Energy and Commerce Republicans, led by Chair Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-WA), hosted a roundtable yesterday to discuss how people across the country are struggling with unaffordable energy costs caused by President Biden’s war on American energy.

The panelists who participated in the roundtable discussion included:

• Dan Alsaker, President of Alsaker Corporation
• Jeff Eshelman, President and CEO, Independent Petroleum Association of America (IPAA)
• David Hickman, Co-Owner and Operator of Dublin Farms, Inc.
• Donna Jackson, Project 21 Director of Membership Development

Highlights from yesterday’s roundtable: 

Chair Rodgers: “Our first event here of the 118th Congress is to focus on what has become unaffordable energy costs [in America]. We have an opportunity this congress to address what American families and businesses are facing and what they’re suffering from – some of the highest energy prices we’ve seen in decades.” 

Mr. Alsaker (Panelist): “One of the things that I have to bring to your attention is that we employ about 400 people… but right now, hiring people, getting them to work, getting them affordable housing, getting them affordable energy to get to work, has lessened our staff down to about 300… and I need 400.” 

Mr. Eshelman (Panelist): “Just yesterday, the Consumer Product Safety Commission came out with a report that they’re going to ban new natural gas stoves. They’re determining what kind of fuel you can use in your house, what kind of stoves you can cook with, what kind of cars you can drive. This is a personal intrusion that is happening across America into your personal lives, into your homes.” 

Mr. Hickman (Panelist): “This is the most perilous time I think for American agriculture... the option farmers have today is: are they going to reduce fertilizer inputs, which will reduce yields in the long term… the world certainly doesn’t want [that] because it’s going to drive food prices even higher.” 

Ms. Jackson (Panelist): “However tough high energy costs are on the middle class, it’s even worse for those who are trying to get to the middle class. The people that I represent, they are not coming to me and asking for government handouts... they’re asking for the opportunity to create their own economic freedom.”

Rep. Michael Burgess, M.D. (R-TX): “Available, affordable energy, independent petroleum producers, the State of Texas, we stand ready. The difficulties are above the ground, not below the ground geologically. It’s self-inflicted.”

Rep. Bob Latta (R-OH): “I had somebody come up to me not long ago in my district that told me that their monthly budget [which] was $100 a month is now $160 a month for their natural gas. They said, ‘what are we going to do to make that up? Are we just going to cut back on something else?’”

Rep. Brett Guthrie (R-KY): “The people who are the most ardent climate change people pretend they’re for the downtrodden and so forth… [but] it limits people from moving forward if you don’t have reliable and sustainable energy.”

Rep. Morgan Griffith (R-VA): “We need to stop thinking that we’re going to solve everything with renewables. They’re important, but we can’t do it all with renewables.”

Rep. Gus Bilirakis (R-FL): “[Permitting] is affecting my state of Florida with regard to the prices. We have a 42 percent increase over the national average.”

Rep. Bill Johnson (R-OH): “After the crippling inflation of the last couple of years, the high energy prices, [and] the massive amount of rush-to-green spending, our constituents did not get a return on their investment. They got a lower standard of living, a lower quality of life.”

Rep. Larry Bucshon, M.D. (R-IN): “The Biden administration’s anti-American approach has let down my constituents. For the past two years, Hoosiers in southwest and west-central Indiana have experienced high energy costs… these high costs have impacted businesses across my district, farmers, manufacturers, electricity providers, and small businesses on Main Street.”

Rep. Tim Walberg (R-MI): “A constituent of mine in Addison, Michigan is paying over $300 a month for propane to heat his home and $200 a month for electricity. $500 just to keep the lights on and the winter chill out.”

Rep. Buddy Carter (R-GA): “Georgia is the number one forestry state in the country... I’ve had so many foresters call me, and I’m not exaggerating, so many tell me ‘the price of diesel fuel is so high. I’m not going to be able to stay in business.’”

Rep. Jeff Duncan (R-SC): “The United States’ abundance of natural gas has helped do more to lower our carbon emissions than anything else. I think an effort to bring more nuclear power online and utilize more natural gas in this country are important steps in both lowering energy costs but also lowering our carbon emissions.”

Rep. Gary Palmer (R-AL): “The war in Ukraine did not create the energy crisis. It exposed it.”

Rep. Neal Dunn, M.D. (R-FL): “When President Biden took office, he wasted no time targeting the American energy sector. We know what happened next. Energy prices skyrocketed and Americans are paying the price. The Biden administration is responsible for the American people paying more at the pump and in the grocery store.”

Rep. John Curtis (R-UT): “The impact of preventing climate change is worse than the impact of climate change. It doesn’t need to be that way. The more we look at the natural gas world, the more we realize that some of the very keys to a cleaner planet also are the same keys to energy independence, to a strong economy, and to low energy prices.”

Rep. Debbie Lesko (R-AZ): “I’m passionate about energy issues because it’s vital to every aspect of our lives.”

Rep. Greg Pence (R-IN): “I spent part of my career as National Director of Fuel for Circle K [convenience and gas stores] so I delivered fuel where it needed to be, when it needed to be… [sometimes] for many, many miles. You can get liquid fuel somewhere, you can’t get electricity anywhere it needs to be.”

Rep. John Joyce, M.D. (R-PA): “American energy production, we all recognize, is safe, it’s clean, it’s the most efficient in the world. And yet at every turn, the Biden administration is putting up roadblocks for domestic production. Our successful future for energy independence is based on clean natural gas, it is based on advanced nuclear power, it is based on utilizing the energy sources under the feet of my constituents in Central Pennsylvania.”

Rep. Kelly Armstrong (R-ND): “I really care that we’re increasing the cost per bushel, per acre on a wheat field... The government is the reason your bread is more expensive.”