Energy
The national economy is bleak. Four years after a deep recession, unemployment remains stubbornly high at 7.8 percent, and economic growth has slowed to 1.3 percent. Families and small businesses are struggling to make ends meet. As wages and benefits have been cut, prices of electricity, gas, food, and health care continue to rise. Clearly, we are not headed in the right direction.
Affordable energy is a necessary ingredient for long-term economic growth. Lower utility rates reduce overhead costs, leaving businesses more money to grow, add more employees, and reduce consumer prices. The less money families spend on their monthly power bill, the more money they have to save or spend as they wish – all of which contributes to economic growth.
Washington, DC – Congressman Adrian Smith (R-NE) released the following statement in support of the U.S. D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals decision to overturn the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Cross-State Air Pollution Rule (CSAPR).
As our economy struggles, the lack of bipartisan solutions from Congress only adds to our frustration. While House Republicans are working to reduce the burden of government, cut wasteful spending, and streamline government programs to encourage economic growth, not hinder it, more than thirty House-passed bills aimed at private sector job creation and growth have idled in the Democrat-led Senate. There have been, however, a few areas where both parties have found common ground and work together to pass meaningful legislation which benefits our economy.
Washington, DC – Congressman Adrian Smith (R-NE) issued the following statement after passage of H.R. 5892, the Hydropower Regulatory Efficiency Act introduced by Congresswoman Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-WA). The legislation included amended language of Smith’s Small Scale Hydropower Enhancement Act (H.R. 795):
America’s energy policy is broken. In Nebraska, the average price per gallon of gasoline stands at $3.83, while diesel stands at more than $4 per gallon. At a time when costs of living are steadily inching upward and people across the country are struggling to make ends meet, higher fuel prices are a headache middle class families in Nebraska do not deserve.
Washington, D.C.– Congressman Adrian Smith (R-NE) today issued the following statement regarding the announcement by the Obama Administration it would reject the permit to begin construction on the Keystone XL pipeline: