Pallone: Job-Killing, American Energy-Destroying Republicans Are Not Serious About Securing Our Supply Chains

Energy and Commerce Committee Ranking Member Frank Pallone, Jr. (D-NJ) delivered the following remarks on the House floor today in opposition to H.R. 3617, which amends the Department of Energy’s (DOE) mission to include securing supply of "critical energy resources," providing the Trump Administration open-ended authorities to increase domestic production of fossil fuels without guardrails:

Mr. Speaker, at a time when American families are struggling to make ends meet as costs for health care, energy, housing, education and groceries are skyrocketing, House Republicans are once again wasting floor time on a bill that does absolutely nothing to provide any relief. To make matters worse, this bill does not help America address the critical minerals supply. It just props up polluting fossil fuels at the expense of cheaper and cleaner energy technologies.   

Critical minerals are a critical component of many modern technologies, from our cell phones to solar panels to electric vehicles. The demand for these minerals will only increase as the world continues in transition to clean energy. And we must strengthen our domestic production, processing, and recycling capabilities, as well as cement relationships with our allies to access new critical mineral supplies. 

Democrats were in the process of doing exactly this with the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law that included $3 billion for Battery Manufacturing and Recycling to build out a circular and efficient supply chain that reuses critical minerals instead of letting them waste away in landfills.

But instead of building on this important work, Republicans took a sledgehammer to these investments. Their Big Ugly Bill repealed vital clean energy tax credits and programs and canceled billions of dollars in projects that would have helped with critical mineral supply. 

The Trump Administration also shut down the Office of Manufacturing and Energy Supply Chains – the office Congress created to lead a lot of the clean energy and critical mineral supply chain work. The Administration also cancelled more than $700 million in battery and manufacturing grants that that office had issued.   

Now this is extremely harmful to our economy and to families’ monthly power bills because the rest of the world, particularly China, is making the necessary investments in the clean energy transition. In 2022 alone, China installed roughly as much solar capacity as the rest of the world combined. China controls more than seventy percent of the world’s battery manufacturing capacity. Today, we rely on imports of minerals, such as cobalt, lithium, and graphite, that are integral components of clean energy technology. China controls around eighty percent of the world’s processing capacity for these critical minerals, posing serious national, economic, and energy security risks.

So, we should all be concerned about securing domestic critical mineral supply chains. But this bill does not solve this problem – in fact, it will only risk diluting and diverting resources away from critical mineral supply chains and toward fossil fuels.

The only mention of “critical minerals” in this bill starts and ends with its title. Instead, it focuses on “critical energy resources,” which is defined as any energy resource that is essential to the energy sector. Now this overly broad language will inevitably result in additional resources spent on fossil fuels, like coal and natural gas, at the expense of actual critical mineral and clean energy supply chains. With this bill, Republicans are handing the Trump Administration yet another tool to prop up polluting fossil fuels at the expense of cheaper and cleaner energy technologies.

And if Republicans truly want to be competitive with China, canceling clean energy projects that drive market demand is not the solution. Under Trump’s watch, we have lost more than $30 billion in American manufacturing investments. 

Mr. Speaker, electricity prices are rising across the country, including in my state of New Jersey. Americans are going into debt to heat their homes this winter. President Trump has failed on his day one promise to bring down prices for American families. Instead, his Big Ugly Bill is projected to increase electricity prices by an additional 61 percent. 

Now Mr. Speaker, I hear from my constituents every day that affordability is their top concern. Yet today we are here debating yet another Republican energy bill that will do nothing to lower prices for Americans. And frankly, I think it’s a shame. 

My concern is that, with this bill, Republicans continue to ignore the affordability crisis while they give DOE new authority which they will use to secure more support for their oil and gas buddies.   

So I urge my colleagues to vote no, and I reserve the balance of my time.

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