[Congressional Record Volume 168, Number 115 (Wednesday, July 13, 2022)]
[Senate]
[Pages S3256-S3259]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                          Biden Administration

  Mr. GRASSLEY. Madam President, over the July 4 recess of Congress, I 
held Q&A's in 17 counties as part of my annual 99 county meetings. The 
need for energy independence and the concerns over soaring gas prices 
were raised at nearly every meeting. As an example, at Woodford 
Equipment in Emmetsburg, IA, farmers raised their concerns over the 
high cost of diesel and their pricey commutes to work at that business 
caused by President Biden's failed energy policies.
  Today is a very difficult time for American families and businesses, 
with gas and diesel prices at record highs--more than doubling since 
President Biden took office. Americans who drive every day are feeling 
the impact of an administration that is making it harder to drill and 
refine fossil fuels.
  President Biden has stated that it is the administration's goal to 
have half of the Nation's vehicles be electric by the year 2030. The 
Energy Secretary

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has said that to beat the high gas prices, Americans should purchase 
electric vehicles. Now, that is practically impossible for most 
families because the average price of an electric vehicle, according to 
Kelley Blue Book, is $56,000. That happens to be roughly equivalent to 
Iowa's median family income.
  Even if having half of all cars be electric by 2030 were attainable--
which, of course, it isn't--that presents yet another real problem. 
Large swaths of the United States' electrical grid are at risk for 
shortfall this summer. In May, the North American Electric Reliability 
Corporation released its summer reliability assessment. They identified 
the West and Midwest as being at heightened risk for energy shortfalls. 
The farm where I live near Cedar Falls, IA, is served by Cedar Falls 
municipal electricity, and this is the first time in my life that I 
have ever gotten a warning from that electric company that we could 
have brownouts. So if all cars were electric, the United States would 
need roughly 25 percent more electricity than it does today. We simply 
cannot add that many electric vehicles to the grid.
  While gas prices have gone through the roof, energy prices are not 
far behind. From June last year until May this year, the Consumer Price 
Index for electricity rose 12 percent. That is the largest increase in 
the past 15 years.
  With reliability concerns increasing this summer and energy prices 
rising, Democrats still continue to pursue their Green New Deal agenda. 
There continue to be rumors of another massive tax-and-spending spree 
passed on a partisan vote that would push prices even higher.

  It is past time for Democrats in Congress and the White House to 
rethink our Nation's energy policy. Instead of becoming more like 
Europe, the United States must have an ``all of the above'' strategy. 
Our country has bountiful resources for energy generation. I am very 
proud of Iowa, a State that produces over 60 percent of its electricity 
from wind, but I know that this does not work in every State of the 
Nation. Fossil fuels still account for 60 percent of electricity 
generated in the United States.
  Instead of focusing on domestic energy production, the President and 
his administration have caved to environmentalists in shaping our 
energy policies. Utilities and energy companies are up to the task to 
provide affordable energy to all Americans. Every year, these companies 
are becoming cleaner and reducing our carbon footprint. Nevertheless, 
Washington continues to layer regulation upon regulation, making costs 
go up.
  Between new requirements on banking, blocking new oil leases, and 
blocking key pipelines, Democrats in Congress seem determined to 
inflict pain at the pump and also on our energy bills. The world has 
dramatically changed since President Biden took office. Democrats need 
to adjust their priorities and stop this madness.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Florida.
  Mr. SCOTT of Florida. Madam President, I am here today, along with my 
Republican colleagues, because American families are suffering. Florida 
families are suffering at the hand of the Biden administration's war on 
energy independence.
  Last month, I heard about a church in St. Petersburg--just south of 
Tampa--that makes hot meals for those who have fallen on tough times. 
