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WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senator Cindy Hyde-Smith (R-Miss.) today said Mississippi consumers, businesses, and conservation activities are all being dragged down by the Biden administration’s persistent broadside against U.S. oil and gas production.
Hyde-Smith, who serves on the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, joined colleagues on the Senate floor on Wednesday to highlight the Biden administration’s overreach in its regulatory assault on U.S. energy production.
“If you threw a dart at a dart board labeled with all the Biden agencies that have a hand in targeting energy production, chances are that you’ll hit an agency that has committed an overreach of its statutory authority,” Hyde-Smith said.
“To threaten any energy source is to threaten the vitality of our nation and its communities. But from day one, President Biden did just that,” the Senator said. “It started with the barrage of excessive executive orders aimed at American energy production, including the cancelation of the Keystone XL pipeline and only got worse from there. Agencies under this administration have been emboldened to ram through harmful policies and rules that are driving us straight toward a cliff.”
Among the agencies cited as offenders by Hyde-Smith include:
- The Department of Energy for weakening domestic energy production by pausing liquified natural gas (LNG) exports and limiting consumer appliance and vehicle choices.
- The Department of the Interior for a scheme to limit offshore lease sales to the lowest level in history, with an option to cancel any of them; and, slow walking the LNG permitting process.
- The Securities and Exchange Commission for diving into the radical environmental game and issuing a burdensome greenhouse gas disclosure rule.
Hyde-Smith chided the administration’s policies that will, in the end, actually cut into resources that Gulf States like Mississippi deploy for coastal conservation measures, namely the Gulf of Mexico Energy Security Act (GOMESA).
“Well, is the administration aware that by continuing to ignore the law and not holding lease sales in the Gulf of Mexico, it hamstrings future GOMESA funds that would come back to Gulf Coast states to support critical coastal protection activities, including conservation, coastal restoration, and hurricane protection?” Hyde-Smith asked. “That’s right. This administration’s Interior Department is jeopardizing actual climate and conservation goals for my state, and we aren’t the only state sounding the alarm on these terrible policies.”
“The American people deserve better than failing energy policies from a tone-deaf administration and agencies that are doing everything they can to circumvent Congress and force their radical energy agendas on this nation,” Hyde-Smith said.
Hyde-Smith’s prepared remarks are available here.
