INFLATION Speaker: Senator James Lankford Publication: Congressional Record Date: 15 June 2022 Topic:

  Mr. LANKFORD. Mr. President, I want to give today's reality check. 
The Federal Reserve today raised interest rates 75 basis points--three-
quarters of a point--with a statement they may come back and do that 
again in another month.
  A point and a half in 2 months is a pretty dramatic effect. It is 
going to be a situation where many people, 40 and younger, are about to 
face interest rates they have never faced in their lifetime. The cost 
of buying a car that is already high is about to get higher. The cost 
of buying a home that is already really high is about to get much 
higher.
  Inflation is now at 8.6 percent. A lot of people are beginning to 
feel what that really means. This is not some strange anomaly. This is 
inflation over the last decade. It has bounced around about the same 
level, basically, for a decade until right there--March of 2021--and 
then it just skyrockets at that point.
  This is the reality that we are facing at this point. What does 
inflation really look like when you say it is 8.6 percent? Well, people 
know what that feels like. The cost of eggs has gone up 32 percent in 
the past year--32 percent for eggs. The cost of milk is up 16 percent; 
the cost of butter, also 16 percent; the cost of coffee, 15 percent; 
the cost of baby formula, if you can find it, is up 13 percent.
  And gas prices? Oh, hello. Gas prices--that really has had an effect. 
This is gas prices since January of 2017. Again, we look, and it stays 
about the same until January of 2021. I wonder what happened then.
  And then look at this.
  Then, with the conversation about gas prices that, per the 
administration lately, has been about, ``Well, it is all Putin's 
fault,'' well, here are the rising gas prices since President Biden's 
inauguration--right there--and right there is the war that began in 
Russia. So this little increase right here is the part that is actually 
there.
  This is our consumer price inflation. This is on gas prices. It is 
the same thing. To be able to see this flat line on gas prices, that 
spike--that is the invasion of Ukraine happening right there--and to be 
able to see what has been added onto it since then. So this is not just 
about the invasion in Ukraine. This has been ongoing since late January 
2021.
  The challenge now is, Is this something intentional or is this 
something accidental? Quite frankly, I think it is a bit of both.
  We all remember very well this moment during the Presidential 
campaign. It was when President Biden was

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campaigning, and he walked over to a young lady on the campaign stop 
and said:

       [L]ook in my eyes. I guarantee you . . . we are going to 
     end fossil fuel.
       I guarantee you.

  That was this moment that happened here.
  This was not something totally accidental. It was a drive to say, We 
have got to shift to solar; we have got to shift to wind; we have got 
to shift to hydro; we have got to shift to other things; we are going 
to get rid of fossil fuels; and we are going to accelerate that as fast 
as possible.
  I have to tell you that I live in a State in which we use a lot of 
wind power. We use a lot of solar power. We use hydropower. We have a 
very diverse energy portfolio. But right now, the people in my State 
are paying much higher prices for gasoline, much higher prices for 
natural gas, and much higher prices for electricity because the 
policies that have been put in place are driving up the costs, and 
people feel it.
  This is what it looks like at this point. This is the last 24 months 
of retail average prices--right there, January 2021--and then to be 
able to see what is happening with prices all over the country.
  Now, the administration's response, just in the past couple of weeks, 
has been this statement.
  President Biden has said:

       My administration will continue to do everything it can to 
     lower prices for the American people.

