[Pages S3211-S3212]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                                 Energy

  Mr. THUNE. Mr. President, Senate Republicans are continuing to work 
on a reconciliation bill that makes America stronger and more 
prosperous. An important component of this bill is what it does on 
energy.
  Republicans spent a lot of time last year talking about how the Biden 
administration's hostility to conventional energy production was 
putting America on a dangerous trajectory in the future, and we 
promised that we would work to unleash American energy dominance, if we 
were put in charge. We have been working to deliver on that promise 
since January, and that work continues with the reconciliation bill 
that we will take up this month.
  Energy is essential. Without a reliable energy supply, our homes, 
schools, hospitals, businesses, factories--and our entire country--
literally, would grind to a halt. It is the critical resource, and we 
can't afford to get it wrong.
  But the Biden administration took us down the wrong path. It 
restricted development of America's conventional energy resources. It 
imposed regulations that heaped new burdens and costs on conventional 
energy producers, and it implemented an electric vehicle mandate that 
would have put an enormous new strain on our already wobbly electric 
grid.
  The United States is rapidly heading toward an energy crisis where we 
simply don't have the supply to meet the

[[Page S3212]]

demand. As the Washington Post noted last March, ``vast swaths of the 
United States are at risk of running short of power as electricity-
hungry data centers and clean-technology factories proliferate around 
the country, leaving utilities and regulators grasping for credible 
plans to expand the nation's creaking power grid.''
  Meanwhile, the North American Electric Reliability Corporation warned 
of ``mounting resource adequacy challenges'' in the next decade.
  That is a pretty serious situation, but, fortunately, we can do 
something about it. We have an abundance of natural resources, from the 
Gulf of America to the North Slope of Alaska.
  The Biden administration seemed to view those resources as a 
liability, but Republicans recognize these resources as the assets that 
they are, and our reconciliation bill will help unleash these resources 
to promote a stable, secure, and affordable energy supply.
  It will open up leases on America's lands and waters for responsible 
conventional energy development. It will expand production 
opportunities for essential energy resources that the Biden 
administration tried to put on the sidelines.
  As I indicated earlier, leveraging our natural resources through the 
reconciliation bill is just one part of the Republicans' energy agenda. 
For the last several months, we have been hard at work eliminating 
burdensome regulations that threatened to stifle energy development in 
our country.
  We blocked implementation of the Biden natural gas tax, which would 
have driven up energy prices and destroyed jobs in the energy sector. 
And we intend to do away with this misguided tax in the reconciliation 
bill that we will be considering soon.
  We have also repealed Biden-era energy regulations for household 
appliances and business equipment--regulations that would have driven 
up costs and reduced choice, with little environmental benefit.
  And the House and Senate moved to prevent California from imposing a 
de facto electric vehicle mandate on the whole country.
  The Biden administration sought to tie up American energy, but under 
the Trump administration and a Republican Congress, that era is over. 
Instead of a Green New Deal, we are giving a green light to energy 
producers. We are allowing Americans to benefit from our country's 
resources, and we are working to ensure a secure, reliable, and 
affordable energy supply for the long term.
  Mr. President, our reconciliation bill will help put us on the path 
to that secure energy future. I look forward to taking it up later this 
month.
  I yield the floor.
  I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The senior assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. SCHUMER. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order 
for the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.