Sen. Dan Sullivan and Rep. Harriet Hageman introduced the Energy Poverty Prevention and Accountability Act of 2023, which would ensure that low-income and at-risk communities across the country can access affordable energy, in their respective chambers on Friday.“The people most negatively impacted by the Biden administration’s war on American energy have been those in our rural, elderly, and lower-income communities,” Sullivan said in a statement.
The legislation comes after the Department of the Interior announced it is prohibiting oil and gas drilling on more than 10.6 million acres in Alaska's National Petroleum Reserve. The department's move is intended to ensure"maximum protection" for more than 40% of the reserve, which is located in Alaska's North Slope and is the largest undisturbed public land in the United States.
The bill requires the comptroller general and the Office of Management and Budget to issue a joint report on the at-risk communities experiencing energy poverty to Congress and produce recommendations for reducing the poverty. It also directs all agencies issuing any energy-related rulemaking to verify that the actions will not create energy poverty in any at-risk community, according to Fox News.
“Supply versus demand is the most basic economic concept," Hageman said in a statement."Yet congressional majorities and presidential administrations led by climate-crazed politicians, rather than statesmen, have artificially destroyed supply while demand for energy resources continues to grow.
Sen. Mike Lee and Reps. Dan Newhouse , Brandon Williams , Lauren Boebert , and Paul Gosar were among the bill's co-sponsors.