LIVE: Oversight Committee on the Challenges and Opportunities Facing US Energy Production

LIVE: Oversight Committee on the Challenges and Opportunities Facing US Energy Production

this field hearing of the subcommittee
on economic growth energy policy and
Regulatory Affairs will come to order I
want to welcome everyone particularly
our Witnesses thank you for coming and
my uh my colleagues as well without
objection the chair May to clear a
recess at any time I recognize myself
for the purpose of making an opening
statement today’s
hearing is a unique opportunity to bring
the economic energy and Regulatory
Affairs conversations in Washington to
the great and free state of Texas Texas
has long been a leader in energy
production helping to provide the world
with the affordable reliable energy that
many of us so oftentimes take for
granted from turning a light switch to
the Plastics and goods we use daily the
uses of
hydrocarbons are the basis the fossil
fuel energy sources such as petroleum
and natural gas are everywhere we look
it’s just absolutely imbued into the
fabric of our everyday lives we have our
energy producers and Workforce in Texas
and across the country to thank for that
instead of vilifying them they should be
thanked for what they do and what they
provide for this great country and the
National Security implications as well
in
2019 the United States became a net
energy exporter for the first time since
the 1950s
this simply doesn’t happen overnight it
wasn’t magic it wasn’t just uh good
timing it was because of strong
leadership and significant technological
innovation the strong leadership by
President Trump slashed the red tape and
enabled companies to invest in
production and providing them
reliability and stability when those
Investments were made instead of
fighting with arrogant quite frankly
arrogant self-important government
bureaucrat bureaucrats technological
innovations such as those used in the
development of hydro or hydraulic
fracking and the horizontal drilling
helped I mean it really changed the game
and it helped us gain access to
resources thought to be
unreachable prior to the Shell
Revolution American leadership and
energy helped dramatically reduce Global
Energy prices and brought significant
economic prosperity to both the
community supplying these resources and
the communities across the globe who’ve
experienced improved standard ards of
living this is no small feat and one
that we should take an immense amount of
pride in as a country and as a state
unfortunately the bid Administration and
Congressional Democrats have sought to
vilify the energy industry for
contributing to climate change and they
blame hardworking folks like the ones
here in Texas for the problems they call
us shills they say we took this job in
Congress to be shills for the energy
industry which is as I can see Congress
woman man laughing because it is so
absolutely
ludicrous in 2019 the bid Administration
promised to quote unquote end fossil
fuels and has since sought to push a
green at all cost agenda and policies
that are often more expensive and make
us more reliant on of all things the
Chinese Supply chains to sustain our way
of life the administration wants
Americans to believe that wind and solar
energy can
alone support the grid right now and
that’s just I listen I I say this quite
often and Congressman sessions has heard
this I can ride my unicorn to this
hearing uh and visit the mermaids out in
the pond and it’s all going to be paid
for by leprechauns or we can live within
the bounds of reality and uh talk about
our energy needs in a realistic
way in reality we all know that we’ll be
relying on fossil fuels for many years
to come I think it’s we should take note
that last year in the State of the Union
Address the president of the United
States said that we may need fossil
fuels 10 in in 10 years we may need them
in 10 years that’s the president of the
United States saying that in a State of
the Union Address so from cancelling
pipelines to Banning lufi natural gas
exports the B the B Administration
believes that caving into the whims of
climate activists and billionaire donors
will make the world a better place and
quite frankly it won’t it won’t this
couldn’t be further from the truth over
the past 100 years I’m sorry over the
past 200 years with the rise of modern
energy production human life
expectancies have risen to being from 30
to 70 years and the percentage of global
population living in significant poverty
surviving on no less than $2 per day has
dropped to less than 10% in fact if you
look in uh across all demographics
within American Society white hispanic
black and other ethnic
groups from 1900 to
today life expectancies have
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doubled there’s no wealthy country in
the world that does not require a
significant amount of energy to sustain
their way of life and there is no
impoverished country that can improve
their standard of living without stable
and affordable
energy none of these achievements would
be possible without the hardworking men
and women within the energy industry
many of whom work long hours and do then
take on some danger as well and spend
Years Learning and perfecting the skills
necessary to meet growing energy
needs technical programs across the
country such as uh cera’s energy
partnership with legana school of
petroleum and natural gas saw the need
to improve access to skills training
within their communities and jumped into
action to help fulfill this need for
folks wanting to pursue a career in
energy we need to provide them with the
opportunities to do so and do so right
now regardless of what the B
Administration tells you we have and
will rely upon fossil fuels well into
the future and we’re all going to be
better off for it I want to thank each
of the witnesses for coming today I look
forward to learning uh more from each of
you again God gave us one mouth and two
ears so we’re going to listen we’re
going to ask some hopefully good
questions and and learn and uh thank you
for uh being here today thank you for
the opportunity to visit with you all
and learn and without objection
representative van Dy of Texas
representative of Texas and
representative Weber of Texas are all
waved on to the subcommittee for the
purpose of questioning the witnesses at
today’s field hearing without objection
so ordered I’m pleased to welcome all of
our Witnesses here today we have Mr Tim
uh Tarpley the president of the energy
Workforce and Technology Council
Mr Ron is gusk okay so it’s not that
scary it looks like Mr Ron GK the
president of Liberty Energy and Mr Bill
the roers uh the manager of external
Affairs for Cera energy thank you all
for being here today we appreciate it uh
we look forward to hearing your
testimony and asking questions pursuant
to committee rule 9g the witnesses will
please stand and raise the right
hand do you solemnly swear to tell the
the affirm your testimony will be the
truth the whole truth and nothing but
the truth so help you God please let the
record show that the witnesses answer to
affirmative you can take your seats and
we appreciate you um here with us today
and look forward to your testimony let
me remind the witnesses that we have
read your written statements and it will
appear in full Hearing in the uh I’m
sorry it’ll appear in full in the
hearing record please limit your oral
statements if you can to five minutes as
a reminder uh please press a little
button here and uh it’ll be a green
light for four minutes it’ll be a yellow
light for a minute and then red if you
can just kind of wrap it up this is a
field hearing so we’re going to be a
little softer on things in time right
now but I now recognize Mr tarley for
his opening
statement chairman Fallon distinguished
members of the subcommittee thank you
for inviting me to testify here today
I’m here in my capacity as president at
the energy Workforce and Technology
Council which is the national trade
Association for the Energy Services and
Technology sector representing over 200
companies and employing more than
650,000 energy workers manufact
facturers and innovators throughout the
United States and 350,000 here in
Texas our country is blessed with
tremendous sources of domestic energy
that if fully utilized will provide us
energy security for generations to come
the United States and the world will be
challenged to meet the growing demand
for oil and gas in the coming decades
even as new forms of energy come online
the US Energy Information Administration
predicts that the worldwide demand for
all forms of energy will increase by 50%
by 2050 Ai and data centers are feeling
a huge increase in power demand
forecasts there is simply no way to meet
this growing need without a tremendous
buildout in natural gas power generation
unfortunately instead of taking steps to
support the production of more energy
here at home the Biden Administration
has used every delay tactic and legal
maneuver possible to deny Americans
access to these resources it took
Congress passing language in the
inflation reduction act to force
interior to restart the lease sales at
all despite the outer continental shelf
lands act requiring a 5-year leasing
plan to have been in place even then the
5-year plan interior released over a
year late by the way includes the lowest
number of lease sales in the history of
the
program in 2022 the golf of Mexico
offshore oil and natural gas industry
supported an estimated 372,000 jobs in
the United States according to the
energy industrial advisory Partners
report and a a joint Neer report in 2022
alone activity in the golf of Mexico