Like many other churches across the country, they started making the 
meals for Thanksgiving, but this church decided to keep it going, and 
since, they have made thousands of hot meals for families. Here is the 
problem: Fewer people are coming because those families who need the 
food now can't even afford to make the trip because gas is so 
expensive. The poorest families in my State are having to make the 
impossible choice of sacrificing a hot meal because they can't afford 
to put gas in their cars.
  I want to reiterate this point because I want my Democrat colleagues 
who, like Joe Biden, think inflation is a ``high-class problem'' or 
some ``incredible transition'' to understand the gravity of this 
administration's inflation crisis. Families in my State of Florida are 
having to turn down an opportunity for a free hot meal because they 
can't afford the gas to get over to the church and get it.
  It makes me furious to see this happening in my State and all across 
our country, all the while, while Joe Biden does nothing to fix it. He 
has done nothing.
  As of today, the average price of a gallon of gas is $4.63. The day 
Joe Biden took office, gas was averaging $2.37 per gallon. According to 
the U.S. Energy Information Administration, in 15 different months of 
Joe Biden's Presidency, the national average for gas prices has risen. 
But the Democrats up here don't seem to care.
  You all remember how last month the senior Senator from Michigan 
explained during a hearing of the Finance Committee that, unlike her 
constituents, she doesn't worry about gas prices because she has the 
means to afford an electric car. She actually said that. Then, when she 
gets to work in Washington, she gets to charge her car at the Capitol 
for free, while taxpayers foot the bill. Good for her, but that is not 
a realistic solution for the millions of Americans suffering under the 
Biden administration's failed energy policy.
  Democrats in Washington know the effect these high prices are having, 
and they are celebrating because their radically progressive campaign 
against energy independence is working. But Americans are not 
celebrating; they are struggling.
  Unlike the liberal elites running our government, I am not going to 
stand for it. That is why earlier this year I introduced the FREE 
American Energy Act, to expedite the Federal Agencies' review process 
of applications for permits, waivers, licenses, or other authorizations 
related to energy production. It is why I have introduced the GAS PRICE 
Act. It would direct the Energy Information Administration to report to 
Congress any policy or rule set by the Biden administration which 
raises energy costs for American families. I even asked the Senate to 
pass the GAS PRICE Act by unanimous consent this past October, but 
Senate Democrats blocked its passage. It is as if they want to keep 
Americans in the dark on why energy prices are rising.
  We also need to speed up the approval process for oil permitting, and 
Americans need to know that this administration is purposely trying to 
make life more difficult and more expensive. We have the resources 
within our borders to be energy independent and for everyday life to be 
affordable.
  While we are ramping up American production, we need to completely 
halt sales of U.S. oil to communist China. That is right--while gas 
prices remain sky-high here, the Biden administration is still giving a 
green light for American oil to be sold to our enemies, like communist 
China. That is hard to believe.
  I was proud to join with my friend and fellow Floridian, Senator 
Marco Rubio, to introduce the China Oil Export Prohibition Act last 
month to stop these sales. We shouldn't be helping our enemies or 
asking foreign nations to increase supply. We should be increasing our 
American supply within our borders. We did it during the Trump 
administration, and we can do it again.
  Joe Biden can roll back the countless regulations he instituted that 
are hurting our domestic production. The White House, the EPA, and the 
Department of the Interior, and the Department of Energy can end their 
campaign against American oil producers and start working to create an 
agenda of energy independence.
  Congress can pass my legislation to make oil permitting faster and 
give greater transparency into the impact legislation from Congress has 
on energy prices. We don't have to throw up our hands and do nothing 
and give up. Joe Biden and the Democrats who control Washington can and 
must take real action to start producing energy within our borders 
safely once again. Our future is bleak if we don't.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from North Dakota.
  Mr. HOEVEN. Madam President, I come to the floor today, along with my 
colleagues, because Americans are continuing to take a financial hit 
with more expensive, less reliable energy resulting from the Biden 
administration's harmful energy agenda.
