[Congressional Record Volume 168, Number 83 (Monday, May 16, 2022)]
[House]
[Pages H4973-H4974]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                          ENERGY INDEPENDENCE

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
California (Mr. LaMalfa) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. LaMALFA. Madam Speaker, it has become painfully obvious in recent 
months how important energy and the energy supply is in all aspects of 
our lives here in the United States and to our allies around the world.
  The effect of not enough energy indeed has been very harmful to our 
economy, yet we are at a space where

[[Page H4974]]

we have so much abundance, so much potential, and so much we were doing 
just before this administration came into place. We are sitting on the 
largest untapped oil reserve in the world--amazingly enough--here in 
the United States.
  If we had been utilizing this properly, instead of launching an 
assault on domestic energy production, our Union would be in a much 
better state. As we know, on the first day in office, President Biden 
shut down the Keystone Pipeline, on and off, on and off over the years, 
suspended pending oil and gas leases, halted domestic energy 
production, which stopped exports on liquefied natural gas to our 
allies overseas.
  We have seen how important that is when Europe has become so reliant 
on Russian natural gas. Poland recently just cut off supply buying from 
Russia so they would not be so dependent, as well as the Germans and 
other Eastern European countries.

  Now, what we have seen since all this lack of exploration and 
shortness of supply is the prices have skyrocketed on everybody. It is 
really hurting rural America, especially with the need for farming 
crops, fertilizer, all the different aspects that go into food 
production, and that in return causes food shortages.
  We are really putting ourselves in a bad, bad position by having a 
lack of energy policy or one that is really an anti-energy policy. We 
have seen the national average for a gallon of gas up to $4.48. In 
California, it is getting closer to $6 on average.
  What bothers me is that over time do people get lulled into this as 
being normal? No, folks, this is not normal, and it is not necessary. 
It doesn't need to be this way because, as I mentioned, we have so much 
untapped energy in this country. The miracle of hydraulic fracturing 
has made natural gas so abundant that we have been able to be a strong 
exporter of it.
  I remember not too many years ago we were figuring out, are we going 
to have to find a way to have our gas imported and upgrade our ports to 
bring it in? No. Hydraulic fracturing has made possible cheap natural 
gas to export to our allies, such as in Western Europe. We need to be 
doing much, much more of that so we don't have our friends, the 
Germans, and Poland, and others, that are reliant upon energy coming 
from Russia.
  With the regulatory and tax policies that have discouraged gas 
production, California only produces, for example, a fraction of what 
it is capable of when it was once one of the leading oil and gas-
producing States.
  What would our Nation look like if we were producing to our full 
potential? It would probably look a lot like what we were 15-16 months 
ago when we had abundance in everything; energy, and food wasn't 
emptying off the shelves. We would be in a much better space.
  Indeed, these short-sighted policies are harming regular, everyday 
Americans. Food production, I can't emphasize enough, when we are 
running short on the shelves already--and this is before the 2022 crop 
has even been completely planted or come in--in my home State of 
California, probably half of agriculture is going to be shut down: half 
of agriculture. Why? Water policy. With that lack of water policy, all 
the water rushing out to the ocean in order to try to save an already 
missing fish or something called Delta salinity, we are not going to 
plant half of our agriculture in our home State. That has effects on 
American food: costs, availability, and quality.
  Are we just going to import it all? No, it is not going to work that 
way. It all strings together. It is all interrelated. With that water 
policy, it also negatively affects energy because we are not going to 
make hydroelectric power like we can.
  This administration is hell-bent on getting rid of some of our dams 
in California and others around the West that make hydroelectric power. 
Hydroelectric power is CO2-free, no carbon dioxide. Our last 
nuclear power plant in California, they want to shut that down; 
CO2-free.
  The energy policy on all different aspects is collapsing. Indeed, 20 
percent of the Nation's power is from nuclear source, and about 25 
percent of that power is threatened, that it will be shut down within 
the next 10 or 15 years if things aren't done to make up for that. We 
need an energy policy that makes sense.

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