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Floor Speech

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Mr. CORNYN. Mr. President, as all of America knows, prices at the gas pump are skyrocketing. Over the weekend, the average gas price in Texas exceeded $4 a gallon, and we typically have some of the cheapest gasoline in the country. We didn't even cross that line during the great recession of 2008. But we know that gas prices are not the only commodity that is growing and that family budgets are strained by. Consumers are also paying more for everything from groceries to clothes, to appliances.

Folks in Texas and across the country want to know, what is President Biden's plan to address high gasoline prices? Last week, the President was, appropriately enough, asked this very question. His response? He said:

Can't do much right now. Russia is responsible.

That is a quote--``Russia is responsible.'' Well, people across the country know that the price of gasoline, the spike that we are experiencing now, preceded the invasion of Ukraine.

Folks across the country can't afford to fill up their gas tanks to get to work, and the President points the finger at Vladimir Putin. Well, there is no question that the war in Ukraine exacerbated what was already an existing problem with the price of gasoline, but certainly it was not the cause of it. But the President conveniently omits the fact that gasoline prices were a problem long before Ukraine was attacked. For example, the week the President took office, Americans were paying an average of $2.38 a gallon. Month after month, those prices steadily climbed. By mid-May, the average price exceeded $3.10 a gallon, and by Thanksgiving, it was $3.30 a gallon. Just as a reminder, this was months before Russia invaded, which did not happen until February 24 of this year. Even in the last full week before the invasion, gas prices were painfully high at $3.50 a gallon.

So, yes, prices have risen since the invasion, and there is no question that the Russian aggression is a factor behind price jumps in the past few weeks, but this was a preexisting problem for which apparently the President had no solution. It is disingenuous for the administration to blame recordbreaking prices entirely on Russia. During Biden's first year in office, from January of last year to January of this year, gas prices increased 40 percent--40 percent. Those increases had nothing to do with President Putin and had everything to do with President Biden.

One of the President's first actions after taking office was to cancel the Keystone XL Pipeline. This pipeline would have given Canadian crude a quick and affordable path to refiners and processors in the United States and then to global markets through the Gulf of Mexico. This increased supply would add to the domestic markets and top off the Strategic Petroleum Reserve and even make its way to our friends and allies overseas. Given the state of the world's energy security today, it is easy to see how the Keystone XL Pipeline would have helped if the President had given it an opportunity.

This project would have also brought serious economic gains in the form of good-paying jobs right here in America, increased tax revenue, and benefits for communities along the pipeline's route. But with the stroke of a pen, the President killed the Keystone XL Pipeline and the many benefits that would have been provided in terms of our energy security and the price of gasoline at the pump.

Unfortunately, that was the beginning but not the end of the administration's flawed energy policies. Just a few days later, the Biden administration placed a temporary moratorium on all new leasing permits on Federal lands, effectively sending more business to Russia and OPEC producers whom he actually called upon to produce more oil. That is right. Before the Russian invasion, President Biden called on OPEC--of which Russia is a member and of which Saudi Arabia is a dominant producer--to produce more oil overseas rather than to unleash American energy right here at home.

Well, the administration later attempted to set the ``social cost'' of carbon, as they call it, at $51 a metric ton--a high and arbitrary figure designed to hamper fossil fuel production right here at home-- and then it suspended oil and gas production in both Alaska and New Mexico.

The administration even took aim at refiners. The United States relies on an expansive network of refiners to supply gasoline, diesel fuel, and other petroleum products. The renewable fuel standard requires refiners to blend a certain amount of renewable fuel, which is simply untenable for many small refiners. And small refiners disproportionately actually produce gasoline, which means that the pressure on these small refiners actually has a disproportionate impact on higher gasoline prices.

The Environmental Protection Agency has the authority to grant temporary exemptions to small refiners if compliance would cause them to suffer serious economic hardship. Those exemptions used to be pretty standard practice. President Obama and President Trump each granted dozens of exemptions while in office. But so far, President Biden has refused to grant a single exemption to small refineries. Small refineries are hurting, and unless President Biden finally grants some of these exemptions, some of them may be forced to close their doors, exacerbating again high energy prices. If fewer refiners are operating, gasoline prices will go up, not down.

President Biden and his administration aren't the only ones who have taken aim at oil and gas production here in America in the last year. Many of our colleagues who have argued that oil and gas production is somehow unnecessary or obsolete and could be replaced today with solely renewable energy have been misleading the American people in believing that we could make that transition today or anytime in the near future. While renewable energy is an important part of our energy sources--in Texas, we produce more electricity from wind than any other State in the Nation--we believe in an ``all of the above'' energy policy.

I actually have heard members of the administration say one of the solutions for eliminating the importation of Russian oil would be to move entirely to renewables. Well, the Energy Information Administration, which is the official spokesman on these matters for the U.S. Government, says that by the year 2050, 74 percent of our energy sources in America will still be fossil fuel. That is four times the amount of energy that can be produced by renewables.

That doesn't mean we are going to stay stuck on where we are now. We will continue to look for new and innovative ways to add to our energy diversity and improve our climate and environment at the same time. But to suggest disingenuously to the American people that one way we can deal with cutting off Russian imports is simply to do away with oil and gas in America is a ludicrous statement.

Other regulatory measures promoted by the administration have also discouraged American energy production, like the reckless tax-and- spending spree to pile even more costs and regulations on American oil and gas; for example, a methane tax on energy companies, banning offshore drilling, increasing onshore royalty fees, and putting domestic oil and gas producers in a choke hold.

Now that gas prices have gone through the roof, some of our colleagues have come up with another unhelpful solution. They want to temporarily suspend the gas tax through November, which happens to be the elections. That is no coincidence. This idea has been soundly rejected a number of times over the years by both Republicans and Democrats.

In 2008, gas prices were soaring and the then-Presidential candidate, Barack Obama, attacked his opponents for endorsing a gas tax holiday, as many of our colleagues here in the Senate have endorsed currently.

At the time, Candidate Barack Obama, Senator Barack Obama, said:

This isn't an idea designed to get you through the summer, it's an idea designed to get [you] through an election.

In short, this isn't a fix for high gas prices; it is a talking point for political campaigns and candidates.

This is a gimmick to create the illusion of action, while really doing nothing but draining the highway trust fund that we rely upon to build our roads and bridges.

Still, a few of our colleagues in the Senate have offered a bill that would suspend the gas tax through the end of the year. I am sure it comes as no surprise that a majority of the bill's sponsors are on the ballot this year.

For more than a year now, Republicans have warned about the potential consequences of the attack on domestic energy production. We have highlighted the ways the policies could drive up prices, harm our energy security, and threaten that of our allies. Even as gas prices rose month after month, the Biden administration did nothing. They didn't attempt a midcourse correction. They didn't open this topic up for debate. They just stayed the course.

Back in November, the Secretary of Energy was asked about increasing U.S. oil production. She literally laughed and said:

That is hilarious.

Well, it certainly isn't funny now. Gas prices are now averaging $4.32 a gallon, and our allies are frantically trying to reduce their reliance on Russian oil and gas, which in many cases is their sole source.

President Biden has tried to pin these problems squarely on Russia and Vladimir Putin, but the American people are smart. They know the truth. They know that high prices predated Russia's invasion of Ukraine, and they know about the war being waged on domestic energy production by some of our colleagues across the aisle.

And they are smart enough to know that you can't believe President Biden when he says you can't do much about it because Russia is responsible.

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