Washington, DC – Wyoming Congresswoman Liz Cheney (R-WY) issued the following statement after signing on as a co-sponsor to H.R. 6858, the American Energy Independence from Russia Act:
“The Biden Administration’s energy policy has been wrong from day one. Now, as Vladimir Putin conducts an unprovoked and unjustified assault on a sovereign nation, the United States must stop importing Russian energy and block their access to this revenue source.
“The legislation I’m co-sponsoring would offset these Russian imports by ramping up domestic energy production, specifically allowing for oil and gas leasing to resume on federal lands and ensuring that oil and gas lease sales must take place in Wyoming moving forward. Just as the United States was an arsenal of democracy during World War II, we need to be an arsenal of energy for the world today and this bill is an important step toward achieving that.”
BACKGROUND
The full text of H.R. 6858 can be read here.
The American Energy Independence from Russia Act would require President Joe Biden to develop an energy security plan within 30 days and take the following actions to ramp up America’s oil and natural gas production to offset Russian imports:
- Immediate approval of the Keystone XL pipeline
- Authorizes the pipeline under the Presidential Permit of March 29, 2019
- Increase U.S. LNG imports to boost natural gas production
- Prohibits moratoria of new energy leases, permits, approvals or authorizations for oil and gas, coal, hard rock, and critical minerals
- Resume oil and gas leasing on federal lands and waters
- Directs that DOI will conduct a minimum of 4 oil and gas lease sales annually in Wyoming, New Mexico, Colorado, Utah, Montana, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Nevada and any other state where land is available for oil and gas leasing under the Mineral Leasing Act.
- Protect energy and mineral development from attacks by the Biden Administration
- Requires the Secretary of Energy to develop a plan to increase oil and gas production/leasing on federal lands in conjunction with a drawdown of oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR)
Original source can be found here.