contributed approximately $3.8 billion
to the US GDP not only do we see the
economic benefits of this in the US from
this production but the golf boasts
approximately half the carbon intensity
of other producing
regions the limits are not just centered
to the Gulf of Mexico either the
administration just removed 13 million
Acres of of the National Petroleum
Reserve in Alaska from
development additionally on January 26th
of this year doe announced that it would
pause new approvals for LG export
applications to non-fta countries many
of the projects would have ultimately
shipped American produced LG to Europe
Asia and other allies that do not have a
free trade agreement with the United
States shockingly the Administration has
taken this action despite the
president’s pledge to do the exact
opposite in 2022 after the Russian
invasion invasion of Ukraine over the
past decade prices at Henry Hub have
maintained an average of approximately
$410 mmbtu which is a reduction of over
54% compared to the preceding decade
this shows us that the US natural gas
market can accommodate the increased
demand from new LNG terminals well
before their operation begins with the
predictability of long-term contracts
and minimizing fluctuations in domestic
prices I’m sure many of you all know
here in Texas in addition to oil and gas
we are known for BlueBell ice cream they
like to say we can we eat all we can and
sell the rest the same can be said for
natural gas we have enough gas in the
United States to provide lowcost low low
emissions energy for the American people
and we can sell the rest to our friends
and
allies ironically the the end result of
this pause will likely increase overall
emissions according to the eia the
United States has lowered our emissions
since 2005 more than nearly anywhere in
the world primarily by transitioning
Coal Fired power generation to Natural
Gas why would we deny our friends and
allies abroad the ability to do the same
we all breathe the same air in addition
to limiting access to resources the
Administration has taken steps to
increase the cost of domestic production
of energy beginning in 2025 the methane
emissions Reduction Program will
Implement a tax on the reported prior
year tons of methane emissions from oil
and natural gas systems that exceed more
than 25,000 metric tons of carbon
dioxide equivalent gas this action will
likely raise the cost of producing
energy in the United States and I’m
especially concerned that it could
disproportionately impact small
producers not only can we increase oil
and gas production in the United States
by reducing regulatory burdens but
technological advancements are allowing
us to produce more oil and gas more
efficiently than ever before drilling
efficiencies have increased dramatically
in the past 10 years in March of this
year according to Baker Hughes there
were 629 drilling rigs active in the
United States that’s down 16% from the
732 total rigs around the US during um
the same time last year however you us
crude output is higher than ever what
does this mean it means we are using
less resources to produce more energy
than ever before that’s a good that’s
good news for everybody Energy service
companies have perfected erra which
involves electrifying the hydraulic
fracturing process by recycling excess
natural gas using it to power turbines
for fracturing and pumping this approach
has resulted in 25% reduction in
emissions and up to a 90% Savings in
fuel cost Technologies like artificial
intelligence internet of things through
3D printing and big data have all become
widely used across the energy industry
in the past decade automated drilling
tools enhance drilling efficiency
improve accuracy reduce human errors and
are safer to operate methane monitoring
equipment continues to grow more
efficient by the year every day
Innovation is leading the charge in
American en energy production and we’re
just getting started all of these
Innovations and efficiencies will
continue in the coming de decades
America’s leading the way in meeting the
glowing growing Global demand and doing
so with lower missions than ever before
we have abundant resources right here
under our feet and American Ingenuity
continues to thrive if we make the right
policy choices we can take care of our
own energy needs as well as supporting
our friends and allies American families
will continue to have access to the most
affordable and reliable Energy System
that the world has ever
seen thank you I now recognize Mr gok
for his opening statement
thank you chairman Fallon and
distinguished members of the
subcommittee I’m Ron gusk president of
Liberty Energy Liberty is a leading oil
field services company that employs over
5,000 people and offers cuttingedge
services and Technologies to our
partners in oil and natural gas
production while Liberty operates in
various regions across the United States
we have a substantial footprint here in
the state of Texas we have offices or
facilities in the Houston Dallas and San
Antonio metro areas we also have a
sizable presence in the Midland Odessa
area where we are in the process process
of building a $50 million 240,000 ft
Operation Center I’d estimate that
around half of Liberty’s employees
regularly work in the state of Texas we
are proud to say that about 10% of Total
Primary energy production in the United
States comes from Wells fracked by
Liberty Liberty has been a leader in
Next Generation Frack technologies that
reduce impacts on the environment two
examples are the quiet Frack Fleet
technology which makes pumps
undetectable above ambient noise at
distances of 500 ft and our leadership
in replace replacing uh diesel fueled
fra fleets with natural gas fueled fra
fleets in addition our to our regular
reports and other Securities filings
Liberty publishes the bettering human
lives report which discusses the
profound Improvement in the human
material conditions brought about by
hydrocarbon energy and Liberty
contributions to it we firmly believe
that fossil fuels Drive immense benefits
for our company consumers the American
economy and ultimately the world we do
not apologize for it fossil fuels have
transformed Humanity lifting billions
out of poverty and more than doubling
human life expectancy it is popular
among some audiences today to suggest
that somehow the Us and other countries
are going to transition away from fossil
fuels in the coming decades that cannot
and will not happen but a willful
ignorance of this reality is driving
politically motivated attacks on our
industry that will impoverish American
consumers and ultimately the world over
the past several years climate idealists
and their allies in the Biden
Administration have launched a whole of
government attack on energy production
deploying a series of interlocking rule
making spread across time and agencies
to thwart simple legal Challenge and
maximize their chance of
success much like the EPA and the Obama
administration’s ambitious clean power
plan these agencies also lack the power
to enact these regulations but their
hope is there are so many regulations
and that each individually is small
enough that they will fly under the
radar this blitz of Regulation SP spans
all stages of energy production and use
some address initial Capital formation
seeking to prevent energy companies from
Gaining access to the capital necessary
to produce energy by burdening them with
excessive disclosures designed to
prevent investment regulations of this
sort include the sec’s climate rule the
Department of Labor’s orisa ESG rule the
far council’s greenhouse gas and
sustainable government procurement rules
and California’s pair of
unconstitutional and federally preempted
climate disclosure laws other
regulations seek to limit oil and
natural gas production by setting only
ous rules that prevent or add costs to
exploration drilling extraction and
refining or that limit the distribution
of oil and natural gas by adding costs
or creating barriers that make it
impossible to build pipelines or export
terminals regulations of this sort
include epa’s new methane rule epa’s
waste emissions charge rule the
weaponization of NEPA and furk to
prevent pipeline construction fim’s
pipes act implementation and the
department of Energy’s January LNG
export terminal delay still other
regulations Target end users and seek to
limit the market for oil and natural gas
by applying a patchwork of federal
regulations that disfavor the biggest
consumers of natural gas and oil power
plants and internal combustion engines
or by forcing states to adopt rules with
similar effects regulations of this sort
include epa’s new power plant rule the
Dozen interlocking electric vehicle
mandate Rules promulgated by EPA the
Department of Transportation and
California epa’s new ambient air qu
quity standards and epa’s new Good
Neighbor Rule still others defy neat
categorization the Biden Administration
has put out hundreds of regulations
filling tens of thousands of pages of
the Federal Register that amounts to
death for the energy industry by a
Thousand Cuts if they stand these rules
will impose severe compliance costs on
energy companies raise the price of
energy and have a remarkably negative
impact on human lives the regulations
attempt to justify their enormous cost
by pointing to benefit associated with
avoiding climate change but as I explain
in my written statement the science used
to justify these benefits is dubious at
best worse still this cost will be borne
for no actual benefit to The Climate as
increased costs for domestic energy
doesn’t reduce demand but only serves to
drive energy production and Industry