  I love the words ``continue to do'' in there. They are going to 
continue to do everything that they can. They are going to keep doing 
these things that clearly have driven up prices overwhelmingly for the 
American people.
  It was, let's say, Putin's fault. It has been the oil companies' 
fault. It has been the refineries' fault. That is the new one that he 
actually just put out in the last 24 hours--that it is all the fault of 
the refineries that are just taking in too much profit.
  The challenge has been an ongoing attack on American energy from the 
very beginning. Literally, on day 1, when President Biden canceled the 
Keystone Pipeline, he started his process of fulfilling his promise 
that he made during the campaign: ``I guarantee you I am going to end 
fossil fuels.'' So day 1 was canceling the Keystone Pipeline and 
getting crude oil from Canada--about 800,000 barrels a day. What he 
didn't announce on this day is that we still have to have that same 
800,000 barrels a day from somewhere because it is heavy crude. We 
purchase some of our heavy crude from other places, so we still have to 
get it. His announcement, though, on day 1 was, We are not going to get 
it from Canada.
  What people don't realize is that this announcement on day 1 was, We 
are not going to get it from Canada. We are going to get it from 
Russia.
  How did that foreign policy work out? Terribly.
  On day 1: We are not going to get oil from Canada. We are going to 
get it from Russia. We are going to get it from other places instead.
  He put a moratorium on new Federal oil and gas leasing. That 
moratorium, by the way, still stays in place in multiple areas, and 24 
percent of our oil and gas in the United States comes from Federal 
lands and waters--24 percent. So what this did was say, for the future 
of how we are going to develop, we are not going to develop in those 
areas anymore. I am going to cut off 24 percent of the supply coming 
in. Again, this goes back to his campaign promise of ``I guarantee you 
I am going to end fossil fuel.''
  He declined to defend the gulf lease sale 257. That is offshore. 
Basically, an environmental group went in and sued and said: We don't 
think they followed the process.
  The administration was, like, We are not going to challenge that. We 
are going to let the environmental group just take this whole thing 
down, and we are not going to increase our supply of oil coming from 
the gulf.
  He limited the seismic studies necessary for new production in the 
gulf.

  What does that matter?
  Well, he has opened up some areas and said: You can drill for more 
oil in these areas. Oh, but, by the way, you are allowed to do that, 
but if you want to do seismic testing before you do it--which is a 
standard that you have to do seismic testing--oh, we are not doing any 
more seismic testing this whole year. We are not going to allow you to 
actually prepare a site. We are just going to tell you that you can do 
it.
  That is this mode that the administration is in: Produce more oil, 
but I am not going to actually allow you to do that with the 
permitting.
  He has failed to implement a 5-year offshore leasing program.
  What difference does that make?
  By law--by law, now--the administration is required to be able to put 
a 5-year offshore leasing proposal in place. The current one expires on 
June 30 of this year. That is days away. There is no present plan in 
place to be able to replace it.
  In fact, I personally asked Secretary Haaland, the Secretary of the 
Interior, and she said: ``We plan by June 30--the deadline to have a 
new one in place--to be able to put out a comment of what we could do 
if we do a new plan.''
  I said: ``When will that be complete?''
  Her response to me was, ``We don't have a deadline as to when that 
will be complete.''
  So, what is required by law to have a plan for how we are going to do 
offshore leasing, they are going to, instead, by the day it should be 
in place, begin discussing when they might do it in the days ahead.
  Again, it goes back to: We are going to talk about it, but we are 
actually not going to put this lease sale plan in place.
  He canceled a lease sale in Alaska's Cook Inlet, which is where oil 
comes from. He closed off half of the National Petroleum Reserve in 
Alaska to any future energy development.
  He pushed regulations that would slow or halt a buildout of natural 
gas pipelines and liquefied natural gas export infrastructure. This is 
a FERC piece. They actually put a new leader in place in that spot, and 
then the first action they took was to make putting pipelines that were 
heading to the gulf to be able to sell natural gas to Europe harder to 
do and more expensive to do. If we wanted to put natural gas pipelines 
across our country, he would also make it more expensive and more 
complicated. So, literally, as the price is going up for natural gas, 
he has made it even more expensive to be able to transport natural gas 
and harder to be able to sell it to our allies.
  He proposed new financial regulations designed to drive investment 
for traditional energy projects. This body will remember nominees who 
were put up by the Biden administration to go to the Federal Reserve 
who stated out loud that their goal of going to the Federal Reserve was 
to cut off access to capital for any kind of energy development that 
was a fossil fuel. They are literally saying: You can't get loans and 
money to get access to that.
  So they will make it harder to actually move it when you get it, if 
you can get it at all on Federal lands; and they will make it harder to 
be able to get access to capital.
  He has also proposed raising taxes on oil and gas development. Do you 
remember my comment--or his comment, actually--saying he is going to 
continue to do everything he can to lower the prices of energy for the 
American people? Well, what he has actually done is he has proposed a 
whole new set of taxes on all energy companies. In fact, even recently, 
there was a conversation about a windfall profits tax on energy 
companies.
  Now, here is the basic economics that this group knows well: If you 
tax it more, you get less of it. If you get less of it, the price goes 
up. This is not hard. This is basic economics. Yet this administration 
has proposed multiple new taxes in their budget that they just put out 
in the previous month. At the same time, he said: I am going to 
continue to do what I can to lower prices, at the same time he put out 
proposals to dramatically increase oil and gas costs.
  Nominate anti-traditional energy activists for key posts. We have 
seen that. He has turned to hostile nations like Iran and Venezuela to 
meet the U.S. energy demand instead of turning to U.S. producers.
  It has been interesting. I have heard several people say: Well, we 
have got high numbers of production of oil and gas here in the United 
States. But the fact is, we are still a half a million barrels less now 
of production than what we were prepandemic. We have not caught up on 
actual production here; and the Biden administration has made it even 
harder to go get it.

