One of Kevin McCarthy’s big legislative “victories” as Speaker was actually a failure.

During a lengthy speech shortly after he was removed as House speaker on Tuesday, Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) rattled off a short list of legislative victories achieved during his time as leader, including the so-called “Low Energy ” Expenditure Act.”

However, this bill is in limbo between the two houses of Congress and goes nowhere. Moreover, the legislation amounts to nothing more than a giant donation to the powerful fossil fuel industry, from which many of its Republican donors have raked in a ton of campaign cash.

House Republicans passed H.R. 1 by a vote of 225 to 204 in March. When it passed, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) called the legislation “dead on arrival” in the upper chamber. President Joe Biden has vowed to veto the bill if it reaches his desk.

While touting LECA and other bills passed by the House on Tuesday, McCarthy simultaneously sounded defensive.

“I’m proud of what we’ve accomplished, from the Parents Bill of Rights to our energy law,” McCarthy said. “But if they want to hold me accountable because the Senate didn’t make this decision or the President didn’t make this decision, then as far as I’m concerned, that’s politics.”

Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) speaks to reporters Tuesday at the U.S. Capitol, hours after he was removed as House speaker.

But it misses an important detail about where the GOP energy bill stands now. As of Wednesday, the Senate had yet to receive H.R. 1 from the House Clerk. The Senate cannot consider a bill passed by the House until it has passed from the other chamber. IN a thread This week on Channel X (formerly Twitter), longtime Capitol Hill correspondent Jamie Dupree noted that McCarthy is “withholding from the Senate some bills passed by the House,” including the energy bill.

However, during the one-hour debate on Rep. Matt Gaetz’s motion to remove McCarthy as speaker, at least six McCarthy allies touted the GOP energy bill as well as other legislation to protect the California lawmaker’s reputation.

“We can’t help if the Senate doesn’t pass these good, sensible bills,” said Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio). “They will have to answer to the American people, just like on Election Day.”

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Again, the House did not send the energy bill to the Senate.

Representatives. Elise Stefanik (R-New York) and Ashley Hinson (R-Iowa) noted that the GOP has passed legislation designed to “unwind American energy dominance,” echoing a favorite theme of both the fossil fuel industry and the Trump administration. Rep. Stephanie Bice (R-Okla.) said the bill would “lower the cost of gasoline and restore America’s energy independence.”

While touting the GOP bill, several Republicans took the opportunity to criticize the Biden administration’s energy policies.

“Joe Biden has done everything to suppress American energy,” Hinson said.

An angry Rep. Garrett Graves (R-Louisiana) said that under McCarthy’s leadership, Republicans “passed legislation to free up America’s energy resources by overturning this administration’s brainless energy policies” and to “simplify regulations, permitting, environmental laws.” . for the first time in 40 years.”

Gaetz, a Republican from Florida, supported most of those who came to McCarthy’s defense.

“The problem with my friend from Ohio’s argument is that many of the bills he cited as having passed are not law,” Gaetz said, referring to Jordan.

“You said you simplified the rules,” Gaetz told Graves. “What the gentleman from Louisiana doesn’t tell you is that all the regulatory reform he just boasted about can be done away with with the stroke of a pen from someone in the Biden White House. Do you really think you have anything for this? This is a complete joke.”

Since Biden took office, Republicans in Washington have launched a disinformation campaign accusing the Biden administration of being “war on fossil fuels” and destroying Trump-era “energy independence.”

In fact, the industry is thriving both in terms of production and profits.

Pumpkins dot the landscape at the oil fields on the outskirts of Taft, Kern County, California, on September 19. 21.

US crude oil production rose to almost record high averaged 12.99 million barrels per day last month, and production forecast will reach a new record of 13.1 million barrels per day next year, according to the US Energy Information Administration. Natural gas production and exports are also growing rapidly. And the Biden administration approved more permits drill on federal lands, something former President Donald Trump approved at this point in his presidency.

The supposed death of Trump-era so-called “energy independence” is also nonsense. If Republicans talk about simply producing more energy than we consume, then the United States remains energy independent today, said Robert Rapier, an energy industry engineer and author. indicated. If they are talking about a country free of any imported petroleum products, then the US has never achieved this under Trump.

The US has been the world’s largest producer of oil and gas since 2018, and became a net oil exporter in 2020.

The stalled GOP bill continues the GOP’s relentless effort to paint Biden as an “anti-energy” radical. Among other things, the legislation would require increased oil and gas leasing on federal lands and waters; reduce the royalty rates that oil and gas companies pay to drill on public lands; limit the scope of environmental assessments for issuing permits and set deadlines for their completion; and repeal the $27 billion Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund, a key part of Biden’s signature climate law that provides grants to jumpstart clean energy infrastructure deployment.

In a statement announcing Biden’s intention to veto the bill, the White House criticized the measure as a “thinly veiled license to pollute.”

“It will raise costs for American families by eliminating household energy rebates and reversing historic investments to expand access to cost-lowering clean energy technologies,” the White House said in a statement. “Rather than protecting American consumers, it will increase oil and gas profits—already at record levels—and undermine our public health and environment.”

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