Chamber’s GOP officials start ‘ Energy Week ‘ with costs recycled from adopted 2023 bus always submitted to the Senate, drawing derision from Democrats.
The House has adopted the first two measures in a six- expenses package to recover the United States ‘ “energy dominance” and move again President Joe Biden’s “green energy policies” that Republicans say enhance energy costs and profit adversaries, including the Chinese Communist Party, Russia, and Iran.
On March 20, lawmakers passed legislation to stop presidents from enacting oil/gas rules and price increases on federal public land covered by the Infrastructure Investment & Jobs Act and the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 and to prevent presidents from imposing moratoriums on mechanical fracturing—fracking without Parliamentary acceptance.
Liberals attempted to push both steps back to the House Natural Resources Committee, with HR 1121 staying on the court for deployment in a 213- 202 ballot and HR 6099 staying on the floor voting in a 211- 204 count.
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Talking points from both sides of the aisle were made in a series of repetitions with heavy doses of political rhetoric that took up more than three hours of floor discussion over the course of five evening hours.
” We’re passing sections of HR 1—the Polluters over People Act—for a second time because it’s all show”, Rep. Sydney Kamlager ( D- Calif. ) said. House Republicans continue to pass the exact outdated legislation while passing the same communication that is outdated, which the American people are aware of.
Democrats want to boycott drilling, right?
Democrats argued that states control fracking, and that a president, including President Biden, has not imposed a moratorium on it, but that it may prevent the government from responding immediately to an oilfield emergency.
” This extraordinary regulations… is nothing more than a made- up option in search of a problem”, Rep. Mike Levin ( D- Calif. ) said. To be clear, the senator has not indicated that he will ban drilling, but HR 1121 may forbid him from always, always, from doing so despite the risks it poses.
Rep. Pete Stauber (R-Minn. ) claimed that HR 1121 may assure state legislation remained in place. He added that Democrat administrations, including those under President Barak Obama, have attempted to impose restrictions on shale but were stymied by court decisions that determined the federal government was overreaching its regulatory authority.
” The fact is, this president, on the campaign trail said, and I quote,’ No new fracking,’ end quote”, he said. You have to pay attention to Biden’s words and actions, as he’s known from what he’s done in his first three or four years in office. He’s done it on mining. He stated that we would concentrate on domestic mining for the minerals we needed. Once he became president, he changed his tune.
” After three years of disastrous energy policies by this president,” Mr. Stauber continued”, we know we cannot take him for his word, which is why exactly this bill is necessary.”
But it’s not just Mr. Biden, he said”. Democrats want to ban fracking, “he said, citing Vice President Kamala Harris, Sen. Bernie Sanders ( I- Vt. ), Transpiration Secretary Pete Buttigieg, and Department of Interior Secretary Deb Haaland expressing desires to ban fracking.
The White House described the proposed fracking moratorium as” a red herring” in a March 18 statement from the White House, noting that states already have discretion over the use of hydraulic fracturing for oil and gas development on state and private lands.
BLM Rules Would Hurt Small Businesses
The Restoring American Energy Dominance Act, HR 6009, would forbid BLM from enacting a similar rule that would raise bonding standards and royalty rates, which have n’t increased since the 1920s.
According to Mr. Stauber, the bill will “restore” nationwide bond capabilities for energy companies that the Biden administration wants to restrict to state by state bonds.
The BLM claims that this action is necessary to avoid having to clean up orphaned wells. One would think there’s an orphan well crisis on BLM lands, given the significant cost increases, however, the opposite is true, “he said”. According to the Department of the Interior, there are only 30 sites]with ] 37 orphan wells “on the 245 million acres of public lands across 12 states that the BLM manages.
” Their proposed regulations would also be extremely harmful to small business,” Mr. Stauber said, citing Wyoming Oil &, Gas Conservation Commission Supervisor Tom Kropatsch, who said the new bonding requirements” would hurt hundreds of small businesses “in the state”, resulting in lost royalties, taxes and other revenues to local and state government, and likely will create orphan wells, not protect against them.”
” The impacts will be the same in energy- producing regions nationwide, “he said.
The White House said royalty rates have n’t increased in a century, BLM oil/gas regulations have n’t been updated since 1988, and” still contain fiscal terms that were set more than 70 years ago.”
According to the statement,” current regulations and royalty rates have failed to provide a fair return for oil and gas production on federal lands to the American people, and they have increased the risk that American taxpayers will have to pay cleanup costs when businesses go bankrupt.”
A Recycled” Energy Week”
The measures were presented at the Greenbrier Inn in White Sulfur Springs, West Virginia, last week during the Republican-controlled three-day Issues Conference. Jim Justice, who is vying for retiring Sen. Joe Manchin’s ( D- W. V. ) seat against Rep. Alex Mooney ( R- W. V. ) in a May 14 primary—as part of House GOP leadership’s” Energy Week.”
” This week, House Republicans will pass the legislation promoting American energy independence and opposing Biden’s anti- energy agenda, there’s no other way to describe it,” House Speaker Rep. Mike Johnson ( R- La. ) before the floor proceedings even began.
In a partisan vote of 225 to 204, HR 1 was approved by the House and sent to the Senate, where Senate Majority Leader Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N. ) introduced it nine days later. Y. ) said”, It was dead on arrival.”
But it never arrived.
And some of the 20- plus 2023 individual bills incorporated into HR 1 are being rehashed for 2024 hearings and adoptions.
Democrats mocked Republicans ‘ recycled” Energy Week “bills, with Rep. Mary Gay Scanlon ( D- Pa. ) claiming the” feckless Republican majority “has achieved little other than stirring up rancor, especially among themselves, while adopting only 27 bills in 2023 and only half the appropriations bills that constitute the Fiscal Year 2024 federal budget, which began Oct. 1.
The” Energy Week “bills are” a partisan package of pro- polluter energy and environmental bills,” she said”. The House considered half of these bills last year, and the other half are toothless resolutions.
” This majority has done nothing”, Ms. Scanlon said. ” They’ve squandered their majority, they’ve squandered the country’s time and taxpayer dollars, and they have nothing to show for it”.