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  While the Biden administration is planning a trip to Saudi Arabia to 
talk to them about getting more oil, our friends in Canada are saying: 
Why don't you come to Canada and talk to us about production? We can 
increase supply to the United States.
  American producers are saying: We can increase supply to the United 
States if you will lift regulations, allow us to get permits, stop 
making it harder to move it, stop making it more expensive to get it, 
and stop adding more taxes onto us. We can produce more in the United 
States.

  Listen, the price of oil right now is about $117 a barrel. There is 
plenty of incentive to go get it, but the administration continues to 
make it harder and harder and harder and more and more unpredictable to 
actually go get it, so folks are not going to get more. While the Biden 
administration blames speculators on Wall Street and rich oil companies 
and everyone else, the basic facts are that the administration's 
policies are what are driving this problem.
  Are there solutions to this? Of course, there are. There are ways to 
be able to resolve this. We can restart Federal leasing onshore and 
offshore. I am not talking about having massive rigs everywhere. We do 
oil drilling and gas drilling better than anyone else in the world.
  While the administration is going over to Saudi Arabia to go get oil 
to be able to use in the United States, don't we think that we produce 
it cleaner than Saudi Arabia does? What in the world?
  If we are going to need to use it, then why aren't we producing it 
here in the United States? If this is all about a global climate 
challenge, then why aren't we focused on production here rather than 
running overseas and trying to be able to get it there?
  Restart the permitting process. Restart the leasing onshore and 
offshore. Stop all of the regulations that are designed to limit and to 
punish oil and gas production--the administration just did a moratorium 
on this; it would make a significant difference--actually put in 
timelines for permitting and litigation.
  Again, I have mentioned Canada several times, but if there is a mine 
that is going in in Canada for things like lithium and other things 
that we need and the whole world needs--they have deadlines and 
timelines to be able to do that--it takes about 5 years to be able to 
do a mine in those areas. It takes 15 years to be able to do that in 
the United States, if you can get it done at all, because there are no 
timelines and deadlines.
  It is the same thing with the production of oil and gas. When there 
is this constant litigation challenge all of the time, it makes it more 
difficult to go get it.
  People need to be engaged in the process. The community needs to be 
heard--Tribes, local governments. People need to be heard and consulted 
in the process. But with no deadlines out there, there is no incentive 
to be able to actually go after it.
  Promote projects that enhance mutual security like the Keystone 
Pipeline and like other pipelines. We learned, when there was a 
security problem on the Colonial Pipeline--coming out last year to 
North Carolina--and North Carolina suddenly didn't have refined 
products, gasoline, the whole east coast discovered: We are dependent 
on one pipeline--one.
  If that one pipeline actually has a structural failure, what happens 
to the east coast? Listen, you can multiply that all over the country.
  While this administration fights every pipeline company that is 
trying to put in a pipeline, they increase our risk of having a major 
problem and large sections of the country losing access to energy. They 
are gambling with our future at this point, while we are watching 
prices exceed $5 a gallon. Focus on the solutions that don't raise 
taxes on energy or limit U.S. energy production.
  I did have to laugh last week when the President made a speech and 
said he was working on bringing down the cost of energy. So the 
announcement was, I am going to bring down the cost of energy by 
dropping tariffs on solar panels coming from the Far East.
  Talk about out of touch. That is out of touch. That is out of 
touch. Because, if we are going to produce solar panels, then why 
aren't we incentivizing the production of solar panels here in America 
rather than encouraging the production of solar panels overseas in the 
Far East? How in the world is dropping tariffs on solar panels from the 
Far East going to help folks filling up their tank with gas next week?