abroad to countries like Russia and
China that will increase Global ghg
emissions I look forward to discussing
these issues with the
committee thank you I now recognize
Mr der
roers good morning chairman Fallon and
esteemed members of the committee I’m
Bill der roer and I’m the manager of
external Affairs for Cera energy and I’m
honored to address everyone here today I
traveled in from Pennsylvania and I
really appreciate the
weather Cera energy is dedicated to
responsibly developing oil and natural
gas across the country we have
operations in Pennsylvania Oklahoma
Texas and New Mexico primarily focused
in the peran anad Darko and Marcel
basins today I’d like to discuss our
commitment to Workforce Development
especially our education initiatives
focused on the energy
sector over the past decade the
landscape of the energy Workforce has
changed
dramatically Today’s Energy sector
requires individuals with Unique Blends
of technical skill adaptability and
commitment to
sustainability take our wellsite
operators for example they no longer
just perform manual labor but manage
complex operations and contribute to our
sustainability efforts yes they are
still working with wrenches and
valves but they are also calibrating
sophisticated equipment plc’s working
with plcs programmable object
controllers and other electronics and
Performing various emissions inspections
most impressively they are doing this in
more more and more rural parts of the
country while interacting with various
departments and a agencies across the
country
so how do we find ourselves these
individuals how do we find this
Workforce Cera has invested in multiple
uh programs which I’ll discuss right now
we have three key areas that we focus on
investing in energy and stem education
initiatives Middle School and High
School level supporting High School
career and Technology education programs
CTE and providing significant backing to
two-year programs like lawana college
School of petroleum and natural gas
Pennsylvania College of Technology and
various other programs that offer these
two-year Associates of applied science
degrees across the country the Lynch pin
of our approach though is dual
enrollment or concurrent enrollment
depending on which state you’re in that
seamless seamlessly Bridges CTE
education at the high school level with
the college programs I just mentioned
after a decade of investment we’re proud
to see that we have employees in the
industry who have parti ipated in these
programs and are now educating the next
generation of employees through
mentorship internship and and various
other opportunities I’d like to share a
few stories to illustrate the impact
these initiatives are
having first let me share about Ben
Whitaker who is now a production Foreman
at Cera up in the Marcela Shale he’s
actually the inspiration for much of
this program I’m discussing Ben’s
Journey began at the Scranton technology
and Career Center high school program
and he went to work after that high
school program at a defense contractor
in northeast PA after federal budget
cuts resulted in his layoff he decided
to enroll in the newly formed laana
College school of petroleum natural gas
hoping more education would be the
answer during his time at the school Ben
became cera’s first intern after
completing that program he came to work
for us first on nights then days then
worked his way up to lead op op Ator and
now he’s one of six foremen running our
entire field which is one of the most
prolific fields in the entire country if
not the
world now I’d like to discuss Zoe Wright
the most crucial story I can share here
today Zoe is currently a high school
welding student who is dually enrolled
in the school of petroleum natural gas
and her High School welding program
after coming to a few of our stem energy
camps and working with our employees she
decided that she wanted to go into the
energy Workforce so as a sophomore in
high school she enrolled in laana
College’s School of PNG she would do
high school welding during the day and
attend night classes at night so before
her senior year of high school she had
completed almost a year of that program
the college program and we decided to
take a gamble on her and bring her in as
an intern this is an internship that we
typically reserve for seconde college
students and Zoe not only proceeded to
do well in the internship she thrived
working under Ben Whitaker who I just
mentioned before and our internships are
designed as a progressive internship you
start with simple things like Parts
identification and safety working side
by side with your Mentor before
transitioning into more of a um everyday
role and Zoe actually worked up to being
a well tender on these sites and that’s
really exciting she’s on track to
graduate from high school this may and
she will uh most likely complete her
programming in the next 6 to n months
and I do believe she’ll be traveling to
West Virginia this summer to do another
internship in the pipeline sector I’d
like to highlight one other thing about
Zoe she’s I’m a girl dad so I I got to
jump out there and say this uh she’s
knocking down barriers in two separate
male dominated Industries and we’re very
proud of her for that but I think she’s
proving to others that you can do high
school career and Technology education
you can go to college and you can thrive
in this energy industry that we are
discussing today I’d like to just finish
my test by recognizing one other
initiative in the peran Basin in
southeast Southwest New Mexico uh Peyton
Haggler he graduated from college with
the intention of being an educator a
teacher but he realized that being a
teacher in Southern New Mexico is is not
a sustainable opportunity so he went to
work in the industry where he learned
how to weld fabricate and do emission
stack testing after he R saved up enough
money and felt comfortable he went back
to teaching where he’s now leading
efforts at a high School career and
Technology Program to create an energy
pathway program modeled after this laana
college program and some others around
the country so we’re starting to see
this successful program work its way
across the country and we’re proud to
share those details today thank you very
much thank you thank you and uh Mr rer
Zoe how much is she gonna would you
anticipate she’s G to make when she
starts I’d like to uh start by saying
that she’s going to acquire an
associates degree in applied science of
Technology spec specifically in
petroleum and natural gas uh typically
the graduates out of that program either
going to wellsite technology like I
describe working for Cera or they can go
into say Pipeline Specialties working
for Williams or taret resources so
depending on that pathway there might be
some change but we’re seeing anywhere
from 70,000 to 990,000 and how old Zoe
Zoe is 18 as of today and uh she’ll
graduate this program this fall um and
command a salary like I said somewhere
from 70 to 990,000 but more impressively
the benefit packages that these
companies in the energy industry offer
are far and exceed what you can find in
other opportunities five to seven years
down the road how much is she going to
be making uh I I know of some graduates
out of this program uh who are working
in more supervisor managerial positions
commanding salaries of $120 to $130,000
so I believe the opportunity to grow
that that that range out of this program
significant wonderful I now recognize
myself for five minutes of question as I
snuck those in um Mr gusk over the past
few years Liberty Energy uh has released
a unique version of the ESG report uh
which highlights the positive impacts of
US Energy uh and
um and what it has not only in this
country but the world can you tell us
about the report and why highlighting
these opportunities are
necessary absolutely thank you for the
question question um I have here a copy
of a few copies of bettering human lives
we started uh we started three years ago
on this initiative recognizing that the
conversation just wasn’t pragmatic
around energy there was a a continuous
conversation around the negatives only
and a lack of recognition around all of
the positives that energy brought to not
only America but also the world and so
uh we set out on this initiative as part
of our ESG report where you know we
highlight all of the good we’re doing in
that space to identify the True Value
that energy brings to our world and to
and to try to have that conversation be
a little more front and center and so
bettering human lives today talks about
the Nexus between energy energy poverty
uh climate and economics and and the
tradeoffs that are involved in each and
every one of those things and and uh
we’ve sent out of this year’s copy now
14,000 copies of this uh it’s bringing
to light better conversations at both I
think the federal level and also
colleges schools and elsewhere and just
to to state for the record that all 15
members of our subcommittee Republican
and Democrats were invited to attend
this field hearing it’s unfortunate and
sad but also very telling that there’s
not a Democrat that accepted this
invitation because I I think that
unfortunately there’s many people um in
in the the course of the political
discourse that don’t want to have a
serious conversation of our energy needs
and what that means moving forward
they’re just appealing to honestly some
you know gullible and vulnerable Minds
particularly at the college level that
believe these uh these climate myths and
so they they tend to the president
United States and many Democrats tend to
demonize folks that are in the energy
industry I wanted to ask you Mr gusk why
