Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Ranking Member Sam Graves (R- MO) and Committee Republicans today led a roundtable on the Energy Crisis, during which energy stakeholders highlighted challenges in safely and efficiently moving sufficient levels of American energy.

Following the roundtable, Ranking Member Sam Graves said, “We’ve seen plenty of finger-pointing from this Administration about why Americans across the country are paying such high energy prices.  But we haven’t heard a word from the President about how his policies – long before Russia invaded Ukraine – have put a chokehold on the development and the safe, efficient transportation of North American energy resources.”

Graves continued, “The stakeholders who participated today talked about solutions, but they’re based on the federal government allowing the responsible production of domestic energy and putting us back on the path to the energy independence.  Since revoking the permit for the Keystone XL pipeline on his first day in office, the President and his administration have been enacting policies that continue to block, discourage, and impede energy production, capacity, and transportation.  This continues to drive up costs for Americans to heat their homes and buy gas and diesel, and it limits our ability to help our allies meet their energy needs in the wake of Russia’s aggression.  Today’s roundtable demonstrates that we can and must do better, but only if the Administration recognizes that its policies are at the root of our energy crisis and does something about it.”

Issues discussed at today’s roundtable included:

• Challenges to developing pipeline projects that could safely and efficiently move more oil, natural gas, etc. to markets across the country where energy costs remain high
• Panelists’ support of the 2020 liquefied natural gas (LNG) by rail rule that the Biden Administration halted and common misconceptions about the safety of LNG transportation
• How the lack of sufficient energy resources or infrastructure at home and abroad increases reliance on Russian energy
• Environmental permitting difficulties and delays, including under National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), during the Biden Administration.