Lower Energy Costs Act

Floor Speech

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Mr. VALADAO. Madam Chair, I thank the chairman for yielding me time.

Madam Chair, this administration's regulatory assault on American energy production has been devastating for my constituents in the Central Valley. Every week, I hear from my neighbors, friends, and constituents about the skyrocketing price of monthly energy bills.

Over the summer, people in California were paying over $6 per gallon for gas. It is unacceptable that even though America has some of the greatest energy resources of any nation in the world, my constituents are having trouble putting gas in their tanks and food on their tables.

That is why I am proud to support the Lower Energy Costs Act, and I encourage my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to do the same. This bill will cut red tape and allow us to increase our supply of safe, clean, and affordable energy.

I am proud that language from my bill, the NEPA Adequacy Streamlining Act, is included in this bill. This makes the approval of new energy projects easier by allowing the Secretaries of the Interior and Agriculture to use previously conducted environmental assessments for similar projects. This is a commonsense reform that removes one of the many layers of bureaucratic red tape in our permitting process.

This bill is full of the same types of policies that streamline our energy production to increase our supply of clean, affordable energy.

I want to respond to some of the opponents of this bill. My Democratic colleagues claim that this legislation is harmful to our environment. This is just not true. America has some of the strictest environmental standards of any nation in the world. When we produce energy here, we do it cleaner and safer than countries we would be importing it from.

Something important to remember is that decreasing domestic production does not reduce the demand for energy. Reducing our ability to produce oil and gas in the U.S. just increases our reliance on foreign countries for these imports. That means instead of using clean energy we produce here and creating good-paying American jobs in the process, we are reliant on imports from countries like Russia and Venezuela that are not held to the same environmental standards we have here in the U.S.

If your argument is that you want to reduce emissions, then increasing U.S. energy production is how you do it.

Despite wishes from the President and the far left, we cannot abandon traditional energy sources like oil and gas. While we as a country should continue to develop and pursue other energy sources, we will still need oil and gas for a long time. Why not produce it here in the U.S.?

I support an all-of-the-above approach to energy production and use, but that does not mean immediately transitioning to 100 percent renewable fuels. Until alternative energy sources are more reliable, we will continue to need transitional fuels.

If my Democratic colleagues cared about the environment as much as they say they do, then supporting the increased production of clean and reliable American-made energy should be a no-brainer.

Passing the Lower Energy Costs Act is a critical step to lowering prices, creating good-paying jobs, and strengthening our national security.

Madam Chair, I urge my colleagues to vote in support of this bill.

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