[Congressional Record Volume 171, Number 100 (Wednesday, June 11, 2025)]
[Senate]
[Pages S3331-S3332]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                            American Energy

  Mr. CASSIDY. Mr. President, I can proudly say that Louisiana fuels 
the world. That is what we say in my State, and it is true. Louisiana 
accounted for more than 60 percent--6-0 percent--of U.S. energy exports 
last year. The United States is the world's largest LNG exporter, and 
Louisiana has some of the largest export terminals in the world.
  It is a whole-of-State activity. A lot of the natural gas we export 
is produced in Haynesville Shale, which is in northwest Louisiana. That 
gas comes down to the Cameron LNG in Hackberry, LA, where President 
Trump went when it first opened. That one exports 12 million metric 
tons of LNG annually; Cheniere Energy in Cameron Parish, 30 million 
metric tons of LNG last year left that facility; and Venture Global in 
Plaquemines Parish, 27 million metric tons LNG, and they are expanding.
  President Trump wants to reestablish American energy dominance, and 
that dominance starts in my State. I can proudly say Louisiana has the 
infrastructure, strategic location, and, most importantly, the workers 
to put the United States back on top. Louisiana's ports, railroads, 
highways, and pipelines provide an outlet for gas and oil from 
landlocked States to be exported from our ports to around the world.
  Some oil is transported by rail, and the only place in the United 
States of America where six major freight railroad carriers converge 
is--you guessed it--my home State of Louisiana. Our fully integrated 
50,000-mile pipeline network and 11,000 miles of State highways make 
Louisiana an obvious choice when considering which States can best 
transport these goods.
  Now, obviously, when your State has the mouth of the Mississippi, 
where it drains into the Gulf of America, besides our LNG exports, we 
have six combined deep draft ports where we are moving oil and gas and 
also the refined products from that oil and gas, which is part of 
fueling the world. So Louisiana is critical to the production and 
distribution of fuel and fuel products.
  I am making these points because reestablishing American energy 
dominance, ultimately, creates better jobs, higher paying jobs, which 
can change the trajectory of a family in my State and families 
elsewhere in the Nation. By the end of President Biden's term, after 4 
years of attacks against American energy production, the Department of 
Energy reported tens of thousands of jobs lost. Tens of thousands of 
jobs is a statistic, but these are real people, real families we are 
speaking of.
  Think of the young couple with three kids and the husband comes home 
and tells his wife that he has lost his job. He would have lost his job 
because of some activity the Biden administration did. The wife 
immediately wonders how they are going to pay the house note. The 
husband feels humiliated. He feels as if he is letting his family down. 
And, suddenly, there are sparks of argument between two people who have 
always gotten along, and kids see conflict that there never was before.
  These are human stories, and those stories were relived over and over 
when these almost 30,000 jobs were killed.
  By the way, they were killed not because the fuel was not needed, but 
because the last administration decided they felt uncomfortable with 
that fuel being produced in the United States of America. Well, tens of 
thousands of Americans suffered under that prejudice under President 
Biden. The war on American energy was a war on American jobs, which is 
a war on American families.
  That war on the American family is over. I recognize, President Trump 
recognizes, that American energy dominance fueling our State, our 
country, and the world--and along with it, giving enough product for 
manufacturing of the refined products we all need--creates with it the 
high-paying jobs for Americans who never should have been out of work 
in the first place.
  We are seeing evidence of this all over. Woodside Energy recently 
announced the largest single foreign direct investment in Louisiana 
history--a $17.5 billion investment in Calcasieu Parish for a new LNG 
export facility. This will support 15,000 jobs during construction and, 
once operational, thousands more. By the way, there are other things to 
do with this plentiful abundant energy. There are wonderful spinoffs.
  Just as an aside, last month, Hyundai Steel announced a $5.8 billion 
investment to build a new, next-generation steel production facility in 
Ascension Parish. The facility is expected to generate $4.1 billion in 
annual revenue and bring in nearly 1,500 direct jobs to the State and 
thousands of indirect jobs. That is low-cost energy paving the way for 
more opportunity.
  By the way, this benefits my State, our Nation, and guess who else 
benefits? Our allies. Europe imports 45 percent of its LNG from the 
United States, but they still get about 20 percent from Russia. If we 
send them 45 percent of the LNG, that is a growth from before the 
Russian-Ukraine war when that number was only 27 percent--there is a 
bill before Congress many Senators are supporting that puts stricter 
sanctions upon Russia. I would say that if the Europeans buy even less 
natural gas from Russia, they will need more natural gas from us, and 
we have the capacity to make that up.
  We want to send more natural gas from Haynesville Shale through those 
LNG export facilities across the Atlantic Ocean, creating tax revenue 
for my parish governments, wealth for my workers, helps our national 
security, helps our economy, and helps working families.
  The European Union using more U.S. liquefied natural gas throws a 
wrench in Vladimir Putin's war machine. Last year, the EU paid 22 
billion Euros for Russian natural gas and, again, Putin used that money 
to fund his war. Next year, if the Europeans buy that much U.S. natural 
gas, that is $25 billion coming to our economy. After Putin's brutal 
invasion of Ukraine in 2022, the United States helped Ukraine stand up 
against Putin, Europe did, too.
  Let's use our energy to do it even more so. We can help them by 
saying: ``Don't buy Putin's gas to fuel his war, by ours.''
  Louisiana is ready to help. America has the resources, we have the 
abundance. Let's put it to use.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Sheehy). The Senator from Colorado.

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