March 21, 2023
Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives
H-232, the Capitol
Washington, D.C.
20515
Dear Speaker McCarthy,
We applaud the House of Representatives on the introduction of H.R. 1, the Lower Energy Costs
Act. Americans need Congress to focus on the biggest challenge facing families and business –
persistent inflation fueled by high energy costs. Voters understand the need to move past the
regulatory paralysis, burdensome taxes and wasteful spending holding back American energy
abundance. With this bill, the House of Representatives has delivered. We urge swift passage
and prompt consideration in the Senate.
H.R. 1 would roll back the worst regulatory restrictions and taxes crippling supply chains for
production and delivery of affordable energy. The bill would eliminate a new tax on natural gas
infrastructure borne by consumers; restore predictability to energy production from federal lands;
end the abuse of Clean Water Act permitting by anti-development states seeking to block
pipelines and other affordable energy projects; streamline duplicative regulations that undermine
investment in domestic natural gas and abet foreign adversaries’ manipulation of world energy
markets; and overturn lower courts that seek to erode property rights and federal lands as a viable
source of key mineral inputs to our economy. By removing these bottlenecks in the energy
supply chain, the bill would help ensure abundant, affordable energy from diverse sources.
The bill marks an important first step in returning environmental review under the National
Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) to its original, modest purpose. Setting broad energy policy is
the job of Congress, not activist groups through abusive litigation or unelected bureaucrats acting
under the cover of project-specific impact statements. By recognizing that Congress must rein in
NEPA review, the bill validates hope for deeper NEPA reform essential to returning America to
energy self-governance.
Finally, H.R. 1 rejects green cronyism that caters to special interests at the expense of higher
energy costs and deficits. By clawing back nearly $30 billion of taxpayer funds earmarked for
opaque grants to prop up uneconomic projects with no accountability, the bill would ensure that
Americans hit by inflation do not finance payoffs to activist groups and local power brokers.
The Lower Energy Costs Act is an inflection point against the Biden administration’s war on
affordable energy that is fueling inflation and harming the environment by needlessly shifting
energy production to higher impact countries and technologies. We commend your attention to
this challenge and commitment to lower costs through American energy abundance.
Sincerely,
Brent Gardner
Chief Government Affairs Officer and Senior Vice President
Americans for Prosperity
Myron Ebell
Director
Center for Energy & Environment, Competitive Enterprise Institute
Grover Norquist
President
Americans for Tax Reform
Paul Teller
Executive Director
Advancing American Freedom
Ryan Walker
Vice President of Government Relations
Heritage Action
Benjamin Zycher
Senior fellow
American Enterprise Institute (for identification purposes only)
Pete Sepp
President
National Taxpayers Union
Daniel Garza
President of the LIBRE Initiative
Russ Duerstine
Executive Director
Concerned Veterans for America
Thomas Pyle
President
American Energy Alliance
Heather R. Higgins
CEO
Independent Women’s Voice
Adam Brandon
President
FreedomWorks
Jon Sanders
Director
Center for Food, Power, and Life at the John Locke Foundation
Dr. Steven J. Allen (J.D., Ph.D.)
Vice chairman
The Conservative Caucus
Phil Kerpen
President
American Commitment
Craig Richardson
President
Energy & Environment Legal Institute (E&E Legal)
Bob Carlstrom
President
AMAC Action
Dr. Thomas P. Sheahen
Chairman
Science and Environmental Policy Project (SEPP)
David Stevenson
Director
Center for Energy & Environment, Caesar Rodney Institute
Paul Gessing
President
Rio Grande Foundation
William L. Walton
The Bill Walton Show
Resolute Protector Foundation
Saulius “Saul” Anuzis
President
60 Plus Association
James L. Martin
Founder & Chairman
60 Plus Association
James Taylor
President
The Heartland Institute
Bette Grande
CEO & President
Roughrider Policy Center
E. Calvin Beisner, Ph.D.
President
Cornwall Alliance for the Stewardship of Creation
Malon Wilkus
President
The Enterprise Supporting Climate Science
Donna Jackson
Director of Membership Development
Project 21 Black Leadership Network
Carla Sands
Vice Chair
Center for Energy & Environment
America First Policy Institute
Greg Sindelar
CEO
Texas Public Policy Foundation