those are absolutely untrue and why
they’re
myths absolutely myths I I look around
at the people and and specifically the
5,000 people that work at Liberty and
what they go to do each and every day as
you appropriately stated in your opening
remark energy makes the world go around
it has dramatically changed life you can
look back at thousands of years of
history and and what Humanity looked
like and and then all of a sudden over
the last 200 years we have a hockey
stick in human well-being as you pointed
out life expectancy significant
reduction in poverty these things are
are gamechanging and and unfortunately
uh the World Hears too much about um
eye-catching headlines I guess that that
fail to recognize exactly what energy
does for us and how challenging it is to
deliver the energy system we need today
and I think also fails to recognize just
how big a Delta there is in our world
today I like to share the statistic that
the lucky 1 billion people on the face
of this Earth consume 13 barrels of oil
per person per year The Unlucky 7
billion people who have yet to achieve
the style of life that we enjoy each and
every day consume three barrels of oil
per person per year if they close that
Delta even by half the significant
increase in resource that we would need
to meet that demand is nothing short of
astounding and so we have an immense
amount of work in front of us the people
I work with every day are proud to get
up and do that and they know that what
they do makes people’s lives possible Mr
Tarpley has the United States in the
last 20 years increased or decreased our
carbon
footprint decreased um by what are we
talking 5 10
20% um I think yeah 20% or more yeah
it’s over 20% and uh over the last the
same period of time has China increased
or decreased their carbon footprint
dramatically increased yeah I think
three times yeah in that same time frame
so when California imposes
regulations um and how does how does
that help climate change when China is
firing up a new coal plant I don’t even
know it’s one I’ve heard estimates one a
week one new one a week and they tripled
their carbon output right they’re
they’re building um an enormous amount
of coal fired power generation to
supplement production of of solar panels
and other and other equipment which they
then sell you know to the world on a
with low lower prices because it’s state
subsidized so let’s just say that Gavin
Newsome found some uh common sense when
it comes to energy and instituted policy
implemented policies that we have here
in
Texas but in addition to that China
decided that they were going to follow
the United States
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lead
e e
and of us there if you look at the
worldwide demands for energy they’re
increasing dramatically as we mentioned
AI data centers all of these factors are
increasing the worldwide demand for
energy we have a choice we can produce
that energy here in the United States
where we get the GDP benefit worker
American workers get that benefit and
also we can produce that energy uh with
some of the lowest emissions in the
world or we can let somebody else do it
and who are those people uh middle East
you know Qatar um we can let them do it
and they will see the GDP benefit and it
will be done under their regulatory
scheme and and they will see the benefit
that that’s our choice the the the
demand for energy is not going to change
that that is that is a constant it is
going to be who is going to produce it
so I think so Saudi Arabia was the
preeminent provider for so many years
and they became they enriched their
great nation and they did and Is Us
still see the royal family had over
[Music]
4747 just 20 years ago they had the
money uh gentlemen you want to answer
that question number one policy has
consequences and number two the new
winners are not
America uh thank you for the question
policies certainly do have consequences
um I as I alluded to in my testimony a
lot of that comes in the form of cost
and and we pay for that here in America
both as consumers But ultimately uh uh
from a from a larger standpoint than
that I would point to Germany as a
tremendous example of this a case study
that we could follow as a road we might
be going down they have chosen to
implement policy that has ultimately
made energy more expensive there
significantly more expensive electricity
prices now of order 40 cents a kilowatt
hour there of course manufacturing
cannot afford to continue when energy
costs that much oh is that jobs behind
those and there might be jobs that are
lost as a consequence of that of course
that industry packs up and chooses to go
elsewhere where the cost of energy is
significantly lower think southeast Asia
China has a great example of that and uh
I I fear that we are headed down that
same road unless we make some changes to
our energy policy around that um and
ensure that we keep the cost of energy
low such that consumers win uh and that
industry is able to continue here and
certainly if we choose not to do that
the beneficiaries will not be America it
will be Russia it will be China it will
be southeast Asia thank you very nice Mr
Warriors
I’ll just add to my colleagues here on
the panel’s discussions uh there are
parts of this country that have been
blocked to building new infrastructure
pipelines uh where we operate in
Pennsylvania we’re very close to New
York State and there have been a number
of Interstate pipelines that have been
blocked which is ironic when you think
about how much natural gas we produce in
this country and in the Marcela Shale
where companies like ca actually have
the opportunity to export natural gas to
places like Japan but we can’t export
the gas up to New England or New York to
benefit people across our own state
borders and the reason I bring that up
is there are places in this country
where people don’t have a choice to use
natural gas uh even in Pennsylvania
there are rural areas where people are
still forced to use wood or coal or
propane and they have to pay a higher
price for those over the last 10 years
I’ve had the opportunity to help gasify
communities across rural Pennsylvania
working with utilities and pipelight
companies to bring natural gas service
to those areas and I can point to
multiple school districts some of which
are the career and Technology Centers I
work with here today that invested money
to connect gas to their facilities and
thus have saved millions of dollars
millions of taxpayer dollars they didn’t
have to pay in other energy sources that
they can reinvest in teachers and
education and students so uh yes
policies have have have uh consequences
uh whether it be the the transportation
of natural gas to other parts of our own
country or uh the cost of the taxpayers
to educate or or live in areas that
don’t have access to Natural Gas Mr
chairman rarely did I hear these
gentlemen except in the employment that
they have refer to Texas what they refer
to as the nation consumers and I would
suggest to you I wrote down some of the
users of this energy that you’ve spoken
of and then we’ll make it closer to home
jobs homes hospitals Airlines and NASA
because NASA is also our future Mr
chairman thank you I want to thank this
panel and thank you I yield back my
time thank you chair now recognizes our
good friend Mr Weber for his five
minutes thank you Mr chairman wow great
event I’m appreciate you you’re holding
it um you’ve thrown me off my schedule
to ask my questions here so I’m going to
shoot from the hip which is what a lot
of Texans do by the way we we love the
the ice cream anal
um talk about pipelines I think Mr D
Rosier am I saying that right uh pretty
close der roer der roer was my next
guest so um you you I think you said you
gasified some communities in
Pennsylvania uh and this is going to be
a question for all three of y’all could
it be said that those States New York or
others that are blocking pipelines from
I don’t care if the people in New York
don’t want you know natural gas but
should isn’t that interstate commerce
has there been any consideration to
filing a suit to see if we could keep
that state from blocking a
pipeline uh ye yes I believe there are
uh considerations a foot and there have
been examples of of companies to uh move
the gas I should preference by saying
we’re a EMP company up in Pennsylvania
so we’re just developing the oil and
natur or the natural gas in the Marcel
Shale we work with companies like
Williams or UI whoever it might be uh to
actually move the gas uh in some
instances they have gone as far as the
Supreme Court I believe Penny’s pipeline
project went as far as the Supreme Court
uh it won against the state of New
Jersey which was blocking its um ability
to Traverse the state of New Jersey to
deliver natural gas to uh I believe the
New York uh City and metropolitan area
uh but still ultimately abandoned the
pipeline because of economic reasons and
other delays so to answer your question
yes there are efforts of foot by the
energy industry to navigate these
frivolous lawsuits and and and these uh
uh stalling tactics as my colleague on
the committee said uh unfortunately
sometimes it doesn’t always work out um
but I will say in state in places like
Pennsylvania other areas uh gas pipeline
uh projects uh like the gasification
ones I was mentioning have been quite
successful do yall have any knowledge
about any other suits going forward like
that either one of y’all Mr T
please well I think it’s a an incredibly
important point is that you know there
is natural gas being imported into the
port of Boston because there’s not
enough capacity to get through New York
