Click here to watch Ranking Member Barrasso’s remarks.  

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Today, U.S. Senator John Barrasso (R-WY) delivered the following remarks on the Senate floor about the need for more American energy. 

Barrasso is ranking member of the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources (ENR). 

Senator Barrasso’s excerpts: 

 “I come to the floor today to talk about the need for more American energy. 

“Since his first day in office, Joe Biden has been on an all-out war against American energy.

“In his very first week in office, he stopped all new leases of oil and gas on public lands. 

“That was completely illegal for the president to do that. 

“A few months later, a federal court told the president that what he had done was illegal. 

“The law states that the American people may explore for energy on federal lands, and the law calls for ways that it can be done.  

“Here we are, now 15 months into the Biden administration. 

“Finally, Joe Biden has grudgingly agreed to follow the law. 

“He is going to sell a bare minimum number of leases to obey the court order. 

“How much is the bare minimum? 

“For the state of Utah, my neighboring state, they’re only offering one single parcel for the entire state. 

“At the same time, Joe Biden is raising the cost of American energy production. 

“To the point that he is raising federal royalty rates on the energy produced on that federal land by 50 percent. 

“When we produce less American energy, the American people end up paying more for the energy they use. 

“This is Joe Biden’s economy in a nutshell. The economy that has given us the highest inflation in 40 years. 

“In the last hundred years, no president had ever raised these royalty fees for producing American energy. 

“Until Joe Biden. 

“It just shows that when it comes to energy, Joe Biden is further to the left of any previous American president. 

“So who is going to pay for these higher fees on Joe Biden’s attack on American energy? 

“People understand it. They know that they’re going to be the ones who are going to have to pay for it. 

“Often it is the people who can least afford it in our home states across the country. 

“These higher costs for American energy, thanks to Joe Biden, are going to be paid by working families. 

“People who are already struggling to keep up and falling even further behind in Joe Biden’s economy. 

“Producing less, raising costs is the perfect recipe for more inflation. 

“As I was coming down to the floor, I walked by a TV screen that said ‘Joe Biden’s approval rating hits an all-time low.’ 

“It seems to be happening all the time – week after week, month after month. 

“He’s continuing to fall in the polls because the American people are distressed and in pain over what this president and the Democrats in the House and the Senate are doing to the people of this great country. 

“Doing the bare minimum. This president may satisfy the courts, but it is not enough to satisfy or save struggling families. 

“To stop this inflation nightmare, we need a long-term commitment to producing more American energy. 

“Energy companies are not going to invest if Joe Biden threatens them that he wants to shut them down tomorrow. 

“That’s exactly what he continues to talk about doing. 

“Just last week after the president gave a speech and said we need to do these leases, his climate czar, Gina McCarthy, said he is ‘absolutely committed to not moving forward with additional drilling on public lands.’ 

“Who’s calling the shots? 

“She said ‘we had no choice’ but to follow the court ruling.

“Then they asked the press secretary who said last week, ‘We are going to continue to fight this court [ruling] that is forcing our hand.’ 

“They’re going to continue to fight the American people all the way to the ballot box in November where the American people will say we’ve had enough. 

“And then there’s Joe Biden’s climate czar, John Kerry. 

“Here are just a couple of things he he’s had to say recently.

“He said, ‘We have to put the [natural gas] industry on notice: You’ve got six years, eight years, no more than 10 years or so.’ 

“He said, ‘By 2030 in the United States, we will NOT have coal plants…We will have to be phasing out coal plants five times faster.’

“These are people who are not committed to affordable energy.

“These are people who are not committed to the fight against inflation. 

“These are people who are not committed to the American people and American families who go to work every day and try to put food on the table, try to get their kids to school. 

“John Kerry praised the energy policies of the state of California, which has some of the highest energy prices in America. 

“Joe Biden and the environmental extremists that the president obeys are doing everything they can to undermine investment in American energy. 

“It’s time for the White House to stop this war on American energy. 

“This country cannot get by when the White House does the bare minimum. 

“This White House should be doing everything we can to produce more American energy to bring down the costs for American families. 

“Joe Biden needs to open up public lands for energy production. 

“Federal lands are the property of the American people. 

“We have the resources in the ground right now. 

“This is the solution to this inflation crisis that is hitting families all across the country. 

“There is no excuse for this administration to continue to block the American people from developing the resources that we have and bring down the costs. 

“Joe Biden needs to approve the 4,600 drilling permit applications he currently has sitting on his desk. 

“He needs to speed up the process for pipeline permits, not crush them. 

“And he needs to stop attacking American energy workers. 

“These workers keep the lights on in this country. 

“These people are those who keep the economy running. 

“These hard workers deserve our support, they deserve our gratitude. 

“They don’t deserve the way they’re being treated by this administration and this president. 

“These are the people who can help us get out of this crisis that Joe Biden has created. 

“The American people are fed up with Joe Biden making excuses and dragging his feet. 

“The American people want and demand real solutions. 

“What they deserve is more American energy. 

“Unless this administration wakes up and delivers that, those all-time low approval ratings of this president are going to get even worse.” 

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