Cloture Motion

Floor Speech

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Mr. SULLIVAN. Madam President, a number of us are down on the Senate floor here talking about the disastrous Biden administration policies that from day one--day one--have sought to increase energy prices and put American workers out of work.

How have they been doing that?

Well, they are shutting down the production of American energy. All over the country, they are going after infrastructure, particularly pipelines, not allowing those to be built.

They have energy or climate czars not confirmed by the Senate--John Kerry, Gina McCarthy--who are going to financial intuitions in America saying: Don't invest in American energy.

And then we are hearing reports that John Kerry is going to countries in Asia, saying: Don't buy American LNG.

You can't make this stuff up.

Two days ago in the Washington Post, another story. John Kerry was saying to President Biden: Hey, we have to be softer on China so we can get them to maybe commit a promise that they will never keep in Scotland.

You can't make this up. Let's be soft. The Chinese are mad about us raising issues about Hong Kong and Taiwan. John Kerry is saying maybe we should tone that down to get the Communist Party of China to agree to some empty promises on climate. You can't make this up.

So what we are seeing is spiking energy prices at the pump for working families. Here is the question everybody should be asking--I hope our friends in the media ask it, certainly--of the Biden administration: Is this intentional? Are you really trying to drive up energy prices that is hurting working families?

My view is, I think the answer is yes.

The President had a townhall last week. He seemed to not have a clue about a bunch of issues, but particularly on energy prices.

And just yesterday, there was an article about how Gina McCarthy was quoted as saying there will be opportunities with these high energy prices:

Soaring commodity prices stemming from a surge in energy demand and limited supply, should accelerate the move to renewables around the world.

This is a senior Biden administration official saying: Hey, we are actually trying to drive these prices up. Sorry, working families in America. Winter is coming. You are really going to be hurting. Maybe the world will move to renewables.

You can't make this up.

To me, this is one of the biggest betrayals of working families and working men and women in U.S. history: an administration coming in on purpose to drive up energy prices--Gina McCarthy says so--knowing it is going to hurt working families.

Heck, I wouldn't be surprised if President Biden will be calling on our citizens to wear a Jimmy Carter-style cardigan soon.

What they are doing is building back better to the seventies: high inflation; gas lines; high energy prices; empty shelves; lack of workers; energy-producing adversaries, like Russia, empowered; begging OPEC to produce more oil. That is literally what is going on.

Madam President, we have a much better plan. In the next few weeks, some of my colleagues--Senator Cramer, Senator Lummis, and a number of others--we are going to be putting forward a plan on what is working. We need to build on what is working in America.

Let me give you a couple of statistics that matter. Since 2005, the United States has reduced greenhouse gas emissions by almost 15 percent, more than any other major economy in the world. That is a fact. You don't hear it from President Biden. Heck, the Secretary of Energy thinks we are the sinner. They don't recognize China as producing almost three times the amount of greenhouse gas emissions than we are. Estimates are that 100 percent of the increase in global greenhouse gas emissions are going to come from nonindustrialized countries--China, India, others--yet they are putting all the pain on Americans.

If we export and continue to export clean-burning American natural gas as we currently do to India, to China, to Korea, to Japan, that could have a huge impact on reducing global greenhouse gas emissions.

So what we are going to be doing is we are going to be working with others--we certainly want some of our Democratic colleagues to join this commonsense approach.

The American Energy, Jobs, and Climate Plan is focused on all-of-the- above energy using technology--yes, building out the renewable sector in conjunction with our other energy that we currently have; empowering American workers; not giving him and her pink slips, which is the Biden way; enacting reform; knowing that we need other resources, like critical minerals that we have in abundance in Alaska and America, for the renewable sector; permanent reform so we can bring all energy projects online--oil, gas, renewable, nuclear, all of the above. That is the power; and, of course, using our resources to leverage our foreign policy advantage over our allies.

As we start rolling out our plan, we need to compare it with the Biden Green New Deal. We need to compare it with the Biden Green New Deal. Just look at the comparison, what we are going to be doing over here in the blue with our plan and what the President and his team--no offense to some of my colleagues, led by a number of them--on the Green New Deal.

We will create millions of jobs. They are putting people out of work as we speak.

We have the ability to reduce global greenhouse gas emissions. They are going to China to get empty promises from dictators--not going to work, no matter how much John Kerry kowtows to the Communists.

We are going to restore energy dominance. They want to crush it.

We want to invest in manufacturing and other elements that will produce millions of jobs for working-class Americans. Right now, they want to rely on China to source everything we have in America.

And, of course, we want reasonable energy prices. And, as I already mentioned, Gina McCarthy and others are trying to drive up American energy costs on Americans' backs so they can go to Europe, drink a glass of wine, and tell them how well they are doing in terms of crushing our energy sector. The American people don't want that.

Our plan is what is supported by the American people, not these crazy Green New Deal policies that are hurting men and women, particularly working families and energy sector workers, more than any other policy of any administration in the history of the country.

I am glad a number of my colleagues are down here to continue this discussion. I look forward to participating with them.

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