State um they pay some of the highest uh
prices in the in the country that that’s
incredibly unfair to the people that
live up there there there is M there is
litigation going on and I think uh you
bring up a really good point Mr
gusi uh the only thing I would add is in
addition to being imported into the port
of Boston I I believe we’re transporting
natural gas into New York City by truck
now rather than by pipeline to supply
needs there because we can’t get a
pipeline let me follow up on that the
Keystone Pipeline would have come into
my district you know my port I’m the
Gulf Coast upper Gulf Coast of Texas I
have seven ports more than the other
member of Congress we produce 65% of the
nation’s jet fuel 80% of the nation’s
military grade fuel okay huge huge on
energy some of yall will know uh maybe
where Mont Belleview is in Texas is it’s
like the pipeline capital of the world
the Keystone Pipeline what B what Obama
shut down of course and what Biden shut
down after Trump had a release a permit
carries 830,000 barrels a day the
average 18wheeler when you think of a
tanker that carries 7,000 gallons if you
divide 7,000 gallons by if you consider
not a 42 gallon barrel but a 50 gallon
barrel if you divide 7,000 by 50 you get
120 Barrels in a a standard 18wheeler
tanker truck gentlemen if that to move
83,000 barrels a day it would take 5,253
18 wheelers on the highway every day you
said 5,000 if you divide 830,000 barrels
a day by um 50 50 gallon barrels it
equals 140 barrels so if an 18wheeler
carries 140 barrels to to equate to
830,000 barrels a day it takes
5,253 tankers on the highway every day
so Mr G when you’re putting out your
plans I mean your uh reports we need to
be aimed at our younger generation our
schools and saying look we do care about
emissions pipelines were the best way to
move this can you actually include those
kinds of Statistics or do you
already uh we do include a number of
Statistics like that I think your point
is a good one that our world involves
trade-offs and we have to contemplate
the pros and the cons uh each and every
time and unfortunately I think our
school children are mostly presented
with the cons and not the pros okay well
let me I like on liners these guys will
tell you that I I suck at them but
anyway have yall ever heard the song
Love makes the world go round some of
y’all are old enough to remember that
I’ll admit I’m old so love does make the
world go around but energy greases the
axle i y
back chair now
recognizes miss vany our good friend
from thank you very much Mr chairman and
I’m glad that the oversight committee is
here in Texas
I’m a member of the Ways and Means
Committee and we have held numerous
field hearings including recently in
north Texas as well I think it’s
important for members to get out of DC
uh and actually hear how policies are
affecting Americans um I wish some of
our Democrat colleagues were here today
uh to hear how disastrous and hear
firsthand how disastrous the President
Biden’s uh energy policy has been for
the American people the cost of living
is being painfully driven up um making
food electricity housing and
transportation incredibly uh difficult
to afford many of the Biden
administration’s energy related
regulations will also have compounding
implications for the future of us energy
production also for the US Energy
Workforce we were talking about jobs
earlier and the states and the
communities that rely upon the energy
sector for Revenue uh to counter this I
I’m introducing legislation to hold the
EPA accountable and to roll back these
legislations but I’d like to add more
here a little bit about you know about
what we’re we’re trying to do the fact
is is that with with the EPA they are
out over their skis and we’ve seen that
with a number of reg of agencies they
take advantage of the fact that they’ve
got some regulatory Authority the
regulatory Authority that they often add
simply cripples the private sector and
for not any reasons it’s not making the
Gas Energy more affordable it’s not
making it safer it’s not making it
produce cleaner it’s just putting us at
a complete disadvantage over our
competitors over other nations um and I
hear this all the time in almost every
meeting that I take somehow these
regulations are crippling people um
especially the EPA um it’s it’s the
overreach the unnecessary burdens uh is
particularly when it comes to permitting
and I’d like U Mr gusk if you wouldn’t
mind talking a little bit about how
potentially the EPA has burdened your
business yes thank you for the question
uh certainly a couple of examples that I
highlighted in my written testimony uh
the first of those being the the new
methane Rule and uh the challenge around
that and and certainly this this impacts
our customers more directly than us but
we feel it as a as a followon being the
service company uh specifically around
um how they are going to treat existing
sources so you can imagine of course
there are a lot of people who drive
older cars in this country by virtue of
that’s what they can afford if you had
to have that car meet the most modern
emissions requirements of a car that was
built today the cost to move that car
from the emission standard it met in
1975 or 1980 to today would be
incredibly burdensome to that person the
EPA is now expecting that same result
when it comes to methane emissions they
are treating sources that around which
decisions were made given the economics
and rules of the time expecting them to
now meet the most modern emission
standards and of course that changes the
economics for the uh the company that
made that decision and ultimately puts
them in a bit of a challenge uh they’re
going further with their waste emissions
charge around a uh around a cost of
methane emissions uh transitioning what
was a reporting rule into a mechanism
for assessing attacks on people using
what I would argue is a pretty dubious
calculation for the cost of methane uh
without considering any of the benefits
that come from all of those production
facilities appreciate that answer um Mr
Tarpley 80% of us lery goes to non-free
trade agreement countries without access
to the US market many of these countries
are forced to buy from our adversaries
as a member of the waste and Means
Committee last week we had us trade rep
uh Ambassador Katherine Tai was in front
of our committee unfortunately she chose
to not answer any of my
questions yeah uh that was not a very
productive meeting um but one of the
questions that I attempted to ask her
was if the administration plan to send
Congress any new free trade agreements
with so little of LG going to countries
we currently have an FTA with how
helpful would an increased trade agenda
help export more
energy well I think uh thank you for the
question I think she didn’t want to
answer the question because there there
isn’t a whole lot of sense to our uh the
LG pause it doesn’t it doesn’t make a
lot of
sense variety of ways you look at it um
I think it’s a good point though if if
there if there is going to be this this
additional burden on non FDA countries
then we should have a free trade
agreement with with with countries that
that that need to receive rlng and that
that that that is one way to to to speed
up the process is to do
[Music]
that as as we look toward 2025 we’re
beginning to look at the extension of
the 2017 tax cuts what would the
expiration these tax cuts do to the
energy industry good
question uh that is a good question uh
the response to which I don’t have a
great answer on in in this particular
instance I think I’d defer to my
colleagues on on this one uh again I
came here uh prepared more to discuss
about the energy industry Workforce
needs but I will say this that we’re
gonna move on because my time is up you
think they’d be better yes Mr GK Mr
tarp well I’ll just say you know there
was an attempt by the administration to
increase taxes on uh on energy
production ultimately they didn’t even
they didn’t have support within their
own party to do that during
reconciliation process you we’re
obviously concerned that they could try
to do that again and anything that
raises the cost of producing US Energy
just is going to disincentivize
production here in the US and put us at
disadvantage to our competitor so Mr GK
I’m over my time but do you have a quick
answer okay excellent thank you very
much and I
yield thank you the chair now recog
we’re we’re sa for the best for last
we’re uh chair now recognizes our
freshman colleague the young judge colel
Congressman
Kiel uh thank you for that kind
introduction Mr chairman
um my questions will primarily deal I’m
not on this committee I am on the for
Foreign Affairs committee uh the LG
pause first of all uh the first question
is we are producing more fossil fuel
than we have ever have in spite of
government uh what is the lag time that
we will see the impact of all of the
Biden regulations because I would I
would posit that we are seeing the
production based on Trump rules
so just give us a sense of when do you
think we’ll see the
real impact of the rules and regulations
Mr
Tarpley excellent question and we we get
this a lot um I’ll just start with
offshore these projects that occur
offshore they they build outs 8 to 10
years by the time you apply for the
permit get funding build the project
it’s 10 years so the decisions the
financial decisions that were made to
get those projects going were made a
long time ago uh you know it’s a little
bit shorter for onshore and I’m sure um
my colleagues could could talk a little
bit about that but it it is very true
the decisions we are making today are
going to affect our energy uh situation
