Lower Energy Costs Act

Floor Speech

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Mr. WALBERG. Madam Chair, I thank the gentleman for yielding.

Madam Chair, here is the deal: It is January 19, 2021. Gas is $2.38 per gallon. We had just replenished our Strategic Petroleum Reserve. American energy dominance provided stability across the geopolitical landscape.

The following day, the war on domestic energy began with the cancellation of the Keystone XL pipeline and executive action restricting domestic production.

In a matter of mere months, gas prices would reach record highs. Our emergency reserves would be tapped for political purposes, and we would be begging adversaries to increase their production while an empowered Russia and an empowered China both eyed territorial expansion.

This is what the radical Green New Deal looks like in implementation.

My constituents have told me about the energy bills that they can't budget for, the unaffordable rate spikes in peak hours, and even stories of gas tanks being drilled into.

Everything costs more when energy costs more.

With H.R. 1, energy will cost less.

The Lower Energy Costs Act will unleash domestic production. H.R. 1 includes permitting reforms, increased production and processing of critical minerals, and an undoing of the Biden administration's regulatory stranglehold on the energy sector.

In Michigan, activists have long eyed shutting down Line 5, an essential international pipeline sustaining 34,000 jobs across the Midwest and billions in economic activity.

Language I authored, included in H.R. 1, would protect these pipelines from being unilaterally shut down by an overzealous executive branch.

Prosperity, opportunity, and security are on the line.

I urge my colleagues to pass H.R. 1.

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