Protecting American Energy Production Act
Floor Speech
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Mr. WESTERMAN. Mr. Speaker, pursuant to House Resolution 5, I call up the bill (H.R. 26) to prohibit a moratorium on the use of hydraulic fracturing, and ask for its immediate consideration in the House.
The Clerk read the title of the bill.
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Mr. WESTERMAN. 26.
Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of H.R. 26, the Protecting American Energy Production Act.
H.R. 26, introduced by Congressman Pfluger, would prevent any President from issuing a moratorium on hydraulic fracturing while also establishing a sense of Congress that States should regulate the practice on State and private land.
Hydraulic fracturing has been around for nearly 100 years. With other advancements in the industry, such as horizontal drilling, hydraulic fracturing has become a staple of the oil and gas industry. The practice has propelled the United States to energy superpower status. In fact, fracking in the United States provides 64 percent of American crude oil and 78 percent of the country's natural gas.
This surge in supply has contributed to lower energy prices for consumers, stimulated economic and job growth, and improved the quality of life for Americans.
In truth, a ban on hydraulic fracturing would devastate the American economy while surrendering world energy leadership to adversary nations with large oil and gas reserves, such as Russia, Iran, Venezuela, and China.
Federal efforts to regulate fracking, which is adequately regulated by the States, could have an equally detrimental impact. The Energy Policy Act of 2005 clarified that Congress never intended the Federal Government to regulate fracking under the Safe Drinking Water Act.
There is even precedent from the courts to not allow the Federal Government to regulate fracking. In the Obama administration, the Bureau of Land Management attempted to regulate the practice for Federal lands and minerals, but the courts correctly threw out the effort. In the decision, the judge clearly stated: ``Congress has not delegated to the Department of the Interior the authority to regulate hydraulic fracturing. The BLM's effort to do so through the fracking rule is in excess of its statutory authority and contrary to the law.''
States regulate fracking, and each has comprehensive laws and regulations to provide for safe operations, protect drinking water sources, and ensure effective regulations of oil and gas exploration and production.
This bill would prevent future administrations from implementing a unilateral fracking ban and express Congress' sense that States should maintain regulatory authority over fracking on State and private lands.
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Mr. WESTERMAN. Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
Fracking has been challenged. It has been challenged by the Biden administration, and fortunately, the courts stepped in and said that you can't regulate fracking to the BLM. If you look at what our abundant clean supply of natural gas in the United States has done, it has allowed us to reduce emissions more than any country in the world.
We produce the cleanest, most reliable gas in the world with a 40 percent cleaner carbon footprint than what Russia produces. Natural gas not only provides jobs and energy here at home, but it can be a source of national security to help bolster our partners around the world.
We are blessed with natural gas from the Permian Basin in west Texas and New Mexico to the Marcellus and Utica shale plays in Pennsylvania, Ohio, and New York. I believe those two combined are the largest natural gas field in the world.
We have a tremendous resource that we can use to do many good things, and if fracking were banned, that resource goes away.
Madam Speaker, I yield 4 minutes to the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Pfluger), the lead sponsor of the bill.
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Mr. WESTERMAN. Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
The benefits that clean American energy, reliable, affordable energy, has on health benefits are too numerous to even get into in a discussion here today. It saves lives not just in providing energy and heat but in providing the many materials that are made from oil and gas in the United States.
Even the Obama administration's EPA found that fracking has no ``widespread systemic impacts on drinking water resources in the United States.'' No evidence has arisen that the practice is dangerous, and to say anything else is simply fear-mongering and pandering to the radical left that would rather rely on Iran, Russia, and Venezuela for energy.
Madam Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from Minnesota (Mr. Stauber).
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Mr. WESTERMAN. Madam Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Latta).
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Mr. WESTERMAN. Madam Speaker, I think a lot of the general public doesn't realize that natural gas goes into a lot more than just producing energy but it is, in essence, the main ingredient in agriculture, and it is the main ingredient that can help lower our food prices as most fertilizer is made from natural gas. When we have abundant, affordable natural gas, then that means we have more abundant and affordable fertilizer so that we can grow more crops and keep prices low.
Madam Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Thompson), who is the chairman of the Agriculture Committee and who has seen firsthand the benefits of fracking in the Marcellus shale.
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Mr. WESTERMAN. Madam Speaker, I yield an additional 30 seconds to the gentleman.
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Mr. WESTERMAN. Madam Speaker, I yield 2\1/2\ minutes to the gentlewoman from Colorado (Ms. Boebert).
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Mr. WESTERMAN. Madam Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Carter).
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Mr. WESTERMAN. Madam Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Weber).
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Mr. WESTERMAN. Madam Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentlewoman from Oklahoma (Mrs. Bice).
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Mr. WESTERMAN. Madam Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Balderson).
Mr. Speaker, in closing, I will cite a 2019 study by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce's Global Energy Institute. Their research shows a ban on fracking would have eliminated 19 million jobs between 2021 and 2025, while simultaneously reducing the U.S. gross domestic product by $7.1 trillion over the same period. The efforts of a ban like this cannot be overstated.
Mr. Speaker, I include in the Record the link to the study by the Global Energy Institute. The link is: https://www.uschamber.com/assets/ documents/gei/hf__ban__report__final.pdf
Mr. Speaker, as we think about what that ban would have done just between the years 2021 and 2025, what if the Obama administration had been successful, what if their BLM had been successful in banning fracking on Federal lands, America would not have led the world in reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
We would have seen even higher energy costs. The cost of food would have gone up. It could have changed the course of our country and not in a good way had this ban gone into effect.
The Global Energy Institute's research also shows that over the same 2021 to 2025 timeframe, energy prices would have skyrocketed with natural gas prices rising by 324 percent. This would cause household energy bills for the average American to quadruple and the cost of living to increase by $5,661 per year.
Additionally, the price of gasoline would double and government revenues would plummet by almost $1.9 trillion.
Let's think about that: $7 trillion of GDP. We know from history that about 17\1/2\ percent of the GDP goes right into the Federal Government's tax revenues. This would have driven the deficit much higher had a hydraulic fracking ban been put in place.
It could also trigger a global recession. In 1973, when Saudi Arabia implemented an oil embargo and roughly 7 percent of the global oil supply was removed from the markets, world oil prices skyrocketed 400 percent.
With these sobering facts in mind, I urge my colleagues to support H.R. 26, and I yield back the balance of my time.
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