  The President said he was going to solve energy issues and the price 
at the pump by increasing the amount of ethanol that we would use. 
Remember that one? That was about 5 months ago. He said that we would 
just have more ethanol. He went to Iowa and made a big announcement: We 
will just do more ethanol. And the prices continue to be able to 
skyrocket and rise.
  The President then came on and said: All right, we still have a 
higher and higher and higher price. So the ethanol whole thing didn't 
work when he put that out here, and so he came back and said: We are 
going to do this Strategic Petroleum Reserve. We are going to release a 
million barrels a day from this Strategic Petroleum Reserve. Remember 
that announcement? That announcement was made right about there on this 
chart. That is when that announcement was made.
  How is it going for gas prices since his announcement that we are 
going to release a million barrels a day from this Strategic Petroleum 
Reserve? It still continues to be able to rise.
  These prices aren't based on short-term input from the Strategic 
Petroleum Reserve. They are based on long-term supply. That is basic 
economics.
  Now the talk has been a temporary gas tax holiday: We will do a 
temporary gas tax holiday, and that is going to give people relief.
  Can I remind everyone that we are over $5 a gallon? The temporary gas 
tax holiday would drop the price 18 cents. Eighteen cents is what it 
would drop the price. We are not trying to get an 18-cent drop. We are 
trying to get it back to where it was over here, or how about over 
here, where we were at $2 a gallon, not 18 cents. Besides the fact, if 
you drop the price by 18 cents just for this year, it puts a $20 
billion hole in our infrastructure--in our building for bridges and 
highways and roads--to get an 18-cent bump.
  There has also been the proposal out there that he is going to take 
over refineries. That was today. Again, it seems like every week there 
is a new thing that they throw out. Now it is a letter that he sent to 
the major refineries. In the letter that the President sent to the 
major refineries, he wrote:

       [M]y administration is prepared to use all reasonable and 
     appropriate Federal Government tools and emergency 
     authorities to increase refinery capacity and output in the 
     near term . . . to ensure that every region of this country 
     is appropriately supplied.

  Great. So the President is going to go into the refineries, and he is 
going to take them over. The same administration that is managing our 
baby formula is now going to manage our refineries. That is going to 
work out terrific.
  Our refineries right now are running at 95-percent capacity--95 
percent. The interesting thing about our refineries is that America has 
not built a new refinery since 1977. And just in the past 3 years, we 
have lost almost a million barrels a day of refining capacity in the 
United States from refineries shutting down.
  Maybe the better question the President could ask is ``How do we 
start increasing our ability to refine,'' not how is he going to take 
over refineries and run it himself.
  We have a major structural problem right now. This is just evidence 
of what is going on across the whole economy.
  There are answers. There are solutions. But they are not raising 
taxes, and taking over refineries, and putting oil out from the 
Strategic Petroleum Reserve, or running to Saudi Arabia. That is not 
going to solve our energy problems.
  And I can assure us, we are not going to solve our 8.6-inflation rate 
until we solve the price of energy, because the price of energy is 
baked into every single product that we buy--everything. And if this 
doesn't get solved, this doesn't get better.
  Mr. President, do what needs to be done to increase supply in America 
so that the price will go down. We all believe--we all believe--that, 
in the decades ahead, we are going to have more electric vehicles; we 
will have more renewable energy. We all believe that. But 98 percent of 
the vehicles on the

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road right now run on oil and gas, and fulfilling your promise--your 
promise--that you are going to get rid of fossil fuels right now by 
making it harder to do pipelines, harder to get capital, harder to do 
permitting, and more complicated regulations is causing this mess. 
Thirty years from now, we may all be driving electric vehicles--great. 
We don't today. Today, we need solutions for how we are going to move 
in the country. That involves increasing supply. That will get down 
inflation. That will help us as a nation.
  With that, I yield the floor.