Pallone Leads Opposition on House Floor to Legislation Raising Americans' Utility Bills by Sending More of Our Energy Resources Abroad

Energy and Commerce Committee Ranking Member Frank Pallone, Jr. (D-NJ) delivered the following remarks, as prepared for delivery, on the House floor today in opposition to H.R. 1949, legislation that raises Americans' energy bills by allowing unlimited exports of American liquified natural gas (LNG):

Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong opposition to this bill. This bill would allow unlimited amounts of our liquified natural gas, or LNG, to be sent abroad to any destination in the world – including to adversaries like China. And by sending more American LNG abroad, this bill would reduce our energy resources here at home, raising our constituents’ utility bills at a time when they can least afford it.  

Americans are already being crushed by the rising cost of living, and now Republicans are making matters worse by pushing legislation that will only drive-up monthly power bills even further. It’s quite the departure from President Trump’s campaign promise to cut Americans’ power bills in half.  

Instead, right now, thanks to his and Congressional Republicans’ backward energy policies, electricity prices are climbing more than twice as fast as inflation. More than 80 million Americans are struggling to pay their utility bills, with many having to make the impossible choice of either paying for medicine and food or keeping their lights on. It’s a disgrace that instead of offering up solutions to this affordability crisis, Republicans are here today to just make it worse.

And let’s be clear – it is well established fact that unlimited LNG exports would increase prices here at home. Last year, the Secretary of Energy noted that, quote, “unfettered exports of LNG would increase wholesale domestic natural gas prices by over 30 percent.”

And Mr. Speaker, if you’re a Republican who perhaps didn’t trust the last Department of Energy, I would certainly assume you trust the current one. And just last week, the Energy Information Administration noted that it expects natural gas prices to increase by 16 percent next year, due largely to increased exports of LNG.

Sixteen percent. That’s on top of the 15 percent increase in natural gas costs that Americans have already suffered this year. That’s all due to the LNG export approvals President Trump made in his first term. 

And all this bill does is make that problem worse by ensuring that there are zero restrictions on how much of our own LNG we’re shipping out to other countries. The only ones who stand to benefit are fossil fuel companies, proving that Republicans care more about padding the profits of their rich fossil fuel friends than they do about lowering costs for average Americans.  

I also want to note that this bill is a gift to China. China is one of the top recipients of American LNG, and LNG companies openly brag about how they can sell to Chinese buyers. But this bill completely removes any review of whether exporting more of our LNG to China is in the public interest. It’s quite the reversal for the “America First” crowd to be pushing a bill that puts Americans last.

But we’ve seen this story before. Ten years ago, Congress removed the ban on exporting American crude oil. Before that, we were only sending China 420,000 barrels of oil each year – and now we send China more than 160 million barrels of oil a year. Clearly, Republicans have learned nothing from that, despite constantly proclaiming the importance of beating China in the AI race. Republicans consistently say that losing the AI race to China would be like losing the Cold War to Russia. But the bill they’re proposing today is like selling rocket fuel to the Soviets during the space race – it defies all logic.

Finally, I want to point out a basic fact: we have already approved enough permits to triple our LNG exports by the end of the decade. And that’s on top of the more-than-quadrupling of LNG exports we’ve already seen over the last six years. Surely it’s worth asking the Department of Energy to keep an eye on this – to ensure that all these exports are actually a good thing, for our economy, for our national security, and for the communities we are here to represent.

Mr. Speaker – the American people are tired of these antics. They don’t have time for them. They need us to get serious about addressing the skyrocketing cost of living. Today they will see that Republicans are here today making it worse, while Democrats are fighting to make it better.

I encourage my colleagues to vote no and I reserve the balance of my time.

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