Sam Graves: Fixing the energy crisis

(From Sixth District Congressman Sam Graves)

Gas prices are out of control. Right now, Americans are paying more for gas than we ever have. I could go on, but you’ve all heard it before. I’ve been hollering about this for what seems like ages now—and you’ve been paying the price at the pump.

What you might not have realized though, is that the larger energy crisis is straining every link in our supply chain. We’ve been in a state of crisis with the supply chain for months and this has taken that problem to a whole new level. We depend on oil and gas at virtually every point in the supply chain and when oil and gas prices go bananas like this, those prices get passed on to us at the grocery store and everywhere else.

So, this week, as the lead Republican on the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, I brought in leaders from across the energy transportation sector to talk with my fellow Republican committee members. We all sat in one room and hammered out exactly what problems and solutions are being seen in this energy crisis.

We heard a lot of different problems and a lot of different solutions, but they all point back to the same overall issue. Right now, we have a federal bureaucracy in Washington that has America’s energy sector in a chokehold. Rules, regulations, and unwritten codes are suffocating our entire energy industry. This isn’t by mistake, it’s by design.

We have all the tools and resources to make America energy independent again and end this problem right now. We just have an Administration that is so unwilling to unleash American energy production, they’re literally begging countries like Venezuela and Iran to drill for more oil.

That doesn’t even make sense. We know American oil burns far cleaner and is far better for the environment than the dirty oil these dictatorships pump out. In addition, Biden has even flip-flopped on his promises to support American biofuels. It’s clear this isn’t about the environment. It’s a cold political calculation and it’s costing Americans more and more every day.