Protecting American Energy Production Act
Floor Speech
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
Mr. HUFFMAN. Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
Madam Speaker, I welcome everyone to the first installment of House Republicans' fulfillment of their misguided, billionaire-funded, pro- polluter, drill, baby, drill agenda.
I like Valentine's Day as much as anyone. I don't mean to be cynical, but what I don't do is introduce empty love letters to polluting industries masquerading as legislation. That is what we are here to do today. This bill we are considering is one massive letter to Big Oil signed by the House GOP.
Meanwhile, Americans are grappling with the actual fallout from the White House's unconstitutional, illegal freeze on Federal funding across dozens of agencies and tariffs on our allies that will increase energy costs and inflation.
Instead of addressing all of these things, we are here today with a little love letter for Valentine's Day from House Republicans to Big Oil.
H.R. 26, the Protecting American Energy Production Act, pretends to ban Presidential fracking bans. Let me be clear: This bill is a solution in search of a nonexistent problem. President Trump is not going to ban fracking. President Biden didn't ban fracking. No President, past or present, has banned fracking.
Of course, now we do have President Trump. Democrats are not election deniers. We acknowledge that President Trump won the election. He is our President, and he loves fracking. Who are we kidding by passing this bill pretending to stop him from banning fracking?
If Republicans really want to push back on Presidential power and assert congressional rights, that would be interesting. We would love to work with Republicans on something like that.
We could start with the fact that President Trump has unleashed his unelected buddy, billionaire Elon Musk, to do all kinds of things in the first few weeks of his administration that ought to offend the sensibilities of the Article I branch of government, like blocking funds lawfully enacted by Congress that should be helping hardworking families and protecting communities from wildfires and droughts; firing civil servants working on behalf of the country and inspectors general charged with rooting out waste, fraud, and abuse; attacking civil rights and disability protections that Congress enacted into law; and attempting to abolish USAID, an agency that might not be familiar to many Americans but is incredibly important to American interests. It advances U.S. global leadership all over the world and counters the malign influence of Russia and China.
We are here on the House floor to give Republicans a stage to gush over the oil and gas industry. This is political theater at its worst. Instead of addressing real crises like the climate crisis or the crushing cost of living for American families, Republicans are wasting everyone's time banning imaginary fracking bans, claiming it will somehow lower costs for communities and small businesses, but it won't.
What we are about to see is Republicans previewing their undying devotion and the many favors they are going to offer to Big Oil in the months to come. Let's review a couple of facts. The United States is already the largest producer of oil in the world. We are producing more oil and gas than ever before. In fact, we are producing more than any country in history.
What do we have to show for it? How is that working out for us? We are still facing volatile energy prices because we are exporting record amounts of fossil fuel and because fossil fuels are global commodities vulnerable to international price shocks. The fossil fuel industry will do whatever it takes to make the most money, even if that is exporting its products in ways that increase costs for American consumers.
There is a cost to this industry joyride. Communities living near this record-breaking production are bearing the brunt of fossil fuel pollution, and their health and well-being are paying the price.
The United States should be leading the way to a new, cleaner future. Instead, we are drilling deeper into this catastrophe.
It is not as if Big Oil is hurting right now. The oil and gas industry enjoys $15 billion in subsidies from American taxpayers each year, and that is just the direct handouts. When you factor in health and environmental impacts because taxpayers pick up the tab for all of that, the United States spends $757 billion propping up the fossil fuel industry every single year.
What do we get in return for all of this generosity? It sure seems like unrequited love because Big Oil has been colluding illegally with foreign cartels to purposely drive up gas prices for American consumers, increasing inflation and padding their pockets along the way.
Big Oil doesn't need any more favors. What it needs is to be held accountable. That didn't stop President Trump from asking for a billion dollars from the oil and gas industry during the campaign.
We are going to see Big Oil billionaires ask for more tax breaks and deregulation every day for the next two Congresses, but this bill is particularly absurd. If nothing else, the debate over this love letter to Big Oil makes one thing clear: House Republicans are more interested in passing love notes to Big Oil than in holding Big Oil accountable.
During the fracking process, oil and gas companies inject a high- pressure mixture of water, sand, and toxic chemicals into the ground to extract fossil fuels. It is a dirty business, yet for years, there have been loopholes around it to boost the industry's profits even further while leaving communities vulnerable to pollution.
I will highlight some examples. All industries, if they want to inject toxic pollutants underground, have to comply with the Safe Drinking Water Act. This makes sure that drinking water resources and public health are protected, which fracking is not. Fracking companies aren't subject to the Safe Drinking Water Act regulations. They don't have to disclose any of the toxic chemicals that could seep into your drinking water.
Another example: Under the Clean Air Act, we can aggregate smaller nearby sources of pollution that can be regulated together to protect public health. That is something the Clean Air Act does that applies to all other industries but not from oil and gas development. They have a special exception.
Now, what about the Clean Water Act? Well, that has provisions to prevent polluted stormwater runoff from contaminating water sources, except if that runoff comes from oil and gas facilities.
