Lower Energy Costs Act

Floor Speech

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Mrs. FLETCHER. Mr. Chairman, by its position, H.R. 1 reflects a top priority of the House majority. There is much that my constituents in Houston agree we should be prioritizing in this Congress when it comes to energy--not only lowering energy costs, which is the bill's title-- but strengthening our energy security, ensuring and enabling domestic energy production of all kinds, and ensuring our energy future.

That comes from serious legislating. That comes from listening. That comes from stakeholders of all kinds coming to the table to grapple with the competing interests here and come up with workable, durable policy.

That is, unfortunately, not what we have in this massive bill and not what we are seeing in this Chamber in our debates on energy policy here or across the country. That is a problem.

I have warned and will continue to warn that the politicization of energy policy and energy production is one of the most dangerous things that is happening in this country right now, and I am sorry to see that this debate is no different.

We simply cannot repeat cursory talking points and epithets that do not get to the complex and urgent challenges in front of us. There are real and dire consequences for our people who produce the energy that we need and use every day and for our environment if we cannot get it together enough to take this work seriously here.

We must move from politics to policy. I can't go through all the policy in this bill in the time that I have here. However, I do agree that we must reform the permitting process, that we should continue exports of oil and natural gas, that we need an offshore leasing plan, that we should increase offshore revenue to coastal States, that we need to secure critical minerals, and other ideas contained in this bill.

However, H.R. 1 contains so many unworkable provisions that create unrealistic deadlines, threaten our national security, and repeal key environmental and public health protections and programs--including the historic work that we did just in the last Congress in the Inflation Reduction Act to reduce methane emissions, incentivize clean energy investment, and protect communities--that I cannot vote for the bill.

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Mrs. FLETCHER. Mr. Chairman, the work we did in the Inflation Reduction Act was to reduce methane emissions, incentivize clean energy investment, and protect communities. Because of that and because this bill repeals that important work, I cannot vote for it.

People here in Washington understand that this bill is a messaging bill that will not be taken up in the Senate. With this vote, this is my message: When it comes to energy, it is time to put aside politics and get to the policy.

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