Congressman Tom Reed, Republicans Send Letter to Biden on Energy Policies

Tom Reed

Congressman Tom Reed joined other Republicans in a letter to President Biden about energy policies.

Reed said in a statement, “As gas prices across the district soar to $4 a gallon and more, it proves yet again how completely asinine it is that we have cut off our domestic natural gas and oil supplies. Instead of bowing to the environmental extremists in his party, President Biden needs to exercise real leadership and unleash America’s natural resources now.”

The letter lays out several actions including increasing energy resource production on federal lands, development rare earth and critical mineral policy that ends the U.S.’ reliance on China and Russia; pause new discretionary regulatory policy action and actions that negatively impact the oil and gas sector until the Russian invasion of Ukraine is over; and end climate change activity by federal agencies.

A copy of the letter is below.

President Joseph R. Biden
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W.
Washington, DC 20500

Dear President Biden,
We write today urging you to end your anti-American energy agenda. These immediate and
necessary actions, which we will lay out below, will ensure that the United States and our allies have access to affordable and secure energy, while taking away a critical source of leverage and funding Russian President Vladimir Putin is using to carry out his unprovoked and barbaric attack on Ukraine. The current tragedy in Ukraine demonstrates the need for the United States and our allies to strengthen energy and national security.

The U.S. is the world’s energy superpower—we have enough energy to meet demand at home
and support allies abroad. We became a net energy exporter during the Trump Administration, giving America economic strength and geopolitical leverage over Russia, China, Iran, and other dictatorships around the world.

But your Administration reversed course and is undermining America’s energy dominance with disastrous policies, quickly reversing the attainment of a five-decades-long goal of achieving energy independence. Your Administration now routinely begs OPEC and Russia for oil while enacting policies that increase our energy and economic dependence on them, leading to higher prices at the pump for hard-working families.

The results of your economic and energy policies speak for themselves: record inflation; soaring gasoline prices; high home energy costs; Russia empowered to invade Ukraine; ever growing obstacles to building energy infrastructure; so-called environmental and social governance (ESG) policies inhibiting investment in oil and gas; and more dependence on foreign sources of energy.

A few examples of specific policy failures that have created these crises include:
• Instituting the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and Bureau of Ocean Energy
Management (BOEM) leasing moratorium for both onshore and offshore oil and natural
gas projects and threatening to raise royalty rates to make projects less economical;
• Rescinding the Trump Administration’s permitting improvements, including the National
Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) reforms, the Waters of the United States (WOTUS)
reforms, the Endangered Species Act (ESA) reforms, among others;
• Canceling the Keystone XL Pipeline;
• Creating significant regulatory uncertainty by threatening new, excessive, burdensome
regulations on the oil and gas industry, such as the EPA methane rule and the DOI waste
prevention rule;
• FERC’s failure to approve new natural gas pipeline applications, leading to a backlog of pending applications that discourages economic growth and new energy development;
• FERC’s recent changes to its certificate policy statement governing interstate natural gas pipeline reviews, which will further exacerbate the backlog;
• FERC and DOE’s failure to expeditiously approve applications for new LNG export
facilities;
• So-called ESG policies at the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Office of the
Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), Department of Labor (DOL), Federal Reserve, as
well as the nomination of financial regulators like Saule Omarova and Sarah Bloom
Raskin, who have advocated for denying capital to the oil and gas industry;
• Killing new, American, critical mineral mining projects such as Twin Metals in
Minnesota, which would create American jobs and lessen our reliance on China, or
refusing to permit projects such as Resolution Copper in Arizona;
• Stopping lease sales in the coastal plain (1002 area) of Alaska National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) and the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska (NPRA).
Your economic and energy policies project weakness abroad and hurt American families. Yet even given the current Russian invasion, your Administration continues to double down on this failed agenda. The Russian economy is heavily reliant on oil and gas revenues, and due to spiking prices could see $65 to $73 billion in additional revenue this year. Each day, Russian energy sales provide hundreds of millions of dollars for Russian President Putin to wage his war.

While Europe, which receives nearly 40 percent of its natural gas from Russia, seeks
alternatives, your press secretary effectively renounced U.S. oil and gas resources, by saying that
the US will address the Russia-Ukraine crisis with failed Green New Deal polices, which plays right into Putin’s hands.

It is time to reverse these harmful policies and institute an energy plan that sends an
unmistakable signal to the world. We have the world’s largest oil and gas reserves; we can produce these energy resources more cleanly and efficiently than anywhere else in the world; and we should produce them. We will make clear that more U.S. production means greater energy security for our allies, lower prices for consumers at home, and more strength abroad as we undermine the Russia-China alliance.
We call on you to take the following actions to remove Russian President Vladimir Putin’s leverage, and to promote economic growth and prosperity for citizens at home and our allies abroad.

Implement meaningful permitting reform that removes unnecessary delays and
bureaucratic obstacles to constructing new, modern energy infrastructure:
• Stop your harmful regulatory onslaught and reinstitute President Trump’s reforms to the National Environmental Policy Act, clarification of the definition of “Waters of the United States” (WOTUS), and modernization of the Endangered Species Act (ESA).
• Use constitutional and statutory authorities granting the President emergency powers to waive unnecessary environmental permitting requirements whenever possible until we
can reliably produce enough oil and natural gas to recapture America’s global energy
dominance, including the ability to undermine Russia’s economic and military leverage
against our allies.

