Scalise: If You Want to Lower Energy Costs, Pass H.R. 1

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Yesterday, House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-La.) appeared on Fox Business Network’s Kudlow to discuss how H.R. 1, the Lower Energy Costs Act, combats higher energy prices for American families. Leader Scalise slammed the reckless energy agenda of the Biden Administration, which sends Americans’ hard-earned money into the pockets of foreign adversaries while costs at home soar. Additionally, Leader Scalise called out President Biden for his wasteful spending, and for refusing to meet with House Republican leaders to tackle the looming debt crisis and promote fiscal responsibility in Washington. 

Click here or on the image above to view the interview.
 

Highlights from the interview:

On the Biden Administration’s anti-American energy policies: 

“This is a great bill for families who are struggling under the weight of high energy costs, whether it’s 40 percent more than you’re paying to get gasoline at the pump. If you’re paying 20, 30, 40 percent more when you pay your household electricity bills, it’s because of [President] Biden’s radical attack on American energy.

“You’ve seen it from day one when he took the oath of office. He went after not all energy – American energy. [President Biden] killed the Keystone pipeline here in America, but greenlighted Putin’s pipeline in Europe, killed lease sales here in America, and then went to Putin, and then went to Saudi Arabia begging them to produce oil. What does he have against the cleanest place in the world to produce energy, the United States of America? You want to lower costs, you pass H.R. 1, the Lower Energy Costs Act.

“And so we have a number of good reforms in this bill. Not just to get more American energy production, but as you were talking about, right now, one of the big impediments, you get all of these radical extremists that go to different federal agencies to block any kind of manufacturing projects, whether it’s building a pipeline, building roads, bridges – they go to these different groups and they’ll go to the Corps of Engineers and file lawsuits. Then they’ll go and use the Endangered Species Act. They’ll go to the Department of Interior. They game the system by going to federal agencies to crush American energy projects. 

“So what we do is create a one-stop shop saying you can’t game the system and go to five different agencies. You go to one agency and then you put these unelected bureaucrats on a shot clock. Because if a bureaucrat goes to you and says, ‘Hey, you need to give us an answer,’ they don’t say ‘Give us an answer when you get around to it.’ They’ll say, ‘Give us an answer in 30 days.’ And God help you if you don’t get that answer to them in 30 days. Yet, sometimes you will have a project sitting – a permit application for example – sitting on a bureaucrat’s desk for months at a time. 

“Why shouldn’t they have the same kind of shot clock that you have? If they tell you to get them an answer in 30 days, shouldn’t they then have to get your an answer in 30 days so that you can at least know which way you are going to go? [Are you going to go] forward, [or] do you need to get more information?

“But let’s not use the regulatory process to kill American energy projects. At the same time, [President] Biden’s flying on Air Force One to Saudi [Arabia] and OPEC countries to beg them to produce more oil we could be making here a lot cleaner.”

On how H.R. 1 will lower all costs for American families, not just at the gas pump:

“One of the things we’ve seen, President Biden’s hallmark of his presidency is higher inflation, and higher costs for everything – it’s not a good thing to be known for, by the way. But he’s deliberately taking steps to do it. His attack, I would argue, on American energy is probably the leading cause of higher inflation. But it’s not just gasoline at the pump.

“And I know [Chair] Sam Graves made this point at our meeting that we had at American First Policy Institute, we had [Chair] Cathy McMorris Rodgers of the Energy and Commerce Committee, as well as [Chair] Bruce Westerman of the Natural Resources Committee. They all put parts of this bill together that we’re bringing to the [House] Floor Thursday. 

“But one of the things he talked about is that, when you have higher natural gas prices, especially because [President] Biden’s crushed American natural gas production, that is a key ingredient in fertilizer. And so if you’re wondering why your food at the grocery store is more expensive, fertilizer is up dramatically because [President] Biden has attacked natural gas – that’s a key component for fertilizer. 

“So not only does it lower your energy costs if you pass H.R. 1, it will also lower your food costs, because you’re going to be able to transport things cheaper, you’re going to be able to get fertilizer so farmers can get food to market at a lower cost.

“[H.R. 1] has a lot of great benefits not just here in America, but by the way, our friends all around the world will benefit from this, too, because they don’t need to be getting their energy from Putin or anybody else. They’d love to get it from America. Let’s help our friends, but let’s start here at home by lowering costs for hardworking families who are struggling.”

On H.R. 1 promoting American production of all types of energy:

“We’ve been talking about being an ‘all of the above’ party for a long time, and that means everything. You know, it seems like Democrats are for everything above and nothing below – they don’t want to get anything out of the ground. They think you can get all your energy from wind and solar. 

“The problem is, you know, 90 percent of all the solar panels come from China and they use coal power. So every week China’s building a new coal plant to make solar panels that they ship to America. Why don’t we make things here?

“One of the reasons you can’t make things here is because [President] Biden has also put out a full assault on mining in America. So that means if you’re trying to make computer chips or car batteries, you can’t make those here in America. You [have] to get the products from China. Why do we want to have to get our mining critical minerals from China? So [Congressman] Pete Stauber has this part of that bill.

“Let’s reduce our dependence on China, on Russia, on all these foreign adversaries. Let’s make more things in America. That’s what the Lower Energy Costs Act is all about.”

On President Biden’s unwillingness to get control of Washington’s runaway spending:

“As it relates to the debt ceiling – and that’s what Speaker McCarthy’s letter this morning was about – [President] Biden is trying to run out the clock. And if you look, there’s going to come a day in late May, early June, where [Treasury Secretary] Yellen says, ‘Okay, there’s no more extraordinary measures. We’ve maxed out the nation’s credit card,’ because [President] Biden spent trillions of dollars the last few years. So he maxed out the credit card. We’re not going to give him another credit card to go max out again.

“We, as we’re talking about paying off the balance of the card – or not even the balance, just the minimum payment – President Biden said give me another credit card. We said ‘how about we talk about getting control over spending.’ So Speaker McCarthy laid out some very reasonable things you touched on earlier – just basic work requirements.

“Again, this isn’t a new idea. This is something [Former President] Bill Clinton did with a Republican Congress and [President] Biden, when he was a U.S. senator, voted for. If we go back to just saying – right now we got five to 10 million people that the government is paying not to work at a time when everybody’s looking for workers. This is costing us a lot of money. Over $140 billion you’d save just by getting work requirements back in place. 

“And, oh, by the way, you would strengthen Social Security. Because those folks that are sitting at home, that you and I, and the single mom working two jobs right now, she’s paying for that guy to sit at home – if he’s out working, he’s paying into Social Security, shoring it up. So you’d strengthen Social Security, you’d grow our economy, and you’d help get control over debt. 

“That’s just one good idea of many. It’s about time that President Biden [engages] and [has] this negotiation.”

On combining a debt ceiling increase with spending reductions:

“It’s the responsible thing to do. And by the way, families have this conversation. If they’re maxing out their credit card, they’re not saying, ‘go to the bank and get another credit card and go max that out.’ They are saying, ‘how do we get control over spending while we’re paying off the minimum?’ At a minimum.

“The stock market would love it, families would love it because that would get control over inflation, too, by the way. Inflation’s crushing families. It’s why you had a bank collapse. Let’s get this economy back under control. [President] Biden needs to get back to work, reach out to the Speaker and say, ‘Let’s go get this deal done.’”