October 29th, 2021

This week, Minority Leader McCarthy hosted a roundtable discussion to highlight the hypocrisy of the Biden administration, specifically related to their “green at all costs” energy agenda. After banning leasing and blocking pipelines, President Biden decided to beg OPEC producers (not American) to bring down gasoline prices while his Democrat colleagues in Congress propose policies that will drive them right back up.

In contrast, House Republicans have proposed a slew of common-sense energy legislation that will do everything from prohibit fracking bans to authorize Keystone construction to streamlining red tape around natural gas infrastructure. Now, that sounds like a plan to ease rising energy prices.

The Bottom Line: We’ve said it before, and we’ll say it again. The common sense solution to bringing down gas prices is empowering the American oil and gas industry, not demonizing it.

Speaking of plans, guess who doesn’t have one? According to the President…. it’s the President. At a CNN Town Hall last week, President Biden outright said he doesn’t have a “near-term answer” for high gasoline prices, “My guess is, we’ll start to see gas prices come down as we go into next year, 2022 … I don’t see anything that’s going to happen in the meantime that’s going to significantly reduce gas prices.”

All jokes aside, that’s just not okay. Especially when there are immediate actions he can take to help boost the domestic energy industry, ultimately aiding supply-side recovery. The economy is still recovering from a pandemic, prices on energy and everything else are through the roof, and people are hurting. The President is supposed to lead, not dodge.

The Bottom Line: President Biden saying he doesn’t have a “near-term answer” for sky-high gasoline costs is unacceptable. When facing adversity, the President is supposed to lead and take action, not stall and deflect blame.

It seems like the CEPP won’t make the final cut of the $3.5 trillion reconciliation bill, so the President is headed off to COP26 without a shiny new climate change initiative to show off to his UN pals. But, what does the COP26 really mean if two of the largest emitters aren’t even attending? Russia and China produce 32% of the world’s emissions, but their leaders are snubbing the UN’s premier climate conference.

While the rest of the world’s leaders are packing up their bags and emission commitments for Scotland, Vlad and Xi don’t seem like they plan to commit to much of anything. Rep. Byron Daniels (R-FL), in an impassioned speech in a recent hearing, hit on this topic directly saying, “we’re cutting our neck when it comes to energy production, while they are burning more coal, they are burning more oil, they’re increasing their emissions, and they’re not showing up in Scotland.”

The Bottom Line: Biden won’t have his signature climate legislation, or his Russian and Chinese counterparts when he heads to Glasgow. Who needs the COP26 anyway?

Biden Heads To COP26 Empty-handed: The UN Climate Change Conference of the Parties (COP26) begins on Sunday, October 31, in Glasgow, Scotland. President Biden will be heading to the conference without the agreement on his climate agenda he hoped to have in hand, so stayed tuned to see how that plays on the global stage.

WV Public Hearing On MVP: On Monday, November 1, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers will hold a public hearing in West Virginia on a key permit for the Mountain Valley Pipeline. The pipeline would support about 3,700 construction jobs and $1.58 billion in economic activity in West Virginia.

Hearing On Infrastructure Cybersecurity: On Thursday, November 4, the House Transportation and Infrastructure will hold a hearing called “The Evolving Cybersecurity Landscape: Industry Perspectives on Securing the Nation’s Infrastructure.”