[Congressional Record Volume 170, Number 49 (Wednesday, March 20, 2024)]
[House]
[Pages H1275-H1279]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                          ENERGY INDEPENDENCE
                              {time} 1715

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Miller of Ohio). Under the Speaker's 
announced policy of January 9, 2023, the gentleman from Utah (Mr. 
Moore) is recognized for 60 minutes as the designee of the majority 
leader.


                             General Leave

  Mr. MOORE of Utah. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all 
Members may have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their 
remarks and include extraneous material on the topic of this Special 
Order.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the 
gentleman from Utah?
  There was no objection.
  Mr. MOORE of Utah. Mr. Speaker, I am grateful to be joined tonight by 
several of my colleagues who are doing excellent work to counter many 
of the misguided policy decisions made by the Biden administration that 
are costing American families.
  From pushing legislation that fights back against the Biden 
administration's war on energy to creating a more sustainable Federal 
budgeting process, House Republicans are looking out for the American 
family and the American worker.
  This is energy week. It is an opportunity for us to be able to 
highlight two different philosophies, and that is what you are going to 
hear a lot from my colleagues on, Mr. Speaker. We have also heard from 
other folks on the other side of the aisle who have literally put up a 
sign that says: polluters over people.
  It is clear that there are two different philosophies about 
addressing this, Mr. Speaker. You can showcase that as American energy 
organizations we are going to do it better and we are going to do it 
cleaner than the rest of the world. By signaling that, we are able to 
effectively lower costs for American families.
  What they have gone through over the last 3 years with historic 
prices and costs in the energy world is not putting people first. That 
is just categorically and completely disingenuous. There is a much more 
productive way to address this.
  We harp on this a lot, but when we indicate and we showcase we are 
going to invest and that we are going to continue to embrace our 
ability to lead on this and bring our allies along with us, then we are 
able to weaken other adversaries across the world.
  There are so many angles to this, from national security to domestic 
policy. It makes so much sense. I am thrilled to be able to hear from 
many of my colleagues on this issue.
  I strongly believe that winning the future will take an optimistic 
and conservative approach, and we are committed to righting wrongs of 
the Biden administration and will continue to champion policies that 
allow American families to thrive.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield to the distinguished gentleman from the great 
State of South Carolina (Mr. Duncan).
  Mr. DUNCAN. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding, and I 
thank him for doing this Special Order hour on energy.
  Mr. Speaker, there is no national security without energy security. I 
didn't come up with that. The Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff 
said that, and Americans know it.
  Energy is foundation to everything in American life. Americans really 
take our energy for granted. They expect the lights to come on when 
they flip the switch, they expect their refrigerator to have a cold 
beverage in it, and they demand that they have affordable energy.
  Whether it is power generation or transportation fuels, the gas and 
diesel fuel that they put in their cars to travel to work to earn the 
income that is taxed by this government or to take their kids to school 
or attend a ball game or go to their house of worship, they know now 
that they are paying more for their transportation fuels than they were 
before the Biden administration. They know now that they are paying 
higher utility rates than they were before the Biden administration.
  So, Mr. Speaker, you have to ask yourself: Why?
  It is because President Biden on day one declared war on energy. 
Actually, before day one, on the campaign trail, he was going to end 
fracking. He was going to target the fossil fuel industry, and he did.
  On day one, they canceled the Keystone pipeline that would bring 
Canadian oil down to the refineries in the United States to be refined 
into all of the miraculous products that come out of a barrel of oil or 
hydrocarbons. It is not just gasoline and diesel fuel, but it is all 
sorts of miraculous products that help us have items like these 
glasses. These are things that help make our homes safer and things we 
utilize to make our lives better.
  He ended the oil and gas leases on Federal land both offshore and 
onshore.
  Just recently, because he was required by law to do so, they issued a 
5-year drilling plan on Federal lands offshore on the OCS. In that 5-
year plan they issued a plan that will only have three lease cells, the 
fewest lease cells on the OCS, the Outer Continental Shelf, and the 
Gulf of Mexico in the history of the country.
  There is no leasing off the coast of Alaska. They don't want us to go 
after the National Petroleum Reserve, the oil and gas that is in Alaska 
in a small sliver of property set aside for energy production to help 
Americans lower their energy costs.

