Energy Independence in Perpetuity

Floor Speech

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Ms. KAPTUR. Mr. Speaker, today, I rise in opposition to H.R. 21.

A top U.S. security priority must be energy independence in perpetuity.

We know high oil prices hit working families hard. Last year, the Biden administration rightly released oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, and oil prices dropped $1.69 a gallon in my area.

Unfortunately, the bill we had debated adds layers of bureaucracy-- four agencies and departments thick--limiting our progress to stabilize prices.

America must have an all-of-the-above energy profile. Here is yet another handout to Big Oil. It forces the leasing of additional lands to oil companies while vast amounts of current federally leased land sites are already going unused.

Leasing land is not the same as production.

H.R. 21 would hamstring our ability to protect people and companies from spiking gasoline prices.

I fought hard to save the Strategic Petroleum Reserve when others here tried to decommission it. American energy security means national independence. We should settle for no less.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Source