Raúl Grijalva: “I thank the gentleman for yielding. I rise in strong opposition to H.R. 21, and I urge all my colleagues to oppose this…”

“I thank the gentleman for yielding. I rise in strong opposition to H.R. 21, and I urge all my colleagues to oppose this big giveaway to Big Oil. The bill before us today is yet another effort to open our public lands and waters to major new oil and gas extraction. This is despite the fact that oil companies already control huge amounts of our public lands and waters, most of which they don't even use. Right now, oil and gas companies have about 9,000 approved but unused permits across 26 million acres of public land. Right now, offshore they have 2,000 active leases covering 12 million acres, three-quarters of which aren't being used. This bill asks us to give them even more land--an area three times the size of California, or more than 300 million additional acres. Big Oil has more public land than they can use. They could expand production today if they really wanted to. Instead, they lobby Congress to open up even more lands to extraction, to lower environmental standards, and to give them more taxpayer-funded subsidies. And in the process, they lock out public land and public access from other essential uses that would contribute to the American people and contribute to the mitigation and remediation and the climate action that is required around the issue of climate and the climate crisis. {time} 1245 To add insult to injury, this bill would actually make it harder to help everyday Americans. It would prevent the President's ability to keep down gas prices.…”