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The Overview Published: Feb 10, 2021

Red Tape Report

The Red Tape Report is a newsletter detailing President Biden’s executive actions and regulations that kill jobs, burden small businesses, and hamper economic recovery. This is brought to you by the House Committee on Oversight and Reform Republicans.

In this week’s Red Tape Report, we examine the devastating impacts of President Biden’s Executive Order 13990, “Protecting Public Health and the Environment and Restoring Science To Tackle the Climate Crisis,” and the decision to reenter the flawed Paris Climate Change Agreement.

Job killing, suffocating red tape is a part of the Democrats’ M.O. President Biden has proven just that with the recent issuance of an executive order to effectively halt the construction of the Keystone XL Pipeline and ban oil and gas leasing on federal lands.

The decision jeopardizes America’s energy independence, limits the ability of Americans to access affordable and reliable energy, and has cost thousands of American workers their jobs.

President Biden’s executive order is tossing aside years of progress in favor of a radical job-killing agenda that sets back our economy and job creation. Now is the time we should be prioritizing critical infrastructure that keeps American energy production strong, American workers employed, and our economy resilient for years to come.

IN ADDITION… President Biden has decided to reenter the flawed Paris agreement.

The Biden Administration’s decision to rejoin the Paris Agreement means devastating economic costs, with essentially zero environmental benefits. The United States has proven we can grow our economy and energy sectors while also reducing carbon emissions. Instead of rejoining this flawed agreement, America should continue to innovate and harness our full energy potential to create a more clean, affordable, and diverse supply.

Unfortunately, these radical and reckless decisions will cause long-term damage.

AND NOW…

Congresswoman Yvette Herrell has seen firsthand how President Biden’s executive overreach can impact local economies and American families. In her state of New Mexico, the economy and state budget depend on how federal lands are managed. New Mexico stands to lose more than 60,000 jobs and billions of dollars in state revenue if Biden’s executive orders become permanent.

Rep. Herrell is taking action to protect her constituents’ jobs and the state she loves. Be sure to watch her video detailing the biggest hurdles New Mexico now faces because of President Biden’s unilateral, job-killing actions.

IT’S TIME FOR…

“To these workers, pipelining is more than a livelihood. As a member of LiUNA Local 620, Tyler Noel, said the bonds he’s forged working on pipelines for thirteen years is ‘the only thing I’ve got right now.'”

Thousands of American energy workers have been directly impacted by the Biden Administration’s recent executive orders. According to TC Energy, the Canadian company building Keystone, “nearly 1,000” Americans were laid off immediately as a result of the orders. Up to 11,000 jobs are expected to be lost over the coming months as the project remains dormant.

TOP RED TAPE NEWS…

South Dakota hotel owner says business in jeopardy after Biden’s move to halt Keystone XL pipeline (Fox News)
“Stroppel Hotel owner Laurie Cox says she opened her hotel in Midland, S.D., recently to cater to oil and gas workers there, but following President Biden’s move, she worries about her business. Cox said when she saw President Biden start to sign some executive orders, “I was like, ‘Oh, please, please don’t let it be the Keystone.’ … She noted that later that day she got confirmation that Biden halted the project when people who were staying at her hotel ‘came back into the hotel and said, ‘Well, that’s it. It’s done.’ … ‘And I was like, ‘So he signed it?’ And they said, ‘Apparently we’re off the job and things are locked down and we’re going home,’ Cox continued. ‘And so they started packing their items and most of them left that night.’”

Biden’s Keystone Pipeline Kill (WSJ Editorial Board)
“Killing Keystone won’t keep fossil fuels in the ground. It will merely strand billions of dollars in Canadian investment and kill thousands of U.S. jobs while enriching adversaries and alienating an ally.”

Reps. Scalise, Westerman, Herrell, Sen. Lummis: President Biden, reverse this energy ban (Fox News Opinion)
“Currently, 640 million U.S. acres are federally owned, almost 30 percent of the entire country. Much of this land is in the West, where our richest resources lie. While some of this land is heavily protected by national park or monument status, much more of it is available for safe, sustainable energy development under the best environmental standards in the world. If you hear nothing else, hear this: President Biden’s reckless, unscientific domestic energy bans do nothing to help the environment. They merely shift our sources to OPEC, where we have no control over their environmental regulations, pollution standards or methods of transportation.”

Top union leader: Biden’s Keystone plan wrong, will cost U.S. jobs (Axios)
AFL-CIO president Richard Trumka told Jonathan Swan in an interview for “Axios on HBO” that he wished President Biden hadn’t canceled the Keystone XL pipeline his first day in office — because it will cost some good-paying union jobs. “You know, when they laid off at the mines back in Pennsylvania, they told us they were going to train us to be computer programmers. And I said, ‘Where are the computer programmer jobs at?’ ‘Uh, they’re in, uh, Oklahoma and they’re in Vegas and they’re here.’ And I said, ‘So, in other words, what we’re going to be is unemployed miners and unemployed computer programmers as well.'”