AFP PHOTO/Brendan SMIALOWSKIBRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP/Getty Images
Government over-reach and stifling regulations are sabotaging job growth from the American energy renaissance, according to Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX).
“We are seeing extraordinary developments in energy that are opening up resources that five or ten years ago would have been unimaginable,” Cruz said at the Heritage Foundation’s Conservative Policy Summit. “The only thing that can stop this great energy renaissance is the government getting in the way.”
Cruz cited North Dakota’s booming oil and gas industry as a model for the nation, where the average hourly wage is $45.90 per hour. He contrasted North Dakota’s healthy economy to President Obama’s minimum wage agenda, noting that the current administration’s “real minimum wage” is $0.00 due to the number of unemployed Americans who cannot take advantage of energy industry opportunities.
“The energy revolution didn’t come from the U.S. Department of Energy,” Cruz said. “It came from entrepreneurs putting capital at risk and meeting a need.”
Cruz called foreign energy dependence “profoundly dangerous,” hailing the “expansion of natural gas” as a factor that is increasingly benefiting the environment.
“We cannot believe that government invents, creates or produces. It doesn’t,” Cruz said, announcing that he will soon introduce the American Energy Renaissance Act.
Cruz’s bill seeks to promote economic growth by curtailing “federal regulation of hydraulic fracturing” and working to “improve domestic refining capacity,” “approve the Keystone pipeline,” “stop EPA overreach and the war on coal,” “open up offshore exploration, and “expand U.S. energy exports.”
Cruz pledged to continue pushing for the Keystone pipeline and the tapping of the nation’s resources, deeming the energy renaissance “a providential blessing.”
This story was produced by The Foundry’s news team. Nothing here should be construed as necessarily reflecting the views of The Heritage Foundation.