Pallone Opening Remarks at Hearing on Republicans' Attacks on Renewable Energy
Energy and Commerce Committee Ranking Member Frank Pallone, Jr. (D-NJ) delivered the following opening remarks at a Subcommittee on Environment, Manufacturing, and Critical Materials hearing on Republicans' attacks on renewable energy:
This week we are seeing just how far House Republicans will go to put the interests of polluters over the American people. Republicans are manufacturing a debt crisis to justify the need for their irresponsible and extreme Default on America Act.
Speaker McCarthy's bill will raise costs for American families, kick millions of people off their health insurance, reverse the progress we've made to combat the worsening climate crisis, and undermine our efforts to lead the world in the transition to a clean energy economy – all so Republicans can provide huge new giveaways to billionaires and big corporations.
House Republicans are holding the American economy hostage so they can do the bidding of Big Oil and Gas, increase energy costs for working families, and set American workers up to be left behind as they abandon our homegrown clean energy economy.
A key part of the Republicans' Default on America Act is to repeal large portions of the historic climate provisions Democrats delivered with the Inflation Reduction Act last year.
The Republican bill would repeal the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund, which is deploying clean energy projects all across the country. It would repeal the Methane Emissions Reduction Program, which curbs methane leaks from the oil and gas industry, protecting peoples' health and ensuring polluters – not taxpayers – pay for their wasted methane. It repeals the $4.5 billion home electrification rebate program designed to lower families' energy bills. And it repeals tax credits for electric vehicles, critical minerals for batteries, domestic battery manufacturing, and solar and wind production.
Republicans want to repeal all these provisions even though the Inflation Reduction Act is already making a big difference. Since its passage, about $28 billion in new, domestic manufacturing investments focused on EVs, batteries, and solar have been announced. Companies have announced $242 billion in new clean power capital investments. And many of the states leading the nation in these investments are states that Committee Republicans represent. Georgia tops the list at $15 billion, followed by Tennessee at $10.9 billion, Michigan at $7.2 billion, South Carolina at $6.2 billion, Texas at $5.1 billion, and Ohio at $4.8 billion. The investments from the Inflation Reduction Act have led to more than 142,000 clean energy jobs being created across the nation.
Those are impressive results considering the Inflation Reduction Act has not even been law for a year. And yet House Republicans now want to reverse this progress so they can continue to put polluters over people.
It is clear Republicans don't have any real interest in diversifying our energy resources. Last week, at a bipartisan nuclear energy hearing every witness supported the nuclear tax credit, praising it as a way to support our diversified energy mix. That very same tax credit is now on the chopping block in the Republicans' Default on America Act.
This hearing also makes it clear that Republicans are not interested in being productive and offering real solutions that help us meet our climate goals and ensure that we out-compete the rest of the world in the clean energy transition. After all, the world is transitioning, and we must continue on the path Democrats have set us on.
There are certainly challenges that we must continue to address in this transition, but that's exactly what we've done. The Bipartisan Infrastructure Law directed the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to develop best practices for battery recycling and voluntary battery labeling guidelines – two critical components of strengthening our critical minerals supply chains for clean energy development.
The law also allocated $6 billion for battery processing, manufacturing, and recycling. It also expanded the Department of Energy's loan guarantee program to include projects that increase supply of domestically produced critical minerals. These are important investments that help us meet our climate goals while also supporting the onshoring of crucial clean energy supply chains.
Democrats delivered real solutions, and not one Republican on this Committee voted for either the Inflation Reduction Act or the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law.
I welcome a productive conversation about strengthening our national security and lowering energy costs by diversifying our energy mix. In my view, these are bipartisan issues that we can work on together. But that's extremely difficult to do when Republicans continue pushing their polluters over people agenda. We simply cannot go back. And with that, Mr. Chairman, I yield back the remainder of my time.
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