Lower Energy Costs Act
Floor Speech
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Mr. TIFFANY. Madam Chair, on January 20, 2021, President Biden declared war on American energy when he shut down the Keystone XL pipeline. Today, we begin the process to lower energy costs. This is the first stroke of what I hope are many bills to come forward to get energy costs under control for the American people.
Let's go back over the past couple of years of this Congress and what President Biden did. They passed things like the so-called Inflation Reduction Act. They passed a bill called the infrastructure bill.
What were those bills really and some of the others from the last Congress?
They were the Green New Deal. You, the American public, know now what the Green New Deal will do to you.
Let's talk about my district a little bit. Propane, which is a primary heating source for many of us in northern Wisconsin, we paid 80 cents a gallon in the summer of 2020 to fill our tanks. We paid $2 a gallon--2\1/2\ times as much--to heat our homes just a couple of years after the previous administration had left office.
Think about the Ford Motor Company, an iconic company here in America. They lost $2 billion on the electric vehicle segment of their business. I can tell you that contractors, loggers, and farmers are not going to drive a Ford Lightning in northern Wisconsin when it is 25 degrees below zero because it does not work.
I think about Vilas County, where they were going to apply to repair a road under the infrastructure bill. It would have cost $1.5 million using Federal money. I talked to a local contractor. Without the Federal permitting requirements, they could build it for half of that, $750,000.
One of the key provisions of this is the reform of NEPA. It does not change environmental standards. It just makes it easier to get projects done. It is time to reduce that red tape here in America on the American people and on American job creators.
Madam Chair, what is this all about at the end of the day? This is about whether you choose America or you choose Communist China.
Is this going to be a 21st century of the American people just like the 20th century was? It was one of the greatest centuries the people of this world had ever seen, when a country that was founded on liberty, freedom, and opportunity was ascendant, and we stood astride the world.
Are we going to do that in the 21st century? Bills like this are how we are going to make the 21st century an American century rather than a Communist Chinese century.
Let's lower energy costs and ensure job security, economic security, and national security for the American people.
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