[Congressional Record Volume 168, Number 114 (Tuesday, July 12, 2022)]
[Senate]
[Pages S3232-S3233]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
Energy
Mr. President, now on the less pleasant subject which I wish I didn't
have to talk about--deeply, profoundly stupid; deeply, profoundly
stupid--that is the only way that I know how to describe one of the
worst decisions by an administration that has become famous for bad
decisions. I am talking about President Biden's assault on sustainable,
affordable energy.
The people of Louisiana know, and the people of America know that
they are now paying $90 to fill up their cars and tanks with gas
because the Biden administration killed the Keystone Pipeline, canceled
our offshore oil leases, and forfeited America's energy independence.
We were energy independent. The Biden administration forfeited it.
What seems to be underappreciated, however, is how President Biden's
agenda is driving up the price not just of oil but of all kinds of
necessities that American and Louisiana families need every day. It is
not just about oil and gas. It is about everything.
Not only do most goods get to our homes after riding in trucks and
planes and cars and ships powered by gas or diesel, but a lot of our
plastics and other products, if you think about it, they are also made
from petroleum. Actually, only 60 percent of oil in the world gets used
as a fuel. Forty percent of the global oil supply ends up in other
things, things other than cars and trucks--in products.
That means that it doesn't just cost people more to get to and from
the store. It means almost everything in the store costs more because
of its connection to oil. Some medicines come from oil. Microfiber
comes from oil. Mascara comes from oil. Synthetic leather comes from
oil.
Do you have a phone case or a handbag or a chair or a car made with
plastic? That is oil. That is oil.
Now, not everything is made from oil. Some goods that you buy are not
made from that natural resource. But I bet they are packaged in
plastic. And all of these items, all of these household necessities are
casualties of President Biden's assault on sustainable energy.
Here is a fat fact: Our economy can't run without fossil fuels. Now,
I am not suggesting that fossil fuels should be our only source of
energy. Certainly, we should take advantage of the efficiencies we can
find in wind. I believe in wind and solar. I believe in solar--and
nuclear and hydrogen and hydroelectric. But part of a sensible,
sustainable, affordable energy plan has to include fossil fuels.
Ours is the greatest economy in all of human history. It can't run
without energy, and 80 percent of our energy today comes from fossil
fuels. That is just a fat fact.
The truth is that American ingenuity--and I am referring to fossil
fuels--has made the most out of one of the most versatile resources
that the world has ever known, but the Biden White House is determined
to punish us for that innovation--just determined to punish us--by
making every single part of the American dream more expensive. Even
necessities that aren't directly made from petroleum depend on
affordable fuel to reach American families.
Record high inflation and gas prices have sent Americans to food
pantries. Why? Because even fruits and eggs and milk are becoming
unaffordable. The latest reports show that many Americans are paying
8.6-percent higher prices today than they were last year. But we know
it is more than that. I know those are the official government numbers,
but we know it is more than that. Eggs are up 32 percent. Milk is up 16
percent. Flour is up 14 percent. Baby food--when you can find it--is up
13 percent. These aren't luxury items. These are staples that Americans
depend on every single day.
I mean, why is a Louisiana man telling us ``[m]y food budget is
insane''? My food budget is insane. ``[I]t's gone up $100-150 a week.
So, it's becoming more and more difficult, to buy the same thing I
bought a year or two years ago.''
That is not just a Louisianian talking. That is all across America.
Why did a woman in Baton Rouge realize that fruits and vegetables--
not sirloin steak, fruits, and vegetables--are breaking her bank? She
is cooking more with rice and bread instead of fruits and vegetables.
The high grocery prices for this lady are gutting her and her family
like a fish. And that is just a fact--a very unhappy one, but it is a
fact.
Now, high oil prices are also waterboarding our farmers, which
contributes to these high food prices. Did you know that we make
industrial fertilizer from fossil fuels? And when natural gas costs
more, so does fertilizing a field of wheat or corn or soybeans. Some of
our herbicides right now are twice as expensive as they were, if
farmers can find them.
Tractors drink diesel. Duh. So do irrigation systems. A gallon of
diesel--1 gallon--a year ago, you know what it was? It was $3.23. You
know what it is today? It is $5.20.
