[Congressional Record Volume 170, Number 104 (Thursday, June 20, 2024)]
[Senate]
[Pages S4162-S4163]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                           Ukraine and Energy

  Mr. McCONNELL. Madam President, last week, a U.S. company announced 
it had reached an agreement to begin exporting American liquefied 
natural gas to Ukraine for the first time. That is certainly good news 
for our friends on the frontlines of Russian aggression, for allies 
across Eastern Europe, and for the workers and producers behind some of 
America's most affordable and reliable energy.
  Exporting American abundance is a win-win proposition, and it is one 
that our closest trading partners in Europe have increasingly 
recognized as an opportunity to offset their reliance on Russian gas.
  But setting aside last week's good news, the Biden administration is 
still chronically confused about the role that affordable and abundant 
American energy can play as a geopolitical tool, a source of American 
leadership, and an engine of our own economy.
  In a joint pledge issued 2 years ago, President Biden committed to 
help reduce Europe's reliance on Russian energy and increase global 
energy security. Then, a few lines later, he reiterated his commitment 
to the unenforceable virtue signals of the Paris climate deal.
  Sometimes it seems that cognitive dissonance is the most powerful 
force in the universe.
  Remember, the President who continues to insist he is serious about 
helping America's closest allies resist the predations of Putin's 
Russia is the same President who made stunning American energy 
development a day-one priority. He is the same one who decided not to 
intervene when he had a chance--before Russia's escalation in Ukraine--
to block the expansion of European reliance on Russian gas with the 
Nord Stream 2 Pipeline. And, of course, this is the same President who 
earlier this year issued a de facto ban on new permitting for LNG 
export infrastructure that would make it harder for American producers 
to respond to demand for reliable alternatives to Russian or Iranian 
energy.
  As I have discussed at length, Russia's escalation in Ukraine 
prompted some of our closest European allies to finally start investing 
seriously in their own defenses. It has also been an opportunity to 
rethink their dangerous overreliance on Russian energy.
  Back in February, one German state-owned energy provider was in the 
process of switching from buying Russian gas to buying American gas 
instead, but the plan was stifled by the administration's decision to 
appease its activist base instead of reinforcing America's allies.
  So last week brought good news. But here is the rub: This new 
commitment to Ukraine relies, in part, on the completion of a new LNG 
export facility that is stuck in the Biden administration's regulatory 
purgatory. And even as already permitted infrastructure comes online, 
producers who want to create new American jobs and expand their 
capacity to meet foreign demand are simply out of luck.
  Since 2016, American LNG has been a remarkable success story. It had 
driven our economy to become a net energy

[[Page S4163]]

exporter. And just last year, even in the shadow of the Biden 
administration's War on Energy, the United States was the world's 
largest LNG exporter.
  But this year, Russia has overtaken the United States in gas exports 
to the European market, and it might have something to do with a ban 
one of our former Democratic colleagues, Mary Landrieu, described as 
``throwing a match in a bale of hay.'' We might describe the 
President's ban as a tremendous missed opportunity, but that would 
undersell the predictably disastrous consequences.
  In the face of a dangerous world, the administration's obsession with 
performative climate policy is taking meaningful levers of American 
power simply off the table. For 3\1/2\ years, the Biden administration 
has worked relentlessly to suffocate American energy production, both 
onshore and offshore. And when Senate Republicans offered amendments to 
restore some modicum of sanity to the system for permitting and leasing 
new energy development, every single Senate Democrat stood behind the 
administration and voted no.
  The first and longest suffering victims of Washington Democrats' War 
on American Energy are the American people. Historic inflation has 
already made insuring a car or filling up the tank more than 50 percent 
more expensive on President Biden's watch. But his administration wants 
to compound the pain with regulations that would put entire sectors of 
our economy in an even more serious bind.
  Back in March, the Biden administration finalized a rule on vehicle 
emissions that would give manufacturers of work trucks and commercial 
vehicles until 2032 to turn 40 percent of their new stock into zero--
zero--emission vehicles. In the case of the biggest long-haul tractor-
trailers, this would effectively mean replacing a quarter of these 
vehicles with zero-emission vehicles that are not yet on the road. It 
doesn't take an expert to imagine the sort of shock waves this would 
send across America. Our economy simply cannot function without 
reliable large vehicles to get products to market--or the hard-working 
men and women who make a living driving them. We are talking about a 
rule that would supercharge inflation on delivery costs and shelf 
prices alike and a penalty that would hit hardest for those least able 
to afford it.
  Unsurprisingly, this zeal for redtape extends beyond heavy-duty 
vehicles to every passenger car, SUV, and pickup truck. In 8 years, if 
the administration has its way, two of every three vehicles 
manufactured for American consumers will have to be electric vehicles.
  Now, consumers have already made it abundantly clear that they don't 
want Washington bureaucrats telling them what car to drive, and major 
engines of our economy have joined together to take the Biden 
administration to court over all of this nonsense.
  Folks in my home State of Kentucky are following this progress 
closely. I spoke recently with a car dealer from Richmond. When it 
comes to his livelihood, he doesn't mince any words. Here is what he 
had to say:

       I don't want to be in court fighting a governmental agency. 
     I just want to sell and service the cars and trucks that my 
     customers want. . . . [R]ight now and for as long as I can 
     see, my customers don't want vehicles that our government 
     requires them to buy. They don't want vehicles that are not 
     affordable, can't be reliably re-charged, and can't be 
     depended upon to make the drive from Richmond to Lexington on 
     a below zero midnight in January.

  He also said:

       The history and civics classes that I dearly loved did not 
     prepare me for a country where executive action and career 
     bureaucrats can create ``law'' and regulations that will put 
     me out of business.

  Boy, I can't top that. American workers and job creators are 
struggling to keep up with persistent--persistent--high prices, and all 
the Biden administration seems to be offering as consolation is more 
redtape.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The majority whip.