you know eight years down the line and
and that’s my point everybody needs to
understand we because people see we are
producing more fossil fuel today than we
ever have and yet we talk about the B
rules and regulations the two are not
simultaneous uh there will be a lag um
now we’re trying in the in the Foreign
Affairs committee we are trying to wean
Europe off of Russian energy and yet we
have this LG pause uh your perspective
Mr gusk I’ll start with you or Mr
Tarpley either either one what what is
going to be the impact of this LG pause
on the use energy usage in
Europe thank you for the question uh
certainly my thought would be that it it
means they ultimately go out and source
that LNG from elsewhere these are
long-term contracts when when countries
are making decisions around where they
Source energy this is not something
that’s bid out every 6 months or every
year and so if there is a if if there is
a doubt from the European uh countries
that that America is going to step up
and Supply that LG they will go source
that LG elsewhere and more likely than
not that’ll be the Middle East and we
will be at a loss for that right um now
I understand that uh Saudi Arabia is is
now maxed out at
13 million barrels per day and we are
producing more than that is that your
assessment that we are now the leading
producer of fossil fuel in the world and
will continue to be that is my
assessment both for oil and natural gas
so if we’re producing more fossil fuel
than we ever have has our refining
capability kept up this may be a Mr
Weber question but if can we handle all
of the production that we are getting
out of the ground because as everyone
knows we have I think we built one new
refinery in the last what 25 years what
was it Obama said yes we can
I I don’t think our refining capacity
has has kept up the way it needs to we
we have to export some of that product
we wouldn’t be able to refine it all in
the United
States couple that with the pause and
you get my point uh i’ I’d like last
like to talk about
Alaska uh we call it the National
Petroleum
Reserve um and I would just want to make
a few points the Biden Administration
now has 55
separate actions to cut down on mineral
resources of all types being taken out
of the ground in Alaska 55 uh in fact
they might have announced the 56th last
week we have 49 of 50 Rare Earth
minerals are found in Alaska and yet we
cannot mine them uh the petroleum
production I understand in the National
Petroleum Reserve is the equivalent of a
postage stamp on a football field for
the entire area that we’re talking
about do states make a difference in
your permitting is my point does Alaska
does Texas do do they have an impact on
your federal permitting or state are
federal permitting does it make a
difference what state you’re
in thank you for the question it it
absolutely does make a difference what
state you’re in uh we are as an example
headquartered in Colorado and I can tell
you there is a full court press in
Colorado against the production of oil
and gas there we have had uh uh a member
of the uh a member of the government
there propose a full-on ban on oil and
gas effective uh permitting ban on oil
and gas effective 2030 uh that was
ultimately taken down but but yes it
makes a difference depending on which
state you were in some very favorable
some not so much so I am so everyone up
here is a Texan uh I would like to to
know are the things that we can help you
with uh in Texas obviously we’re a great
oil and gas state but uh we also want to
maintain that that status so if there
are things that we can help you with
please let us know and I appreciated Mr
gusk your your list of obstacles because
I think who is leading the fight against
those obstacles in
Congress is it Mr
Fallon it must be Mr Fallon thank you so
much for the Mr chairman I yield back
for the record it is not Mr
Fallon you know it read somewhere
once um very wise statement and it said
if you begin with certainties you’ll end
in doubts but if you begin with doubts
you’ll end in certainties and what I
mean by that is we should all have
particularly as members of Congress we
should have an intellectual curiosity in
fact I think our job demands that we do
so and it was very distressing that the
very first Committee hearing we
had for this subcommittee we had a
brilliant man named Alex Epstein who I
think is genius level and an expert on
energy and written a great book and he
was our
witness and before the hearing he
offered to uh he gave a book he was
giving books out to the committee
members and the Democrats wouldn’t take
it and I thought that’s very curious
because this is so important to our
country and to the world moving forward
why wouldn’t you want to become more
knowledgeable on
energy and they might not agree with his
conclusions but how do you even know
where how he got to those conclusions if
you don’t read uh the book itself and
then the ranking member attacked him uh
personally on a personal level to try to
disabil eyesee and you know the whole
Committee hearing and they’re beginning
with
certainties we’re all beginning with
doubts wanting to learn more and also to
your point Mr tley
about truth and
context I can show you clips of Michael
Jordan missing shots thousands of shots
but if that’s the only thing I show you
and you came from another country didn’t
weren’t familiar with sport of
basketball you think this guy’s terrible
if the goal is to put the ball on the
hoop this guy can’t do that and what I
showed you I didn’t show you anything
that was untrue but I didn’t show you
the truth and context I didn’t give you
the whole picture and that’s what we’re
seeing at these universities we’re not
seeing the whole picture what I want to
do real quickly is we’re going to have
just a few members wanted to ask a
second round of questions so I’d love to
begin that they can start the clock on
me I’m Mr drer Global demand is going to
increase by % over the next few decades
and we need a sustainable Workforce we
had a Committee hearing on
apprenticeships and skilled labor it was
probably one of the best ones we’ve had
and we had folks that were out in the
field um can you tell me a little bit
more about uh was it l Lana all right
yes Lana College uh and the this the
success that they’re having and uh in in
specialized trades and how that program
came about and the impact that it’s had
on your company and others certainly uh
laana College school of petroleum and
natural gas about 12 years old now since
it’s been established is in an area of
the country that never had oil and
natural gas development Western PA
Upstate New York and Ohio West Virginia
all had Legacy oil and gas just like
Texas Oklahoma did but northeast PA
lacked that so the college being um
Forward Thinking establish a school to
meet the needs of the uh newly
established mcel sh industry focusing on
the actual trades that are working in
and around the well sites and or the
infrastructure to move that uh oil and
gas to to Market and to date that school
has graduated over
368 graduates I believe with a 95%
placement rate uh the5 95% placement
rate uh there were a few individuals who
joined the military or went on to
four-year uh degrees in engineering or
other careers uh so that’s why it’s not
quite 100% yet but at at a 10-year Mark
many of those people are engaged in the
industry many have been promoted many
are are specialized now so it’s just
showing the success of the program yeah
and can you just continue to touch on
what kind of opportunities await these
graduates uh certainly opportunities in
the energy industry the power sector
industry the advanced manufacturing
industry we talked a little bit earlier
about the skill sets have changed
dramatically so we’re not just looking
for people who can turn Valves and and
and use wrenches we need people who are
thinking
uh with their mind using Electronics
using sophisticated techniques and we’re
finding that these individuals are are
highly sought after because their
ability to do multiple jobs multiple
career opportunities uh and I know a
number of them that actually are now in
Oklahoma or not Oklahoma Ohio and West
Virginia and Pittsburgh so the school
originally was set up to support the
local mercel Shale industry but we’re
starting to see the uh the graduates
move across the Basin and even across
the country so are tons of opportunities
for these students and the opportunities
aren’t going
anywhere Mr Tarpley we let’s just take
an extreme example when when on various
issues sometimes I think about what the
extreme would be so in other words if
let’s say the opposition got their way
what would happen right and it seems
that the the left celebrates folks that
are recipients of welfare so I always
think about well what if we’re all in
welfare then we’d be you know some third
world country that didn’t have any
infrastructure so let’s just say that
the the Democrat rats in Congress get
their way and we seemingly don’t produce
any more natural gas or oil or fossil
fuels in this country they get their way
they win Colorado wins you know okay
what’s the Practical applic what would
what would happen there so you’re you
mentioned that there would be that lost
money for our GDP of course jobs highp
paying jobs would be gone and then but
this is the the kicker I I find
interesting Not only would our energy
then we would have less money as a
nation but then our energy cost would
would explode because we have to buy
them so the training balance would
increase even more so but at the end of
the day would you agree that we would
also it would be bad it would be worse
for the environment because we have a
