Growth through energy abundance

By U.S. Rep. Adrian Smith
R-Nebraska

In 2024, American households are spending more on all categories of energy compared to prices at the start of 2021. 

As virtually every industry requires energy, this affects nearly every aspect of our lives and businesses. In places like Nebraska’s Third District, the agriculture industry depends on energy sources to power machinery, facilitate irrigation, manufacture and transport inputs, and deliver products to market. 

Other energy intensive industries have been severely impacted by rising energy costs. Transportation services costs are up 38.5 percent. Laundry and dry-cleaning services are up 25.5 percent. According to the Joint Economic Committee, Nebraskans – and many Americans – were forced to spend a staggering $29,850 more in household expenses since January 2021 just because of the impact of inflation.

Unfortunately, like toothpaste already out of the tube, consumer purchasing power lost to inflation is almost impossible to reverse. Slowing the rate of rising prices does nothing to clean up the economic damage which has already been done or recover the depleted savings of American families and small businesses. Likewise, last week’s target interest rate cut by the Federal Reserve was another reminder that buying a home or vehicle has become less affordable for American families because of mitigation measures necessitated by the inflationary policies of the Biden-Harris administration.

In Congress, relief from rising costs must come from sound fiscal policy encouraging robust economic growth and more resilience in our supply chains. Instead, the White House has neglected, and even actively stifled, opportunities for growth and prosperity through executive action. Blocking construction of the Keystone XL pipeline and banning liquefied natural gas exports with no justification drove inflation when empowering industry and fostering energy abundance could have helped combat it.

With actions which all-too-often defy commonsense, the Biden-Harris administration has set America back when it comes to energy policy. Rather than embrace an all-of-the-above approach to energy abundance, the Biden-Harris administration blocked federal sales and leasing for petroleum production and continues to drag its feet on lowering needless barriers to the availability of E-15 at the gas pump. Currently there is a 320-million-barrel shortfall in the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, which has remained near a four-decade low since the Biden-Harris administration drained and sold off our stockpile. This is an unforced error resulting in a national security risk.

Perhaps the most out-of-touch Biden-Harris initiative is the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) electric vehicle mandate which would effectively ban the sale of gas-powered vehicles. I have spoken out consistently about the problems with this big government abuse of power which will quash access to affordable vehicles while increasing our reliance on a supply chain dangerously dependent on China. While refusing to acknowledge the mandate’s problems, the Biden-Harris administration has played games by pushing back its timeline, revealing their stubborn awareness the mandate is unworkable for the Third District as well as much of the rest of the country.

Last week, with my support, House Republicans passed a resolution to nullify the EPA’s finalized rule under the Congressional Review Act. Through this legislation and H.R. 1, the Lower Energy Costs Act, passed in the first 100 days of this Congress, House Republicans are fighting to cut big government down to size, expand opportunity, and deliver relief for American families suffering under out-of-control price increases.

Inflation is a tax which hurts us all, and federal policy must reflect the needs and interests of the American people. It’s unacceptable for the Biden-Harris administration to put a radical special interest above the needs of American families who continue to be harmed by its anti-energy, anti-growth policies. There is a better way forward, and House Republicans are leading the way.

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