These are just a few of the loopholes that this industry enjoys, loopholes that have real impacts on public health, especially children's health.
Studies have found that exposure to fracking and associated chemicals can lead to low birth weight for babies, preterm births, congenital abnormalities, asthma, and even certain childhood cancers.
We should be able to agree that protecting children from these impacts and ensuring that communities have clean air to breathe and clean water to drink should be our priorities, not sending love letters to Big Oil.
Unfortunately, this bill and the many other giveaways that are going to be coming our way in this Congress will not protect these communities.
Madam Speaker, I strongly oppose this legislation, and I reserve the balance of my time.
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
Mr. HUFFMAN. Madam Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentlewoman from Colorado (Ms. DeGette).
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
Mr. HUFFMAN. Madam Speaker, I yield the gentlewoman from Colorado an additional 30 seconds.
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
Mr. HUFFMAN. Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
Madam Speaker, it is interesting. I hear my colleague from Minnesota saying that he is interested in constraining Presidential power, just not this President, and apparently only when it applies to Presidents who might go against the interests of Big Oil. I guess at least there is some semblance of interest in defending Article I, but it is a pretty twisted remnant of what should be Congress' Article I authority.
If we really want to work on constraining Presidential power, there is a lot we could do together. Right now this administration is illegally blocking funds enacted by Congress to help hardworking Americans, funding meant for wildfire management and water infrastructure projects at a time when communities in California are still reeling from disaster. Instead, we are debating this.
This administration has fired inspectors general from at least 18 Federal agencies without warning and without explanation in clear violation of the law which requires 30 days' notice to Congress and a substantive explanation. There was a time when Members of both parties would be furious over a flouting of the law like that. However, today it doesn't seem to matter to our colleagues across the aisle.
These independent watchdogs exist for one purpose: To prevent waste, fraud, and abuse and to hold Presidential power in check, working closely with Congress. Apparently that doesn't matter anymore.
We know the administration is actively trying to abolish USAID, a nonpartisan agency established by Congress which supports nutrition and other basic humanitarian assistance all over the world for people who need it. We know that NOAA could be next on the chopping block, a science-based agency that people all over this country depend on every day to get weather alerts and to save lives. However, we are on the floor debating this love letter to Big Oil instead of standing up for Congress' Article I authority and holding Presidential power in check.
Madam Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentlewoman from Phoenix, Arizona (Ms. Ansari).
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
Mr. HUFFMAN. Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
Madam Speaker, do you know what is bad for energy prices here in the United States? This LNG export bonanza that my friends across the aisle support that President Trump is unleashing with one of his executive orders restarting LNG exports to non-free trade agreement countries. Unconstrained exports of LNG could increase wholesale domestic natural gas prices here in the United States by over 30 percent. Households could pay $100 more per year by midcentury, and congressional Republicans are threatening to repeal clean energy tax credits which could result in a 10 percent jump in electricity costs. Let's not kid each other about who cares about energy prices for American consumers.
Madam Speaker, I yield 2\1/2\ minutes to the gentlewoman from Michigan (Ms. Tlaib).
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
Mr. HUFFMAN. Madam Speaker, I yield 4 minutes to the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Casten).
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
Mr. HUFFMAN. Madam Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Tennessee (Mr. Cohen).
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
Mr. HUFFMAN. Madam Speaker, I yield myself the balance of my time.
I close by making one thing very clear. Even though fracking can undeniably present very real health threats and risks to the public, the reality is that no President has ever tried to ban it, and President Trump is certainly not going to ban it. He absolutely loves fracking.
Why are we here? Why are we having this totally performative debate?
This bill and this debate serves two purposes for my colleagues across the aisle. First, it is a chance to provide an assurance, a love letter, to Big Oil, telling them that House Republicans will have their backs, an early Valentine's Day gift, if you will.
Second, it is a distraction. House Republicans are distracting the American people by saying they are doing something. To put it in theological terms that my friends might appreciate, it is like Jesus is coming, look busy.
However, as we have laid out, this will do nothing for energy costs. The entire drill, baby, drill agenda will do nothing for inflation because the industry is already producing record amounts of oil and gas. They are doing more than that. They are purposefully and illegally price gouging Americans, colluding with cartels. They are not interested in lowering costs for the American people.
This is also a distraction from the trade war that President Trump is starting to unleash, including against close allies of the United States, something that is going to painfully raise prices for everyday Americans. It is a distraction from the President's threats and attacks on democracy.
We are sliding down the slippery slope to dictatorship, Mr. Speaker, and we are here debating a love letter to Big Oil.
Just under 3 weeks into this administration, it is clear, and it is no surprise, who the Republican leaders in Congress are for. They are for billionaires. They are for Big Oil, corporations, and polluters.
Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to defend people over polluters and vote ``no'' on this bill, and I yield back the balance of my time.
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
Mr. HUFFMAN. Mr. Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.
The yeas and nays were ordered.
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
Source