[[Page H1276]]

  Before Biden came into office, America was a net exporter of oil. We 
have so much natural gas in this country that it is immeasurable. That 
means we can't really tell you how much it is, Mr. Speaker, because it 
is so much. America could be, once again, a leader of exporting oil and 
natural gas.
  Now, the Democrats are going to say that it was Putin's price hike. 
When gas prices went up it was because Vladimir Putin invaded Ukraine. 
Yes, that caused some volatility in the world that affected gas prices, 
but gas prices and energy prices in general already were on the rise 
before Putin invaded Ukraine because of the Biden policies and their 
attack on American energy production.
  There are four things we have to think about when we think about 
energy production and energy in this country, and that is production. 
Let's produce the resources that we have in oil and gas in the 
Marcellus shale formation, the Permian Basin, off the coast of Alaska, 
onshore in Alaska, other Federal lands, and in the Gulf of Mexico. 
Anywhere we can find those resources, let's produce those but then we 
have to deliver those resources, and that is where pipelines come in.
  Pipelines deliver resources in the safest mode and manner, whether it 
is liquid fuel or gas, than any other mode of transportation of those 
resources. We can produce those resources and deliver those resources 
either to the refinery to be refined into the miraculous products that 
we have in oil and gasoline, but then utilize those resources to 
produce that electricity that we talked about 1 minute ago that 
Americans expect.
  We don't have intermittent power here in this country. They do in 
South Africa, and they do in many places in Europe where at certain 
times during the day the power is not on. It goes off. They have a 
brownout and a blackout.
  The Democrats' policies are doing away with reliable and dispatchable 
energy such as oil and gas and natural gas-fired generators. They are 
moving more toward renewables. I don't know a Republican on our side of 
the aisle who doesn't like renewable energy.
  I like the fact we can harness the sun and harness the wind and 
create energy. I think it is groovy. Nonetheless, I also know that in 
South Carolina we have renewables. We have solar generation in South 
Carolina.
  Guess what, Mr. Speaker?
  It starts at zero every day, but when the sun comes up it starts 
generating power.
  Guess what, Mr. Speaker?
  When the sun goes down, then it goes back to zero. It starts at zero 
and ends at zero every day so that at least one-half of the day, solar 
isn't producing any energy, and the utilities need to provide that 
energy that we expect, so they need to have dispatchable energy, stuff 
that they can ramp up and down and draw on when it is needed. That is 
why natural gas-fired power plants are so important in this Nation as a 
supplemental to the renewables or renewable is supplemental to gas to 
save money.
  Nonetheless, we need to produce more resources here in this country. 
We need to deliver those through pipelines. We have a tremendous need 
to build our pipeline infrastructure in this country to send those 
resources to where they can be utilized by the utilities or the 
refineries for the products that we need; produce, deliver, and 
utilize.
  Be that as it may, then we have such an abundance of natural gas that 
we could help improve the quality of lives of folks all around the 
globe by exporting American-produced and cleaner burning natural gas to 
help folks in Africa finally have stable and reliable electric 
generation. There is energy poverty in this world, and we could help 
solve that by exporting cleaner burning, American-produced natural gas 
that burns cleaner than any other natural gas.
  It definitely burns cleaner than Russian gas. When Vladimir Putin 
invaded Ukraine, Europe looked West to the United States and said: Send 
us your gas. Send us your LNG so we can lessen our dependence on a 
foreign adversary, Russia.
  Actually, Mr. Speaker, U.S. gas burns cleaner so you are helping your 
carbon emissions as well, if you approach it that way. However, because 
of the Biden policies, they couldn't count on the United States. We 
just saw a pause in LNG terminal permitting.
  What did they do?
  They looked to Norway, and Norway built a pipeline across the ocean 
to Poland in 1 year's time.
  Mr. Speaker, imagine building a pipeline in this country in 1 year's 
time that length and that magnitude.
  We need to export more LNG. We need to help our friends and allies 
around the globe, help American energy producers create American jobs, 
and help the climate because American gas has actually helped us lower 
our carbon emissions in this country. We can continue to do that 
through cleaner burning natural gas and something that is dispatchable 
that will always be there and always be on.
  This is energy week, and we have approached a number of things. We 
just had a big markup on the Pipeline Safety, Modernization, and 
Expansion Act where we can actually start building out pipelines and 
improving pipelines that are in existing rights-of-way and providing 
that resource to the utilities that much need it.
  In energy week, we just passed a no fracking bill so that future 
Presidents and this President can't ban fracking in this country 
because fracking has actually helped our energy revolution.
  There is so much we can do, and I can tell you, Mr. Speaker, 
Republicans are focused on returning America to energy dominance to 
lower your prices at the pump, to lower your utility bills, and provide 
reliable, affordable, and cleaner energy in this country for moms, 
dads, and businesses so that America can be successful.
  We do it starting with energy, because if we don't have low energy 
prices, then I promise you, Mr. Speaker, you are paying more at the 
grocery store and at other retailers because most goods around this 
country are transported by something that runs on diesel fuel.
  Diesel fuel is a product of refining that fossil fuel we produce 
here. However, when diesel fuel goes up, that cost is passed on to the 
consumer. That is why we are paying higher prices. It is because the 
Biden administration has driven up energy prices in this country and 
limited our production in this country.
  This has hurt us on the global stage because countries are going to 
get energy from somewhere, and they will get it from adversarial 
countries like China, Russia, Iran, or Venezuela when they can get 
energy from the United States.
  We can be a global leader again. We will be, and I look forward to 
the day that America reasserts its dominance in the energy sector.
  I appreciate the gentleman for yielding to me today, and we are going 
to continue to focus on American energy.
  Mr. MOORE of Utah. I appreciate the gentleman from South Carolina. 
Good energy policy is groovy, so I thank the gentleman for bringing 
that up.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from the first district of 
California (Mr. LaMalfa).
  Mr. LaMALFA. Mr. Speaker, I thank Mr. Moore for yielding.
  Mr. Speaker, energy really is the cornerstone of a modern economy and 
a modern country, and the United States has been able to be a great 
innovator for so many decades on improving our lot with energy, and, 
indeed, exporting civilization to the rest of the world. Energy 
modernizes us and makes people more easily able to feed themselves, 
clothe themselves, withstand disaster and not have to have every heat 
wave or cold wave be a disastrous loss of life due to our ability to 
harness and produce energy that works for us.
  Energy independence is something that just a few short years ago we 
were largely achieving finally under President Trump. Over the last 3 
years, that has unraveled. That independence along with our food 
security is, indeed, what makes us strong so we can withstand outside 
threats. Those two items really go hand in hand.
  I wish President Biden would realize that and not have the cabal 
behind him that is doing everything it can to unwind all the progress 
and all the good things that have been made in recent decades to make 
the country so strong previously.
  We need to have decisive action to renew our economic vitality 
instead of more damage. Instead of supporting

