On the recordFebruary 4, 2021
this one is pretty simple and, hopefully, it can be pretty agreeable and we move quickly. What I am aiming to do today is to prevent the executive branch from taking actions that increase our country's reliance on foreign sources of oil and gas or hard rock minerals. We are going to keep using oil and gas for a while here. I think we recognize that. The EIA, Energy Information Administration, forecasts consumption of oil and gas will rise by 5.6 million barrels per day this year and continue rising in the future. So what we are doing--what we are at risk of doing is to limit resource development in this country, put good-paying jobs at risk, including in my State, making States more dependent on fossil and mineral resources from overseas, oftentimes from our foreign adversaries. We have great resources in this country, folks--from natural gas that powers our homes; minerals like graphite and lithium, which we need in our renewable technologies, and we produce them here in this country in a more environmentally responsible manner-- The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator's time has expired.
