Democrats’ Plan For American Energy: Even Less Available, Even More Expensive
WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) delivered the following remarks today on the Senate floor regarding energy policy:
“An unfortunate routine keeps playing itself out with the Biden Administration. First, they implement bad policies that create problems. Then, they propose solutions that are really just more bad ideas.
“Case in point: Inflation. Democrats spent last spring unleashing a deluge of reckless spending on our recovering economy. They spent the rest of the year trying to pull off yet another taxing and spending spree. And now, they want to pass a massive tax hike while families are already hurting.
“Unfortunately for the American people, the same thing is playing itself out in the world of energy policy. Since Day One, the Biden Administration has done its best to wage holy war on American domestic energy production.
“The predictable result, thanks to these policies and the broader inflation that Democrats have fueled, is that American families are hurting badly. Across the board, energy costs have risen nearly 32% in a year.
“But now comes the third part of the unfortunate routine: A slew of bad far left policy choices and proposals that would make the pain for the American people even worse.
“Some Democrats are pushing for a massive new tax on companies involved in developing and exporting American energy. The last time this wrongheaded idea was given legs, President Carter ended up reducing domestic production, increasing our foreign dependence, and raising Americans’ prices at the pump.
“And over the last few weeks, the Biden Administration took two more steps in the wrong direction.
“After ignoring federal law by failing to award a single oil or gas development lease for five straight quarters, the Administration has shrunk its land offering by 80% while jacking up its royalty rate by fifty percent.
“That’s right: Democrats’ response to supply shortages and sky-high prices at the pump is to make American energy even less available and even more expensive.
“Meanwhile, it’s begun to tear up the regulatory reforms put in place under the last Administration to streamline infrastructure project permitting.
“President Biden and his team struck the match on a historic surge in energy prices, and are now making it even more expensive for American producers to boost supply. They endorsed a bipartisan infrastructure bill, and are now making it harder for American builders to get to work.
“And of course, Democrats are still itching to resurrect their Green New Deal. In the midst of historic inflation, they want to jack costs up even further for consumers while making America wildly dependent on China and other regimes with abysmal environmental and labor standards.
“The same Democrats who don’t want us responsibly exploring oil and natural gas also don’t want us responsibly exploring for critical minerals, either, and want to tie up American manufacturing in red tape.
“This Administration’s war on American energy has left destruction in its wake. The only idea they have left to try is the one that would’ve worked from the beginning: unleash the abundant, affordable, and reliable supply we’ve got right here at home.”
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Related Issues: Energy, Green New Deal, China, Taxes, Inflation, Tax Reform
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