regulatory scheme we have a strong
environmental Lobby we have an
independent Judiciary we have an
expertise that’s been built for over a
century we do it better than anyone else
so the environment would suffer as a
result as well it’s a great question uh
I’ll follow your logic let’s just assume
oil and gas production stops in the
United States what would that mean well
first of all it would mean that 650,000
men and women that we represent don’t
have a job they they’re you know so that
they’re they’re out on their own the
families that they support they’re on
their own but in addition to that you
got to step back and think what does
that really mean for the United States
well the reason why we enjoy the
lifestyle that we enjoy right now is is
a lot of that is because of energy we
have abundant energy so that goes away
but one thing Americans you can tell
about Americans we’re not going to give
up our our lifestyle so we would still
buy and energy but we would buy it from
others which would mean it would be more
expensive and it just like you said it
would be produced under their regulatory
regime so we wouldn’t control the
emissions of that energy somebody else
would they would see the economic
benefits and they would decide how it
would be produced and then those 650,000
jobs that used to be here in the United
States supported those families
supported taxes supported local
communities they’re gone they’re
somewhere else so the benefits go
wherever else that is so you’re saying
that country Venezuela does not have a
rule of
law I mean it gets to be ludicrous
right they make the decisions on on what
the rule of law is here in the United
States we do and it’s it’s going to be
better for us if we decide how our
energy is produced under our our laws
yeah the that the the people of this
nation have a say and we can trust an
independent Judiciary where in China in
Venezuela in Saudi Arabia it’s to the
dictates of the the ruling Elite right
that’s right and and certainly the
emissions of transporting gas on a
pipeline domestically within the United
States much lower than shipping in on a
boat halfway across the world so that’s
important to mention and and this is uh
Mr gusk or or Mr herley so you have New
York City roughly 8 to 10 million people
live there would it be better for the
environment to use a pipeline to get
their energy to them or would it be
better to get all those trucks that
Congress who was talking about G you
want to take that one certainly I think
uh the answer is pretty obvious on that
pipeline’s well demonstrated as the
safest lowest emissions uh way to
transport hydrocarbon dramatically
reduce our carbon footprint if we did
that yes and who fights that what
political party would fight that we know
of only one yes thank you chair
recognizes Mr sessions for another five
minutes Mr chairman thank you very much
I have two questions one uh Mr first Mr
D roers uh the first question is uh
directly related to the jobs that you’re
speaking
about 2008 I visited Butler
Pennsylvania and they became epicenter
uh in Pennsylvania of the coal uh fired
rules that the pre president uh Obama
put on them that by and large said you
cannot grow any more jobs we cannot have
anybody move here
and yet you’ve told the story of the
industry removing itself to where it
provided new technology new jobs New
Opportunities there’d be opportunities
not just in Texas that are being hurt
now but in other places that can take
advantage of
Technology great question um our
Workforce um as I mentioned 650,000
Nationwide we’re in all 50 states it’s
changing um there are there are less you
know folks working on traditional like
you would imagine on on a rig they’re
getting into things like AI high
technology more folks are working maybe
offsite monitoring the uh the the
production you know from an off-site
location and they’re getting Technical
Training um that you wouldn’t think of
in the traditional oil field um you know
history so the workforce is changing it
and I I think it will continue to grow
the technology that this this sector is
creating is is TR transforming the way
we produce oil and gas and that’s going
to continue that Innovation is
continuing year by year so now to add to
that and I think the administration sees
this the next generation is cleaner does
have jobs is using their education is
Leading Edge become the world leaders
yesterday on Earth Day uh President
Biden called on
his
um young people I was going to refer to
them as comrades Across America to sign
up for the American climate Corps a
green New Deal style program that will
use taxpayer
dollars to pay for environmentalist jobs
where people would be who have been
replaced in these areas would then come
and be a voice against the common sense
that we’re doing do you have a idea
about that are you aware of this and
what that would actually do using
taxpayer dollars to fund these people
who are out of work to fight the
industry that you’re trying to clean the
world with it it seems counterintuitive
as we as a nation continue to need more
oil and natural gas especially if we’re
trying to transition into the hydrogen
economy or whatever that might look like
because again natural gas is a is a
major feed stock of the hydrogen economy
um we’re finding in places like Rural
America New Mexico West Texas it’s
difficult to get people to relocate
there and and and take the jobs that we
have available now right so this idea
that we’re going to somehow supplement
or or or fund other people to attack our
industry or or deminimize our industry
doesn’t make sense when we need uh the
oil and natural gas I think the number
is about 6,000 products every day are
made from oil and natural gas not
counting the electricity not counting
the fuels not counting everything else
that we need regularly so we need more
people in our industry we need get them
to the areas uh to work where the jobs
are open and we need to you know stop
vilifying this industry especially when
and I don’t mean the ramble on here but
there is this belief when you look at
solar and wind or power generation or
whatever it might be we’re using all the
same skill sets across the board uh so
we need to start looking at this from a
standpoint of advanced manufacturing we
need to look at this from an idea that
people want to be in these family
sustaining careers and we do have the
opportunities and the pathways to get
the them into these
careers Mr gusk uh you represent a
company that employees people is
concerned about them but you also know
that they
Supply money to states that operate
schools that operate prisons that
operate highways that operate all these
other things that count on people
working people having jobs avoiding
unemployment avoiding the misery of not
having a job and all those things that
come with it can you summarize this for
us about the real impact of what this
delay will have snapshot now that’s a
very good question uh the impact would
be significant well we work uh in the
oil basins which primarily are centered
in a handful of States our employees
come from across 42 different states uh
they travel uh travel to work for a two
weeks on two week off shift as we’ve
already heard salaries of order $80,000
to maybe $150,000 a year with a high
school degree and a commercial driver’s
license uh working 26 weeks of the Year
allowing them to spend 26 weeks a year
with their family and still be valuable
contributors to the local economy um as
taxpayers and but also as participants
in that community that that type of job
is irreplaceable I I don’t know of
another industry that offers that kind
of well-being to uh uh to people from
across the country with a high school
education Mr chairman I believe we
should all run to the Future and I think
that as Buzz Light you’re the Great
American philosopher said years ago from
here to infinity and beyond but if we
head the way the Democratic party wants
us to we’ll just be unemployed sitting
on in a corner sucking our thumb waiting
for Uncle Sam to provide us money that
is not in my opinion a good future for
the country I want to thank each of our
panelists I think they were superb Mr
chairman I yield back my time thank you
chair now recognizes our good friend Mr
Weber for five minutes thank you Mr
chairman uh Alec Epstein the name of his
book by the way y’all probably know it
is the moral case for fossil fuels
that’s a pretty popular book and and I’m
not surprised that when he passed it out
y’all’s committee that the Democrats
wouldn’t take it there was another
gentleman named Robert Bryce who wrote a
book called Power hungry they both make
the moral case that if we’re the third
world countries they’re using animal
dung they’re using wood chips whatever
they can
uh to stay heated in the winter time and
many of them die from as fixation from
the animal dung or the diseases that
causes so if y’all wanted that book um I
do want to say by the way you had I
think Mr gy you had mentioned ESG and
some of your remarks and just so we can
all be on the same page for those of you
who may not know ESG stands for extra
stupid government okay just so yall know
that um Mr Gus one other thing I wanted
to say um I was in the state legislature
for four years before I got tooted to
Congress and I was on the environmental
red committee and we went up to DC uh
for a environment and energy conference
and the under secretary secretary for
the EPA was I forget her name I never
dreamed I was going to run for college I
mean for congress at that point but she
was making the case about wus Waters of
the USA and methane from cat from cattle
and from you know horses and that kind
of stuff
