WASHINGTON, D.C. — Wyoming’s three federal lawmakers voted to get rid of oil and gas industry regulations as Congress this week took up a batch of measures pertaining to the energy sector.
The House and Senate voted on Republican-sponsored joint resolutions to scrap environmental regulations established by former President Joe Biden’s administration. Republicans hold majorities in both chambers, and the various pro-oil measures advanced Tuesday and Thursday with little or no Democratic support.
Meanwhile, on Wednesday in the Senate, Democrats brought to the floor a joint resolution aiming to overturn President Donald Trump’s declaration of an energy emergency. Republicans defeated that move on a straight party-line vote.
U.S. Sens. John Barrasso and Cynthia Lummis, Wyoming Republicans, voted with their party on all of the Senate measures. U.S. Rep. Harriet Hageman, R-Wyoming, did the same on the House legislation.
“When it comes to American energy, the emergency siren is blaring,” Barasso, the Senate Republican whip, said on the Senate floor Wednesday as he protested Democrats’ attack on Trump’s order.
“After four years of reckless regulations and restrictions by the Democrat administration, energy prices have jumped 31 percent,” Barrasso said before the vote rejecting the Democrats’ move. “Families are feeling it all across the country. For most Americans, this is the definition of an energy emergency. To Senate Democrats, it’s an inconvenient truth.”
Joint resolutions, like bills, have the force of law if passed by both chambers and signed by the president.
Biden Regulations
The joint resolutions scrapping Biden-era rules would:
• Forgive fees that oil and gas companies had to pay to the government when methane emissions exceeded certain thresholds. The Senate passed the measure to cancel the fees Thursday after heated debate, following House passage the day before.
• Stop requiring oil companies to study marine archaeological resources. The Biden administration made oil companies that were leasing public waters for offshore drilling to study whether any archaeological resources in those waters would be threatened by their activities. The Senate passed the legislation to knock down the archaeological resources rule Tuesday, and the House has yet to take up the matter.
• Get rid of conservation standards for gas-fired water heaters. The House passed that measure on Thursday, and the Senate has yet to take action.
Energy Emergency
Trump signed the order declaring an energy emergency on his first day in office, along with a flurry of other orders.
Lummis said the Democrats’ resolution to overturn Trump’s order amounted to “setting the stage for failure.”
“Voting to approve the resolution is a vote for an unstable energy supply, higher energy costs, and more,” Lummis said during debate ahead of the Wednesday vote defeating the measure.
Senate Democrats complained that Trump’s energy order skirts environmental rules, discriminates against wind and solar power companies and authorizes agencies to consider eminent domain — the governmental taking of private property with just compensation — for the benefit of favored energy industries like oil.
“We know what the game is,” said Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Virginia, who sponsored the failed joint resolution along with Sen. Martin Heinrich of New Mexico, the top Democrat on the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee.
The vote killing their legislation was 52-47 with Sen. Kevin Cramer, R-North Dakota, not voting. No one from either party broke ranks.
Motor Fuels, Grid Reliability
Congressional Republicans and top Trump appointees have consistently argued for affordable gasoline and diesel prices along with proven energy sources such as natural gas and coal to bolster the nation’s electricity grid.
They argue the so-called green energies are not as reliable as fossil fuels and should not be provided incentives. Democrats dispute this, saying alternative energies are providing jobs nationwide and helping prop up the grid.
Despite the partisan battles over the sources of power for the grid, there is widespread agreement across party lines that more energy production to support it is needed. Both sides cite a proliferation of power-hungry data centers processing artificial intelligence.
“The largest data centers can consume more power than 700,000 households,” Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee Chairman Mike Lee, R-Utah, said on the floor Wednesday. “That’s equivalent to the energy use of a city of 1.8 million people.”
Said Lee: “The power grid is buckling, energy demand is exploding, and the very people who created this mess are now telling us, quite audaciously, that there is no emergency.”
Electric Vehicles
Another dimension to the energy wars between the Republicans and Democrats has to do with electric vehicles. Congressional Democrats and Biden were keen on subsidies to promote EV sales.
Republicans including Barrasso have been pushing back hard. Many in the GOP say EVs add more strain on the grid and do not make sense for drivers in rural areas.
“For years, President Biden and Democrats tried to force Americans to buy electric vehicles,” Barrasso said Thursday on the Senate floor. “They tried to do it by banning gas-powered cars. They tried to do it by bribing people with taxpayer subsidies.”
Barrasso said Trump has taken action to halt the EV push and that Congress must do more. The senator has a bill to halt subsidies.
“The EV subsidies were in essence a Biden giveaway,” Barrasso said. “He wanted to give money away to the coastal elites who drive electric vehicles, and it was connected to Biden’s unpopular climate dreams.”
