Urgent Need for Permitting Reform to Secure America's Energy Future

Floor Speech

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Mr. KILEY. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of H.R. 1, the Lower Energy Costs Act, which does something a little unusual for a piece of legislation. It actually does what it says it is going to do, the Lower Energy Costs Act.

It is going to lower costs for Americans and, in particular, my State of California, where we pay the highest energy costs in the country. It will do that by lowering utility bills, by reducing gas prices, and by reducing the cost of everyday goods by reducing the cost of transport.

It will do this by making our country more energy independent, enhancing our capacity for domestic energy production.

There are a number of other benefits to this, by the way. It will create jobs here in the United States. It will enhance our national security. It is much better for the environment than energy produced elsewhere.

It is the affordability facet that I really want to focus on because my top priority as a member of this new House majority is focusing like a laser on reducing the cost of living for Americans who have been crushed under the weight of runaway inflation.

As background, the first thing that we did in this new Congress was we voted to repeal the 87,000 IRS agents who were hired by the last Congress. This is going to spare countless Americans, middle-class Americans, from highly intrusive audits.

The next month, in February, I managed to secure an opinion from the IRS. This was specific to California taxpayers. This reversed guidance given by the California tax authority saying that you needed to pay taxes on those tax refunds that you got in the mail last year or early this year.

We managed to secure an opinion from the IRS saying you don't have to pay taxes on that, saving Californians several hundred dollars with that step alone.

It is H.R. 1, this bill, the Lower Energy Costs Act, that is the most important step yet to lower the cost of living for people in California and across the country. Here is exactly how the bill did this.

Number one, it is going to reduce your utility bills by repealing $6.4 billion in taxes on natural gas. This was part of the Biden administration's energy program last year, which, of course, caused gas prices to go over $7 a gallon in many places. Also part of that was a major tax that was placed on natural gas.

The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office has found that this tax is ultimately paid for by Americans through higher home heating costs and utility bills.

H.R. 1 repeals this tax, and consumers will pocket those savings through lower utility bills.

The second effect of this legislation will be to reduce gas prices, and that is primarily done through reforming our broken permitting process. Now, this might sound like sort of an arcane issue, but it is fundamental to the high, out-of-control cost of gas that we have been dealing with in this country, where we have a broken permitting process that blocks projects for months, for years, often indefinitely, through never-ending Federal reviews, not to mention frivolous litigation.

This bill will streamline the permitting and review process by capping reviews at 1 year for environmental assessments and 2 years for environmental impact statements, more than enough time. There is also going to be a 120-day deadline implemented on filing a lawsuit on final agency actions concerning energy projects.

The bill also requires the Department of the Interior to resume quarterly sales of onshore oil and gas leases, among many other steps, which will unleash the American energy sector, create middle-class jobs, and increase the supply of gas available to reduce prices at the pump.

Finally, it is worth mentioning the other overall effect of this bill, which is to reduce the cost of everyday goods and services. By reducing the cost of gasoline, every good transported to a store, whether it is groceries, furniture, or any other everyday necessities are going to be cheaper to transport, and those savings as well will be passed on to consumers.

I am proud to stand with my colleagues in the new majority in supporting this legislation, in fighting to reduce inflation, and to making the American Dream accessible to more people.

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