WASHINGTON—U.S. Senator Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) on Thursday took to the U.S. Senate floor to call out Republican misinformation on achieving American energy independence through domestic oil production. Murphy slammed Republicans for parroting the oil industry’s talking points and highlighted how true energy independence can only be achieved by investing in renewable energy.
“The oil industry, reaping record profits in the billions of dollars, is taking advantage, quite artfully, of the crisis in Ukraine, to make arguments to the United States Congress and this administration that they should be given new liberties to drill on lands in the United States to be able to reap even greater profits,” said Murphy. “And the claim that the oil industry makes that is often parroted by friends inside this body is that the path to American energy independence runs through drilling for more oil in the United States of America. That is not true. That is an oil industry talking point. That is a means by which the industry can get Congress and the administration to provide them with new opportunities for more profit.”
Murphy explained that much of the United States-produced oil is sold overseas: “[T]he oil that we drill in the United States doesn't stay here. It goes to the highest bidder. In fact, often the oil we drill in the United States is going to China. For as hard as my friends on the other side of the aisle say that we should be on China, the reality is during some months of the last several years America was sending record amounts of oil from U.S. oil production facilities to the Chinese government. And so, it just isn't true that there's a path to American energy security simply by drilling for more oil in the United States. That oil only comes out of the ground when the price is high enough. The oil industry doesn't drill to be patriotic. They drill to make money, and there's never a guarantee that that oil or that gas stays in the United States.”
On the motivations of the oil industry, Murphy said: “[T]he oil industry doesn't drill in the United States to benefit our national security. They drill in the United States to make money, and the reality is when the price of a barrel of oil is too low compared to the cost of pulling it out of the ground in the United States, the oil companies don't drill.”
On the importance of investing in renewables to achieve energy independence, Murphy said: “You know how you do make this country energy independent? Investing in renewables. Because we don't ship wind power overseas. We don't ship solar energy overseas. When a wind turbine is running in Iowa or a solar panel is generating energy in California, that energy goes straight on to the American grid. That energy stays right here in the United States.”
A full transcript of his remarks can be found below:
MURPHY: “Mr. President, I come to the floor this evening to offer a few remarks about claims that have been made on this floor over the course of the last few days regarding the path forward to American energy independence.
“The oil industry, reaping record profits in the billions of dollars, is taking advantage, quite artfully, of the crisis in Ukraine, to make arguments to the United States Congress and this administration that they should be given new liberties to drill on lands in the United States to be able to reap even greater profits.
“And the claim that the oil industry makes that is often parroted by friends inside this body is that the path to American energy independence runs through drilling for more oil in the United States of America. That is not true. That is an oil industry talking point. That is a means by which the industry can get Congress and the administration to provide them with new opportunities for more profit.
“But the facts belie that argument that America can achieve energy independence solely through drilling for oil and exploring for more gas in the United States.
“Why do we know this? Well we know this primarily because the oil industry doesn't drill in the United States to benefit our national security. They drill in the United States to make money, and the reality is when the price of a barrel of oil is too low compared to the cost of pulling it out of the ground in the United States, the oil companies don't drill.
“So, right now, for instance, the oil industry has thousands of leases to drill on public lands that they are not utilizing. Now, as you would hear it on the floor of the Senate, the failure to be energy independent is Joe Biden's fault, because he's not providing for any new leases on public lands.
“Well, you don't need any new leases on public lands because there are thousands of leases that the oil industry already has to drill that they just aren't using. There's nothing in the ground. There's no oil coming up. And the reason for that is, well, the economy was in shambles, so there wasn't demand. The price of oil was down so that the companies didn't see a big enough profit. There's a general workforce shortage right now in the industry.
“But none of those reasons are Joe Biden. Those are market-based reasons why the oil industry has not been drilling on land they already own. But the second reason why there is not a path to energy independence through drilling alone is because the oil that we drill in the United States, it doesn't stay in the United States. Some of it does, but much of it gets exported.
“In 2020, we were drilling about 18 million barrels a day in the United States. About half of that was shipped overseas. Only half of that stayed in the United States. Wanted to make sure, Mr. President, that wasn't something that we needed to pay a little bit closer attention to.
“So, Mr. President, the oil that we drill in the United States doesn't stay here. It goes to the highest bidder. In fact, often the oil we drill in the United States is going to China. For as hard as my friends on the other side of the aisle say that we should be on China, the reality is during some months of the last several years America was sending record amounts of oil from U.S. oil production facilities to the Chinese government.
“And so, it just isn't true that there's a path to American energy security simply by drilling for more oil in the United States. That oil only comes out of the ground when the price is high enough. The oil industry doesn't drill to be patriotic. They drill to make money, and there's never a guarantee that that oil or that gas stays in the United States. Much of it is sent overseas.
“And as I mentioned, there's also no argument to be made credibly that Joe Biden is waging some war on American energy independence. The two biggest changes that are often cited that the president made, one, as I referenced, is this pause on new leases on public lands. That just has very little impact because, first of all, very little of the oil that the industry drills is on public lands. Only 10% of the oil the industry drills is on public lands. 90% of it is on privately held lands. So a pause on 10% of the leases just doesn't have a macroeffect on oil drilling.
“But second, any leases that the administration would give out right now, they don't end up in drilling occurring for years. So whether or not we're pausing or not pausing leases on 10% of the opportunities to drill in the United States, that has an impact years from now, not today. Second, the argument is, well, the president stopped the Keystone pipeline from going into effect. Remember, same thing, the Keystone pipeline was years out.
“And second, most of the Keystone pipeline oil wasn't staying in the United States. Most of that oil was going to be shipped overseas. There's a reason why the Keystone Pipeline was ending up near the terminals in the gulf that end up sending oil to places other than the united States. Once again, the Keystone pipeline was not a guarantee for American energy independence. That was a guarantee that the majority of that oil was going to end up in some other country.
“And so, if you're serious about energy independence, then you're not serious if you're talking about getting there through drilling. It’s just not a serious solution. Because the facts tell you that the drill only happens when the oil industry makes enough money and that the lion's share, at least half of that oil and gas, can end up going overseas, not to American consumers.
“You know how you do make this country energy independent? Investing in renewables. Because we don't ship wind power overseas. We don't ship solar energy overseas. When a wind turbine is running in Iowa or a solar panel is generating energy in California, that energy goes straight on to the American grid. That energy stays right here in the United States.
“Now, it also has the tremendous benefit of being clean energy, of not contributing to the warming of the planet. That alone is a good enough reason to prioritize clean energy over fossil fuel energy. But renewable energy also has the benefit of being truly domestic energy, truly secure, American-only energy as opposed to fossil fuels, which only get turned on when the price is high enough and often end up leaving the United States to other countries.
“Those are the facts. The oil industry delights when crises like this occur and the prices go up at the pump and friends of theirs come down and claim that the only path to energy independence is through more drilling. The problem is it just isn't true. I yield the floor.”
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