The Subcommittee on Economic Growth, Energy Policy, and Regulatory Affairs held a hearing Wednesday on American energy where panelists discussed, among other things, federal policies that have increased energy costs for Americans.
Experts pointed to a litany of federal changes that have slowed down domestic energy production and led to increased costs as a result. Energy prices did rise during Biden’s term, including gas prices, which rose on net about 75 cents overall.
“From January 2021 when Team Biden-Harris walked through the door, Americans saw energy prices skyrocket,” Mandy Gunasekara, the former Environmental Protection Agency chief of staff, testified at the hearing. “Home heating oil increased 36%, electricity increased 32%, and natural gas increased 25%. As a result, one in six American families have been behind on their electricity bills, and the cost for an average household rose approximately $10,000, significantly straining family budgets…”
The hearing comes as the House is set to vote on H. J. Res. 35 this week, a bill meant to undo nearly three dozen Biden-era energy policies.
“Chronic permitting issues are worsened by a lack of transparency and bureaucratic accountability,” Alex Herrgott, the CEO and president of The Permitting Institute, testified at the hearing. “Our broken system allows agencies to sit on applications for years, even decades in some cases, with no certainty of eventual project approval or any response at all.”
President Donald Trump declared a national energy emergency upon taking office and signed executive orders to open up domestic energy production. He has vowed to increase oil production to lower prices for Americans.
Trump’s proposed tariffs, however, could increase energy costs, according to many experts.
Alex Epstein, president and founder of the Center for Industrial Progress, testified that the Biden administration also made nuclear power more difficult to develop, and therefore more expensive.
“In the ‘70s, clean, safe nuclear power became affordable and quickly grew to 20% of American power, with potential to get far more affordable and plentiful,” Epstein said. “But crushing, irrational regulation made nuclear expensive or impossible to build,” Epstein said. “Congress and the Administration should work to unleash nuclear energy from irrational, pseudoscientific regulations… Unleashing nuclear is crucial for our medium and long-term electricity future. But it’s not a quick fix. To fix our grid problems as quickly as possible we need to address the policies destroying, delaying, and defunding the fossil fuel power plants.”
