Cloture Motion

Floor Speech

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Mr. BARRASSO. Madam President, first, let me commend my colleague, the former Governor of North Dakota and now the senior Senator from North Dakota, for his very thoughtful comments with which I agree.

I come to the floor today, as well, to talk about energy prices, which we know are spiking all across the country. As the President is soaring off to a climate conference in Scotland, energy prices are soaring here at home.

This year alone, we have seen energy costs spiking for families all across this country. Energy prices have gone up not just a little; they have gone up a lot. The cost of filling your tank with gas is up about $1 a gallon today as compared to the day that Joe Biden was sworn into office. As a result, my constituents in Wyoming are paying about $25 to $30 more per tank every time they fill up--every time they go to the pump--than they would have done in January, when Joe Biden was sworn in.

It is not just gasoline prices that are up in our cars and trucks; it is natural gas prices that are way up--a 7-year high for gas at the pump and a 7-year high for natural gas. And all of these things are impacting people, especially as winter is coming. People use natural gas to heat their homes and cool their homes, and they use natural gas to cook.

Well, you know, it really shouldn't be this way wherein we see these skyrocketing prices because, in America, we have the largest energy resources in the world. Many of them are in my home State of Wyoming.

Under the last Presidential administration, America became the largest producer of oil and natural gas in the world, yet, in what we saw on the first day of his administration, President Biden declared war on American energy, on energy produced here at home in America.

On that very first day in office, he killed the Keystone XL Pipeline. That action immediately ended the jobs of thousands of individuals at the height of a pandemic.

President Biden didn't stop there. He went further when he shut down the exploration of oil and gas in the Arctic. He banned oil and gas leasing on Federal lands and in Federal waters. It was ruled illegal, and he did it anyway.

President Biden's radical, anti-American energy agenda is hurting our economy, and people in every State of the Union are paying the price and feeling the pain today. They are feeling it with higher energy bills. Anytime they pay an energy bill, they are paying more.

So what do the Democrats want to do about this?

Well, it is pretty obvious they want to make it worse. Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer are pushing a $3.5 trillion reckless tax-and-spending spree.

Last month, in the Energy Committee, of which I am the ranking member, one Commissioner of the FERC--the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission--had something to say about this $3.5 trillion spending bill. He said it would be like an ``H bomb''--an ``H bomb''--on America's electric markets. That is because the bill that the Democrats are trying to push through on a party-line vote is actually just the disastrous Green New Deal with a new name.

So what is in this bill?

Well, it would effectively kill coal, oil, and natural gas permitting on Federal lands. It would replicate California's unreliable electric grid, and it would do it on a national scale. The result would be what they have seen in California: rolling blackouts, service that is less reliable, and costs that are even higher.

The Democrats' bill would impose punishing new taxes on natural gas producers.

What happens to that?

Well, of course, these fees would be passed along to the consumers.

Where will they see it?

Well, in their energy bills.

It would create a new tax on mining firms based on how much dirt they moved. The Democrats literally, in their legislation, with 40 different taxes in it, now have a dirt tax.

The bill would waste $27 billion on a slush fund for environmental activists. Now, it is not clear exactly what all of this $27 billion would be used for--$27 billion--but we can be sure that taxpayers won't be getting their money back. Taxpayers will never see that money again.

How they actually dish out the money is completely open-ended, but what we do know is it can be used to hire environmental activists, armies of lawyers and mobs, to protest because their goal is to shut down energy and our industries and the energy economy, harming families and throwing people out of work.

Then, finally, this large bill would give huge tax breaks to rich people who want to buy electric vehicles. The Democrats' spending bill would give up to $12,500 to married couples who make as much as $800,000 a year. They would get a tax break. All they would need to do is buy a luxury electric vehicle.

The American people are already paying high energy prices. They are doing it because President Biden is blocking American energy. You know there isn't enough supply to meet the demand, and the Democrats have complained about it.

So how do they make the situation worse?

Well, they impose punishing fees; they waste billions of taxpayer dollars; they shut down the abundant and affordable energy sources that fuel our economy.

And, of course, all of these are good-paying jobs. American families can't afford the Democrats' reckless tax-and-spending spree.

So here we are today with the President's going off to Scotland. He will be there for Halloween, and people around this country will be suffering the nightmare of high energy costs. Not that long ago, we were a nation of energy wealth and energy dominance, but this President and this administration have changed it to make us a nation of energy weakness and a nation that is now dependent upon others for energy.

The American people wouldn't believe that we are, today, using more energy and more oil from Russia than we are from Alaska, but that is what this President has brought to this country--a jackpot for Vladimir Putin--and energy workers who are out of work here at home. It is a disgrace.

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