[Congressional Record Volume 168, Number 79 (Wednesday, May 11, 2022)]
[Senate]
[Pages S2432-S2433]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                               Inflation

  Mr. HOEVEN. Mr. President, I come to the floor today to talk about 
inflation and the impact it is having on American citizens across the 
board and particularly energy prices and how the energy policy of the 
Biden administration is a big part of the problem in terms of creating 
the inflation that we face.
  I once again urge the Biden administration to reverse course on its 
harmful energy agenda and instead take the handcuffs off our domestic 
energy producers.
  Americans are struggling to afford to fill their tanks and to keep 
the lights on. Higher energy prices are fueling record inflation. We 
saw the latest statistic of 8.3 percent, which is driving up the costs 
of goods across the entire economy.
  Yesterday, gasoline prices hit an alltime high of $4.37 a gallon 
nationwide, and gas is up to an average of $4.06 a gallon in my home 
State of North Dakota. Today, gas prices are even higher. That is about 
an 80-percent increase since President Biden was inaugurated, and that 
increase--the vast majority of that increase came before Russia invaded 
Ukraine.
  Two years ago, our country was producing almost 13 million barrels 
per day of oil. Today, our country is producing about 11.3 million 
barrels a day--again, a direct result of the Biden administration's 
energy policies making it more difficult to produce energy in America.
  President Biden's Green New Deal policies and hostile approach to 
American oil and gas have curtailed production, and Americans are 
paying for it every day. It began with the administration's moratorium 
on new energy leases--closing off access to our abundant, taxpayer-
owned energy reserves.
  The administration continues to hold up our ability to move more oil 
and gas across the country by blocking pipelines like the Keystone XL 
Pipeline. In 2015, the Senate and the House passed my bill, S. 1, to 
approve the Keystone XL Pipeline. If the Obama-Biden administration had 
not vetoed that bill, this pipeline would have been bringing in more 
than 800,000 barrels of oil a day from our closest friend and ally, 
Canada.
  We have stranded natural gas resources in North Dakota and in other 
parts of the country, like West Virginia and Pennsylvania, because we 
can't get the permits to build the gathering systems and the pipelines 
to get it to market, let alone to our allies. We need LNG facilities to 
help our allies in Western Europe and to help Ukraine as they continue 
their valiant fight against Russian aggression.
  If we really want to cut off the Russian war machine, we need to cut 
off their ability to sell energy, and that means once again embracing 
our Nation's most critical economic and national security assets--our 
country's vast oil and gas reserves. A good start would be to pass my 
American Energy Independence from Russia Act, which is bicameral 
legislation that I introduced with nine of my colleagues in the Senate. 
Our commonsense approach takes immediate action in encouraging U.S. 
energy production, including increasing access to taxpayer-owned energy 
reserves on Federal lands, authorizing the construction and operation 
of the Keystone XL Pipeline, and removing regulatory hurdles to 
increase liquefied natural gas exports.
  North Dakota and other energy-producing States can and should be 
empowered to unleash the full potential of our abundant oil and gas and 
coal reserves as well--all of these resources.

[[Page S2433]]

No one does it with better environmental stewardship than we do here in 
America, and we need to produce that energy here in America.
  It is long past time for the Biden administration to get out of the 
way and take the handcuffs off American energy production. Producing 
more energy here at home is the solution to helping lower energy costs 
and providing hard-working families with relief from rising inflation.
  I saw that either the President or one of his spokesmen talked about 
the large amount of energy costs and inflation. Well, we have a 
solution for that. Why isn't the administration taking steps so that we 
can produce more energy here at home? That is what needs to happen, and 
that will benefit every single consumer across this great Nation.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Padilla). The Senator from Nebraska.