Political Quotes

“Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. I rise today in support of H.R. 6009, the Restoring American Energy Dominance Act. H.R. 6009, introduced by Congresswoman Boebert, would nullify the Bureau of Land Management's proposed onshore oil and gas leasing regulations. While on the campaign trail, then-candidate Joe Biden said during a primary debate: ``No more drilling on Federal lands.'' That was candidate Biden. The BLM's proposed regulations attempt to accomplish President Biden's campaign promise by limiting onshore leasing, reducing flexibility, and increasing fees. The regulations propose eliminating nationwide bonds while increasing individual bonding requirements 15-fold and statewide bonding requirements 20-fold. The BLM's stated rationale for doing this is to protect taxpayers from having to clean up orphaned wells. One would think that there is an orphaned well crisis on BLM lands, given the significant cost increases the rule proposes. However, the opposite is true, Mr. Speaker. According to the Department of the Interior, there are only 37 orphaned wells on BLM lands, and the Department has used bonds to plug wells on Federal lands just 40 times over this last decade. The proposed regulations would also be extremely harmful to small businesses.…”