[Congressional Record Volume 168, Number 73 (Tuesday, May 3, 2022)]
[Senate]
[Page S2254]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                                 Energy

  Now, Mr. President, on another matter, an unfortunate routine keeps 
playing itself out with the Biden administration. First, they implement 
bad policies that create problems. Then they propose solutions that are 
really just more bad ideas.
  A case in point is inflation. Democrats spent last spring unleashing 
a deluge of reckless spending on our recovering economy. They spent the 
rest of the year trying to pull off yet another taxing-and-spending 
spree. Now they want to pass a massive tax hike while families are 
already hurting.
  Unfortunately, for the American people, the same thing is playing 
itself out in the world of energy policy. Since day one, the Biden 
administration has done its best to wage holy war on American domestic 
energy production. The predictable result, thanks to these policies and 
the broader inflation that Democrats have fueled, is that American 
families are hurting badly. Across the board, energy costs have risen 
nearly 32 percent in a year.
  But now comes the third part of the unfortunate routine: a slew of 
bad, far-left policy choices and proposals that would make the pain for 
the American people actually even worse. Some Democrats are pushing for 
a massive new tax on companies involved in developing and exporting 
American energy. The last time this wrongheaded idea was given legs, 
President Carter ended up reducing domestic production, increasing our 
foreign dependence, and raising Americans' prices at the pump.
  And over the last few weeks, the Biden administration took two more 
steps in the wrong direction. After ignoring Federal law by failing to 
award a single oil or gas development lease for five straight quarters, 
the administration has shrunk its land offering by 80 percent while 
jacking up its royalty rate by 50 percent. That is right. Democrats' 
response to supply shortages and sky-high prices at the pump is to make 
American energy even less available and even more expensive. Meanwhile, 
it has begun to tear up the regulatory reforms put in place under the 
last administration to streamline infrastructure project permitting.
  President Biden and his team struck the match on a historic surge in 
energy prices and are now making it even more--more--expensive for 
American producers to boost supply. They endorsed a bipartisan 
infrastructure bill and are now making it harder for American builders 
to get to work.
  And, of course, Democrats are still itching to resurrect their Green 
New Deal. In the midst of historic inflation, they want to jack costs 
up even further for consumers while making America wildly dependent on 
China and other regimes with abysmal environmental and labor standards.
  The same Democrats who don't want us responsibly exploring for oil 
and natural gas also don't want us responsibly exploring for critical 
minerals either and want to tie up American manufacturing in redtape. 
So the administration's war on American energy has left destruction in 
its wake. The only idea they have left to try is the one that would 
have worked from the beginning: Unleash--unleash--the abundant, 
affordable, and reliable supply we have got right here at home.
  I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The senior assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. THUNE. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for 
the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Padilla). Without objection, it is so 
ordered.