White House Says Joe Biden Will Veto House GOP’s Energy Package

The White House says President Joe Biden would veto the House Republicans’ major energy legislation package “in its current form” if it passes through Congress, claiming it would not help Americans.

Ahead of the House voting on H.R. 1, Lower Energy Costs Act — where it is expected to pass — the White House released a statement on Monday saying the Biden administration “strongly opposes” the legislation and that the president would veto the energy package if it passes through the Senate and makes it to his desk “in its current form.”

The White House claimed that the legislation, “in its current form,” does the “opposite” of what the administration is doing to try to reduce energy costs for American families and “would pad oil and gas company profits…  and undercut our public health and environment”:

H.R. 1 would double the cost of energy efficiency upgrades that families need to reduce household bills and would repeal the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund that will cut energy costs and boost economic development in rural and urban communities across the country. H.R. 1 would also empower big companies to skirt the Clean Air Act by lifting pollution control requirements, weaken emissions requirements and worker protection for refineries using toxic chemicals, modify requirements under the bipartisan Toxic Substances Control Act for determining the safety of chemicals used in the energy sector, and repeal $1.5 billion in investments focused on curbing methane leaks that harm surrounding communities.

Despite what the White House is saying, Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s (R-CA) office has previously stated that the legislation would focus on two main priorities: “increasing the production and export of American energy and reducing the regulatory burdens that make it harder to build American infrastructure and grow our economy.”

“The Biden administration has kneecapped American energy production, and endlessly delayed critical infrastructure projects,” the Speaker’s office has previously stated. “Democrats’ misguided policies increased costs for every American and jeopardized our national security – and they’ve made the rest of the world more reliant on dirtier energy from Russia and China.”

The legislation is said to be up for a vote this week in the House, where it is expected to pass in the new Republican majority easily. But the legislation is expected not to have as easy as a time in the Senate, where the Democrats have a slim majority and will likely face some challenges.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer has previously said that the Lower Energy Costs Act is “dead on arrival” in the Senate, even though some Democrat senators who are up for reelection — such as Sen. Jon Tester and Sen. Joe Manchin — have been willing to join Republican on some GOP backed efforts in the upper chamber.

Jacob Bliss is a reporter for Breitbart News. Write to him at jbliss@breitbart.com or follow him on Twitter @JacobMBliss.