These days it seems everywhere you turn you can find someone on the left saying that President Trump has done nothing since taking office. While many of us can point to countless areas to prove this is simply not the case, one issue at the top of the list is the President’s efforts in the energy arena.

Four days after his inauguration, President Trump signed an executive order indicating he was committed to fulfilling his campaign promises through the advancements of the Keystone XL and Dakota Access Pipelines.

For the past eight years, we watched Obama put up roadblocks on our path towards energy independence, forcing American families to foot the bill for higher energy costs. Here in Minnesota, we know better than most that the costs of heating your home – especially during brutal winters – can ruin a family.

Thankfully, our new Administration is adamant about changing our path and allowing our energy policy to once again become a priority. Over the past two weeks, not only did President Trump approve the permits for the construction of the Keystone Pipeline, but he took it one step further. The President signed an executive order to reassess Obama’s overreaching Clean Power Plan, which placed heavy regulations on states.

Our great state of Minnesota has already shown our commitment to reducing carbon emissions and just last month our state legislature passed a law to convert two units at Sherco’s coal fired power plant here in the Sixth District to natural gas.

I applaud the new administration’s efforts to give control back to the states, as the President’s recent actions on our nation’s energy policies do, because Minnesota knows what is best for Minnesotans. I look forward to continuing this progress in Congress and returning the United States to being an energy superpower.