RESEARCHING EFFICIENT FEDERAL IMPROVEMENTS FOR NECESSARY ENERGY REFINING ACT

On 2025-11-20, Representative Randy K. Weber, Sr. (R-TX-14) delivered a floor speech titled "RESEARCHING EFFICIENT FEDERAL IMPROVEMENTS FOR NECESSARY ENERGY REFINING ACT" in the House.

RESEARCHING EFFICIENT FEDERAL IMPROVEMENTS FOR NECESSARY ENERGY REFINING ACT

Congressional Record, Volume 171 Issue 196 (Thursday, November 20, 2025) [Congressional Record Volume 171, Number 196 (Thursday, November 20, 2025)] [House] [Pages H4835-H4841] From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [ www.gpo.gov ] RESEARCHING EFFICIENT FEDERAL IMPROVEMENTS FOR NECESSARY ENERGY REFINING ACT Mr. GUTHRIE. Mr. Speaker, pursuant to House Resolution 879, I call up the bill (H.R. 3109) to require the Secretary of Energy to direct the National Petroleum Council to issue a report with respect to petrochemical refineries in the United States, and for other purposes, and ask for its immediate consideration in the House. The Clerk read the title of the bill. The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to House Resolution 879, the bill is considered read. The text of the bill is as follows: H.R. 3109 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. This Act may be cited as the ``Researching Efficient Federal Improvements for Necessary Energy Refining Act'' or the ``REFINER Act''. SEC. 2. REPORT ON PETROCHEMICAL REFINERIES. Not later than 90 days after the date of enactment of this section, the Secretary of Energy shall direct the National Petroleum Council to-- (1) submit to the Secretary of Energy and Congress a report containing-- (A) an examination of the role of petrochemical refineries located in the United States and the contributions of such petrochemical refineries to the energy security of the United States, including the reliability of supply in the United States of liquid fuels and feedstocks, and the affordability of liquid fuels for consumers in the United States; (B) analyses and projections with respect to-- (i) the capacity of petrochemical refineries located in the United States; (ii) opportunities for expanding such capacity; and (iii) the risks to petrochemical refineries located in the United States; (C) an assessment of any Federal or State executive actions, regulations, or policies that have caused or contributed to a decline in the capacity of petrochemical refineries located in the United States; and (D) any recommendations for Federal agencies and Congress to encourage an increase in the capacity of petrochemical refineries located in the United States; and (2) make publicly available the report submitted under paragraph (1). The SPEAKER pro tempore. The bill shall be debatable for 1 hour, equally divided and controlled by the chair and ranking minority member of the Committee on Energy and Commerce or their respective designees. The gentleman from Kentucky (Mr. Guthrie) and the gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. Pallone) each will control 30 minutes. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from Kentucky (Mr. Guthrie). General Leave Mr. GUTHRIE. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days to revise and extend their remarks on this legislation and to include extraneous material on H.R. 3109. The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the gentleman from Kentucky? There was no objection. Mr. GUTHRIE. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker, the American economy is fueled by petrochemical refineries [[Page H4836]] providing affordable diesel and gasoline to families, critical inputs for our manufacturers, and products imperative for the maintenance of our defense systems. The national security component of a viable refining industry cannot be overstated, and we must not forfeit these essential supply chains. Under the previous administration, we saw the impact of an energy retreat: higher prices for families and businesses, emboldened adversaries, sluggish economies, and increasing reliance on other nations. Unfortunately, this is still the case in States like California, where a hostile regulatory environment has forced refineries to reduce operations. In fact, the Golden State is expected to lose 17 percent of its capacity in the next year. This has led to an average gasoline price of nearly $5 per gallon, an increased fuel dependence on Asian producers, and jeopardizing the fuel supply chain of military installations in their State. We must not let this become status quo across the country. H.R. 3109 requires the National Petroleum Council to collect and examine information regarding the role of petrochemical refineries in the United States and their contributions to affordability, security, and reliability. The report will assess opportunities to expand capacity as well as current risks to refineries. H.R. 3109 will provide the Committee on Energy and Commerce the information we need to enact policies to deliver affordable, reliable, and clean energy to all Americans. I thank Representative Latta, the chairman of the Energy Subcommittee, for his leadership on this issue. I urge all of my colleagues to support H.R. 3109, and I reserve the balance of my time. Mr. PALLONE. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker, I rise in opposition to this bill, which is a complete and utter waste of the House of Representatives' time. It asks the National Petroleum Council to do a study, and that is it. That is the entire bill. In my opinion, to ask the National Petroleum Council to do something it can already do on its own makes absolutely no sense. The House was out of session for over 50 days because Speaker Johnson refused to bring Congress back to resolve the healthcare crisis created by Republicans and to reopen the government. Now, Speaker Johnson claims we will be working day and night on important problems. I certainly agree that we should be doing that. We should be working on problems that Americans care about, but millions of Americans are seeing their healthcare costs skyrocket because the President and Republicans refuse to extend critical tax credits that make healthcare more affordable for millions of Americans. Millions more are paying thousands of dollars more a year for everyday goods because of the President's tariffs. These tariffs are attacks on the American people, and they are expected to cost families more than $2,000 each year when they take full effect. Meanwhile, prices on everything from utilities to food to energy, even prices for Thanksgiving dinner next week, are going up. You would think that House Republicans would be doing something, anything, anything at all to fight these high prices. Instead, we are here talking about a bill that requires a Big Oil and Gas lobby group to put together a report. That is it. I cannot stress enough that this report is simply not needed, regardless of who does it. In fact, it is almost an insult, particularly to refinery workers on the East Coast, including my State of New Jersey, who don't need a study to tell them why refining capacity here has dropped by over one third in the last decade. It all goes back to the repeal of the crude oil export ban in 2015. You don't have to take my word for it. The nonpartisan Government Accountability Office found in a 2020 report--that was a report--that domestic refinery margins suffered in the wake of the repeal. This bill only asks for the report to assess executive actions, regulations, or policies that have impacted refineries, not a change in the law. If it were dealing with a change in the law, I think that would make sense. It is a massive, massive oversight to not talk about the law and what happened when the crude oil export ban was lifted 10 years ago. That is what caused the problem with refineries. The most ridiculous part of this bill is that it demands the study not be done by the Department of Energy but by the National Petroleum Council, an industry advisory body for Big Oil and Gas. I have no doubt that the National Petroleum Council will produce a biased report that will likely complain about every environmental regulation that they don't like, but that protects the American people. That is what Republicans have been doing: repealing all the environmental regulations. If Republicans wanted an unbiased view of domestic refining challenges, they would have asked the Department of Energy to craft a report. That is not what they are looking for because Republicans just want to sanction fossil fuel propaganda. That is what they are doing with this bill. It is a waste of everyone's time, Mr. Speaker. It is just another example of how Republicans have absolutely no ideas to help American families lower everyday costs. We need to be working on real solutions, Democrats and Republicans, to address the affordability crisis. That is what the American people want, not this report. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time. Mr. GUTHRIE. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. When I was a young man in the 1970s--when I was a kid, I guess, in the 1970s--I remember gas lines and having to push my father's car to get gasoline. At the time, everybody said we were going to run out of crude oil. That was the thing, running out of crude oil. I appreciate the gentleman bringing up the crude oil issue. It is actually because of the ingenuity of the American people that we have an abundance of crude oil. The issue isn't crude oil. It is the refining capacity. Since I was a kid, we found this abundance of crude oil in the Permian Basin, North Dakota, and all the places I can name. We have more oil than they have in the Middle East, which, when I was a kid, a lot of it was coming from the Middle East. Then, you have this chokepoint of refining capacity. We haven't built a new refinery in the United States since I was a kid, so that is the thing that we want to address. That is the issue we want to address. We do want prices to go down. We don't want it to be $5 a gallon. I was putting gas in a rental car in California, and I looked over at the guy next to me. I paid probably $2.60 a gallon in Kentucky, and I think it was $4.80 there. I said: Do you guys have any 

Referenced legislation: HRES879, HRES879, HR3109