The U.S. House of Representatives on March 30 voted 225-204 to approve a comprehensive energy bill sponsored by U.S. House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-LA) that aims to boost all forms of domestic energy production.
The House-approved Lower Energy Costs Act, H.R. 1, now heads to the U.S. Senate for consideration. The measure has 49 Republican cosponsors in the House.
“From the day he took office, President Biden has waged a war on American energy, and hard-working families are the ones paying the price,” Rep. Scalise said. “America can and should be energy independent — we have the technology to produce our own energy cleaner and more efficiently than anywhere else in the world, while lowering costs for hard-working families.”
The congressman went on to add that H.R. 1 would increase American energy production, reform the broken federal permitting process, reverse the Biden administration’s “radical anti-energy policies,” streamline federal energy exports and imports, and boost the mining of critical minerals.
“With this bill, Republicans have made energy security and lower costs our number one priority this Congress, standing up for hard-working Americans against Biden’s radical energy agenda,” said Rep. Scalise. “By passing H.R. 1, the Lower Energy Costs Act, House Republicans are following through on our promise to unleash American energy and restore our nation’s energy independence.”
Rep. Scalise also said that the passage of H.R. 1 is a historic moment for efforts to restore Louisiana’s coast and strengthen its flood protection systems.
“This bill includes my language to increase our state’s share of offshore drilling revenues and, for the first time ever, would create a framework for our state to receive revenue from any future offshore wind energy projects in the Gulf,” he said, referring to language from the bipartisan Budgeting for Renewable Electrical Energy Zone Earnings (BREEZE) Act, H.R. 8437, that was included in H.R. 1.
Rep. Scalise sponsored the measure in July 2022 alongside original cosponsor U.S. Rep. Troy Carter (D-LA) to increase the revenue sharing funds Louisiana receives from offshore energy and create a framework for revenue sharing for future offshore wind development. However, that bill did not advance.