Lee Releases Report on the Rising Energy Prices Driving Inflation
Lee Releases Report on the Rising Energy Prices Driving Inflation
WASHINGTON— Today, Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT), Ranking Member of the Joint Economic Committee, released a report on the rising energy prices driving inflation.
Lee said, “Rising energy prices are proving to be a significant burden for American families. Families are being forced to spend more this winter to fuel their cars, travel to work, and heat their homes. Our research at the JEC finds that these rising energy prices hit the lowest income households the hardest, and that the Administration’s policies have played a role. Unleashing production of American energy is critical to bring down these soaring prices.”
Energy prices in the U.S. increased by nearly 30% over the last year alone. The report finds that the average American household spent $1,200 more on energy costs in 2021 than they did in the previous year. Households in the lowest income quintile were hit the hardest, spending over 10% of their budgets on energy costs alone last year.
The report details how Biden Administration policies—shutting down the Keystone Pipeline, issuing a moratorium on energy leases on federal land, and imposing new mandates and taxes on oil and gas producers—have raised costs for American families. Without addressing these undue burdens to American energy, it will be more difficult to bring down runaway inflation.
The Joint Economic Committee is Congress’s bicameral economic research center and home of the Social Capital Project, led by Ranking Member Mike Lee.
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