U.S. Senator Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.) joined U.S. Senator Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) in introducing the American Energy Independence Act of 2022. The bill reverses President Joe Biden’s shutdown of the American energy sector and returns American energy to full production.
According to the release distributed by Tuberville’s office, the price of oil rose to over $100 a barrel for the first time since 2014 after Russia invaded Ukraine. Gas and energy prices are quickly rising to new highs, but the Biden administration is reluctant to sanction the Russian energy sector due no doubt to the United States’ dangerous dependence on foreign energy.
At the same time, European countries, particularly Germany, are heavily dependent on Russian natural gas.
The bill is cosponsored by U.S. Senators Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) and Bill Hagerty (R-Tenn.). Companion legislation has been introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives by Representative Ronny Jackson (R-Texas).
“Pushing unsustainable energy policies here at home has led us to become dependent on energy abroad, and our country is paying the price for the administration’s decisions,” said Tuberville. “The United States is an energy rich nation, but we need to have smart policies in place to harness that energy and regain energy independence.”
Hawley said to be a strong and free as a nation, the United States must be energy independent.
“My bill will reverse Joe Biden’s disastrous energy surrender that has allowed Russian energy dominance and instead open up American production full-throttle,” said Hawley. “To stand up to aggressors like Vladimir Putin, we can and we must work to power our nation and the world.”
The highlights from the American Energy Independence Act of 2022 include an assertion that the official policy of the United States is to achieve full energy independence and low energy costs for its citizens in light of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
It instructs federal agencies to identify and rescind existing regulations that have the effect of reducing American energy independence, bar new climate rules that reduce energy security or raise energy prices, and direct agencies to work to achieve energy independence by 2024.
It will ease the regulatory burden on energy companies engaged in fracking; restore the permit for the Keystone XL Pipeline after its cancellation by Biden; and ease the process for constructing new pipelines.
Furthermore, the bill will defund the United States’ contributions to any provisions of the Paris Climate Agreement and promote oil and natural gas leases on federal land following the Biden administration’s moratorium.
And it will terminate the Biden administration’s new “waters of the United States” (WOTUS) regulation and preserve the Trump Administration’s standards; and lower the “social cost of carbon” to $0 per ton to focus government standards on boosting domestic energy production, rather than climate change.
You can read the entire bill here.
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