08.12.22

Hoeven Outlines Efforts to Combat Inflation, Unlock U.S. Energy Potential & Support Ag Producers

WILLISTON, N.D. – Senator John Hoeven held a roundtable discussion with the Williston Chamber of Commerce today and outlined his efforts to combat inflation. The senator stressed that the Democrats’ $740 billion spending bill and the Biden administration’s burdensome regulatory approach delay and increase costs for energy development, which leads to higher prices and rising inflation throughout the economy. Accordingly, Hoeven is:

  • Working to unlock the potential of America’s energy resources, including its abundant coal, oil and natural gas reserves.
  • Supporting the nation’s farmers and ranchers, including by:
    • Working to ensure reliable transportations services for agriculture producers and other shippers.
    • Providing disaster relief to help producers recover from last year’s historic drought, with Hoeven having recently secured improvements to the row crop disaster aid he funded in September.
  • Pushing back on the Biden administration’s regulatory overreach.
    • The Senate recently passed a resolution that Hoeven helped introduce to nullify the Biden administration’s revisions to the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA).
    • The resolution would restore reforms that Hoeven supported during the Trump administration to modernize and streamline NEPA reviews, helping prevent delays and reduce costs for projects like pipelines and transmission lines.

 “The Biden administration and Congressional Democrats continue to push our nation down the wrong path, imposing burdensome regulations and taxes that increase costs for our energy and agriculture producers, while further increasing federal spending. This just causes more inflation and even higher prices for consumers,” said Hoeven. “We need to take the handcuffs off our energy producers and support our farmers and ranchers to bring down energy and food prices. At the same time, we are working to provide regulatory relief that will empower our nation to build the facilities needed to alleviate supply chain constraints and get goods like energy to market. That’s how you fight inflation and keep our economy strong.”

Empowering U.S. Energy Production

Hoeven continues to push back on the burdensome federal rules imposed by the Biden administration on energy development and is working to advance legislation like his American Energy Independence from Russia Act, which would take immediate action to increase U.S. energy production, including: 

  • Authorizing the construction and operation of the Keystone XL pipeline.
  • Removing regulatory hurdles to increase liquefied natural gas exports.
  • Prohibiting any presidential moratoria on new energy leases.
  • Requiring the U.S. Department of the Interior to hold a minimum of 4 oil and natural gas lease sales in each state with land available for leasing in fiscal year 2022.
  • Prohibiting the Secretary of the U.S. Department of Energy from drawdowns of the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) until the Secretary of the Interior issues a plan to increase oil and gas production on federal lands and waters.   

Supporting Farmers and Ranchers 

At the same time, Hoeven is advancing efforts to ensure North Dakota shippers, including farmers and ranchers, have access to reliable rail and ocean shipping services. The senator: 

  • Sponsored the Ocean Shipping Reform Act, bipartisan legislation signed into law in June to update federal regulations for the global shipping industry and help American producers export their products.
    • As one of the four lead sponsors of the bipartisan legislation, Hoeven, along with Senators Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), John Thune (R-S.D.) and Tammy Baldwin (D-Wisc.), advanced the bill through the Senate in March, followed by the House of Representatives passing the bill in June. 
  • Has been pressing both the Surface Transportation Board (STB) and rail companies to resolve ongoing rail service disruptions before the fall harvest. 

In addition, Hoeven is working to help farmers and ranchers recover from last year’s historic drought and in September secured $10 billion in agriculture disaster aid, including $750 million for livestock producers. Hoeven then repeatedly pressed Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack to get the assistance to producers as soon as possible, with the aid currently being distributed under the Emergency Relief Program (ERP) and the Emergency Livestock Relief Program (ELRP). 

 

The senator also worked with the Farm Service Agency (FSA) to resolve an issue where some producers with 2020 prevent plant claims had those losses inadvertently excluded from their pre-filled ERP application. As a result of Hoeven’s efforts, FSA is issuing corrected applications to affected producers this month.

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