“The American people understand that there are enormous national security implications to what the president is proposing in his budget.”
WASHINGTON, D.C.— Today, U.S. Senator John Barrasso (R-WY) delivered the following remarks on the Senate floor highlighting the Obama administration’s assault on American energy.
Transcript of Senator Barrasso’s remarks:
“On Tuesday, President Obama released his budget for the next fiscal year.
“As usual, there was a lot of new spending that the American people don’t want, and a lot of new taxes that the American people can’t afford.
“It’s interesting, Politico had a headline about the budget. This is Tuesday’s paper. It says: ‘Obama launches liberal offensive in his final budget.’
“It called the budget ‘aggressively liberal.’
“One of the big, ‘aggressively liberal’ things the president put in the budget is an enormous tax increase on gasoline.
“The tax would add over $10 to the price of a barrel of oil – that equates to about 24 cents to a gallon of gasoline at the pump.
“This increase in tax would raise about $319 billion over 10 years.
“Now, President Obama’s knows that his budget has zero chance of becoming law; not just because Republicans won’t vote for it. Democrats won’t vote for it.
“It’s interesting: last year his budget was defeated by a vote of 98 to 1.
“Only one member of his own party voted for his budget last year.
“And now, Democrats are running away from this gas tax as fast as they can.
“The problem is, this tax is about more than just the budget.
“This is a sign that the Obama administration is still committed to continuing its assault on energy production in this country – red, white and blue energy.
“The American people understand that there are enormous national security implications to what the president is proposing in his budget.
“Right now, there is fierce competition in the global energy markets.
“The OPEC cartel has a strategy to win that competition in the oil market.
“It’s been pumping out oil at a pace that’s intended to drive U.S. shale oil producers out of business.
“Then, once the competition is gone, they want to raise prices.
“The best way for us to protect America’s interests is to make it easier and cheaper for energy producers to operate here in America.
“The worst thing we could do is to add to the cost of American oil by imposing this new tax of $10 a barrel, 24 cents per gallon.
“That’s exactly what President Obama wants to do.
“He wants to raise taxes – and he wants to make it harder to produce American energy.
“President Obama’s plan would actually help OPEC get what it wants.
“It would also put American energy producers at a competitive disadvantage to our adversaries – in Iran and in Russia.
“Just a few weeks ago the Obama administration lifted the economic sanctions on Iran’s energy exports.
“This means that Iran can now export oil again.
“So, how much oil are they going to export?
“Well, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, Iran right now has 30 to 50 million barrels of oil sitting offshore in tankers today.
“Iran is planning to boost its oil exports to Europe and Asia by half a million barrels a day in the next few months.
“And it’s not just oil.
“Iran also has the world’s second-largest producer of natural gas, in terms of its resources.
“Now, they’re building a new export plant for liquefied natural gas – it’s already about 40 percent completed.
“And they’re ready to start shipping it to Europe within two years.
“Russia is also a huge exporter of natural gas.
“That’s one of the reasons that Vladimir Putin invaded Ukraine – it was to get control of the gas pipelines there.
“Now it appears that Gazprom is prepared to start a natural gas price war with the United States.
“Gazprom, of course, is the Russian gas company that’s mostly owned by the government – controlled by Vladimir Putin.
“A price war would help them maintain their grip as being the biggest gas supplier in Europe – and it would discourage U.S. LNG projects from ever getting built.
“So, what’s the Obama administration done?
“The Obama administration has a documented history of delaying permits to American businesses that want to export our liquefied natural gas.
“Needless, bureaucratic delays just deter energy producers from wanting to start these projects in United States because it’s so hard to get them approved, and that just drives up the cost.
“The administration’s approach plays right into Vladimir Putin’s hands.
“This is not the time to add costs to American energy production.
“That will only help our adversaries more – and it will make America and our allies more dependent on energy, not on us, but from places like Russia and Iran, and, of course, from other OPEC countries.
“This is not the time to shut down production on American energy.
“Now, there are a lot of far-left, extreme environmentalists out there, and they want to make sure that American energy resources are never used but stay in the ground.
“There are also a lot of Washington Democrats who are eager to give these environmental extremists everything that they want. Everything.
“Last week in New Hampshire, Hillary Clinton was caught on tape promising one of these extremists – a supporter – that the end of fossil fuel development on public lands, she said, is ‘a done deal.’ The end of exploration of fossil fuels on public land, a done deal.
“Well, it may be a done deal in her mind – it’s unrealistic, it’s unwise, it’s unworkable.
“Take a look at it. Forty-one percent of America’s coal production right now comes from public land.
“We get 22 percent of our crude oil from public land.
“We get 16 percent of our natural gas from public land.
“And Hillary Clinton in her speech – in her comments last Thursday in New Hampshire said, in terms of any of that production, it’s gone, done deal.
“Mr. President, I will remind you that energy is a master resource.
“America needs that energy for our economy to grow. We need those jobs.
“Where are we supposed to get all that energy if we can’t get it from public lands?
“We can’t power American manufacturing on wind alone.
“Instead of building new barriers to American energy production, we should be tearing down those barriers.
“The energy legislation that we’ve been debating in this body actually includes ideas to help do that.
“One bipartisan idea in this legislation would help speed up the permitting process for exporting liquefied natural gas exports. It’s bipartisan – six Democrat cosponsors.
“Right now, it’s taking an average – after all the environmental studies have been done, after everything has been approved – an average of seven months for this administration to say ‘yes’ or ‘no’ on the permit.
“That’s after everything has already been approved.
“Why would it take seven additional months to get a decision by the administration?
“The Energy Department should be able to say ‘yes’ or ‘no,’ and this legislation says they should be able to do it within 45 days.
“This is going to force Washington to do its job in an accountable and timely way.
“That will help make sure other countries have options for where they get their energy, other than our concerns we have about a dominance of Russia, a dominance of Iran and the change of the balance of power internationally.
“It’s time for America’s energy policies to help American energy producers compete, and to help our jobs and our energy security at home.
“That is how we’re going to build our economy, how we’re going to create American jobs and how we’re going to strengthen our national security.”
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