Mr. Chairman, I rise to offer amendment No. 32. Mr. Chairman, this amendment is simple and straightforward. My amendment simply requires the administration to submit their plan to increase oil and gas production on Federal lands to the…
Mr. Chairman, I rise to offer amendment No. 32.
Mr. Chairman, this amendment is simple and straightforward. My amendment simply requires the administration to submit their plan to increase oil and gas production on Federal lands to the House Committees on Armed Services, Agriculture, and Energy and Commerce and Natural Resources, as well as the Senate Committees on Energy and Natural Resources, Environment and Public Works, Armed Services, and Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry.
This simple, good-governance amendment allows Congress to take back its Article I authority in our system of checks and balances.
Without my amendment, the plan to bolster our domestic energy supply will be filed away and never seen again. This amendment will provide transparency for the administration to carry out its congressionally authorized duty.
More than 55 percent of my Congressional District is Federal land and accounts for nearly 44 percent of Colorado's natural gas production. The underlying bill requires the administration to be responsible for their actions. If Joe Biden and Secretary Granholm continue to dip into the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, they must have a plan in place to increase oil and gas production on land that has been locked up and overregulated by the Federal Government. That plan should be submitted to the congressional committees of jurisdiction.
By requiring the administration to submit its plan to the people's House, we can provide important oversight as to how the administration will carry out this plan and provide feedback.
On the Western Slope of Colorado, we have seen firsthand the harm leftist policies have created in our communities, literally regulating our communities into poverty. With the stroke of his pen, Joe Biden unilaterally locked up Federal lands for oil and gas production and development. Colorado's Western Slope used to have a booming energy production economy. We used to have 112 drilling rigs on the Western Slope, and now we have 4. These extreme leftist policies to lock up land have driven away those good-paying jobs and have helped drive up gas prices.
Congress needs to take back its power and advocate for the American people they represent. My amendment will ensure those voices do not go unheard and that we will hold the administration accountable for the responsible energy plan required by this bill.
Mr. Chairman, I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. Chairman, I yield to the gentlewoman from Washington (Mrs. Rodgers).
Mr. Chairman, I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. Chairman, I yield back the balance of my time.
Mr. Chairman, I rise to offer amendment No. 33.
Mr. Chairman, this shouldn't be a controversial topic and, my hope is that folks on both sides of the aisle will be able to support this commonsense amendment.
House Democrats should support this amendment because it provides the White House increased flexibility to tap more oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve when necessary.
House Republicans should support this amendment because this modest 5 percent increase in flexibility for the SPR also allows a modest 5 percent increase to responsibly produce American energy on Federal lands through the plan required by this bill.
Having said that, this amendment doesn't mandate increased energy production. It just slightly modifies the cap. If the White House still only wants to utilize 10 percent from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve and only wants the increase in Federal energy production on Federal lands to be 10 percent, this amendment still allows that flexibility.
It is far past time we stopped begging foreign dictators to produce oil and gas for America. America makes the cleanest energy in the world. In fact, our natural gas is 42 percent cleaner than Russian natural gas.
American innovation has allowed America to be the global leader in reducing emissions since the year 2000. We should be producing the energy Americans need right here in the good old U.S. of A. Yet, on President Biden's watch, we have seen a 40 percent increase in gas prices.
In order to help combat their significantly flawed energy strategy, the White House raided the Strategic Petroleum Reserves by more than 40 percent.
My amendment prevents this type of abuse while slightly increasing the amount of oil that can be drawn from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve during an actual emergency like President Trump did.
The root causes of this record-breaking inflation were trillions of dollars of wasteful spending federally and unnecessary attacks on American energy. The Biden administration waged an all-out war on American energy production. Biden shut down the Keystone XL pipeline on day one of his administration, imposed new rules to block pipeline projects, canceled oil and gas leases on millions of acres in Alaska and the Gulf of Mexico, suspended oil drilling leases in a small sliver of ANWR, even though Congress passed a law for this very purpose.
