IV 118th CONGRESS 2d Session H. RES. 987 In the House of Representatives, U. S., March 21, 2024 RESOLUTION Denouncing the harmful, anti-American energy policies of the Biden administration, and for other purposes.

Whereas President Joe Biden and his administration have proposed and finalized regulations that increase the cost of energy for domestic consumers, hamper domestic production of energy, and increase reliance on foreign adversaries for energy needs; Whereas then-candidate Joe Biden is quoted as saying, I will end fossil fuels. ; Whereas decreasing domestic production of fossil fuels does not prevent the fuels from being produced globally, but instead increases the United States reliance on other countries for its energy needs; Whereas the United States is reliant on China and other foreign adversaries for many of the minerals necessary for renewable energy development; Whereas the Biden administration has blocked domestic mineral development despite the massive increase in demand for these minerals; Whereas the United States became the global leader in liquified natural gas exports for the first time in 2023; Whereas, on January 26, 2024, the Biden administration announced guidance that would prohibit liquified natural gas exports and permitting for export facilities under section 3 of the Natural Gas Act ( 15 U.S.C. 717b ); Whereas, under President Biden, gasoline prices reached a record-breaking high in 2022, with prices soaring to a nationwide average of over $4 a gallon and nearly $5 for diesel; Whereas gas prices have increased due to President Biden’s policies, affecting families and small businesses who struggle to make ends meet; Whereas, in May 2023, it was calculated that nearly 20,000,000 households in the United States were behind on their utility bills because of rising energy prices; Whereas energy prices increased roughly 37.2 percent in President Biden’s first 26 months in office, which is the largest increase of any of the last 7 Presidents; Whereas President Biden canceled the Keystone XL pipeline on his first day in office, preventing over 11,000 jobs, hundreds of thousands of barrels of oil per day, and millions in revenue; Whereas the Biden administration illegally canceled leases in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, even though the leases were mandated under the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act; Whereas the Biden administration added extraction restrictions to 13,000,000 acres of the National Petroleum Reserve–Alaska; Whereas the Biden administration canceled 3 proposed lease sales in the Gulf of Mexico; Whereas President Trump held 9 offshore lease sales and President Obama held 20; Whereas the Biden administration has proposed numerous antifossil fuel policies that restrict Federal land development causing companies to cease investment in research, development, and exploration; Whereas the Biden administration implemented a 20-year mining moratorium on 225,000 acres of the Superior National Forest in northern Minnesota; Whereas the Biden administration continues to restrict mineral extraction in areas including Chaco Canyon, Black Hills National Forest, and the Thompson Divide; Whereas, in 2022, more than one-third of Americans say they reduced or skipped basic expenses, such as medicine or food, to pay an energy bill; Whereas President Biden issued Executive Order 14008 on his first day in office, which halted all new oil and natural gas leasing on Federal lands, violating the Mineral Leasing Act, which requires the Department of the Interior to hold quarterly lease sales; Whereas the Biden administration did not hold an onshore lease sale until June 2022, and the first sale excluded nearly 80 percent of eligible lands while instituting a 50-percent royalty increase; Whereas, in fiscal year 2022, the first full fiscal year of the Biden administration, the Bureau of Land Management approved an average of 233 drilling permits per month; Whereas, in contrast, the Bureau of Land Management was approving nearly 400 drilling permits monthly in fiscal year 2020; Whereas the Biden administration has held only 18 lease sales over 36 months in office; Whereas the Biden administration has leased roughly 232,000 acres bringing in roughly $180,000,000 in Federal funding, approximately one-tenth of the acreage and revenue secured by the Trump administration; Whereas, over the same time period, the Trump administration had held 82 lease sales, leasing 3,700,000 acres and bringing in over $1,700,000,000 for taxpayers. Whereas the Bureau of Land Management proposed a rule titled Waste Prevention, Production Subject to Royalties, and Resource Conservation (87 Fed. Reg. 73588) which aims to further regulate natural gas emissions from oil and natural gas production on Federal lands; Whereas the Bureau of Land Management issued Instructional Memoranda that restrict the rights of existing leaseholders, ignore statutory mandates, and will limit acreage in future sales; Whereas the Biden administration proposed the rule titled Conservation and Landscape Health (88 Fed. Reg. 19583) that would illegally elevate conservation as a multiple use under the Federal Land Management Policy Act of 1976; Whereas the Biden administration has proposed a rule titled Fluid Mineral Leases and Leasing Process (88. Fed. Reg. 47562) that would establish preference criteria to limit oil and gas leasing on Federal lands, while increasing royalty and bonding rates for oil and gas producers on Federal lands; and Whereas the Biden administration proposed numerous supplemental environmental impact statements for resource management plans across Western States that would lock up millions of acres of Federal lands from resource development: Now, therefore, be it

That the House of Representatives— (1) denounces the harmful anti-American energy policies of the Biden administration; (2) denounces the irrational and unpredictable Federal lands policies of the Biden administration; (3) condemns the energy crisis plaguing families, businesses, and Americans around the country that has been caused by the Biden administration; and (4) encourages the domestic production of reliable and affordable energy generation sources.

Cheryl L. Johnson, Clerk.