House Passes Bill To Prevent Fracking Moratorium
The Republican-led House passed a bill that would stop future presidents from banning oil and gas drilling without getting permission from Congress first. Lawmakers voted to pass the “Protecting American Energy Production Act,” which says that the president can’t “declare a moratorium on the use of hydraulic fracturing unless Congress authorizes the moratorium.”
There were 118 Democrats who voted against the bill, but all Republican House members voted for it to pass. The bill comes after former President Joe Biden put in place several rules for the oil and gas industry. For example, he banned all future oil and gas drilling along 625 million acres of coastal and offshore waters just weeks before he left office.
Rep. August Pfluger, a Republican from Texas, said that worries about possible fracking bans during the Biden administration led to the bill.
“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 following the bill’s passage.
“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,” he said.
Earlier this month, the U.S. House voted 213 to 184 to pass legislation aimed at speeding up federal permitting for interstate natural gas pipelines.
The bill would designate the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission as the lead agency for pipeline permitting reviews.
Under the legislation, FERC would be allowed to consider water quality assessments as part of its environmental review, rather than waiting for separate Clean Water Act certifications from states.
Supporters say state-level certifications have often delayed pipeline approvals for years. The bill is titled the Improving Interagency Coordination for Pipeline Reviews Act. It is one of several measures in Congress aimed at accelerating federal permitting processes.
Another bill, the Promoting Efficient Review for Modern Infrastructure Today Act, also passed the House with bipartisan support. Lawmakers have made broad permitting reform a priority as they seek to expand energy infrastructure to meet rising electricity demand.
That demand has grown in part due to the rapid expansion of data centers across the country. Supporters of the legislation also argue that faster permitting could help reduce household energy costs, particularly by enabling quicker construction of energy projects that can increase supply and competition in the market.
The agency has approved most natural gas pipeline proposals that have come before it recently.
Energy Secretary Chris Wright said Friday that gasoline prices could begin falling within weeks despite a sharp spike tied to the escalating conflict with Iran. Wright said the disruption to global oil markets is likely temporary.
“Look, Iran’s been an escalator of energy prices [for] 47 years, the whole history of their regime,” Wright said in an interview, Newsmax reported. “We got a little bit of an interruption right now to finally put an end to their ability to wreak havoc, to kill Americans, and to terrorize their neighbors.”
His remarks came as oil traders and drivers reacted to rising crude and gasoline prices following joint U.S.-Israeli military operations against Iran.
Iran has also taken steps to disrupt shipping through the Strait of Hormuz. The waterway is one of the most critical oil choke points in the world.
The strait connects the Persian Gulf to the Gulf of Oman and normally carries about 20 percent of global petroleum liquids consumption.
Any threat to shipping through the passage can quickly impact global energy markets.
President Trump said that Iran is “totally defeated” just two weeks into the conflict with the Islamic Republic.
“The Fake News Media hates to report how well the United States Military has done against Iran, which is totally defeated and wants a deal — But not a deal that I would accept!” he posted to Truth Social.
"""My husband brought his mistress to our daughter’s wedding—and then asked me to give her my seat beside him.
"""My husband brought his mistress to our daughter’s wedding—and then asked me to give her my seat beside him. For a few seconds, I honestly thought I was looking at the wrong table, because my name card had vanished and Melissa’s was sitting exactly where mine had been on every seating chart. She wore a pale blue silk dress, lifted her champagne as if she belonged there, and avoided my eyes when I stopped beside the chair. David stood up, pointed to an empty seat at the next table, and quietly said, “For tonight, why don’t you sit over there?”
I had spent fourteen months helping our daughter, Emily, plan that wedding, from dress fittings and florist meetings to late-night calls over napkins and seating charts. That morning, while I fastened the pearl buttons on her gown, she made me promise I would enjoy the day and not let anything between her father and me touch it. I meant that promise, because whatever was left of my marriage, I would not make my daughter’s wedding the battlefield where it died. But David had apparently made a different plan, and he expected me to cooperate with it in silence.
When I asked what Melissa was doing there, David’s face showed guilt for only a second before he hid it behind irritation. He acted as though I were creating the problem simply by noticing that his mistress was seated at the family table in the place reserved for the bride’s mother. Then Melissa looked at me and said, “Honey, today really isn’t the day to make Emily uncomfortable.” I almost laughed, because the woman who had been sleeping with my husband for nearly a year was now warning me not to embarrass my own daughter.
I could feel people settling into nearby seats, laughing and talking, unaware that my marriage was being quietly rearranged in front of them. David kept his voice low and told me we should not “do this here,” as if the humiliation belonged to me because I refused to disappear politely. I looked at the empty chair he had chosen for me between a cousin and someone from the groom’s side, and I realized something colder than anger. This was not spontaneous; he had thought about where Melissa would sit, and he had assumed I would move.
For twenty-eight years, I had been the woman who adjusted, explained, forgave, and made excuses when David forgot anniversaries, missed dinners, or put work ahead of family. When he became distant, I learned to expect less instead of asking for more, and somewhere along the way he mistook that patience for permission. Even now, part of me considered taking the other chair, smiling for photographs, swallowing the humiliation, and telling myself it was all for Emily. I actually reached for the chair because protecting my daughter still mattered more to me than winning a public fight.
Then I heard one word behind me: “Mom?” Emily was walking toward us in her wedding dress, still glowing from the ceremony, and at first she looked confused rather than angry. Her eyes moved from me, to the empty chair, to Melissa, then back to the family table where she had personally placed me months ago. David quickly stepped in and announced that he had “rearranged a few things,” as if changing the bride’s seating chart without permission were no more serious than moving a centerpiece.
Emily asked why I was not sitting in my seat, and David casually pointed to the neighboring table and said I would be sitting “right there.” Her smile disappeared, and her eyes dropped to the place card in front of Melissa. I watched my daughter’s expression go completely still as she picked up that card and turned it over in her hand. In that instant, I understood the worst part: Emily had not approved this, and David had brought his mistress into our daughter’s wedding believing he could force everyone to accept what he wanted once it was already done.
What Emily did not know was that six months earlier, I had discovered David’s affair through a message that appeared on his phone while he was in the shower. Melissa had written, “I hate pretending I don’t miss you when she’s around,” followed by another message asking whether Friday was still theirs. When I confronted him, David spent eleven minutes calling me paranoid, insecure, dramatic, suspicious, and unfair before I repeated Melissa’s words exactly. The silence that followed ended our marriage long before either of us ever said the word divorce.
We had kept the details quiet because Emily was planning her wedding, and I refused to turn her happiest season into a crisis about us. David told me he was “confused,” that what he had with Melissa was “more complicated than an affair,” and that he needed time before making decisions. I agreed only that Emily’s wedding came first, so we slept in separate rooms, spoke carefully, and tried to appear functional while our marriage quietly collapsed. I believed David understood that one day required restraint, but he had apparently used that silence to prepare something else.
Three weeks before the wedding, he had casually asked whether Emily had finalized the family table and whether every seat had been assigned. At the time, I thought it was harmless conversation, but standing there with Melissa’s card in my daughter’s hand, I finally understood why he had asked. He had been checking whether there would be room, and when there was not, he simply removed me. Emily looked up at her father and asked, very quietly, “Where is Mom’s place card?”—and for the first time that night, David had no easy answer.
…FULL STORY IN THE COMMENT 👇👇👇"" "
