On 1/26/2023, House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-La.) delivered a speech on the House Floor in support of the Strategic Production Response Act, which would require the Biden Administration to stop their abuse of the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) and increase oil and gas production to offset any additional drawdowns. Leader Scalise slammed the Biden Administration’s reckless decision to raid the Strategic Petroleum Reserve and for issuing a veto threat on the bill. Additionally, Leader Scalise highlighted how President Biden’s radical climate policies have raised gas prices and made the United States more reliant on foreign countries for oil.
On Biden’s veto threat
Scalise said: “yesterday, the President actually issued a veto threat on this bill. Now, a veto threat should be a rare exercise that you reserve for a policy that might hurt the country. Well, let’s read why the President issued the veto threat. In his veto threat, he said, ‘The administration’s use of the Strategic Petroleum Reserve has been essential to protecting our energy security and to lowering gas prices for Americans.’
“I hope I’m not the one that breaks this news to the White House, but, Mr. President, your policies have not lowered gas prices for Americans. Maybe the calculator’s broken at the White House, but we did the math. Let’s do some fact-checking. Since Biden took the oath of office, gas prices have not lowered. They have increased by 50 percent. The veto threat says, ‘We don’t want to do this because our policies have lowered gas prices.’
“Maybe the President, when he realizes that gas prices have gone up 50 percent, they have not lowered for families, he might reverse the veto threat. So we’ll wait during this debate. Maybe we’ll get a reversal of this veto threat once he realizes gas prices have gone up, not a little, but a lot.
Scalise: private jets to Davos , fly to Saudi, greenlighting pipelines in Russia
Scalise said: “There is absolutely no reason that we have to be reliant on foreign countries for our energy. We’ve actually got the energy here in America. In fact, for those people that are concerned about carbon emissions – you know, for all those carbon footprint warriors that got on their private jets and fly to Davos last week to lecture the rest of the world about not using fossil fuels – they didn’t take commercial flights. They had to take their private charters – not with solar panels on the wings of those airplanes, but using jet fuel. So, they lecture about getting rid of fossil fuels in America but not in other countries.
“You saw President Biden, himself, get on Air Force One and fly to Saudi Arabia and beg Saudi princes to produce more energy as he’s shutting down production in America. Limiting leases, limiting pipelines, killing Keystone and other pipelines, and limiting the ability to get permits and do basic exploration in America. He’s greenlighting pipelines in Russia.”
Scalise: increasing American energy production that will somehow raise gas prices?
He said, “this is crushing middle class families. It’s crushing lower-income families. And so what we say is, ‘Let’s just use our resources. The President actually goes on to say – and this might be the most perplexing part of the President’s veto threat, probably explains the most why the President is so misguided on energy policy. He says, because H.R. 21 will jeopardize our energy security and increase gas prices for working families, the administration strongly opposes the bill. So somehow, some of the energy experts at the White House – again, some of the same people that fly around in private planes to Davos telling you not to use fossil fuels – they think that by increasing American energy production that will somehow raise gas prices.
“Well, guess what? We’ve checked the record. These are the same experts whose policies have increased gas prices, not a little, but 50 percent. So the White House has been wrong on this issue over and over again to the point where we had such a strong bipartisan vote last week. Let’s put up another strong bipartisan vote and maybe wake the people up at the White House to what’s happening in the real world.
Scalise: Petroleum Reserve is not there to go mask your bad policies
“The nation, back in the 1970s, said, ‘We’re going to have a Strategic Petroleum Reserve.’ In essence, an American piggy bank to protect our country in case there is a major disruption in world markets in energy production in America. Maybe there’s a hurricane in the Gulf of Mexico that limits our ability to produce energy for a brief period of time. That’s why we have a Strategic Petroleum Reserve. It’s not there to go mask your bad policies.
“Yet, that’s what we’ve seen from this President. As you can see, this President has raided more than 40%
https://facebook.com/HygoNewsUSA/videos/704570617807880/
Biden H.R. 21 veto threat, private jets, 50% higher gas, Reserve mask bad policies, increase US oil production