Lower Energy Costs Act

Floor Speech

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. GOSAR. Madam Chair, I rise in support of H.R. 1, the Lower Energy Costs Act.

America has an abundant supply of minerals, oil, and gas, and my State of Arizona ranks first among all States for non-fuel mineral resource production.

While the mining industry is still thriving in Arizona, primarily due to previously started mines, the Biden administration, and some in this very Chamber, have purposely slow-walked the permitting approval process, threatening this critically important industry.

H.R. 1 incentivizes domestic mineral production, unlocking resources that are vital for national security, renewable energy, and new technologies, like mineral processing, refinement, and concentration. This typically has been sent overseas to China, which then, in turn, monopolizes and holds these critical and rare resources ransom through supply chains.

Sadly, Arizona has two of the last three copper smelters in the United States, to which we hold to the highest environmental safety standards.

Allowing China to process these minerals is a continual slap in the face of the United States' stringent and responsible environmental laws.

Not surprisingly, it takes more than a decade, sometimes even two, to permit a mine in the United States. Canada can permit a mine in less than 3 years.

H.R. 1 modernizes the Federal regulations that delay projects for decades. H.R. 1 will help restore America as the global leader in energy technology development and protect Arizona's mining industry from the Biden administration and the leftists who want to shut it all down.

Madam Chair, I applaud Chairman Westerman for his leadership, and I urge all of my colleagues to support H.R. 1. The mantra should be: Now mined in America. Now refined in America. Now built in America.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Source