Restoring American Energy Dominance Act

Floor Speech

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Mr. STAUBER. Mr. Speaker, pursuant to House Resolution 1085, I call up the bill (H.R. 6009) to require the Director of the Bureau of Land Management to withdraw the proposed rule relating to fluid mineral leases and leasing process, and for other purposes, and ask for its immediate consideration in the House.

The Clerk read the title of the bill.

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Mr. STAUBER. 6009.

I rise today in support of H.R. 6009, the Restoring American Energy Dominance Act.

H.R. 6009, introduced by Congresswoman Boebert, would nullify the Bureau of Land Management's proposed onshore oil and gas leasing regulations.

While on the campaign trail, then-candidate Joe Biden said during a primary debate: ``No more drilling on Federal lands.'' That was candidate Biden.

The BLM's proposed regulations attempt to accomplish President Biden's campaign promise by limiting onshore leasing, reducing flexibility, and increasing fees.

The regulations propose eliminating nationwide bonds while increasing individual bonding requirements 15-fold and statewide bonding requirements 20-fold. The BLM's stated rationale for doing this is to protect taxpayers from having to clean up orphaned wells.

One would think that there is an orphaned well crisis on BLM lands, given the significant cost increases the rule proposes. However, the opposite is true, Mr. Speaker. According to the Department of the Interior, there are only 37 orphaned wells on BLM lands, and the Department has used bonds to plug wells on Federal lands just 40 times over this last decade.

The proposed regulations would also be extremely harmful to small businesses. Tom Kropatsch, the Wyoming State oil and gas supervisor, said: ``The bonding provisions will impact hundreds of small businesses in Wyoming, resulting in lost royalties, taxes, and other revenues to local and State government, and likely will create orphaned wells, not protect against them.''

While he is speaking of his home State of Wyoming, the impacts would be the same in energy-producing regions nationwide.

The regulations also introduce new and vague preference criteria for evaluating onshore oil and gas leasing. The criteria seemingly intended to avoid conflict in areas with ``sensitive cultural, wildlife, and recreation resources.''

Don't be fooled. The criteria, which could be applied to any parcel of land, are meant to lock up lands from resource development and shut down future oil and gas production. President Biden is once again proactively taking steps to increase energy prices, reduce American energy production, and ultimately diminish our national security.

To continue using Wyoming as a case study, in 2022 and 2023, the Wyoming BLM had initially offered to sell 830 parcels covering 954,281 acres. However, through successive rounds of an environmental review that incorporated considerations of these preference criteria, the Wyoming BLM deferred 462 parcels encompassing 586,000 acres. That is 61 percent of the acreage that should have otherwise been available that was ultimately deferred due to these new criteria--and the regulations aren't even final yet.

BLM's proposed onshore oil and gas leasing regulations are an attack on domestic energy production that will further lock up our Federal lands and eliminate access to our natural resources. We will not stand idly by as the Biden administration increases our reliance on foreign adversarial nations. It diminishes our national security and inflates already unaffordable energy prices.

H.R. 6009 acknowledges the BLM statutory mission of managing our Federal lands for multiple use, including energy and mineral development. It will keep our country safe by ensuring continued domestic energy production. It will benefit American families, American communities, American jobs, and our small businesses.

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Mr. STAUBER. Mr. Speaker, my good friend and colleague talked about making a mess. Joe Biden and his administration have made a mess for American energy--higher energy prices throughout our country. The middle class is getting squeezed because of his energy policies and, dare I say, his anti-mining agenda. We will clean up this mess.

Boebert), the sponsor of this bill.

The Biden administration told Congress just last summer that there are only 37 orphaned wells on BLM lands, and they have called in bonds only four times per year over the last decade. This number is low because the BLM has a process for dealing with at-risk wells.

There are very few, if any, Federal leases that don't have multiple companies with multiple record title interests and working interests. Multiple companies may have equities in the leases and will sell those equities to other companies that want to develop at different depths, for example.

BLM maintains the full chain of ownership. If BLM identifies a well on a lease at risk for abandonment, the agency will go to the companies in that chain of ownership and require them to take care of the well.

Increasing bonds at these levels will also have a disproportionate impact on the small producers and the small businesses and therefore could actually result in more bankruptcies and thus more orphaned wells. Crushing small businesses and limiting production on Federal lands, which is what this regulation would do, would simply reduce production, driving up prices for American families and driving down revenues paid to the States and the Federal Government.

Federal onshore oil and gas production brought in roughly $7.7 billion in revenue in fiscal year 2023 alone. That is almost six times more than the BLM's entire fiscal year budget.

