Lower Energy Costs Act

Floor Speech

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Mr. OGLES. Mr. Chairman, Amendment No. 30 expresses the sense of Congress that the royalty rate for onshore Federal oil and gas leases be 12\1/2\ percent. This amendment establishes that it is the sense of Congress that the royalty rate of onshore Federal oil and gas leases be 12\1/2\ percent, the pre-Inflation Reduction Act level. The so-called Inflation Reduction Act was filled with horrific policy and has only made things worse.

The Inflation Reduction Act is geared to severely harm American energy independence by, among other things, increasing royalty rates and fees while restricting access to energy resources.

Our country needs to produce more energy, not less, but Democrats designed their extreme climate agenda to restrict oil and natural gas production.

One measure of the so-called Inflation Reduction Act enabled the Biden administration to raise the oil and gas royalty rate for certain offshore leases from the current 12\1/2\ percent to 16.67.

This measure will only result in less oil and gas production, harming consumers and our national security.

The Biden administration doesn't even pretend otherwise. Interior Secretary Deb Haaland said, It resets how and what we consider to be the highest and best use of American resources.

This is about the use of the land, and the Biden administration clearly wants to block all of our lands from the use for oil and gas production.

My amendment simply returns onshore royalty rates to what it was 2 years ago, before this radical Democrat intervention.

This amendment would affirm the intent of the underlying bill, which would reset the royalty rate for onshore leases to 12\1/2\ percent.

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Mr. OGLES. Mr. Chair, I yield such time as he may consume to the gentleman from Arkansas (Mr. Westerman).

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Mr. OGLES. Mr. Chair, it should be noted that the largest oil profit was realized by Saudi Arabia.

Mr. Chair, I urge my colleagues to support the bill, and I yield back the balance of my time.
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Mr. OGLES. Mr. Chairman, my amendment provides that any entity subject to the jurisdiction of the Government of the People's Republic of China or any entity that is owned by the Government of the People's Republic of China may not acquire any interest with respect to the land leased for oil or gas under the Mineral Leasing Act, the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act, and may not acquire claims subject to the General Mining Law of 1872.

We need to secure our land and not make it available for foreign governments, especially the CCP, the Chinese Communist Party. The CCP is one of the greatest threats to American democracy and our homeland.

Since at least 2007, the Department of Defense has consistently recognized China's dominance in the mining of key minerals as a leading national security threat.

The Biden administration is recklessly pursuing a green agenda that makes the United States economy more dependent on critical mined minerals used to make things like batteries.

We cannot continue to allow the genocidal CCP to control that supply chain. We certainly must ensure that the CCP cannot expand its market power by controlling mines even in our own country.

Mr. Chairman, I urge adoption of my commonsense amendment for the sake of our people and our national security, and I reserve the balance of my time.

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Mr. OGLES. Mr. Chairman, I yield such time as he may consume to the gentleman from Arkansas (Mr. Westerman).

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Mr. OGLES. Mr. Chair, I thank Chairman Westerman and my colleague across the aisle for their support.

It should be noted that it is the CCP that launched a reconnaissance balloon across our country. It is the CCP that is flooding our country with fentanyl and killing our kids and poisoning our country.

I urge adoption of this amendment. Let's send a message to China that we have had enough.

Mr. Chair, I yield back the balance of my time.

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