  In the middle of the summer travel season, drivers are paying record-
high

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prices at the gas pump. Gas is now $4.63 a gallon nationwide and an 
average of $4.57 per gallon in my home State of North Dakota. Sky-high 
energy prices are fueling record inflation, driving up the cost of 
goods across the entire economy.
  The current CPI rate came out this morning--9.1 percent--9.1 percent, 
the highest in over 40 years. And it hurts every single American--at 
the gas pump, at the grocery store, everything they buy. Unbelievable.
  Of course, energy is a big part of that inflation. There is an energy 
component in every good and service that you get. Electricity prices 
have risen 13.7 percent. Natural gas and heating oil prices have 
ballooned by 38.4 percent and 98.5 percent, respectively, over the last 
year.
  In addition to higher prices, the North American Electric Reliability 
Corporation, or NERC, warned that homes and businesses across much of 
the country are facing higher risk of blackouts and brownouts this 
summer. President Biden's energy policies are threatening the economic 
well-being of Americans and our national security.
  Just a few years ago, our country was producing almost 13 million 
barrels per day of oil and consumers benefited from historically low 
energy prices. Production has remained down under this administration 
at about 11\1/2\ million barrels of production per day. American 
families are paying record prices because the Biden administration is 
continuing its regulatory onslaught on domestic energy production.
  President Biden's energy crisis began with the administration's 
moratorium on new energy leases, closing off access to our abundant 
taxpayer-owned energy reserves on Federal lands. And for leases that 
the energy companies have on Federal lands, they are being held up 
either by the administration's bureaucratic redtape that doesn't allow 
them to get drilling permits or held up by litigation in the courts. 
And this 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, I led a bipartisan effort in Congress to approve 
the Keystone XL Pipeline. If the Obama-Biden administration hadn't 
vetoed our bill which passed both Houses of Congress, this pipeline 
would be operating today and bringing almost a million barrels of oil a 
day to our country from our closest friend and ally Canada.

  We need to unleash more of our vast energy, our oil and natural gas 
reserves, all the energy that this Nation produces--our most critical, 
economic, and national security assets. And if we want to truly cut off 
the Russian war machine and support our allies, we need to cut off 
Putin's ability to sell Russian energy.
  A good start would be by passing legislation like my American Energy 
Independence From Russia Act, bicameral legislation that I introduced 
with nine of my colleagues in the Senate. Our commonsense approach 
takes immediate action to encourage more U.S. energy production, 
including things like increasing access to taxpayer-owned energy 
reserves on Federal land, authorizing the construction and operation of 
the Keystone XL Pipeline--vital infrastructure to move energy safely 
around the country--and removing regulatory hurdles to increase 
liquefied natural gas facilities and exports.
  Each additional barrel of oil we produce here at home replaces 
production from Russia and other adversaries, countries that also have 
little to no environmental standards. Each additional barrel we produce 
at home helps reduce prices and lower inflation for the American 
people.
  Instead of asking Saudi Arabia for help--and as you know, the 
President is on a trip to do that right now--or going to places or 
asking for help from adversaries like Iran or for energy from 
Venezuela, President Biden should be empowering our domestic producers 
to restore and grow our supply of energy here at home.
  The solution is simple. The Biden administration needs to take the 
handcuffs off domestic energy production because more supply is needed 
to bring down prices. That is just common sense, and the American 
people know it. The American people need that relief now.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Wyoming.
  Mr. BARRASSO. Madam President, first I would like to associate myself 
with the remarks from the distinguished senior Senator from North 
Dakota who spoke so well about the issues that are facing the American 
people, both in terms of inflation and in terms of energy.
  So I join my colleagues today on the floor to talk about this crisis 
that we are facing under the Presidency of Joe Biden and the Democrats 
in this body.
  We found out this morning that inflation hit another record high, a 
40-year high, and we are now entering a summer of suffering by the 
American people, suffering brought on by the Democrats and their 
reckless spending and policies.
