Energy

Floor Speech

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Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, now on a completely different matter, I have been talking all week about the ways that liberal policies hurt American families in their daily lives.

After 2 years of total Democratic control in Washington, we have seen how reckless spending comes home to roost in the form of decades-high inflation and shrinking paychecks for working Americans.

We have seen what happens when one of our two major political parties decides in its rhetoric, in its personnel, and in its policies that keeping our streets safe, our border secure, and criminals behind bars are simply not their priorities. And despite multiple glaring cautionary tales both at home and abroad, we are seeing the early warning signs of our Democratic colleagues' hostility to an all-of-the-above American energy strategy.

In Europe, some of America's closest allies are reaping the painful effects of years of shortsighted green policies. By swapping affordable and reliable domestic power for half-baked fads, our friends have placed themselves at the mercy of Vladimir Putin to meet demand ahead of another cold winter.

Working families and small businesses are taking this tradeoff on the chin. I saw one shop owner in Ireland explain she has just had to pay almost as much for 2 months of electricity as she did throughout all of last year. Unfortunately, millions of Americans can sympathize. An estimated 20 million U.S. households are already behind on their energy bills thanks to Democrats' runaway inflation.

And out in California, State and local Democrats have wasted no time taking things even further--even further--in the wrong direction. Democrats have made California's electrical grid into a giant experiment to try out all of their misunderstandings about energy policy. It is not going well. With hot weather demand surging, California authorities are sweating political shortfalls of up to 5,000 megawatts. California's love affair with fickle, unreliable green energy could force its residents to put up with rolling blackouts just to conform to wealthy liberals' preferences.

The government had to send out an emergency message begging citizens to ration power. Ironically, just weeks after announcing a future ban on gas-powered automobiles, the State is now begging folks not to charge their expensive electric cars to avoid crashing the grid.

So California Democrats don't want you putting gas in your car; they don't want you to plug in your car either. That is exactly where their war on energy would leave the American people: Going nowhere fast.

President Biden's Secretary of Energy, Secretary Granholm, literally said less than a week ago that:

California is in the lead--

In the lead-- and can show the rest of the nation how it is done.

So at home and abroad, our Democratic colleagues have been given sobering warnings of what not to do on energy. They have seen what happens when you wage war on abundant fossil fuels, abandon nuclear power, and go all in on the least--the least--reliable energy sources.

But this all-Democratic government has spent 2 straight years running head-on toward these bright red flashing warning signals. They have frozen new domestic energy leasing, canceled new pipelines, and reinstated a maze--a maze--of redtape designed to strangle entire domestic industries.

As gas prices skyrocketed on President Biden's watch, his administration approved less new oil drilling than any since Harry Truman was in office. Our Democratic colleagues have doubled and tripled down. Last month, while they rammed through their reckless taxing-and-spending spree, they voted in lockstep multiple times against Republican amendments that would have helped shore up American energy and rebuild our independence.

Europe in thrall to Putin's gas supply, California talking about rolling blackouts--exactly what further warning do our Democratic colleagues actually need?

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