Mar. 28, 2022
HARRISBURG — House Environmental Resources and Energy Committee Chairman Daryl Metcalfe (R-Butler) convened a voting meeting on Monday to consider several pieces of legislation and resolutions seeking to maximize energy independence, significantly ramp up domestic energy production across the Commonwealth and unleash Pennsylvania’s full potential to power America’s free world allies:
“Pennsylvania’s oil and gas industries are ready, willing, and able to increase domestic production if free market policies are put in place to allow our resources to be cost-effectively transported throughout the country and around the globe to America’s allies,” said Metcalfe. “In order to fully unleash Pennsylvania’s unmatched potential to power the free world, we must work together to cancel both China Joe Biden’s and Gov. Tom Wolf’s job-killing, punitive crusade against the profitable production and exportation of natural gas and other homegrown fossil fuels.”
Recognizing government as the undeniable obstruction to harvesting our abundant natural resources, specific legislative priorities currently advancing to the full House for consideration include:
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House Resolution 187 (House Majority Appropriations Chairman, Stan Saylor R-York): Would urge the governors of New York and New Jersey to end anti-pipeline policies that block Pennsylvania natural gas from reaching Atlantic Ocean-connecting markets in New England.
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House Resolution 189 (Metcalfe): Would officially call on the Biden Administration and Congress
to take measures to increase America’s long-term energy affordability and security by ensuring the continued operation and expansion of our oil and gas infrastructure. More specifically, the resolution would call on the federal government to stop blocking pipeline development (as the Biden administration did with their ill-conceived executive order to shut down the Keystone XL pipeline).
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House Bills 2450 and
2451 (Rep. Jonathan Fritz, R-Wayne/Susquehanna): Would open the Delaware River Basin for natural gas development and exploration, with the objective of cutting reliance on Russian oil and gas.
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House Bill 2458 (Rep. Martina White, R-Philadelphia): Would create a task force to study establishing the port of Philadelphia as a Liquified Natural Gas (LNG) export terminal.
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House Bill 2461 (Rep. Clint Owlett, R-Tioga/Bradford/Potter): Would end the governor’s moratorium on subsurface leases of state land to boost domestic energy production.
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Senate Bill 119 (Sen. Joe Pittman, R- Armstrong/Butler/Indiana/Westmoreland): Would clarify that the Department of Environmental Protection may not join the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) or pursue similar efforts to control carbon dioxide emissions without obtaining specific authorization from the General Assembly.
“Thanks to our God-given, abundance of natural resources, there is no excuse for America to ever import Russian energy,” said Metcalfe. “‘Drill baby drill’ needs to become our Commonwealth’s battle cry for maximizing energy independence by halting the governor’s carbon tax imposing RGGI scheme, senseless pipeline bans, and other insane leftist, fake science driven policies that are fueling Putin’s remorseless war machine and crushing all of us at the pumps.”