Lower Energy Costs Act

Floor Speech

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Mr. GRAVES of Missouri. Mr. Chair, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Mr. Chair, I rise today in support of H.R. 1, the Lower Energy Costs Act, which will unlock United States energy potential, benefiting Missourians and Americans nationwide.

Broadly speaking, this bill is important for so many reasons, from increasing domestic energy production to encouraging the production of critical minerals to modernizing the NEPA process for energy and other infrastructure projects. This bill does exactly what the title says.

Division C of the bill was produced by the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, and it focuses on streamlining and clarifying the scope of section 401 of the Clean Water Act to prevent its continued abuse in blocking energy infrastructure projects.

Many projects that require water quality certifications under section 401 are critical to our Nation's energy production, such as natural gas pipelines, LNG, and coal export terminals.

Division C of the bill makes clear that States cannot block important energy projects on grounds outside of the Clean Water Act quality standards, consistent with the intent of the original law.

Last month, H.R. 1152, which is encompassed within division C, was marked up and passed out of the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee.

As included in H.R. 1, division C is incredibly important to lowering energy costs and boosting energy production while still ensuring water quality.

Mr. Chair, I thank two of my subcommittee chairmen, David Rouzer and Garret Graves, for their leadership in sponsoring this piece of legislation.

Mr. Chair, I would urge support of the bill. By passing H.R. 1, the House would support moving critical energy projects forward and support lowering costs for Americans through greater energy independence.

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Mr. GRAVES of Missouri. Mr. Chair, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from North Carolina (Mr. Edwards), a member of the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee.

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Mr. GRAVES of Missouri. Mr. Chair, I yield 4 minutes to the gentleman from Tennessee (Mr. Burchett), a member of the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee.

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Mr. GRAVES of Missouri. Mr. Chairman, I yield 3 minutes to the gentlewoman from Oregon (Mrs. Chavez-DeRemer), who is a member of the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee.

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Mr. GRAVES of Missouri. Mr. Chairman, I yield 5 minutes to the gentleman from Louisiana (Mr. Graves), who is the chairman of the Aviation Subcommittee.

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Mr. GRAVES of Missouri. Mr. Chairman, I yield an additional 5 minutes to the gentleman from Louisiana (Mr. Graves).

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Mr. GRAVES of Missouri. Mr. Chairman, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Mr. Chairman, one of the things I like to do in the Capitol is learn about the individuals who came before us and the wisdom and the knowledge that they possessed. Daniel Webster served in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1823-1827. He is considered one of the great orators in the U.S. House. He actually also served in the other Chamber. A very good quote of his went on to say, ``Let us develope the resources of our land, call forth our powers, build up its institutions, promote all its great interests, and see whether we also, in our day and generation, may not perform something worthy to be remembered.''

That individual is the only individual that is quoted here in this Chamber, Daniel Webster, right up there on the wall above the dais. That first part is what says it all, ``Let us develope the resources of our land.'' That is exactly what we are trying to do so that we can be energy dependent on ourselves.

Mr. Chairman, the gentleman from North Carolina (Mr. Rouzer) will manage the remainder of the time for the majority.

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Mr. GRAVES of Missouri. Mr. Chairman, I reserve the balance of my time.

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