WASHINGTON – Today, U.S. Senator John Barrasso (R-Wyo.), chairman of the Senate Republican Conference and top Republican on the Senate Energy Committee, delivered the following remarks after introducing legislation to stop the Biden administration’s political plundering of the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) and to unleash American energy.
Remarks as delivered:
“Yesterday, the President had his Secretary of ‘low energy’ Jennifer Granholm make an announcement and a veto threat from the podium at the White House. It has to do with legislation that the House is about to pass that has to do with our emergency energy supply, the Strategic Petroleum Reserve. It says if we withdraw more, then we need a plan for exploration of energy in the United States to refill that. I’ve introduced similar legislation in the Senate.
“The reason this is so important is because our emergency supplies are now at a 40-year low. We have gotten to that point because President Biden in the run-up to the election withdrew from our Strategic Reserves one million barrels of oil each and every day for 6 months – 180 days and 180 million barrels of oil. He started doing it and energy prices went up – gasoline was at $5 a gallon – people were feeling the pain at the pump. It’s nice to see the President finally admits that there is a relationship between supply and demand and the cost of energy and gasoline at the pump.
“Yet, the President continues to respond to the climate crazies who call the tune at the White House, which is why they killed the Keystone XL Pipeline and why he continues to hammer on oil and gas exploration in America while the price of gasoline is going up again.
“The American people know what they want. They want energy that is affordable, available, and reliable. They want it from here at home. They don’t want us going to Iran or begging Saudi Arabia or Venezuela for oil and energy.
“We get this war on energy by President Biden. It has hurt our energy grid, and it has hurt our energy security.
“You don’t have to look back very far to see it – look what happened at Christmastime with the cold snap that hit the country. People across the country were told to lower their thermostats, turn off their Christmas lights, and to not plug in their electric vehicles because it would lead to brown-outs and black-outs.
“And I’m not sure if the President or his sidekick, the Secretary of Energy, even knows the fact that Vladimir Putin continues to subsidize the climate crazy group of lobbyists and others who represent organizations that continue to lobby in this country against American energy. Putin has spent lots of money over a decade on this. These are the people that argue against pipelines, against energy infrastructure, and against oil and gas exploration.
“In the meantime, in my home state of Wyoming, the energy bread basket of America, we are told we have to keep our affordable, available, and reliable energy in the ground. What does the President say he wants to do? Well, you heard the Administration talking about banning gas stoves. And the President made a promise to the United Nations to send $11 billion each and every year to the U.N. for climate reparations.
“I’m going to do absolutely everything I can as the ranking member of the Energy Committee in the Senate to make sure that the United States never ever delivers on Joe Biden’s promises.”
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In The News:
- Fox News: Senate Republican leaders introduce bills restricting Biden’s SPR authority as WH threatens veto