[Congressional Record Volume 169, Number 18 (Friday, January 27, 2023)]
[House]
[Pages H472-H473]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                   ENERGY INDEPENDENCE IN PERPETUITY

  (Ms. KAPTUR asked and was given permission to address the House for 1

[[Page H473]]

minute and to revise and extend her remarks.)
  Ms. KAPTUR. Mr. Speaker, today, I rise in opposition to H.R. 21.
  A top U.S. security priority must be energy independence in 
perpetuity.
  We know high oil prices hit working families hard. Last year, the 
Biden administration rightly released oil from the Strategic Petroleum 
Reserve, and oil prices dropped $1.69 a gallon in my area.
  Unfortunately, the bill we had debated adds layers of bureaucracy--
four agencies and departments thick--limiting our progress to stabilize 
prices.
  America must have an all-of-the-above energy profile. Here is yet 
another handout to Big Oil. It forces the leasing of additional lands 
to oil companies while vast amounts of current federally leased land 
sites are already going unused.
  Leasing land is not the same as production.
  H.R. 21 would hamstring our ability to protect people and companies 
from spiking gasoline prices.
  I fought hard to save the Strategic Petroleum Reserve when others 
here tried to decommission it. American energy security means national 
independence. We should settle for no less.

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