[[Page H1277]]

our farmers and ensuring a stable food supply, it appears agriculture 
and its industry of feeding our Nation has turned into a partisan issue 
somehow leaving farmers and ranchers to fend for themselves in an 
increasingly hostile business and regulatory atmosphere.

                              {time}  1730

  Costs of inputs--just a couple of years ago, we saw the cost of 
fertilizer triple and the cost of fuel triple. In my real life, I am a 
farmer at home. I saw it firsthand.
  That has to be passed along. Otherwise, there is no longer a farmer 
there to produce those items if they do not make at least some level of 
profit.
  As we work through these challenges to the agriculture sector, 
hopefully with a farm bill here that we can get heard next month and 
passed along to the Senate, we need to understand the far-reaching 
implications of Biden anti-American energy policies because that ties 
right back in. Agriculture in this country is really dependent on a 
good source of energy: diesel for our tractors and trucks and the 
ability to dry and process our products with electricity that is 
readily available at reasonable prices.
  What do we get out of this lately? A brand-new push for more electric 
vehicles, a stroke of the pen by the President and his administration. 
We are going to be forced--if these things stand, in just 8 short 
years, the fleet will have to be two-thirds electric for our cars and 
pickups and about 46 percent on more medium-duty trucks, just by whim.
  What are we finding? That our electricity supply in this country is 
already sometimes in peril, like in my home district. I was mentioning 
earlier that sometimes the power gets shut off in northern California 
because the wind blows and maybe they are afraid that a tree or a 
branch will blow into a power line and cause an outage and a massive 
forest fire like we see. How are you supposed to charge your vehicle at 
night when they have a 2- or 3-day power shutoff?
  Even more so, we are going backward on energy production. They are 
tearing out the dams on the Klamath River that make CO2-
free, reliable, 24-7 hydroelectric power. Instead, they want more solar 
panels. They want more windmills.
  Windmills are extremely inefficient for the amount of energy and 
effort it takes to put one up versus what their output is. Solar is 
fine and dandy, but it is only a tiny percent, a niche of production 
currently in this country.
  We need the mainstays. We need hydroelectric. We need to expand 
nuclear power because that is a good 24-7 baseload power supply. A 
small plant can produce a mass amount of power. You don't need 
thousands of acres of solar fields covering up good land, like they are 
trying to do.
  Even in the San Joaquin Valley, some of the most productive farmland 
in the world right there in central California, their big idea is to 
have solar farms cover up this good land instead of the concentrated 
power plants that you have with nuclear, hydro, natural gas--yes--and 
the other forms.
  I also want to talk about biomass. We don't get to talk about that a 
lot around here. Our forests are already way undermanaged. They have 
way too much material out there in them. We need to take more biomass 
and put it to work in power plants on a controlled basis. That is a 24-
7 fuel also. It is baseload power that is available. You don't have to 
rely on the wind to blow, the Sun to come up, the clouds to blow away, 
or the rain to stop. You have the ability to run that 24-7 whenever you 
want.
  Additionally, putting forest products to work means it is not going 
to be out there burning in the woods. You are going to have a 99.9 
percent cleaner output burning that material in a power plant.
  One of the other side effects of ignoring our forests and the dead 
trees is that they are still going to give off carbon dioxide as trees 
decay, so you could either control it in a power plant more efficiently 
or have it just release out there. A tree grows, dies, and gives off 
the CO2 it absorbed.
  One of the by-products not talked about much is methane gas released 
from a decomposing tree or other plant matter. My colleagues will talk 
about methane gas being much more volatile in the upper atmosphere than 
CO2 by manyfold, so why don't we take this methane gas that 
is contained in this dead tree, put it in this power plant, and 
actually make it be a plus on making energy and control that and not 
release it in the atmosphere?
  We need to talk more about that. That is a highlight that hasn't been 
exposed much, what good forestry means to the energy grid and also to 
cleaning up the forests, making them less fire-prone with all of that 
ash and all of that particulate matter that gets into the air and fogs 
out hundreds of square miles of a region there with really foul air.
  The pluses on biomass just outstrip any of the negatives, other than 
it is not cheap to move the material. That is something we need to 
assess. The Forest Service is going to have to do more with their 
lands, and this is a way of harnessing power to the good. It means jobs 
in those communities. It means safer, healthier forests. It means 
electricity you can depend on 24-7 with what is burning in those power 
plants.
  We see so many implications of high costs of energy, with groceries, 
with what it means for normal families, and this doesn't have to be 
happening. These high costs of electricity and fuel do not need to be 
happening to the American people. We need the Biden administration to 
go in the right direction, help farmers, ranchers, consumers, and the 
producers of energy to actually produce in this country and not rely on 
imports from somewhere else. Let's get cracking on that and do the 
right thing.
  Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding time.
  Mr. MOORE of Utah. Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the gentleman from 
California (Mr. LaMalfa), especially as he brings up some of the 
forestry issues, massive amounts of invasive, very noxious trees, 
juniper trees, things like that that can be put to much better use, 
saving water, at the same time replacing that with a more productive 
forest option.
  Those type of solutions exist out there, and we are working hard to 
identify that and actually do a productive job, instead of just 
allowing for the rhetoric to exist with regard to this energy 
narrative.

  Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from the Commonwealth of 
Virginia (Mr. Cline), my good friend and colleague.
  Mr. CLINE. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for scheduling this 
Special Order and for taking the lead on addressing the challenges that 
are facing us with regard to the Biden energy policy in addition to a 
number of other areas where the Biden administration is doing so much 
to harm to the average American family.
  At this critical juncture in our country's history, when our country 
is facing enormous challenges, it is becoming increasingly clear that 
President Biden and his administration are firmly unwilling to confront 
the stark realities of our Nation's fiscal path. Instead, the path we 
are on is marked by reckless, unnecessary spending and failed energy 
and economic policies, a direct result of years of out-of-control 
spending by Biden and the left.
  This trajectory has not only jeopardized our economy but also 
significantly increased the daily costs burdening the American people, 
and not just with regard to their energy costs.
  Just look at the tax-and-spend budget released by the Biden White 
House last week. We have all heard the promises that folks earning less 
than $400,000 won't see their taxes go up, but what we are actually 
seeing with inflation hidden in this budget is a hidden tax hitting 
every American.
  Biden wants to increase Federal spending by $325 billion right away, 
on day one, pushing our national spending to over $86 trillion over the 
next decade. This means higher prices for everyday things, making life 
harder for all hardworking Americans.
  Now, as March Madness begins, President Biden's budget talks a good 
game about fighting inflation, but his plan does the opposite. It is 
small ball set to make things more expensive for families across the 
country.
  Here is the technical. Even with massive tax increases, his budget 
doesn't ever balance. It will keep adding to our national debt. The 
President plans to spend $7.3 trillion in just 1 year and push up our 
debt to $45 trillion by 2034.

[[Page H1278]]

To cover this spending spree, the President is pitching $4.9 trillion 
in new taxes--not just on the rich but on every American.
  In stark contrast, I proudly stand here today to commend my Budget 
Committee colleagues and my colleagues on the Republican Study 
Committee for releasing and approving balanced budgets for fiscal year 
2025 weeks ahead of Biden's too little, too late proposal.
  The budget approved by the House Budget Committee and the budget 
approved by the Republican Study Committee are testaments to the 
House's commitment to rein in unsustainable spending and get our Nation 
back on track. Compared to Biden's budget, our budgets propose no new 
taxes, balance the budget, and spend trillions less throughout the 
budget window.
  For far too long, House Republicans have been sounding the alarm 
bells over the looming fiscal cliff that our Nation is facing. The RSC 
budget plan and the House Budget Committee budget are roadmaps to 
restoring fiscal responsibility and ensuring the prosperity of future 
generations.
  It is not surprising to see the release of Biden's budget, which can 
only be described as a compilation of leftwing fantasies filled with 
wasteful spending that will undoubtedly add trillions more to the 
already $34 trillion debt burdening our country.
  This is not the future that Americans deserve, nor is it a legacy 
that we should ever leave behind for our children and grandchildren. 
The American people demand and rightly deserve a budget plan that 
protects them from the looming debt disaster, and I am proud to 
highlight House Republicans' efforts to work toward delivering budgets 
that exemplify fiscal responsibility.
  The House budget plan and the RSC budget are not just plans filled 
with numbers and forecasts. They are pledges to the American people to 
reinstate the fiscal sanity our country needs. We can either continue 
down the path of fiscal irresponsibility, saddling our Nation with debt 
and economic instability, or we can choose a new direction, one of 
prudence, accountability, and prosperity.
  Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to support the fiscally responsible 
budgets proposed by the House Republican Budget Committee and the 
Republican Study Committee, and I urge leadership to bring both to the 
