Providing for Congressional Disapproval Under Chapter 8 of Title United States Code, of the Rule Submitted By the United States Fish and Wildlife Service Relating to ``Endangered and Threatened Wildlife and Plants; Lesser Prairie-Chicken; Threatened Status with Section 4(D) Rule for the Northern Distinct Population Segment and Endangered Status for the Southern Distinct Population Segment''

Floor Speech

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Mr. SCHATZ. Madam President, 8 months ago, we passed the Inflation Reduction Act. Sometimes when a major bill is passed, its effects are not immediate, but that is not the case with this legislation.

Since the IRA was signed into law, more than 100 clean energy projects have been announced. These include solar, wind, hydrogen power, battery manufacturing, electric vehicle development, and clean tech investments. If it seems like I am excited, it is because I am. They are in rural areas, in major cities, and everywhere in between, and in more than 30 States, from Idaho to Louisiana, to Ohio, to Arizona. Collectively, these projects have created more than 100,000 new jobs for electricians, for mechanics, for construction workers, for technicians, and more, but these 100,000 jobs are only the beginning.

A report from the University of Massachusetts projects that the IRA will create more than 9 million jobs over the next decade. I want to repeat that: 9 million jobs over the next decade. Those are manufacturing jobs for wind turbines, solar panels, and electric vehicles to make our power grid more resilient and our roads less polluted. They are construction jobs to make our homes and our buildings more energy efficient and to lower costs for families and small businesses. They are environmental jobs to support farmers, to protect fisheries, and to restore our public lands.

Investments supporting these new jobs and projects are already near $90 billion, and with financial analysts projecting a multiplier effect of 1.6 dollars in private sector investment for every dollar of public spending, even the most optimistic predictions about the IRA's impact seem low now. A Credit Suisse report analyzing the bill estimates that we will see double the amount of clean energy that the bill was initially projected to accomplish--double the amount of clean energy. A new analysis from Goldman Sachs puts the impact even higher: triple the amount of clean energy that we were contemplating.

This shift is already happening in Colorado, where it is seeing a rapid expansion in clean energy development.

DR Richardson, who runs a business in electrifying homes with heat pumps and induction wiring, said about the change that ``we are having a hard time keeping up with the demand. The Inflation Reduction Act has been a massive tailwind for us.''

In Michigan, the State's manufacturing background and embrace of electric vehicles could lead to as many as 34,000 new clean energy jobs. According to researcher Aaron Brickman, ``There's a strategy, there's a plan, and the benefits are already being seen. . . . Michigan is poised for an economic boom.''

In Texas, a massive $4 billion investment to create the country's largest green hydrogen facility was recently announced. It will also generate 1.4 gigawatts of wind and solar, enough to power nearly 750,000 homes. In the words of Seifi Ghasemi, the CEO of a company behind the investment, ``It will be competitive on a world scale while bringing significant tax, job, and energy security benefits to Texas.''

That is really what the IRA entails: new jobs, energy security, and a cleaner planet.

But there is an opponent to this progress. The opponent is the fossil fuel industry. They have gotten rich digging up oil and burning coal for generations, but now we are seeing the energy of the future that is not fossil fuels. They know that they have lost, so the industry and its supporters are attempting to stall this progress by throwing whatever they can find at it. They are pursuing litigation. They are pushing NIMBYism--``not in my backyard.'' They are trying to stop clean energy projects through the State public utility and public service commissions. They are attempting to hijack the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. Through this CRA, they are trying to grind solar manufacturing to a halt.

So, if you hear this debate around this particular Congressional Review Act resolution, which we are contemplating today, it is not actually about this. There is a bigger story here, and the story is this: We finally took climate action that wasn't small. We finally took an action that was equal to the moment. We finally took action that was equal to the obligation that we have to future generations, that was equal to the opportunity for the United States and the entire planet to move forward on clean energy that benefits everybody, that lowers costs and saves our planet for the future.

So when they come after this particular action of the Biden administration, don't get lost in the weeds; they have lost. They are dead-enders. They know that. And so they will pick up a Congressional Review Act here or a Public Service Commission over there or they will gin up a bunch of NIMBYism over here or they will introduce another bill over there. But this is part of a story where, for the first time--and I mean this because it has been decades of us getting our butts kicked--for the first time, we are taking the kind of climate action that can actually make a difference, and they are terrified. That is what this CRA is all about.

We can choose more manufacturing jobs, or we can choose less; energy security or a continued dependence on foreign dictators; a forward- thinking outlook or a mindset from the past. That is what this CRA is ultimately about.

Despite the arguments the dark money apparatus of the fossil industry is making, it doesn't change what they are. They are arguments that belong in the past. It is the equivalent of a pay phone tycoon failing to adapt after the iPhone came out.

But we don't have to be beholden to an industry whose strongest days are in the past. No matter what happens with this vote, the demand for solar panels made in America is not going away. The demand for energy- efficient homes and electric vehicles is not going away. The demand for renewable energy is not going away.

The IRA was not a one-off but the first, most meaningful step in the transition to the clean energy revolution. And the forces opposing this progress will be forced to recognize that sooner or later.

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