Lower Energy Costs Act

Floor Speech

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Mrs. MILLER-MEEKS. Madam Chair, polluters over people act. They would rather put people stopping traffic to prevent you from getting to work and people throwing mashed potatoes at art than they would the American people.

I could not disagree with my colleagues more. Oil is a global commodity. Prices went up when the President constrained supply.

How do we know that? His own actions.

What did the President do?

He went to Saudi Arabia and Venezuela to ask them to produce more oil, and then released oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve so prices could go down just in time for the elections.

Among the 20 bills that make up this package, I draw attention to a suite of bills focused on refining and processing critical minerals as well as development of new mines for critical minerals on Federal land.

The critical minerals provisions in the E&C and Natural Resources titles are helpful for Iowa wind, which produces 58 percent of the electricity in the State. This allows Iowa to be a net exporter of electricity and supports 230 blade manufacturing jobs in Fort Madison. Ensuring we mine critical minerals in the U.S. and process those minerals domestically is critical to securing our Nation's global competitiveness and supporting many clean energy technologies as well as supporting a cleaner environment from China.

Madam Chair, I also commend the significant strides we have made on NEPA reform with the package combining measures to streamline permitting reviews for energy products and mines. Importantly, H.R. 1 places clear timelines on environmental reviews, clarifies the scope of environmental reviews, and puts sidebars on judicial reviews under NEPA.

According to a recent poll from Citizens for Responsible Energy Solutions Forum, 80 percent of people support policies that expedite government review of infrastructure projects, which is why these issues are at the heart of H.R. 1. As fiscal conservatives, we also take pride in the fact that responsible permitting reform has the opportunity to lower emissions while also costing zero taxpayer dollars and lowering the costs of energy for consumers.

I am proud of the legislative wins in H.R. 1 to reduce energy costs. We all want a cleaner, healthier planet for our children and grandchildren and also affordable, abundant energy. H.R. 1 is a step in the right direction. I urge my colleagues to vote ``yes.''

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