raising costs--it is the perfect recipe for 
more inflation.
  As I was coming down to the floor, I walked by a TV screen. The 
bottom screen shot said: ``Joe Biden's approval rating hits an alltime 
low.'' It seems to be happening all the time, week after week, month 
after month, continuing to fall in the polls because the American 
people are distressed and in pain over what this President and what the 
Democrats in the House and the Senate are doing to the people of this 
great country. Doing the bare minimum, this President may satisfy the 
courts, but it is not enough to satisfy or save struggling families.
  To stop this inflation nightmare, we need a long-term commitment to 
producing more American energy. Energy companies aren't going to invest 
if they think--and Joe Biden tells them and threatens them--that he 
wants to shut them down tomorrow. That is exactly, though, what he 
continues to talk about doing.
  So just last week, after the President gave a speech and said: Well, 
we need to at least do these leases, his climate czar, Gina McCarthy--I 
guess she must really be the one who is running the show down there in 
the White House. This is after the President of the United States made 
a speech about what he says we are going to do, you know. ``Pay no 
attention,'' she says, ``to the President.'' She said he is 
``absolutely committed to not moving forward with additional drilling 
on public lands.'' Who is calling the shots? She said: ``We had no 
choice but to follow the court ruling.''
  Then they asked the Press Secretary. She said last week: ``We are 
going to continue to fight this court [ruling]''--continue to fight--
``that is forcing our hand.''
  They are going to continue to fight the American people all the way 
to the ballot box in November, where the American people say, we have 
had enough of this stuff.
  Then there is Joe Biden's climate czar, John Kerry, former Member of 
this body, former Secretary of State. Here is just a couple of things 
that he has had to say recently. He said, ``We have to put the [natural 
gas] industry on notice.'' He said, ``You've got [no more than] six 
years, eight years, no more than 10 years,'' he said. He said, ``by 
2030 in the United States, we will not have coal plants.'' He says, 
``We will have to be phasing out coal plants five times faster'' than 
we are doing now.
  These are people who are not committed to affordable energy. These 
are people who are not committed to the fight against inflation. These 
are people who are not committed to the American people and the 
American families who go to work every day, try to put food on the 
table, try to get their kids to school. Oh, no.
  And what does John Kerry, then--who does he have to praise? Well, he 
praised the energy policy of the State of California. Which State has 
the highest energy cost in America? California. That is the Biden 
administration telling the American people, we want you to be like 
California. We want you to pay even more than you are paying now.
  Joe Biden and the environmental extremist who the President obeys are

[[Page S2180]]

doing everything they can to undermine investment in American energy. 
It is time for this White House to stop this war on American energy.
  The White House cannot get by--this country cannot get by when the 
White House does the bare minimum. This White House should be doing 
everything that we can to produce more American energy, bring down the 
costs for American families.
  Joe Biden needs to open up public lands for energy production. The 
Federal lands are the property of the American people. We have the 
resources. We have it in our country. We have it in the ground right 
now. This is a solution to the inflation crisis that is hitting 
families all across the country.

  There is no excuse for this administration to continue to block the 
American people from developing the resources that we have in order to 
bring down the costs, improve their lives.
  Joe Biden needs to approve the 4,600 drilling permit applications he 
currently has sitting on his desk. He needs to speed up the process for 
pipeline permits, not crush them. And he needs to stop attacking 
American energy workers. These workers, these are the people who keep 
the lights on in this country. These people are those who keep the 
economy running. These hard workers deserve our support. They deserve 
our gratitude. They don't deserve the way they are being treated by 
this administration and this President. These are the people who can 
help us get out of this crisis that Joe Biden has created.
  The American people are fed up with Joe Biden making excuses and 
dragging his feet. It is what I saw while walking here to the Senate 
floor on the television screen today: ``Joe Biden's approval rating 
hits an alltime low.''
  The American people want and demand real solutions. What they deserve 
is more American energy. And unless this administration wakes up and 
delivers that, those alltime low approval ratings of this President are 
going to get even worse.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Florida.