Researching Efficient Federal Improvements for Necessary Energy Refining Act
Floor Speech
Mr. Speaker, I rise in opposition to this bill, which is a complete and utter waste of the House of Representatives' time.
It asks the National Petroleum Council to do a study, and that is it. That is the entire bill. In my opinion, to ask the National Petroleum Council to do something it can already do on its own makes absolutely no sense.
The House was out of session for over 50 days because Speaker Johnson refused to bring Congress back to resolve the healthcare crisis created by Republicans and to reopen the government. Now, Speaker Johnson claims we will be working day and night on important problems. I certainly agree that we should be doing that. We should be working on problems that Americans care about, but millions of Americans are seeing their healthcare costs skyrocket because the President and Republicans refuse to extend critical tax credits that make healthcare more affordable for millions of Americans.
Millions more are paying thousands of dollars more a year for everyday goods because of the President's tariffs. These tariffs are attacks on the American people, and they are expected to cost families more than $2,000 each year when they take full effect.
Meanwhile, prices on everything from utilities to food to energy, even prices for Thanksgiving dinner next week, are going up.
You would think that House Republicans would be doing something, anything, anything at all to fight these high prices. Instead, we are here talking about a bill that requires a Big Oil and Gas lobby group to put together a report. That is it.
I cannot stress enough that this report is simply not needed, regardless of who does it. In fact, it is almost an insult, particularly to refinery workers on the East Coast, including my State of New Jersey, who don't need a study to tell them why refining capacity here has dropped by over one third in the last decade. It all goes back to the repeal of the crude oil export ban in 2015.
You don't have to take my word for it. The nonpartisan Government Accountability Office found in a 2020 report--that was a report--that domestic refinery margins suffered in the wake of the repeal. This bill only asks for the report to assess executive actions, regulations, or policies that have impacted refineries, not a change in the law. If it were dealing with a change in the law, I think that would make sense.
It is a massive, massive oversight to not talk about the law and what happened when the crude oil export ban was lifted 10 years ago. That is what caused the problem with refineries.
The most ridiculous part of this bill is that it demands the study not be done by the Department of Energy but by the National Petroleum Council, an industry advisory body for Big Oil and Gas. I have no doubt that the National Petroleum Council will produce a biased report that will likely complain about every environmental regulation that they don't like, but that protects the American people. That is what Republicans have been doing: repealing all the environmental regulations.
If Republicans wanted an unbiased view of domestic refining challenges, they would have asked the Department of Energy to craft a report. That is not what they are looking for because Republicans just want to sanction fossil fuel propaganda. That is what they are doing with this bill.
It is a waste of everyone's time, Mr. Speaker. It is just another example of how Republicans have absolutely no ideas to help American families lower everyday costs.
We need to be working on real solutions, Democrats and Republicans, to address the affordability crisis. That is what the American people want, not this report.
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Mr. PALLONE. Mr. Speaker, my point is that this report does not ask the people that are doing it to look into the change of law that would be necessary in order to bring refineries back.
The reason why we lost so many refineries, particularly on the East Coast and New Jersey, was because the ban on the export of crude oil was lifted 10 years ago. You don't need a refinery if you can export the crude, but this report doesn't address that at all.
Castor), the ranking member of our Energy Subcommittee.
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Mr. PALLONE. Mr. Speaker, listening to my colleagues on the Republican side of the aisle, this report obviously does absolutely nothing to address the prices of power and electricity that continues to go up.
Mr. Speaker, I include in the Record a document from the Joint Economic Committee, as well as a link to the document located at: https://www.jec.senate.gov/public/_cache/files/22e24fd6-4db7-44c6-93a9- 9710c6f48b85/electricity-bills-report.pdf [From the Joint Economic Committee Minority, Nov. 2025]
State-by-State Data: Annual Electricity Bills Up $100 Per Family in 2025
Last year, President Donald Trump repeatedly promised that energy bills across the country would be ``cut in half'' within 12 months. However, this new Joint Economic Committee--Minority analysis finds that electricity costs are increasing significantly, with households in nearly every state on track to pay more for electricity this year compared to last year.
The Committee estimated full-year 2025 electricity costs per state based on the monthly electricity bill data released by the federal Energy Information Administration (EIA) for January-August of 2025. The Committee projects that annual electricity costs will be at least 5 percent higher than last year in 37 states plus D.C., and at least 10 percent higher than last year in 10 states plus D.C. On average, the Committee projects that American households will pay approximately $100 more per household in electricity costs this year.
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Mr. PALLONE. Mr. Speaker, last year, as I think everyone knows, President Donald Trump repeatedly promised that energy bills across the country would be cut in half within 12 months of his taking office. This shows a State-by-State analysis of how much electricity bills have gone up instead of being cut.
Just to mention to my two colleagues, here in Kentucky, it says that they have gone up 11.8 percent; in Ohio, 9.9 percent; in New Jersey, 13.6 percent. Certainly nothing like the cut in half that President Donald Trump promised. This report projects that American households will pay approximately $100 more per household in electricity costs this year.
We are going to deal with this pricing issue when we get to the next bill about LNG, which, again, is only going to increase prices. It is clear that the Republicans have no intention of dealing with this crisis of affordability with electric or power bills, as well.
Mr. Speaker, I urge President Trump and my Republican colleagues to start taking the American affordability crisis seriously. President Trump is simply out of touch with the reality that American families are facing.
Earlier this week, he seemed to mockingly suggest that ``affordability'' is a word the Democrats made up to attack him. Well, that is rich coming from a man who has declared bankruptcy six times. The American people are hurting because of President Trump and the Republican policies, and they should not be mocked for that. Even FOX News reported last night that 76 percent of Americans view the economy negatively.
Americans are struggling to afford basic necessities. A new report from The Century Foundation found that utility prices are up 32 percent since 2022. That is nearly three times the rate of inflation. Nearly a quarter of that jump occurred just this year alone. These rising costs are debilitating to the middle class. Nearly 1 in 20 households are in severe utility debt.
Roughly 4 million Americans are at risk of having their utility bills sent to collections. It is an incredible number. They have done nothing wrong. They just can't afford to keep up with the exponential rise in electricity prices. They can't afford to pay the bill.
Now, the two bills that are on the floor today, in my opinion, will only increase the average utility bill even further. Just last week, the U.S. Energy Information Association found that natural gas prices will rise by 16 percent in 2026, primarily due to increased LNG exports amid flat production growth.
Secretary Chris Wright promised to double LNG exports to countries like China within 5 years. The next bill that we are going to consider is all about giving more LNG to China, to Beijing, to Communist China. Why are we helping them?
The American people desperately need a solution to lower energy costs at home. Why does the President or the Secretary refuse to take care of the American people that the Trump administration is supposed to represent?
Now, I have said it before, but it bears repeating: The Trump administration only cares about bailing out themselves and their fossil fuel friends.
It is time for Republicans to come to the table to work with Democrats on a solution to this affordability crisis, and it can begin here with the Energy and Commerce Committee.
I urge my colleagues to oppose this bill, and I yield back the balance of my time, Mr. Speaker.
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Mr. PALLONE. Mr. Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.
The yeas and nays were ordered.
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