Increase energy resource production on federal lands:
• Release a new 5-year plan and hold quarterly lease sales to encourage greater offshore and onshore oil and gas production, respectively, on federal lands.
• Reverse the decision to suspend leasing in ANWR and hold lease sales there and in the
NPR-A, including the Willow project.
• Commit to not raising royalty rates on any onshore or offshore federal lands for at least 5 years.
Reduce the regulatory uncertainty that prevents construction of new oil and natural gas
infrastructure, including pipelines and LNG export terminals:
• Immediately approve all pending LNG export applications.
• Immediately approve the cross-border permit for the Keystone XL Pipeline.
• Ensure continued operation of oil pipelines, including Line 5 and the Dakota Access
Pipeline.
• Rescind FERC’s new “Certificate Policy Statement” and “Interim Greenhouse Gas
Emissions Policy Statement” and revert to the agency’s 1999 certificate policy statement. Develop a new, robust national rare earth and critical mineral policy that ends our reliance on China and Russia:
• Reverse decision to stop Twin Metals and the Resolution Copper mine.
• Establish new permitting framework to encourage investment in rare earth and critical
mineral mining and processing in the U.S. Pause all new discretionary regulatory policy activity and actions that would negatively impact the oil and gas sector until the Russian invasion of Ukraine is over, and global oil and natural gas markets have stabilized. Including, but not limited to:

• EPA methane rule;
• EPA Ozone and PM 2.5 NAAQS rules;
• DOI waste prevention rule;
• EPA WOTUS rule;
• DOI’s ESA and Marine Mammal Protection Act (MMPA) regulations;
• U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Nationwide Permit (NWP) regulations
End climate activism by federal agencies and order financial regulators to keep to their statutory mission.
• Clearly specify that the SEC, OCC, DOL, the Federal Reserve, the Financial Stability
Oversight Council (FSOC), and any other federal financial institution cannot consider or otherwise incorporate politically-driven environment, social, and governance (ESG)
criteria—including, but not limited to, “climate stress testing” of banks and financial
institutions they regulate—into their decision-making and rulemakings.
• Stop the SEC from proposing/finalizing a mandatory climate disclosure rule for private and publicly traded companies.

Your immediate action on these policies will signal to our allies around the world that the United States is serious about making our energy resources a tool for freedom, while signaling to Putin, and dictators like him, that they can no longer use their resources as a weapon to finance this barbaric aggression. At the same time, these policy changes will provide all Americans with the reliable and low-cost energy we need and deserve. We stand ready to join you in restoring American energy independence and await your prompt reply.

Sincerely,
Steve Scalise Markwayne Mullin
House Republican Whip Member of Congress
Jeff Duncan Dan Newhouse
Member of Congress Member of Congress
Cathy McMorris Rodgers Bruce Westerman
Ranking Member Ranking Member
Committee on Energy and Commerce Committee on Natural Resources
Dan Meuser August Pfluger
Member of Congress Member of Congress
Ralph Norman David B. McKinley, P.E.
Member of Congress Member of Congress
Guy Reschenthaler Clay Higgins
Member of Congress Member of Congress
H. Morgan Griffith Rick W. Allen
Member of Congress Member of Congress
Bob Latta Tim Walberg
Member of Congress Member of Congress
Gus Bilirakis Ronny L. Jackson
Member of Congress Member of Congress
William R. Timmons, IV Tom Reed
Member of Congress Member of Congress
Carol D. Miller Madison Cawthorn
Member of Congress Member of Congress
Jerry Carl Doug Lamborn
Member of Congress Member of Congress
Earl L. “Buddy” Carter Pete Stauber
Member of Congress Member of Congress
Steven M. Palazzo John Joyce, M.D.
Member of Congress Member of Congress
Randy K. Weber Andy Barr
Member of Congress Member of Congress
Pete Sessions Yvette Herrell
Member of Congress Member of Congress
Vicky Hartzler Chip Roy
Member of Congress Member of Congress
Jack Bergman Kelly Armstrong
Member of Congress Member of Congress
David Rouzer Russ Fulcher
Member of Congress Member of Congress
Steve Womack Ron Estes
Member of Congress Member of Congress
A. Drew Ferguson IV Matthew Rosendale, Sr.
Member of Congress Member of Congress
Michael C. Burgess, M.D. Richard Hudson
Member of Congress Member of Congress
Eric A. “Rick” Crawford Debbie Lesko
Member of Congress Member of Congress
Michael T. McCaul
Ranking Member Lance Gooden
Committee on Foreign Affairs Member of Congress
Louie Gohmert Bill Johnson
Member of Congress Member of Congress
Greg Pence Fred Upton
Member of Congress Member of Congress
Jake LaTurner Austin Scott
Member of Congress Member of Congress
Ben Cline Dan Bishop
Member of Congress Member of Congress
Pat Fallon Doug LaMalfa
Member of Congress Member of Congress
Troy Balderson Larry Bucshon, M.D.
Member of Congress Member of Congress
Tom McClintock Robert J. Wittman
Member of Congress Member of Congress
Dan Crenshaw Brian Babin, D.D.S.
Member of Congress Member of Congress
French Hill Fred Keller
Member of Congress Member of Congress
Kevin Brady Neal P. Dunn, M.D.
Ranking Member Member of Congress
Committee on Ways and Means
David G. Valadao Stephanie Bice
Member of Congress Member of Congress
Roger Williams Lauren Boebert
Member of Congress Member of Congress
David G. Valadao Stephanie Bice
Member of Congress Member of Congress
Frank Lucas Liz Cheney
Member of Congress Member of Congress
Mariannette J. Miller-Meeks, M.D. Paul A. Gosar, D.D.S.
Member of Congress Member of Congress
Michael Cloud Amata Radewagen
Member of Congress Member of Congress