The Republican House of Representatives continues to fulfill their promise to provide oversight over the Biden administration even as Democrats try to block such pursuits.
The House Natural Resources Committee adopted a work plan on Tuesday for the new Congress. The adopted plan lambasted the Biden administration for leasing fewer federal acres for oil and natural gas development than any previous administration after the Second World War. The plan called for examining “the lack of oil and natural gas leasing on federal lands in the western United States, including focusing on administrative actions that have created permitting delays and disincentivized production on federal lands.”
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) failed to hinder the adoption of this plan by introducing an amendment requiring public health data and other data showing other impacts of new drilling be collected and presented to the committee. The progressive lawmaker proclaimed that “There is a failure to acknowledge the disproportionate impact that these changes have on communities of color and other frontline communities” and declared that there ought to be “no objection to gathering better data on the health impact of these policies.”
Rep. Thomas Tiffany (R-WI) asked Cortez whether her amendment was geared toward assessing all health impacts of drilling or whether it was fixated on just presenting bad health impacts. She responded that, “I do not dispute the inclusion of any positive health impacts. But of course, there is a large degree of concerning information about potential health impacts, breathing impacts, cancer exposure, etc.” Tiffany proclaimed that her response betrayed that she was only interested in examining the negative effects of drilling and given this he would not support the amendment.
AOC’s remarks did no go down well with other Republicans. Rep. Matt Rosendale (R-MT) tweeted that “Claiming that domestic energy resource production has a negative effect on health is broad and preposterous. American energy bolsters our economy, increases national security, and improves lives and outcomes across the country.”
Mr. Rosendale also inquired “How can you ignore the millions of people around the Earth that have had clean water, indoor plumbing, lights, electricity provided to them, making their lives better, extending, literally extending, their life span, lifting them out of poverty by having access to electricity that’s been provided by coal, oil, gas or other fossil fuels?” He further added that “It simply can’t be ignored – their lives are better, their lives are longer as a direct result of that. So, to sit there and to say that we should be trying to eliminate these fuels is absolutely absurd, ridiculous.”
Source: https://dcenquirer.com/house-committee-approves-energy-oversight-plan-aoc-objections/
