Click here to watch Ranking Member Barrasso’s remarks.

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Today, U.S. Senator John Barrasso (R-WY), ranking member of the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources (ENR), delivered remarks at a full committee hearing to examine ways to strengthen the energy and mineral partnership between the U.S. and Canada. 

The hearing featured testimony from the Honorable Jason Kenney, premier of Alberta, Canada; the Honorable Nathalie Camden, associate deputy minister of mines at the Ministry of Energy and Natural Resources in Québec, Canada; Mr. Francis Bradley, president and chief executive officer of Electricity Canada; and the Honorable Jonathan Wilkinson, minister of natural resources at Natural Resources Canada. 

For more information on witness testimony click here. 

Senator Barrasso’s remarks: 

“Thanks so much Mr. Chairman for holding this important hearing, and thank you to the witnesses for being here. 

“I especially want to recognize Premier Jason Kenney of Alberta for joining us. 

“Thank you for being with us today.

“Alberta has much in common with my home state of Wyoming – rolling prairies, stunning mountain ranges, and we both have an economy built on energy production. 

“We both have an abundance of oil, natural gas, coal, and wind resources. 

“We both appreciate the high-paying jobs that come from energy development. 

“And we are both hurt by President Biden’s war on energy. 

“In 2003, Canada’s estimated recoverable reserves of oil jumped about 175 billion barrels thanks to Albertan oil sands.

“A few years later in the United States a similar bounty was discovered. 

“The application of advanced technologies like hydraulic fracturing and horizontal drilling launched an energy revolution. 

“It had profound and positive impacts on our nation’s economy and standing in the world.

“These developments in the United States and Canada shifted the world’s energy center of gravity from the Middle East and Russia to North America. 

“It is important that we strengthen the energy and resource partnership between the United States and Canada.  

“But Joe Biden’s policies are placing it at risk. 

“The Biden administration made the United States an unreliable partner to Canada by killing the Keystone XL pipeline. 

“Not satisfied with harming Canadian energy, the president and his appointees are doing everything possible to discourage American energy production. 

“We are now less able to support our friends in North America and around the world. 

“We are less able to provide for ourselves. 

“Premier Kenney and I agree that this needs to change. 

“We also need to expand our partnership with Canada beyond energy to critical materials. 

“This committee has held several hearings this Congress on mining. 

“Demand for minerals worldwide is skyrocketing. 

“Some suggest we import minerals from Canada as an alternative to mining here at home.  

“I strongly disagree. 

“There is simply no way to meet U.S. and global demand for minerals without opening new mines in the United States. 

“Our nation’s federal permitting process is the number one barrier to increased domestic production. 

“It takes ten years, on average, to permit a mine in the United States. 

“It took us less time to get to the moon. 

“In Canada it can take as little as two years for similar permits. 

“We should learn from Canada’s best practices. 

“Our electricity grids are physically tied with Canada’s. 

“There are dozens of interconnections. 

“Electrons know no borders. 

“Our countries face similar risks for blackouts even as we help each other keep the lights on. 

“Electricity must be reliable and affordable.  

“People suffer and sometimes die otherwise.  

“Electricity policy in both countries could use a dose of reality. 

“The United States and Canada cannot rely on the sun, wind, and wishful thinking alone.  

“Although Canada has a different energy mix for its electric grid, it makes the most of its affordable, reliable, and abundant natural resources. 

“The United States must do the same. 

“We should learn from Canada’s permitting success with hydropower and nuclear energy. 

“North American energy is a tremendous geopolitical asset. 

“That means we need a strong energy and minerals partnership with Canada. 

“That requires being strong ourselves by ramping up energy and mineral production here in the United States. 

“Thank you Mr. Chairman, I look forward to the testimony.”

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