We have the opportunity to help the American people who are struggling under this administration's policies and procedures. The time is now. The American people are hurting with energy prices. Inflation is still on the rise. The CPI is almost 20 percent. This is real for blue-collar, working Americans.

The energy policies, Mr. Speaker, of this President have been devastating to the middle and lower class. I have the privilege of representing Minnesota's Eighth Congressional District. It is the oldest and poorest congressional district in our great State. I hear it every single day about the cost of energy. We can change it, and this is our opportunity.

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Mr. STAUBER. Mr. Speaker, my friends and colleagues on the other side of the aisle brought up the Inflation Reduction Act. The fact is, that is law, and 90 percent of that money goes to billion-dollar companies in subsidies.

This bill we are talking about today is about small businesses. Under this administration, the average American household is paying $11,400 per year under these policies and these regulations. That is a lot of money.

Mr. Speaker, that may not be a lot of money for a President who has spent 53 years of his life in Washington, D.C. Just maybe he has forgotten what it is like to struggle in our Midwestern States. Mr. Speaker, $11,400 is the average, and I just stated that I represent the oldest and the poorest Congressional District in the State of Minnesota. That is a lot of money for my constituents and almost every American.

Fifty-three years President Biden has been bloviating on Capitol Hill trying to change things and make it better.

On his energy policies and his mining policies, he has failed the American people, and we all know it. We all know it. We feel it. We see it. Our pocketbooks are shrinking, and our paychecks aren't rising as fast as we want them to, and they are not keeping up with inflation.

This is about small businesses. This is about not letting the unelected bureaucrats in Washington, D.C., dictate production of our natural resources. We, in Congress, have a responsibility to write legislation that will benefit all Americans. Today we are talking about legislation, Mr. Speaker, about energy prices. There is nobody in this country who feels as if this administration has reduced the cost of energy for them.

Mr. Speaker, $11,400, that is a lot of money for this retired police officer. That is a lot of money for my wife who served 24 years in the military and is an Iraq war veteran. That is a lot of money for her, for me, and for many other Americans who are trying to just feed their families, keep up, and try and live the American Dream.

Mr. Speaker, this President has failed the American people on his energy policies.

Mr. Speaker, this is an easy concept for us all to understand. This really isn't about the left or the right, Democrat or Republican. We move either forward or backward.

My colleagues on the other side of the aisle just talked about the Inflation Reduction Act. It was voted and put into law almost 2 years ago, so I ask the American people: Has it increased your energy prices, or has it lowered your energy prices? The American people know that their energy prices have skyrocketed.

We have many great energy producing States, including the great State of Alaska. This administration has put 54 sanctions on energy production in Alaska. That is more sanctions than this administration has put on Iran. That is unconscionable.

Mr. Speaker, earlier, at a Federal Lands Subcommittee hearing, there was a witness exchange. Representative Tiffany chairs it. They talked about where they are going to source their electric vehicles, their critical minerals for the vehicles, and they were talking about child slave labor. The Democrat witness said that it is unfortunate that people are exploited around the world, but it is a reality. He said that is a controversial issue.

Child slave labor should never be controversial. We should never allow that, and this administration has gone with memorandums of understanding with Congo, where 15 of the 19 industrial mines use child slave labor.

Mr. Speaker, that is a fact, and this administration doesn't want to admit it. They want to ignore the human rights atrocities to get to their so-called green agenda. That is not acceptable, Mr. Speaker, when we have the mineral resources here in the United States of America.

As I said earlier, we are blessed with an abundance of natural resources that we can extract using the best environmental labor standards. Again, we can move either backward or forward. I submit to you that the Republicans want to move forward on energy production.

Mr. Speaker, I have no further requests for time.

Mr. Speaker, the American people just have to ask themselves whether they are paying more or less for energy and groceries under this administration. It is clear the American people are suffering under the Biden policies.

The Biden administration's proposed rule would eliminate the opportunity for exploration of newly discovered energy producing areas and shrink future oil and gas production, even on sites where it already exists, all while drastically driving up costs for Americans.

We will not stand by idly as this administration locks up our Federal lands and prohibits Americans from accessing their abundant natural resources. We will support American families, jobs, communities, our economy, and our national security through safe, clean, and efficient domestic energy production.

Mr. Speaker, I urge all of my colleagues to join me in support of H.R. 6009, and I yield back the balance of my time.

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Mr. STAUBER. Mr. Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.

The yeas and nays were ordered.

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