livestock and she said they had
calculated I forget what it was 2500
3500 farms and ranches in the United
United States and they had calculated it
it would yield a $26
million income stream they had
calculated how much money the government
could get out of that they literally had
it’s stupid what they’re doing uh that’s
my that’s my rant for today Mr ging in
my area of Southeast Texas uh it feels
like every University College trade
school twoyear school and even high
schools are working day in and day out
to uplift the very skills that we all
know are needed uh and upscale upscale
our Workforce to better face the
challenge of the industry’s future I
don’t know if y’all are familiar with
Lamar University in that part of the of
the state it’s in the Texas State
University system Pete and Pat y’all may
be and you may also did we lose Degen
lady no there she is I can see her but
they’re going to build what’s called an
advanced terminal and methane emission
training facility uh given the fact that
that’s one of the requests we turned in
for money for them so that they could
actually train the workforce uh it would
actually simulate the complex into
multicomponent systems that make up
modern ports because as I said earlier
we have seven
ports the atmet as it’s called would be
housed in Port Arthur and would provide
critical opportunities for workers to
learn those skills required you’re
talking about Mr de Rosier to man a
cuttingedge LG export facility I have
two LG current LG export facilities in
my district now Freeport LG and golden
pass LG shener energy is right across
the river in Louisiana and we also have
Port Arthur LG which is rare enough it’s
been through phase one well phase one is
it had to put it on pause because of the
of the pause the president put on for
phase two so your company has it sounds
like has learned to leverage Workforce
programs had to skill up your employees
and based on what he was saying that’s
something that we all ought to be doing
so I’m going to go to you very quickly
Mr Tarpley so what do you see your
companies that you represent
participating in like
programs with schools and colleges we’ve
got to be Trea I mean Junior High High
School up yeah it’s a great question and
thank you for that um our companies you
know especially in the in the postco
we’re having a lot of trouble finding uh
workers it has improved a little bit in
you know in the past years but there’s
still a shortage and there’s a shortage
for workers that are trained in these
high high technology um
areas the the the location of of where a
lot of this oil and gas production and
Manufacturing goes on is adjacent to
areas of high unemployment where where
there’s people that need jobs you got to
make that connection uh the these
Workforce training programs are exactly
how to do it train these folks in their
local communities and let them know that
there’s jobs that are available where
they can remain in their communities
that’s the way you all have a training
system I’ll come you miss Mr G you all
have a training system with the
companies you represent do you all share
those ideas
um we do we have we have an HR committee
that that shares those best practices
amongst all our companies thank you Mr
ging I I only I wanted to add one
comment to that um certainly as you’ve
heard we’re we’re losing people in that
petroleum engineering grads is a great
example I think uh enrollment or or
graduate from undergrad level now down
uh 75% from historic highs in 2017 2018
time frame um uh what we need is we we
need we need uh junior high students
high school students to hear a message
that oil and gas is going to be here for
decades to come it’s difficult to
attract people to our industry when
they’re being told oil and gas is done
in 10 years that doesn’t look like a
career to them and so they need to hear
a different message well I hope youall
moving throughout your communities and
by the way one of the state reps from
Colorado when we were in DC listening to
the under Secretary of the EPA when she
said sea level change was going to be
really bad in the next 50 years you
can’t make this stuff up one of the
state reps in Colorado said we walked
out of that room he said to me man and
we in Colorado we’re concerned about
that sea level
rise and I’m thinking I’m on the G Coast
at 26 feet above sea level and he’s
probably what 1,500 feet and up ESG is
crazy I I’ll yield back well thank you I
thought this was a great hearing and I
want to thank my colleagues and
certainly the witnesses and everyone
else for attending uh to your point
about the sea level rises I think that’s
interesting that Barack Obama bought a I
think 15 20 $ million property on
Martha’s Vineyard at sea level so he
doesn’t seem to be too concerned about
sea levels rising at zero or one two
feet and also when Joe Biden goes to
Delaware he’s not up in the Delaware
mountains don’t think there’s any such
thing he’s at sea level in his beach
house so they don’t seem overly
concerned about it bottom line is energy
security is is National Security and
it’s as so many of the witnesses pointed
out it’s Economic Security it uh under
endites really our lifestyle uh the
comfort that we’ve been accustomed to
our prosperity our health if you have a
serious disease without fossil fuels
you’re in big
trouble something as simple as the IV
bag made from fossil
fuels we’re in a propaganda
war and you hear terms like settled
science which is intended to muffle
anyone that doesn’t
tow the party line it also wants to
discourage the greatest asset we have as
human beings which is intellectual
curiosity and uh it it’s getting to the
point of cult-like it’s a cult-like
movement in so much as when we saw
defunding of the police the left was
turning Good Guys into bad guys and
calling the bad guys good guys and I
think we’re we’re in danger of doing
that here with energy and we’ve we’ve
seen it we’ve ALS heard from these
Witnesses
is the absolute crucial nature of the
American Energy
sector production costs if they are
continuing to rise then and new
regulations continue to hinder growth
the US Energy uh
Workforce is not going to be sustained
to meet that future need of 50% uh
Global and then we’ve got to thank the
hard working men and women in the energy
sector and this work force needs to
continue as you all know to evolve and
we need that highly skilled labor or
we’re doomed the Texas miracle that
we’ve enjoyed here I was in the
legislature right after Randy was
demoted for eight eight years and we
have a Texas Miracle but if we don’t
have an educated Workforce that’s not
going to
continue and we need to embrace
Innovation as well and what uh a good
friend Congressman self was mentioning
is when you can an an anal uh
off use an
analogy to a football field and a posted
stamp that’s what people can grasp and
they go wait a minute if it’s just that
tiny of a a piece why wouldn’t we try to
exploit that for our nation’s benefit
but the bid Administration they continue
to declare war and demonize and
cheerlead
it we hear constant
lies I’ve heard him at in this Committee
hearing not this particular one but in
ones we’ve had in the past related to
energy where we had a witness that
attested that
the renewable energy production is
cheaper than fossil
fuels yeah it’s cheaper when it’s
subsidized and and he said no no free if
that were true if his statement were
true then there would be no need for
fossil fuels because
the wind and solar would underwrite or
undercut you all but that’s not true but
that’s what they I think he really
believed it which was that he was the
democratics expert witness that’s
frightening it’s chilling quite frankly
um and the l&
pause the argument was made that we had
that hearing last week that that’s
making
domestic natural gas cheaper and Mr
Tarpley pointed out that is absolutely
not true considering over the eight
years a far more expansive sample size
than three months eight years it hasn’t
happened so we need to uh be armed by
the experts to talk about not their
truth but the truth that’s why we want
to have hearings like this so we can get
smarter we can combat because again this
is a propaganda War for the hearts and
Minds at the end of the day and uh
fossil fuels have allowed us to achieve
so much in this country and it is safer
for the environment for us to produce it
here than anywhere else in the world
that’s another Inconvenient Truth as the
left would say so I think the staks are
far too high for us to be complacent and
we need to continue to be the energy
superpower that we are and we need to
expose the lies of the bid
Administration and Congressional
Democrats I want to thank all the
witnesses for being here today I want to
thank everybody that attended certainly
my colleagues for taking the time on a
uh District work week
and in closing
and without objection all members will
have five legislative days within which
to submit materials to uh and to submit
additional written questions for the
witnesses which will be forwarded to the
witnesses for their response if there’s
no further business and without
objection the subcommittee stands
[Music]
adjourned
e e

The House of Representatives Committee on Oversight and Accountability Subcommittee on Economic Growth, Energy Policy, and Regulatory Affairs holds a meeting on “the Challenges and Opportunities Facing U.S. Energy Production” at 10 a.m. ET on April 23.

#usenergyproduction #oversighthearing #congresshearing
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LIVE: Oversight Committee on the Challenges and Opportunities Facing US Energy Production

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