Hoeven Discusses Efforts on Energy, Agriculture, Inflation

Senator John Hoeven Monday met with members of the Noon Lions Club, Korner Lions Club, Rotary Club and Williston Community Builders to outline his priorities in the U.S. Senate. In particular, Hoeven stressed the impact of record-high inflation on American consumers and businesses and highlighted his efforts to:

Empower greater U.S. domestic energy production and grow North Dakota as an energy powerhouse to help bring down prices at the pump and reduce the cost of goods throughout the economy. Support farmers and ranchers to maintain the nation's access to an affordable, high-quality food supply, including as work begins on the next farm bill.

Hoeven is working to pass legislation he introduced that would take immediate action to increase U.S. energy production, including:

• Prohibiting any presidential moratoria on new energy leases.
• Requiring the U.S. Department of the Interior to hold a minimum of four oil and natural gas lease sales in each state with land available for leasing in fiscal year 2022.
• Prohibiting the Secretary of the U.S. Department of Energy from drawdowns of the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) until the Secretary of the Interior issues a plan to increase oil and gas production on federal lands and waters.
• Authorizing the construction and operation of the Keystone XL pipeline.
• Removing regulatory hurdles to increase liquefied natural gas exports.

At the same time, Hoeven is advancing his Bureau of Land Management (BLM) Mineral Spacing Act to remove the BLM permitting requirement in instances when the federal government owns less than half of the subsurface minerals within a drilling spacing unit and has no surface ownership in the impacted area. Doing so would eliminate duplicative regulations, better respect the rights of private mineral holders and empower greater domestic oil and natural gas production.

Hoeven recently hosted Senator John Boozman, ranking member of the Senate Agriculture Committee, in North Dakota for a discussion with local producers and commodity groups to discuss the following priorities for the next farm bill:

• Maintaining strong crop insurance, the primary risk management tool for many producers.
• Improving the farm safety net, including the Agriculture Risk Coverage (ARC) and Price Loss Coverage (PLC) programs.
• Strengthening livestock disaster programs, including the Livestock Indemnity Program (LIP), the Livestock Forage Program (LFP) and the Emergency Livestock Assistance Program (ELAP).
• Cutting red-tape and ensuring programs are farmer-friendly.