Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez ripped into Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy’s proposed H.R.1 — the ‘Lower Energy Costs Act’ — saying “what this bill actually shows us is that they have no plans to reduce our utility bills…the central argument of this bill is that if you give Big Oil everything they want, then perhaps they will lower our gas prices.”
[Note: gas prices climbed in lockstep with record oil industry profits last year.]
Instead of working to lower costs for American families, Ocasio-Cortez contends McCarthy’s bill “slashes the royalty rate” oil companies must pay to drill on public land, which is owned by the taxpayers.
AOC: If you are a tax paying citizen, you are part of the ownership of our public lands. And when an oil company decides to lease that land, they are supposed to pay a royalty to the public. What does HR. 1 do? Slashes that royalty rate pic.twitter.com/PGoNpjscCe
— Acyn (@Acyn) March 28, 2023
“This is not a problem of supply,” the Congresswoman says about the industry’s desire to access more public land, “It is a problem of greed and abuse of market power.”
AOC: We saw last year how big oil more than doubled its profits to $219 billion while price gouging customers not because of supply issues but because they can pic.twitter.com/dyII2gzmwk
— Acyn (@Acyn) March 28, 2023
McCarthy is promoting H.R.1 — the ‘Lower Energy Costs Act’ — as a panacea for Americans suffering high prices at the gas pump and other pain points in their economic lives, like high heating bills.
“If you want a country where Americans produce more energy, pay less for a gallon of gas, and never again bow to foreign dictators, then you will love H.R. 1, the Lower Energy Costs Act,” McCarthy says, plugging the measure.
McCarthy also claims, addressing concerns about the environmental impacts of more domestic drilling, that “if this bill passes, global emissions will be reduced.” McCarthy says that American natural gas is a 41 percent cleaner fuel than Russian natural gas, and he boldly asserts that the U.S. energy production increases — and increased exports — contemplated by H.R. 1 would help combat climate change.
If you want a country where Americans produce more energy, pay less for a gallon of gas, and never again bow to foreign dictators, then you will love H.R. 1, the Lower Energy Costs Act. https://t.co/iOOFbR9CtV
— Kevin McCarthy (@SpeakerMcCarthy) March 28, 2023
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