In remarks on the Senate floor, Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) slammed President Biden's energy policies.
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NewsTranscript
00:00Last week, a U.S. company announced it had reached an agreement to begin exporting American
00:10liquefied natural gas to Ukraine for the first time.
00:16That's certainly good news for our friends on the front lines of Russian aggression,
00:25for allies across Eastern Europe, and for the workers and producers behind some of America's
00:34most affordable and reliable energy.
00:43Exporting American abundance is a win-win proposition, and it's one that our closest
00:54trading partners in Europe have increasingly recognized as an opportunity to offset their
01:03reliance on Russian gas.
01:07But setting aside last week's good news, the Biden administration is still chronically
01:13confused about the role that affordable and abundant American energy can play as a geopolitical
01:21tool, a source of American leadership, and an engine of our own economy.
01:31In a joint pledge issued two years ago, President Biden committed to help reduce Europe's reliance
01:41on Russian energy and increase global energy security.
01:49Then a few lines later, he reiterated his commitment to the unenforceable virtue signals
02:00of the Paris climate deal.
02:03Sometimes it seems that cognitive dissonance is the most powerful force in the universe.
02:14Remember, the president who continues to insist he's serious about helping America's closest
02:22allies resist the predations of Putin's Russia is the same president who made stunning American
02:34energy development a day-one priority.
02:40He's the same one who decided not to intervene when he had a chance before Russia's escalation
02:46in Ukraine to block the expansion of European reliance on Russian gas with the Nord Stream
02:532 pipeline.
02:58And of course, this is the same president who earlier this year issued a de facto ban
03:08on new permitting for LNG export infrastructure that will make it harder for American producers
03:16to respond to demand for reliable alternatives to Russian or Iranian energy.
03:25As I've discussed at length, Russia's escalation in Ukraine prompted some of our closest European
03:31allies to finally start investing seriously in their own defenses.
03:36It's also been an opportunity to rethink their dangerous over-reliance on Russian energy.
03:46Back in February, one German state-owned energy provider was in the process of switching from
03:55buying Russian gas to buying American gas instead, but the plan was stifled by the administration's
04:03decision to appease its activist base instead of reinforcing America's allies.
04:14So last week brought good news, but here's the rub.
04:19This new commitment to Ukraine relies in part on the completion of a new LNG export facility
04:27that is stuck in the Biden administration's regulatory purgatory.
04:35And even as already permitted infrastructure comes online, producers who want to create
04:41new American jobs and expand their capacity to meet foreign demand are simply out of luck.
04:50Since 2016, American LNG has been a remarkable success story.
04:58It had driven our economy to become a net energy exporter, and just last year, even
05:03in the shadow of the Biden administration's war on energy, the United States was the world's
05:09largest LNG exporter.
05:16This year, Russia has overtaken the U.S. in gas exports to the European market, and it
05:25might have something to do with a ban one of our former Democratic colleagues, Mary
05:30Landrieu, described as, quote, throwing a match in a bale of hay.
05:38We might describe the president's ban as a tremendous missed opportunity, but that
05:45would undersell the predictably disastrous consequences.
05:49In the face of a dangerous world, the administration's obsession with performative climate policy
05:57is taking meaningful levers of American power simply off the table.
06:02For three and a half years, the Biden administration has worked relentlessly to suffocate American
06:08energy production, both onshore and offshore.
06:14And when Senate Republicans offered amendments to restore some modicum of sanity to the system
06:19permitting and leasing new energy development, every single Senate Democrat stood behind
06:26the administration and voted no.
06:30The first and longest-suffering victims of Washington Democrats' war on American energy
06:35are the American people.
06:39Historic inflation has already made insuring a car or filling up a tank more than 50 percent
06:48more expensive on President Biden's watch.
06:53But his administration wants to compound the pain with regulations that would put entire
06:58sectors of our economy in an even more serious bind.
07:05Back in March, the Biden administration finalized a rule on vehicle emissions that would give
07:11manufacturers of work trucks and commercial vehicles until 2032 to turn 40 percent of
07:18their new stock into zero-emission vehicles.
07:26In the case of the biggest long-haul tractor-trailers, this would effectively mean replacing a quarter
07:34of these vehicles with zero-emission vehicles that are not yet on the road.
07:43It doesn't take an expert to imagine the sort of shockwaves this would send across America.
07:50Our economy simply cannot function without reliable, large vehicles to get products to
07:55market or the hardworking men and women who make a living driving them.
08:01We're talking about a rule that would supercharge inflation on delivery costs and shelf prices
08:07alike, and a penalty that would hit hardest for those least able to afford it.
08:17Unsurprisingly, this zeal for red tape extends beyond heavy-duty vehicles to every passenger
08:24car, SUV, and pickup truck.
08:29In eight years, if the administration had its way, two of every three vehicles manufactured
08:36for American consumers will have to be electric vehicles.
08:43Consumers have already made it abundantly clear that they don't want Washington bureaucrats
08:47telling them what car to drive, and major engines of our economy have joined together
08:52to take the Biden administration to court over all of this nonsense.
09:00Folks in my home state of Kentucky are following this progress closely.
09:04I spoke recently with a car dealer from Richmond.
09:08When it comes to his livelihood, he doesn't mince any words.
09:14Here's what he had to say.
09:18I don't want to be in court fighting a government agency.
09:22I just want to sell and service the cars and trucks that my customers want.
09:29Right now, and for as long as I can see, my customers don't want vehicles that our government
09:36requires them to buy.
09:39They don't want vehicles that are not affordable, can't be reliably recharged, and can't be
09:45depended upon to make the drive from Richmond to Lexington on a below-zero midnight in January.
09:57He also said the history and civic classes that I dearly loved did not prepare me for
10:03a country where executive action and career bureaucrats can create law and regulations
10:12that will put me out of business.
10:16Boy, I can't top that.
10:19American workers and job creators are struggling to keep up with persistent, persistent high prices.
10:26And all the Biden administration seems to be offering as consolation is more red tape.