[Congressional Record Volume 168, Number 74 (Wednesday, May 4, 2022)]
[Senate]
[Pages S2296-S2297]
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 that we have here in this country for more energy--and 
specifically, more American energy.
  On Thursday, Leader Schumer and Nancy Pelosi held a press conference, 
and they announced they had finally come up with an energy plan. After 
nearly a year--a year of Joe Biden's energy crisis where he killed the 
Keystone XL Pipeline, struck down leasing--it is good to see they 
finally have a plan.
  It turns out this official Democrat energy plan is not going to 
create one more drop of American energy. So what will the plan do? 
Well, if you look at it, you will see it sends bureaucrats--unelected, 
unaccountable, heavy-handed bureaucrats--to shake down energy 
companies. Instead of producing more American energy, they want more 
Federal investigations into American energy.
  It won't lower the price of energy--no, not by a single penny. If 
anything, it might actually increase energy costs across our country. 
People in Wyoming this past weekend were paying $4 a gallon for 
gasoline. It doesn't take a Federal investigation to figure out what is 
wrong here with energy in America. We know why prices are up: supply 
and demand. Very simple. Demand for energy is up, and supply is not. 
Supply is actually down.
  Yet, after a year of high prices, Democrats still refuse to admit it, 
ignoring inflation, not facing the facts that we have the American 
energy in the ground here and they won't let us get it out.
  But now the Democrats are coming up with election-year conspiracy 
theories. They say high prices aren't happening because of the law of 
economics. They are saying it is happening because of secret backroom 
deals. Democrats claim it is an international conspiracy rigged by a 
global oil market.

[[Page S2297]]

Instead of producing American energy, Democrats want to produce 
excuses, one after another.
  At the Democrat press conference, the majority leader said: ``The 
American people didn't send us here to point fingers and blame each 
other.'' They ought to point fingers at themselves. That is exactly 
what the Democrat leader and the President have done for the last 15 
months since the day Joe Biden took office. They blamed inflation on 
coronavirus, then they blamed it on economic growth, then they blamed 
it on corporations, they blamed it on ports and shipping companies, 
they blamed it on Vladimir Putin, everyone except themselves who are 
the cause of the problem.
  They will blame anyone, as long as they don't have to change their 
radical and reckless policies. But they won't deal with the problem. 
Right now, Democrats basically point to the fact that they are 
determined to give the American people more of the same, and it is the 
same things that have brought Joe Biden's approval numbers to an 
alltime low--on the inflation, on economy, on the cost of energy--
alltime historic lows, for a President who should know better but is 
following the lead of the liberal radical left.
  So people are going to be facing more inflation, more high energy 
costs. And it now costs so much to fill up a tank of gasoline; it is 
over a hundred dollars to fill up, and I saw that repeatedly across 
Wyoming last weekend.
  This is the same level of anxiety for hard-working families at the 
end of every month when the paychecks don't keep up. On Sunday, just 
this past Sunday, the cost of diesel hit an alltime high. Not just a 
40-year high like we have for inflation, an alltime high for diesel 
fuel.
  Diesel prices have doubled since Joe Biden took office. Higher diesel 
prices means it will cost more to transport goods to market. Food 
prices are up; everything that one buys at the market is up. No matter 
how bad it gets, Democrats refuse to change course.
  Joe Biden continues to attack American energy and American energy 
workers. Right now, Joe Biden's administration are blocking oil and gas 
leases at 80 percent of the available Federal lands. There are 
thousands of drilling requests that are in limbo, which is where Joe 
Biden has put them.
  He has done everything possible, you would think, to undermine 
investment in American energy. Told the banks, don't lend. Told 
businesses, don't invest. An attack on direct--on jobs and affordable 
energy.
  If Democrats were really serious about lowering energy prices, they 
would stop their war on American energy. We need to unleash American 
energy, not keep it in the ground. Look, Democrats remain the party of 
higher costs, the party of expensive regulations, the party of high 
taxes, and the party of greater reliance on foreign countries.
  Working families cannot afford the Democratic agenda. People feel 
stuck or stressed. They are squeezed by inflation. They are squeezed by 
high energy prices. They have to make decisions about how they drive 
and how they eat and what they eat and how they live.
  The Democratic policies have brought us all of this. We need to 
replace the Democratic policies; and come November, we are going to 
replace the Democrats in the House and in the Senate.
  I yield the floor.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The Senator from Pennsylvania.
  Mr. CASEY. I ask unanimous consent to speak as if in morning 
business.
  The ACTING PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.