During a House Oversight Committee hearing Thursday, Rep. Pat Fallon (R-TX) spoke about the Biden Administration's pause on liquified natural gas exports.
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NewsTranscript
00:00 Energy expert representative Fallon from Texas. Thank You Mr. Chairman.
00:06 Secretary Granham, when were you confirmed roughly month and year? In
00:11 February. February 21 right after the administration started. So I was a bit
00:15 concerned when I saw the news report that in November 21 you were asked how
00:19 many barrels of oil the US consumes daily and you didn't know at the
00:22 time. Remember that? I remember. Okay so Chancellor of Redemption, how many barrels of oil
00:29 do we consume every day? We consume about, well the world does 100, we do about 20.
00:35 Again these are ballpark. Yeah I just saw it in your website, it was on 102 and 22.
00:38 So the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, we were talking about that before,
00:42 founded I believe it was 1975 and do you know at the height, and I think one of my
00:47 colleagues just asked you, at the height of the prior administration what the
00:50 number was? It was, well I can tell you that the maximum is about 720. Right and
00:57 under the Trump administration at one point it was at 695 million barrels.
01:00 When you all took office, do you have any idea where it was at? What was it at? I
01:03 believe it was 638 and today it's at, you just said 365 I think? It's 65. Okay so it's a
01:09 42% reduction and you testified before I came into the committee that it was the
01:15 Ukrainian war had something to do with the sale. That wasn't accurate because 50
01:19 million barrels was sold in November of 21 before the invasion and then you just
01:23 said when I did get here that it was congressionally mandated but according
01:26 to the Congressional Research Service the congressionally mandated is a only
01:31 a fraction of that 270 million. Are you aware of that? There was a hundred and
01:35 forty million in congressionally mandated sales that we have canceled to
01:40 be able to get back and then there's another 99 million that is teed up to go.
01:44 But that congressionally mandated, some of that that was canceled was for FY 24
01:48 to 27 was it not? Right yeah it's multiple years. So I'm talking about what
01:52 actually has physically happened. We have sold 270 million barrels. That was not
01:55 those 270 million barrels were not the majority of that was not
01:59 congressionally mandated sales. Well because we've canceled because we've
02:03 ended up canceling. But my point is. We're going around in circles but that
02:07 cancellation was from sales that would have occurred in the future not what has
02:11 already happened in the past. Correct correct. So if it wasn't Ukraine and it
02:15 wasn't congressionally mandated. It was Ukraine. 160 million, 180 million barrels were from
02:20 the Ukraine war. No you did it after they happened to have invaded
02:24 but that wasn't the reason. I think the reason was because you're trying to
02:26 depress the price of gasoline at the pump. There was a constriction on the global market.
02:31 I'm recalling my time. I'm just not going to be interrupting you. It was before the
02:36 midterm elections in November. Because this in 1975 was designed for, I don't know,
02:41 act of God, natural disaster, national emergency, time of war, none of which has
02:45 occurred in this country. And 270 million barrels were sold inexplicably. And it's
02:51 by the way I don't think that it was it your testimony that we have the largest
02:54 reserve, strategic petroleum reserve in the world? Yeah. Not China? We have the largest
02:59 in the world. That's publicly made available. Okay so the Chinese don't have
03:03 a million, a billion barrels? They don't publicly report what they have. Okay
03:06 that's what the experts believe that is. So we have a fraction of what they have.
03:11 Well I don't know what they have. Okay so over the past 20 years has the United
03:17 States increased or decreased our carbon footprint? Over the past... 20 years.
03:22 Yes, we've decreased it. We decreased it by about 20%. Has China increased or
03:28 decreased? They've increased, sir. Increased by, you have any idea? I don't know their percentage.
03:33 I'm talking Energy 101. I'm not going to get complicated. I don't have the
03:38 percentage in front of me. Okay, it's triple. They're about 300%. So we've done
03:42 exceptionally well. So would you agree that the United States has a greater
03:46 commitment to protecting the environment than let's say China? I think we have a
03:50 great commitment, a greater commitment to protecting the environment than China, yes.
03:54 Yeah I think that's a manifestly obvious considering what they've done in the
03:57 last 25 years or so. And incidentally for the record, our economy is larger than
04:02 theirs and yet they are far more apt to unfortunately ignore their
04:09 responsibilities for the environment. Do you think that we have a greater
04:12 commitment to protect the environment than let's say Venezuela? I think we have
04:17 a greater commitment to protecting the environment, yes. Yeah, and gutter as well?
04:22 Yes. Okay, because we have a strong environmental lobby. We have a rule of
04:27 law. None of those countries have those kinds of things. So it perplexes me that
04:31 we would put a, essentially a ban, people call it a pause, on liquefied natural
04:34 gas exports and we're just giving a gift to one of the most evil dictators in the
04:39 world, Vladimir Putin. We are not giving a gift to Vladimir Putin. We are pausing
04:46 for months while we do, while we update a study and it will resume after that
04:51 update happens. I bet you it's going to resume magically right after the November
04:54 elections, but be that as it may, I've talked to prime ministers and foreign
04:58 ministers in Europe and they're not happy with this at all. I hope that you
05:01 talk to the same people. I have talked to them and they explained and they...
05:06 Chairman yields back. Chairman, I recognize Mr. Fry from South Carolina. Thank you Mr. Chairman