Promoting Cross-Border Energy Infrastructure Act

Floor Speech

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Mr. GUTHRIE. Mr. Speaker, pursuant to House Resolution 707, I call up the bill (H.R. 3062) to establish a more uniform, transparent, and modern process to authorize the construction, connection, operation, and maintenance of international border-crossing facilities for the import and export of oil and natural gas and the transmission of electricity, and ask for its immediate consideration in the House.

The Clerk read the title of the bill.

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Mr. GUTHRIE. 3062.

Mr. Speaker, North America has grown to be an energy superpower due to the robust trade of oil, gas, and electricity. As energy demand is projected to increase in staggering numbers over the coming years, the expansion of cross-border energy infrastructure throughout this integrated market will be important.

One challenge confronting the expansion of energy trade with Mexico and Canada is that Congress has not asserted authority to establish procedures for permitting cross-border infrastructure.

Cross-border infrastructure, especially oil and natural gas pipelines and electrical transmission lines, is essential to American communities across the Nation.

Instead of a clear statutory process, a myriad of executive orders over decades have provided the legal context for permitting procedures of cross-border energy infrastructure.

Under this permitting regime that has been cobbled together, the Secretary of State has the authority to issue Presidential permits for cross-border liquid pipelines; the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, or FERC, for cross-border natural gas pipelines; and the Department of Energy for cross-border electric transmission facilities.

Unfortunately, this regime has subjected infrastructure permitting processes to the political whims of an administration, as we saw for 12 of the last 16 years under Presidents Obama and Biden. This can severely curtail America's energy.

H.R. 3062, introduced by the gentlewoman from North Dakota (Mrs. Fedorchak), would remedy these permitting inconsistencies by establishing a uniform process for authorizing energy infrastructure construction that crosses U.S. boundaries. Instead of the complex existing process, projects would simply be required to receive a certificate of crossing from the relevant agency for the border- crossing segment.

Nothing in this legislation alters additional permitting requirements of other statutes, like the National Environmental Policy Act or Clean Water Act.

It is past time for Congress to assert its authority and establish a modern and transparent process for cross-border energy infrastructure.

Mr. Speaker, I thank Representative Fedorchak for her leadership. I urge my colleagues to support this legislation, and I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, before I introduce my next speaker, I will make clear that tariffs don't affect these products. USMCA-qualifying products, which is crude oil, natural gas, refined petroleum products, and biofuels, are tariff-free. Additionally, this legislation does not remove permitting requirements. All environmental and regulatory reviews of this infrastructure would continue. It is not accurate to say that we would go around any of the qualifying. The other side talks about us tipping the scales toward fossil fuel energy and dispatchable power, but theirs tips the scale toward wind and solar. I think we need all of the above, but when you say we are going to subsidize a more expensive power, that doesn't make power cheaper. Maybe in the short- term, but certainly not in the long run, and that is where we need to focus.

We do need to work together, as he said, to make sure we can do permit reform and produce the energy this country needs for AI and other things.

Mr. Speaker, I want to say that this does not replace any need for permits, so the idea that there would be no environmental review or any review for a cross-border project approved by FERC or the State Department is just not accurate. That is not what the bill does.

Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the opportunity to be here and be here with my friend. Hopefully, we are going to be able to work on a lot of issues because we do care about the cost of electricity. I know they know we care about the cost of electricity.

If the Keystone pipeline is not going to happen, which by Presidential fiat didn't happen, we have to worry about future situations when we are in Congress. We don't just legislate about the past. We have to legislate for the future as well, and this is important.

Also, I am a big believer that we have to continue to have economic development and growth, and work in a fair way to make sure our products are being traded fairly as well with Canada and Mexico. This is an opportunity to do so.

In America, the one thing we have is ample natural gas. As a matter of fact, the price of gas is historically low now because of the oil development in the Permian Basin. An offshoot of it is natural gas. Because it has driven the price of gas so low, we have ample natural gas.

What we need to do and really need to work on--hopefully, we can work on together--is if you want to lower the price of electricity, which I assume we all do, is that the way you do that is by taking the natural gas that we have, converting it to electrons, and transmitting it out so people can have access to the electricity.

Mr. Speaker, that is where the expense is, not being able to permit, to move. To create electrons and then to move them is an expense, as well, as much as it is permitting the pipelines that we are talking about.

We are in a battle of our time. We are in a battle where we can choose to follow the regulatory state of Europe. We can't out-regulate Europe. We need to out-innovate China.

Mr. Speaker, this is the beginning of a series of bills. Hopefully, we can find a series of bills we can work on together. It needs to be all of us, together, focused on defeating China in terms of delivering the energy we need to do so. I encourage my colleagues to vote for this bill, and I thank Representative Fedorchak for bringing it forward.

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