  The inflation numbers themselves are shocking. The impact on families 
is so, so disturbing. In my home State of Wyoming, the people that 
normally volunteer to drive meals to shut-ins on Meals on Wheels--who 
run some of those rural routes and drive around and drop off meals--
these are volunteers with time on their hands, senior citizens who do 
the driving. They are no longer able to do it because they cannot 
afford the gas under Joe Biden and the Democratic policies.
  The day Joe Biden came into office, gas was $2.38 per gallon--plenty 
of volunteers paying their own gas. Today, the price has almost doubled 
what it was when Joe Biden came into office.
  That is what the American people are seeing: pain at the pump and 
pain at the grocery store. And the numbers are disturbing, and people 
are falling further and further behind. Inflation is up 9 percent, but 
wages are only up 5 percent, so that gap is growing and people are 
hurting.
  It doesn't seem the President even understands it or can conceive of 
it, but that is who we have representing the people in the White House 
today.
  Over the last 4 months, working families have paid the highest gas 
prices in American history. The price of natural gas has also tripled 
since the day Joe Biden took office. In total, the average American 
family paid an additional $1,000 last year just for energy compared to 
the year before, and this year it is going to be a lot worse.

  Now, it is the summer. Most Americans are facing the real possibility 
of blackouts. Two-thirds of Americans are likely to face energy 
blackouts. That is not me saying it; it is the energy specialists who 
analyze where the energy is coming from, how much is needed, and where 
it is going.
  During a summer heat wave, blackouts threaten people's lives. To the 
climate purists and elitists and extremists who are running the 
administration, they don't seem to care. So why is it happening? 
America still has plenty of energy--the best energy in the world--and 
the most. We have some of the largest energy reserves anywhere. States 
like Wyoming, where I am from, are sitting on a gold mine of energy. 
The Biden energy crisis is a direct result of the administration's 
energy policies.
  From the day Joe Biden took office, he has waged an all-out war on 
American energy. He killed the Keystone XL Pipeline--actually bragged 
about the fact that he did that on his first day in office. He stopped 
the exploration of oil in Alaska and bragged about it. It wasn't 
something he was trying to hide. No, he bragged about the fact that he 
was going to war with America. American energy was in his targets.
  Joe Biden has raised the cost to produce energy on Federal land by 50 
percent. This is the largest increase in what they call the royalty 
rate in 100 years--100 years. Does Joe Biden understand that? Does he 
know that? Does he care that people are suffering all around the 
country? No wonder we are still producing 1.1 million fewer barrels of 
oil today than we were at the beginning of the pandemic.
  Joe Biden refuses to do the things that would work. He refuses to 
produce more American energy.
  What did the administration say about it? What did the economists 
say? This is the cost of the liberal world order. This is the price we 
have to pay for the liberal world order. That is the White House's 
statement. I don't even know people who talk that way anymore, but that 
is what we got coming out of this White House and this President who 
today, at this very moment,

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is heading to Saudi Arabia to beg for oil when we have it right here. 
It is more than disturbing. It is disgraceful. That is what we have 
with the President of the United States today.
  So now what is happening? Joe Biden throwing another Hail Mary pass, 
hoping something will happen. His Hail Mary passes are uncatchable.
  Since November, Joe Biden has released more oil from our strategic 
reserve than any President in American history. The Strategic Petroleum 
Reserve is designed to be there for emergencies. He is releasing it 
because he is trying to bring down the cost of oil and the cost of gas. 
And he caused the problem. It is not an emergency. This was a Joe 
Biden-caused problem. Previous Presidents only used the Strategic 
Reserve during wartime or after natural disasters. But Joe Biden is 
spending down our savings to pay for his anti-American energy policy. 
He seems to be proud of it. Well, gas prices are still near record 
highs.
  Let's recount: the day Joe Biden came into the White House, $2.38 a 
gallon; today, in many places, over $5 a gallon and on average, $4.60 a 
gallon. And the peak summer driving season isn't even here yet.