Now, what does this mean for Louisiana rice farmers and other
growers? For every extra dime farmers spend on a gallon of diesel--
every extra dime--a grower will spend about $4.50 more for an acre of
rice, $2.30 more for an acre of cotton, and an extra $1.74 for an acre
of corn.
Corn growers--I mentioned corn growers--they also depend on nitrogen
fertilizer, which we make with methane. And then corn--I mentioned
corn--corn goes into cereal. It goes into sweetened drinks, peanut
butter, baby food, ketchup, salad dressing.
You know, I don't mean to be ugly, but this administration's energy
policy is deeply, profoundly stupid. And it is dangerous.
So my people are feeling President Biden's gas hike from the gas pump
to the grocery store, to the doctor's office.
A lot of the raw materials that make our medicines and healthcare
products are made from--guess what--petroleum.
Oil goes into our burn creams. Do you ever burn yourself, have to go
to the local grocery store or the local pharmacy, buy something to put
on your burn? That cream comes from oil.
You have allergies? Those allergy pills are made, in part, with oil.
Do you ever get a cold, take a little NyQuil, take some cold tablets?
You need oil to make them. Our kids' gummy vitamins are made with oil.
The bandaids in your medicine cabinet, they are made from oil.
The President's assault on fossil fuels is hitting my people in
Louisiana, and they are hitting the American people so hard they are
coughing up bones. My people and the people of America are increasingly
having to dip into their savings accounts just to afford everyday
items, not to take a cruise, not to buy a new car, not to buy some new
clothes to look good at church on Sunday--for household necessities.
[[Page S3233]]
And on top of that, in addition to going into their savings account,
my people and the people all across America are having to charge more
and more and more to their credit cards, not for luxuries but for
staples, for necessities.
All of this inflation caused, in part, by the President's bone-deep,
down-to-the-marrow stupid energy policy is costing the average American
and Louisiana family $635 a month.
Now, think about that--$635 a month. Let's call it $7 to $8,000 a
year. If you are a mom making $40,000 a year and you are a dad making
$40,000 a year and you have got two children and you have a home--
nothing special, you know, $200,000 home; it has a mortgage--mom and
dad have to go to work. So they have to have automobiles. They have car
payments. They are using every penny of that $80,000 a year. And now,
all of a sudden, here comes inflation, and they have got to come out of
pocket with an extra $7 to $8,000 a year. Where is the money going to
come from? And just about every middle-class American is experiencing
that right now.
Now, recently, the President sent a letter. He sent a letter to the
top oil companies. In the letter--it was kind of a snippy letter,
frankly--he demanded that the oil companies ramp up their
refining operations to try to slow the rising energy prices and to
shore up supply. Isn't that special? The same President--he ran on it.
He did it. He ran on it. He said he would do it, and he has done it.
The same President who promised to end fossil fuels is now blaming the
energy industry for historical oil and gas prices.
The truth is, this administration refuses to accept responsibility
for bad policies. And I don't know why they pursued this policy, other
than just to try to check off a promise made to satisfy the woke
agenda.
For the sake of Americans' economic futures and for the sake of our
national security, we cannot continue to rely on foreign oil imports--
we can't--while pretending to run this country using wind, solar, and
wishful thinking because that is what the President's new policy is on
energy. It is wind. It is solar. It is wishful thinking. Wishful
thinking doesn't fill gas tanks or grocery carts.
And the President this week will be in Saudi Arabia. He is not there
as a tourist. He is in Saudi Arabia to beg the Saudis to produce more
oil, after he has already forfeited America's energy independence, and
he refuses to take his boot off the throat of the oil and gas industry
to allow our oil and gas producers to produce our own oil.
So think about it. This is the President's new energy policy. Let's
don't produce our own oil and gas. Let's give up our energy
independence. But we have to have oil and gas. So what do we do? The
President's new policy is, let's give up our own oil and gas and let's
buy oil from foreign countries that hate us so those foreign countries
will have more money to buy weapons to try to kill us. It just makes no
sense. And the people of Louisiana deserve better. And the people of
America deserve better.
I yield the floor.
I suggest the absence of a quorum.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
The bill clerk proceeded to call the roll.
Mr. WICKER. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for
the quorum call be rescinded.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.