Colorado U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert filed a discharge petition along with Texas U.S. Rep. Chip Roy to force a House vote on a bill to roll back the Biden administration’s assault on energy workers.
Boebert’s underlying bill, the Protecting American Energy Jobs Act, would reverse President Biden’s energy lease moratorium on federal lands.
This is important for Colorado. Our energy workers are losing their jobs thanks to @JoeBiden's unworkable policies. At the @cologop, we stand for jobs, for kids, and for the American dream. #copolitics https://t.co/DIS4sT7nXR
— KBBColorado (@ColoradoKbb) April 22, 2021
The moratorium, which the Biden administration recently extended into June, threatens nearly 3,000 jobs along with $224 million of income this year alone, according to a Wyoming Energy Authority study released several months ago.
If all this sounds eerily similar to the full-blown Green New Deal, you’re not dreaming.
Almost all Colorado energy development on federal land is concentrated along the Western Slope in the 3rd Congressional District, making the prospect of crushing job losses in Mesa County and elsewhere all too real.
“We’re embracing a reliable form of energy, and we are rejecting socialism,” Boebert told Fox News.
“That’s what the Green New Deal is. Americans support American energy. We make the most reliable cleanest energy in the world, and we should have a vote in Congress to see who actually supports these job-killing regulations that we’re seeing come from the Democrat Party and from President Biden.”
Since Democrats can essentially kill Boebert’s bill by allowing it to languish in committee without a vote, her only recourse is to file a discharge petition.
Should Boebert and Roy’s petition garner the signatures from a majority of House members, they would force a full House vote on her bill.
The maneuver is rarely successful because members of the majority are typically hesitant to force many of their party’s vulnerable members into taking a politically uncomfortable vote.
Beyond that, Nancy Pelosi would surely mete out swift political retribution for any Democrats brave enough to break ranks and stand up against the Green New Deal.
Since Republicans are in the minority, Boebert will need at least six Democrats to sign onto the petition for it to be successful.
While that could prove a tall task, the freedom defending duo will focus their efforts on four House Texas Democrats who have already asked the Biden administration to revoke the moratorium.
“The Biden administration is willing to sacrifice millions of oil and gas jobs, hike up energy costs, and destroy our energy independence all to appease Green-New-Deal-loving radicals,” Roy said.
“It’s time that Congress put a stop to his unilateral economic destruction and put the American people first. After all House Republicans have signed on to this effort, I look forward to seeing how many of my Democratic colleagues are willing to protect American jobs and energy security.”