  Today, the Strategic Reserve is at the lowest level since 1986. So 
what if there is a real emergency? Then what do we do? This last week, 
we found out that some of this energy, the oil he has reserved--a 
million barrels of oil--went to an energy company owned by the Chinese 
Government. Thank you, Mr. President. Surrender to China. Give it to 
them. Joe Biden is sending our oil to China in the middle of an energy 
crisis that he created.
  So, on Monday, Joe Biden's National Security Advisor practically 
admitted that Joe Biden is going to beg the Saudis to sell us more oil. 
He left for Saudi Arabia last night, and he is going as a weakened 
President.
  He wrote an editorial in the Washington Post about why he was going. 
I will tell you how he is going: He is going as a weakened President, 
weakened at home and weakened in the eyes of the world.
  Rather than send oil to China and money to the Saudis, let us use the 
energy we have right here in the United States in the ground, where we 
do it in the finest environmental ways compared to the rest of the 
world and we have the energy workers who know how to do it.
  What is he thinking?
  At the same time, astonishingly, Joe Biden decided to spend the time 
around the Fourth of July tweeting threats to gas stations. For the 
moms and pops who are running little gas stations in our communities 
and our neighborhoods, this is basic economic illiteracy. Prices aren't 
set by the local gas stations; prices are set by supply and demand. If 
you want low prices, you need more supply, more American energy.

  The prices may have ticked back a little bit now because people 
cannot afford to drive. They can't afford to fill their tanks. They 
cannot afford to fill their tanks.
  I was at a gas station the other day in Casper, WY, and I talked to a 
couple.
  One of them said: I have $100. That is as far as I can go. I can only 
fill it with $100 worth. I can't fill the tank. I will see how much gas 
I get.
  What have we come to?
  Joe Biden brags about killing the Keystone XL Pipeline, which would 
have brought over 800,000 barrels of oil a day to the United States. He 
killed it on day 1 in office and bragged about it.
  The Democrats in the Senate are now proposing to make the Biden 
energy crisis even worse. Senate Democrats in this very body, in this 
very room, are talking about raising taxes on energy production. This 
is going to raise energy prices for half of the households in America. 
It will raise prices for thousands and thousands of businesses. Higher 
prices will get passed on to customers.
  If Democrats pass another reckless tax-and-spending bill--and it 
looks like they are all lined up to do it, save one or two--inflation 
is going to get much worse, and working families will be paying more. 
If I were one of those Democratic Senators and were on the ballot this 
November, I would be shaking in my boots, knowing that the people of my 
State are mad at me for adopting policies that are hurting them 
directly in their wallets.
  What they are talking about is $300 billion for more of the old Green 
New Deal. It is going to give more power to the climate alarmists, to 
the climate elitists, and to the climate extremists, who run the 
Democratic Party and are running it into the ground. The professional 
climate activists will never be satisfied. The activists will never 
stop. You can never go far enough for them. They weren't satisfied a 
year ago when they started this inflation crisis, and with the liberal 
world order, they will never be satisfied. The professional activists 
want energy prices to remain high. They are happy with $5 gas. They 
want to punish us for using fossil fuels.
  Joe Biden's advisers keep telling us about this incredible 
transition. They call it an incredible transition. Well, ask people 
around the country and in your home State. It has been a transition to 
a crisis: a transition to higher prices, a transition to a lower 
quality of life, to pain at the pump, and to pain at the grocery store. 
It has been a transition to stress for working people and families who 
feel stuck and squeezed. If Democrats don't change their energy 
policies, there is going to be an incredible transition. It is going to 
be a transition of power right here in Washington this November.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Colorado.
  (The remarks of Mr. BENNET pertaining to the introduction of S. 4513 
are printed in today's Record under ``Statements on Introduced Bills 
and Joint Resolutions.'')
  Mr. BENNET. I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Wisconsin.