Source: United States Senator for Louisiana Bill Cassidy
05.19.22
WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Bill Cassidy, M.D. (R-LA) blasted President Biden’s Interior Secretary, Debra Haaland, for the administration’s continued assault on domestic energy production during a Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee hearing on the president’s Department of Interior budget request for fiscal year 2023. Cassidy laid out ten ways the Biden administration has killed domestic energy production and highlighted the department’s cancellation of oil and gas lease sales in the Gulf of Mexico.
“This administration’s all-points assault on American oil and gas production is hurting that person watching on C-SPAN at home, it’s hurting the jobs being created, and it’s hurting the international environment,” said Dr. Cassidy.
When pressed by Cassidy, Secretary Haaland refused to acknowledge that oil and gas produced by the United States off the Louisiana coast is cleaner environmentally than the administration’s plan to increase energy production in Venezuela and elsewhere. Thankfully, Democratic Senator Mark Kelly (D-AZ) stepped in to confirm that for her.
Cassidy: “Is it more environmentally friendly to develop and produce oil and gas resources off the coast of Louisiana? Or is it more environmentally friendly to develop those resources, say, in Venezuela or in another country abroad—in terms of emissions, in terms of Climate?”
Haaland: “Um, senator what I can say is that, um, I think here in our country we care deeply about workers—”
Cassidy: “Ah, but that’s not my question. My question is, what has the lowest emissions profile—using Louisiana or American workers in the outer continental shelf off the Gulf, with American companies and American regulations, or Venezuelan standards and Venezuelan crude?”
Haaland: “Senator, I am not an economist, or an engineer, or a scientist, but with respect—”
Cassidy: “I am almost out of time, and I get a sense this question is not going to be answered straightforwardly. No offense.”
[…]
Kelly: “Senator Cassidy, as an engineer and somebody who looked at the data, I can confirm that the amount of carbon that results from production offshore from Louisiana is a lot less than what comes from Venezuela.”
Background
In response to the Biden administration’s assault on domestic energy, Cassidy released a landmark energy & climate policy outline earlier this year detailing how the U.S. can successfully reset our energy and climate policy. The outline included Cassidy’s plan for an Operation Warp Speed for U.S. energy production to cut permitting red-tape and unleash U.S. energy.
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