floor for a vote alongside the false hopes of the Biden budget.
  Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding.
  Mr. MOORE of Utah. Mr. Speaker, I sit on the same committee as the 
gentleman from Virginia (Mr. Cline). We call one of those opportunities 
reverse the curse, the budget resolution. I do my best to show my 
constituents this is the hope that we have, that we didn't get here 
overnight, but we can build back toward fiscal responsibility, building 
a 10-year balanced budget and finding all those opportunities to 
extract waste out of our system so we can thrive and operate.
  I thank the gentleman for culling out all of those differences. I 
appreciate it.
  Now to my good friend from the greatest State--we call it the great 
State of Utah, but we both know that it is the greatest State--to share 
some of his thoughts for this important week.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Utah (Mr. Owens).
  Mr. OWENS. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in strong support of H.R. 6009, 
the Restoring American Energy Dominance Act, and H.R. 1121, the 
Protecting American Energy Production Act.
  Just a few years ago, American energy was booming. We were energy 
independent, creating more than we used for the first time since the 
1940s. We moved the government out of the way for hardworking Americans 
and watched as domestic production, net exports, and energy innovation 
exploded.
  In Utah, the impact was incredible. The price to go on a road trip, 
to heat a family's home, to run an A/C in the summer were all at record 
lows.
  On Biden's first day in office, he teamed up with the most radical 
wing of his party and waged a war on American energy. Day one, he 
killed the Keystone XL pipeline. Already under construction with over 
1,500 workers, it was projected by 2021 to provide approximately 11,000 
jobs. This was thousands of real middle-class union jobs, approximately 
$800 million in wages.
  President Biden wasn't finished. He then paused all liquefied natural 
gas exports and spent so much on the Democrats' Green New Deal pipe 
dream that inflation has for years ravaged every sector of our economy.
  Again, Utahns felt the impact. Today, we are spending 33 percent more 
to heat our homes and 40 percent more to fill up our tanks as we did in 
2021.
  The American people are tired of paying for the President's war on 
American energy. One year ago, the people's House passed H.R. 1, the 
Lower Energy Cost Act, to begin reversing President Biden's misguided 
energy agenda. This week, we will continue to fight by passing 
legislation to boost American energy production, cut green project 
slush funds, and lower the costs for families. We know how to make this 
work because we have done it before.
  Mr. Speaker, I urge the American people, the President, and my 
colleagues across the aisle to join us in delivering affordable, clean, 
and reliable energy for every American.
  Mr. MOORE of Utah. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Utah (Mr. 
Owens) for his sentiments on this important Energy Week. Solutions can 
be very common sense, and we hope to be able to beat that drum 
continually.
  For our last speaker tonight, we get the pleasure of hearing from a 
Representative from the great State of Tennessee.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Tennessee (Mr. Burchett), 
a man of congenial disposition.
  Mr. BURCHETT. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding.
  President Biden's $7.3 trillion budget proposal for fiscal year 2025 
is full of costly woke policies that will end up hurting the Americans 
who elected us to office.
  Here are some of the things he wants. Mr. Speaker, $895 billion for 
defense--it comes as no secret in the history of audits that our 
Pentagon has never passed an audit. How did we punish them this last 
budgetary cycle? With $20 billion more. Of course, that is $9 billion 
more for defense than we spent this year. For the American Climate 
Corps--we are not sure what that is--there is $8 billion, and $3 
billion for the State Department to advance gender equity and equality 
worldwide. Worldwide, Mr. Speaker.
  President Trump asked for $4 billion to help secure the border, and 
we said he couldn't have it because, as our friends across the aisle 
said, that would bust the budget.
  There is $1.5 billion for the Environmental Protection Agency's 
Office of Environmental Justice and External Civil Rights.

