Bolstering American-made Energy
Dec 03, 2013Business & Economic Development This past week was a busy week for energy legislation in the House. We passed several bills to create jobs and enhance America's energy security. Energy legislation is a priority of mine in Congress because I believe it’s time we say YES to American-made energy! I believe that producing more American energy will lower prices, reduce our dependence on foreign oil, strengthen our national security, and raise revenue to help tackle our nation’s deficit and create new jobs for people in Eastern Washington.
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H.R. 1965
– The Federal Lands Jobs and Energy Security Act
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This bill unleashes America’s energy production and creates new jobs by streamlining the federal permitting process and opening up proven energy reserves. Costly litigation, endless red-tape, and burdensome bureaucratic processes are often the biggest obstacles to energy production and job creation: In fact, since President Obama took office in 2009, total federal oil production is down 7.8 percent and federal natural gas production is down 21 percent. While in recent years, America has experienced an energy renaissance, all of the increase in U.S. oil and natural gas production has been on state and private land, not federal land. This bill seeks to reverse this trend by creating an efficient and effective process to responsibly produce both renewable and conventional energy on our federal lands.
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H.R. 2728
– The Protecting States' Rights to Promote American Energy Security Act
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This bill will protect jobs and American energy production by limiting the Administration’s ability to impose duplicative regulations on hydraulic fracturing on federal lands. For the last sixty years, states have been successfully and safely regulating hydraulic fracturing. As such, this bill prohibits the Interior Department from enforcing federal hydraulic fracturing regulations in any state that already has regulations. I believe that a “one size fits all” approach does not work and I want states to have the ability to craft responsible regulation to meet the unique needs of their states. This bill does that.
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H.R. 1900
– The Natural Gas Pipeline Permitting Reform Act
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This bill makes commonsense reforms to the permitting process for interstate natural gas pipelines, sets reasonable deadlines for review, and holds agencies accountable. As America seeks to become energy independent, I believe Congress should be doing everything possible to reduce red tape and delays in building safe natural gas pipelines. This bill does just that-it paves the way for job growth in Eastern Washington’s energy industry.
Reliable and affordable energy are essential to running a business and fueling economic growth and competitiveness. In Eastern Washington, energy prices affect everyone – from community college students who have to put gas in their car to drive to class, to seniors struggling to heat their homes, to families forced to pay higher prices at the grocery store, all of us feel the crunch when energy prices rise. It is time to end the over-regulation and endless red-tape coming from Washington, DC. It is time to end the Administration’s constant attacks on American energy production. We need real solutions that promote American energy production and create new American jobs. This past week, I supported these three bills to encourage economic growth in Eastern Washington to help make our nation energy independent.
I am committed to developing an energy strategy that is based on our domestic energy supply and makes energy affordable for people in Eastern Washington.