He imposed a moratorium on new Federal oil and gas leases on Federal lands, failed to meet the statutory deadlines for quarterly lease sales, and took countless other anti-energy measures that have contributed to increased gas prices and inflation reaching record levels.
The only reason oil and gas permits on Federal lands are being approved at nearly the same rate during the Biden administration as during the Trump administration is because of the permitting reforms put in place by the Trump administration. In essence, they had a head start.
This administration also likes to try and take credit for supporting oil and gas production, but the reality is this occurred in spite of them, not because of them.
In fact, much of this production has occurred on private lands where producers aren't stifled by Federal policies and moratoriums.
In 2020, the National Ocean Industries Association found that Joe Biden's proposal to ban new offshore oil and gas drilling in Federal waters would kill approximately 200,000 jobs, cost the Federal Government billions of dollars of revenue, and push production to foreign adversaries.
Furthermore, and despite the exaggerations from the administration, domestic production reached its highest point ever in 2020 while President Donald J. Trump was in office with over 13 million barrels of oil produced a day.
We all want clean air. We all want clean water. But we also want lower gas prices and good-paying jobs right here in America.
We can have it all, as responsible energy production and conservation are not mutually exclusive goals.
My amendment strikes the right balance. Again, it allows for responsible emergency use of the Strategic Petroleum Reserves while also allowing for responsible American energy production on Federal lands.
Mr. Chairman, I urge adoption of this amendment, and I yield to the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Johnson).
I yield back the balance of my time.
Mr. Chair, I have an amendment at the desk, No. 137.
Mr. Chair, this amendment seeks to help provide a voice for local communities who were ignored and cut out of the process in October of last year when the Biden administration unilaterally locked up nearly 300,000 acres in Colorado and in my district through the stroke of a pen.
Shamefully, the Biden administration ignored the concerns and opposition of impacted communities so he could appease Green New Deal extremists through this executive overreach.
After the proposed land grab was announced, Kathleen Sgamma, president of Western Energy Alliance, stated: ``The White House has initiated a withdrawal for the Thompson Divide while advancing a false narrative that energy development and land protection are mutually exclusive.
``Oil and natural gas activity has taken place in the Thompson Divide area since the 1940s while conserving the land. We can do both: We can develop energy while protecting the land.''
The area remains a vital resource and is located within the second largest potential natural gas reserve in the United States.
``There's no need to lock away public lands and minerals, especially at a time of high energy prices.''
With gas prices skyrocketing again, and today's national average exceeding $3.50 per gallon, it makes even less sense to unilaterally lock up hundreds of thousands of acres from responsible energy production, especially while local stakeholders are ignored and are flatout opposed.
After the mineral withdrawal and associated national monument were announced in October, the Ute Indian Tribe of Utah said: ``The White House moved forward with a monument on our homelands without including us. They talk about Tribal consultation, but their actions do not match their words. We cannot support a monument on our homelands that does not include the Tribe. It is a disgrace to our ancestors to exclude the Tribe in the care and protection of these burial sites.''
Garfield County Commissioner Tom Jankovsky sent me an email just this morning stating, ``President Biden unilaterally acted with an end run around Congress. Rather than honoring the 10-year, hard-fought, bipartisan support forged by local interests with Garfield County, the President placed additional restrictions on future leasing in Thompson Divide. This gutted the original bipartisan local support.''
My amendment requires the Secretary, as part of the plan required by this bill, to identify areas for potential responsible energy leasing within the second largest potential natural gas reserve in the United States in an area where responsible oil and gas production has taken place since the 1940s.
America produces the cleanest energy in the world. In fact, our natural gas is 42 percent cleaner than Russian gas.
American innovation, in particular, fracking, has allowed America to be the global leader in reducing emissions since 2000.
America should have never been dependent on Russia for significant quantities of oil and gas. We need to stop begging OPEC, Venezuela, and even Iran, to produce energy for us, and start producing more energy responsibly right here in America, where our guys do it better than anyone else, more responsibly, and cleaner.
We have to develop this right here at home, get back to American energy independence, and pursue energy dominance.
Mr. Chairman, I yield back the balance of my time.