                              {time}  1745

  There is so much more, but we don't have all day to go over every 
item.
  President Biden also claims this budget would lower the deficit. We 
all know that is a lie but think about how that happens. If he is 
spending more money in lowering the deficit, it means he plans to 
significantly increase the government's revenue. How does he do that? 
He will do that by taking in more taxes.
  His plan would raise taxes by nearly $5 trillion. Of course, he 
claims no one making less than $400,000 per year will pay more taxes, 
but we have seen what this promise has done so far in the past. If he 
is making companies pay more in taxes, these companies, of course, need 
to make up for the lost profit, so they charge us more for gas, food, 
energy, and other essentials we use every day.
  To put it better, Mr. Speaker, companies collect taxes. That is what 
they do. Corporations collect taxes, and they pass it on to us.
  Even if Americans don't pay more in taxes, they will pay for this 
plan somehow. It won't do them any good unless they want to get one of 
these new government jobs that will focus on climate change or 
diversity, equity, and inclusion.
  Mr. MOORE of Utah. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Tennessee 
for his remarks.
  I will wrap up here briefly, but as I started my remarks tonight 
about how this affects the family, I have the pleasure of having one of 
those families here today in the gallery watching this debate go on.

[[Page H1279]]

  This is our focus. This is what we are completely focused on. This is 
not some nonsensical argument about polluters over people. That is just 
disingenuous.
  The U.S. has made incredible gains. In my home State of Utah, air 
quality is one of our most important aspects, and we have been able to 
experience strong growth, but maintain and even lessen the impact that 
we have on particles per million, tier 3 gasoline.
  If you embrace and you create opportunities for innovation, you can 
actually do better. You can actually engage allies better. We can be a 
net exporter. We can create a stronger America and lower prices.
  Our entire focus here is to make sure that families have an 
opportunity to thrive. We put so much burden with the unnecessary costs 
from Biden's energy policies on the backs of the American workers and 
the American family.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time for this Special 
Order.

                          ____________________