After the Biden administration surrendered the hard-won energy independence achieved during President Donald Trump’s first term, the Republican-led House of Representatives is taking action to ensure future Democrat administrations cannot unilaterally cripple the American energy sector.
Earlier this month, the House passed H.R. 26, the “Protecting American Energy Act,” a bill that “prohibits the president from declaring a moratorium on the use of hydraulic fracturing [or fracking] unless Congress authorizes the moratorium.” The move comes after President Joe Biden waged a regulatory war on the oil and gas industry throughout his four years in office. The 46th president targeted fracking operations in particular, which have long been the bane of environmental activist groups.
The legislation, which was sponsored by Rep. August Pfluger (R-TX), passed by a vote of 226-188. All House Republicans voted in favor of the bill, along with 16 Democrats – an unusual (if relatively minor) display of bipartisanship that reflects Democrats’ vulnerability on the issue of rising energy costs.
Pfluger said the bill is vital to Republicans’ efforts to overturn the Biden administration’s energy policies. “When President Biden took office, his administration took a ‘whole of government’ approach to wage war on American energy production, pandering to woke environmental extremists and crippling this thriving industry,” Pfluger said in a statement after the bill passed. “My legislation that passed today is a necessary first step in reversing Biden’s war on energy by preventing the federal government from banning the use of hydraulic fracturing.”
Pfluger represents Texas’ 11th Congressional District, which includes the Permian Basin. The region, which spans West Texas and into southeastern New Mexico, is the highest-producing oil and gas area in the U.S. The basin was a leader in the U.S. shale revolution that popularized fracking and horizontal drilling in the early 2000s.
AMAC Action was an early supporter of the Protecting American Energy Act, with Chairwoman Rebecca Weber writing that the legislation “demonstrates a commitment to safeguarding the American energy industry, which is critical to our economy, national security, and energy independence” in a January 13 letter to Pfluger. “Your legislation… ensures that America remains a reliable energy producer, even as external challenges and misguided federal policies threaten its future,” Weber added.
Other Republican lawmakers have also praised Pfluger’s bill, saying it will secure and create more jobs for American workers and will advance President Trump’s pro-energy policies.
“House Republicans are putting an end to the Democrats’ war on American energy,” House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) said. “Today’s passage of the Protecting American Energy Production Act helps restore American energy dominance and protects the jobs of hardworking men and women.”
Fracking was a major point of contention in the 2024 election, with Kamala Harris’s shifting stance on the practice making headlines. During her ill-fated 2020 campaign, Harris stated there was “no question” she would ban fracking as president. But in 2024, she claimed she had changed her mind and no longer supported a ban.
The Competitive Enterprise Institute notes that “fracking accounts for about half of US crude oil production and about two-thirds of natural gas production.” Furthermore, “natural gas is the source of 43 percent of American electricity generation, and it heats more than 50 percent of homes directly.”
The Protecting American Energy Act now moves to the Senate, where it will need 60 votes to pass. A similar version of the bill, which was introduced in the 118th Congress by Rep. Jeff Duncan (R-SC), also passed the House in 2024 but died in the upper chamber after then-Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) refused to bring it up for a vote.
This year, however, the Senate’s landscape looks different and could favor the bill’s passage. With a 53-47 majority, Republicans need just seven Democrats to cross the aisle to vote for the bill. With a number of Senate Democrats facing tough re-election battles next year, supporting American energy production could become a wedge issue that compels liberal members to back the bill, similar to what occurred in the House.
While President Trump has already taken swift executive action to, as he describes it, “unleash American energy,” the Protecting American Energy Act is nonetheless a crucial step to better secure American energy independence. Just as Biden did during his first days in office, a future Democrat president could win the White House and immediately reverse the policies Trump is implementing now.
Congressional action is much more permanent and gives energy companies confidence that their investments in the United States – which create thousands of jobs and deliver cheaper energy to the American people – won’t be immediately undermined should a Democrat win the White House. As such, passing this bill could in the long run be just as important as Trump’s executive actions in securing America’s energy future.
Tayte Christensen is a junior at Hillsdale College studying History and Journalism. You can follow her on X @Tayte_cc.
It’s sad that we have to legislate what is simply good common-sense reasoning and good, long-term economic business practices to support the long-term growth and prosperity of the United States against those that seek to undermine both. Yet it is critical to get something enacted into law that would restrict another future Socialist Democrat President from repeating the so-called “progressive policies” of the Obama and Biden administrations somewhere down the road. Otherwise, the energy industry in this country will be unwilling to commit billions in capital expenditures over the next 15 to 20 years with the possibility that some future Democrat President can shut it all down with the stroke of a pen yet again.
The issue to getting this law enacted is of course the U.S. Senate. Where we would need 60 votes to get it passed and then put before President Trump, who would happily sign it into law. The Senate Democrats will vote in united opposition to block it. Maybe John Fetterman will vote for it, because he realizes his state is moving away from the most insane policies of the Democrats but that is about it.
While H.R. 26 makes perfect sense and should end up as law, the reality is the Democrat Party has no interest in promoting any pro-growth economic or business policies for the betterment of the United States. The Democrats simply want what they view as a socialist Utopia here in the United States. That hasn’t changed since the election, as it is plain to see the Democrats remain as committed as ever to their destructive agenda. In such a desired Utopia, policies simply revolve around whatever promotes the power and control of the Democrat Party to unilaterally dictate their whims, no matter how economically or socially destructive, to a submissive and powerless citizenry that just mindlessly obeys. So unfortunately, this bill is destined for the same fate as every other pro-economic growth bill from the House over the last few years.
Based on their actions and rhetoric, the demon party would like to take us back to 19th century living. How romantic. Huddling in front of the hearth, reading by candlelight, travel by horse drawn wagons, bicycles or on foot. This bill wont pass in the senate so oil and gas investment will slow all so energy prices stay high so the treason party can accuse trump of not lowering prices in two years. They know people are counting on sub two buck gas, lower heating and grocery bills and inflation moderating in general. The big question is whether dem voting dopes wake up soon enough.
Good idea to put it into law so some crazy left wing president can’t overturn it with an executive order.
Of all the horrors of the administration of the Pedophile-in-Chief, deliberately throwing away American Energy independence, while at the same time providing support for Gulf Stream 2 (talk about a conspiracy with Russia!), was at the top of the list. The rigging of the 2016 election, horrific as it was, provided America with a full-on, slap in the face as to the horrors of the demonic rat party and the incredible damage done is now recognized by most of America. You’ll have to explain to me why the demonic rats are so unhappy about DOGE’s curbing the waste of billions of our tax dollars on absurdities which go beyond all comprehension.
Hooray for Ms Weber and those who are in favor of this energy bill. It needs to be made into law as with any executive orders because the next Democrat yo yo will just reverse things. Everything Mr. Trump has signed NEEDS TO BE MADE INTO LAW! We have our work cut out. Everything especially this energy bill is comon sense and will just lower gas and energy prices thus paying less for goods and services. Any democrat who’s not in favor of this has a lot of explanation to do withbtheir constituents unless they want to continue to pay high prices. You reap what you sow I always say!!
Thanks to Obama and Biden, the rate its going California will finish its high speed rail to nowhere before the Keystone XL is!
Way past time to have done this. STOP the money changing hands from the environmental groups to the DEMORATS and they might be more inclined to vote for the “Protecting American Energy Act”.
Frick and Frack will be right back. 🙂
Yes, by all means let us Ban The Ban and get energetic again!