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Floor Speech

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Mr. MARSHALL. Mr. President, certainly the chairman of the Energy and Natural Resources Committee and I agree on so many goals when it comes to American energy. We both believe in American energy independence. We believe in affordable clean energy. We agree that we want to leave this world cleaner, healthier, and safer than we found it. But unfortunately I oppose his amendment and ask my colleagues to oppose it as well.

I am afraid this amendment will do more harm than good. It will give the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission--FERC, as it is known--the power to socialize the cost of new high-voltage transmission lines. That is right--a huge shift of power will go from the States to the Federal Government.

Unelected bureaucrats would have the authority to make electric customers in mostly red States pay to deliver expensive and intermittent energy that fits the green energy dreams of blue States and in many cases causes rural America to pay for urban America's electricity. It would even give Federal regulators the authority to make residents of inland States pay for transmission lines that connect offshore wind farms to coastal States, such as California, New Jersey, and New York. It would allow these same regulators to make our residents pay for these transmission lines even if power on those lines would not serve them.

While this transportation of wind and solar electricity fits their social agenda, let me remind everyone that the cost of transporting this electricity is approximately 10 times more than transporting enough clean natural gas to produce an equivalent amount of electricity. We need not only clean energy, we need affordable energy.

This is why Republican attorneys general from across the Nation and the nonpartisan National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners strongly oppose this amendment. These expert public officials pleaded with us not to go down this road in September. They remain opposed to Senator Manchin's latest draft.

In a December 12, 2022, letter, the attorneys general state that they ``write to again express strong opposition to the renewed attempt to make sweeping changes to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission's authority.'' They go on to say that the Manchin amendment ``guts states' traditional authority over energy and land use policies.''

Let me say that again. They go on to say that the Manchin amendment ``guts states' traditional authority over energy and land use policies.''

They tell us that the amendment does little, if anything, to address the concerns they raised in September. In their December letter, the public utility commissioners say Senator Manchin's legislation ``eliminates the last vestiges of states' electric transmission sitting jurisdiction.'' This is simply bad policy.

Another issue is the damage the amendment would do to the efforts to develop hydrogen as an energy source. It would choke hydrogen pipelines under a mountain of regulation.

The final text of this amendment only saw the light of day just a week ago. The amendment has not been the subject of any debate in committee. We have had no hearings, no witnesses, and no markups. Changing the complex Federal Power Act and Natural Gas Act during a lameduck session without any opportunity for meaningful public input is a recipe for disaster. This is no way to make changes to complex laws.

Finally, Senator Manchin's amendment does nothing to address the problem of never-ending environmental litigation. We both represent proud energy States: West Virginia, a great coal State; Kansas, oil, gas, wind, solar. But it seems like there is never an end to the environmental litigation challenges we have. Nuisance lawsuits block energy projects from moving forward, driving up the cost to consumers. This is an issue that needs to be addressed.

I look forward to working with my colleague and with the chairman this next Congress through regular order to enact changes to laws that will actually speed energy projects of all kinds.

We must enable Federal permits for energy projects to be more durable. We must ensure that Federal permitting is evenhanded. We must rein in the endless and often federally funded litigation that is killing projects. Senator Manchin's amendment addresses none of these problems.

The Senate should reject this amendment. We should work together under regular order. We should enact real and effective permitting reform in the next Congress.

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