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Floor Speech

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Mr. HOEVEN. Madam President, 2 weeks ago, President Trump was reelected, and the Senate Republicans reclaimed the Senate majority. As we prepare for the 119th Congress, I join my colleagues today to discuss Republican solutions to the challenges our Nation faces.

Among these important efforts, we will work with President Trump to unleash more American energy and not only make our country energy independent once again but actually make the United States energy dominant. We will do that by cutting the redtape that has handcuffed our energy industry. And instead of strangling regulations, we are going to boost innovation. That is the right kind of approach for energy policy in our Nation.

Energy security directly impacts our economic and national security. That is why we must act on day one to reverse the Biden administration's regulatory onslaught. From the very beginning of his tenure, President Biden has sought to curtail American energy. I would like to take a moment to recap some of these harmful regulatory policies.

Just last week, the Biden administration finished implementing a new natural gas tax. Think about that: a tax on natural gas at a time when the country has been fighting inflation. That natural gas tax was authorized as part of the Democrat partisan tax-and-spend bill.

Importantly, I intend to introduce a Congressional Review Act resolution of disapproval to block the Biden administration's new natural gas tax rule, and we will work with President Trump to repeal it. Again, this is part of reducing an inflation that affects every single American.

This costly tax comes in addition to new burdensome rules and higher fees on Federal energy production imposed by the Department of the Interior's Bureau of Land Management.

But the Biden administration isn't just increasing costs for producers. They are working to outright prevent the development of vast amounts of taxpayer-owned energy resources on public lands.

This year, BLM issued a new public lands rule enabling radical environmental groups to lock away more of our energy reserves under a so-called conservation leasing approach. In my State of North Dakota, the Biden administration is proposing to close off leasing to 45 percent--45 percent--of Federal oil and gas acreage and 95 percent of Federal coal acreage.

Let me repeat that. In my State of North Dakota--we are one of the largest energy producing States in the country. We are an energy powerhouse for this country. In my State, the Biden administration is proposing to close off leasing to 45 percent of Federal oil and gas acreage and 95 percent of Federal coal acreage. At the same time, the Biden administration's regulatory agenda is making electricity more expensive and less reliable. Think about that. We need more electricity, not less. These policies not only increase the price of the electricity that we get, but it prevents us from producing more electricity.

Under President Biden, the EPA has issued overreaching power sector regulations that inflict utilities with billions of dollars in compliance costs. Worse still, these burdensome regulations could force the premature retirement of reliable coal-fired baseload powerplants, and we need that baseload to maintain the integrity of the nationwide electric grid.

The North American Electric Reliability Corporation, or NERC, and multiple independent grid operators are sounding the alarm of a coming reliability crisis.

Each of these actions by the Biden administration was specifically designed to make traditional energy more expensive and to produce less of it. That is why, in partnership with the incoming Trump administration, we will take off the handcuffs of our energy producers and empower them to increase supply and bring down prices for American families and businesses.

I would also like to thank President Trump and offer my congratulations to Governor Doug Burgum of North Dakota on his nomination to serve as Secretary of the Interior and the head of the newly formed National Energy Council. The Department of the Interior is incredibly important in North Dakota and Western States, overseeing more than 247 million acres of Federal land and approximately 30 percent of the Nation's minerals.

As Governor of my home State of North Dakota, Doug has the right background and experience to lead the Department of the Interior and all of the new administration's energy efforts. He has been a great partner as we have worked together to make North Dakota an energy powerhouse for our country, and I know he will bring that experience to bear in a positive way for our country. He understands the importance of productive multiple use of our vast Federal estate for energy development, grazing, recreation, tourism, and all of the multiple uses we enjoy.

I look forward to continuing our efforts together, and he will be in a tremendous position to help us roll back the harmful policies of the last 4 years and unlock our country's energy potential. That means making the best use of our Nation's abundant energy resources-- including our vast oil, gas, and coal reserves--while advancing new innovations to produce more energy with better environmental stewardship. That is the right way to do it.

Like I said at the beginning, we are not just going to make our Nation energy independent; we are going to make our Nation energy dominant.

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