Fischer on High Gas Prices & Biden's Anti-American Energy Agenda

Press Release

U.S. Senator Deb Fischer (R-Neb.), a member of the Senate Commerce Committee, today participated in the committee's hearing on petroleum markets and high gas prices. During her line of questioning, Sen. Fischer highlighted the harms that President Biden's failed energy policies are having on consumers at the pump and the administration's ongoing effort to shift blame for high gas prices to Vladimir Putin and the private sector. Sen. Fischer has cosponsored a bill to expand usage of American biofuels to tackle the energy crisis, as well as legislation to ban Russian petroleum imports.

Western Energy Alliance President Kathleen Sgamma was one of the witnesses for the committee hearing.

A transcript of Sen. Fischer's line of questioning is below:

Sen. Fischer: Thank you to the witnesses for being here today, but I am disappointed that we are taking valuable committee time to consider a matter that is not on solid jurisdictional footing.

We certainly have jurisdiction of the Federal Trade Commission, which in turn, has critical responsibilities to protect Americans from corporate practices that are unfair or deceptive. This includes: Fighting pandemic-related fraud, protecting children online, creating federal privacy protections to keep our personal data safe. These are just some of the key consumer harms that this committee can be overseeing, discussing, and advancing legislation for.

Instead, today I guess we can discuss the harms that President Biden's failed energy policies are having on consumers. The list of these failures is long. The president made his anti-American energy agenda clear on day one of his presidency.

He revoked the Keystone XL pipeline's permit and updated the "social cost of carbon" -- estimates used to justify burdensome regulations, while rejecting infrastructure projects. During his second week in office, President Biden issued an executive order to ban new oil and gas leases on federal lands and waters. Meanwhile, the Department of the Interior has yet to hold a lease sale following that executive order, despite being required to under current law.

The administration has doubled down on blame-shifting, claiming that "the reason why the price of gas is going up is not because of steps the president has taken, they are because President Putin is invading Ukraine." His press secretary said that.

But Americans know that inflation was happening long before Putin invaded Ukraine. We are here to today not because of some plot by the energy companies: We are here because the President continues to shift the blame on high gas prices to anyone and everyone but himself.

It has been disappointing to see this administration look to other countries to increase oil production instead of turning to domestic, American-made sources. We should be taking an all-of-the-above approach domestically to drive down the cost of gas for our rural families.

Ms. Sgamma, would you please elaborate on the need for domestic production to be the focus of American energy security instead of relying on imports?

Ms. Sgamma: Thank you for the question. In 2019, we were a net exporter of oil. We are down about 1.1 million barrels a day of American production. We would love to increase production and fill that void. That's certainly a better option than just dispensing from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve. We are ready and able. I represent small producers in the Rocky Mountain West, but all across the country American producers are ready and able to increase production. But we need policies that encourage that production. And we are not seeing that from this administration.

Sen. Fischer: And what's the biggest hindrance to increasing that production?

Ms. Sgamma: Right now, it's access to capital. There's a specific movement afoot and it started several years ago with activist investors, but it has been encouraged by this administration and would be codified if the SEC rule is finalized.

Sen. Fischer: You mentioned the Strategic Petroleum Reserve. We've seen President Biden announce at the end of March the release of one million barrels of oil from that reserve per day for the next six months. This move comes only two weeks after the strategic petroleum reserves hit the lowest levels in decades. And, it wasn't that long ago that Democrats celebrated blocking attempts to replenish the strategic reserve when oil prices were at near-record lows. The continued use of the strategic reserves to combat high gas prices is a weak, short-term solution that does not adequately address the issue. can you discuss what potential impacts could occur if the U.S. continues to empty the strategic petroleum reserves?

Ms. Sgamma: Under the ground we've got reserves about one thousand-fold bigger than the SPR. It would be better for us to encourage that production of a million barrels a day than to drain down our petroleum reserve, which we have to at taxpayer expense fill back up again. Why not just encourage production from the American industry. We finance that, that's private sector financing, not government spend.

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