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Floor Speech

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Mr. MARKEY. Mr. President, I rise today to unmask one of the major players behind the Republican debt limit brinksmanship.

With renewable energy outcompeting fossil fuels, Big Oil is worried that its oil well has run dry and wants to keep pumping the American people dry for all that they are worth. So the oil and the gas industry is running its tried and true playbook with Speaker Kevin McCarthy taking the snap as their quarterback.

The Republicans all voted against the Inflation Reduction Act. They turned away from its provisions to create a livable future, its millions of new, clean energy jobs, its investments in environmental justice communities. The only thing Republicans haven't turned away is the billions of dollars in new investments unleashed in their States and districts from this landmark legislation, with $150 billion in investments already announced across the country because of the IRA, because of the largest climate bill in American history.

I have seen Republicans on TV fearmongering about the Inflation Reduction Act, but I haven't seen a single Republican turn down any of those $150 billion or any of those jobs, or all those benefits for those communities in red States.

But the fossil fuel industry itself is actually scared that something might happen to their season of record-shattering profits. They are scared that utilities will finally wake up and realize that installing new renewables is cheaper and more cost effective than running existing coal plants.

Natural gas plants are also set up to go the way of the dinosaur. In fact, we won't have to dig up any more dinosaurs in order to create the fuel. Building new solar and wind, instead of new natural gas, could save American energy customers nearly $30 billion on their energy bills.

Renewables are outcompeting fossil fuels. The average levelized cost of energy for coal and gas is much higher than wind and solar. How much? Well, coal is nearly double the cost of solar. Natural gas is almost 1.5 times more costly than wind. And this is not accounting for the new IRA subsidies, the new climate bill subsidies from last year.

These statistics are the real fear of fossil fuel executives. These clean energy gains threaten Big Oil's massive bonus and even bigger profit margin.

Big Oil more than doubled its profits in 2022, making nearly $220 billion in that year alone and paying out $110 billion to their investors. Those are windfalls made on the backs of American family budgets. Republicans say they care about budgets, but the only budget they are committed to protecting is the one of the big oil and big gas industry across our country.

That is why attacks on clean energy and climate action are on the Republicans' debt limit and budget agendas. That is why Republicans are attacking tax credits for the American-made clean energy that makes us more secure, saves money, and protects our health and our climate. That is why Republicans are reportedly trying to jam a Big Oil and Natural Gas wish list masquerading as a so-called permitting package through debt limit negotiations, instead of going through regular order on the floor of the United States Senate.

The Republican permitting package would give fossil fuels even more of a leg up while their repeal of the Inflation Reduction Act's clean energy provisions would hold our clean energy future hostage. Republicans don't want to use the budget to give students and children a head start. They want to give Big Oil a headstart over clean energy.

So just as we cannot default on our national debt, we cannot default on our debt to society. That means we cannot default on climate action for a livable future.

Climate should be off the table in debt limit negotiations--no repeal of the Inflation Reduction Act, no provisions to fast-track fossil fuel permitting in our country.

We know we need to build a clean energy future, but the Republicans' permitting proposal wouldn't help build on the IRA. It would bury the IRA. The Republicans' permitting priorities are a carbon bomb designed to unleash fossil fuels to push renewable energy off the grid, to stall the progress that was made.

Their priorities, apparently, don't include fixes for the electric transmission issues in this country, when transmission is what could improve reliability and deliver affordable energy to all Americans. In other words, they want to have permitting for more oil and gas drilling, but they don't want to fix the transmission issues. None of that is on the table that the Republicans are asking for in order to solve the problem of moving renewable energy across the country.

Permitting should be about transmission lines, not pipelines.

And combined with their attacks on the Inflation Reduction Act, their priorities will devastate our climate, take away good-paying jobs, and cost Americans billions of dollars.

The Inflation Reduction Act is projected to save households more than $1,000 every year by 2030. It is projected to create 550,000 clean energy jobs, and it is projected to give us a fighting chance at meeting our climate targets. We cannot throw that away.

We have a climate test for success--jobs, justice, and emissions reductions. That is our climate test. If we negotiate on the Inflation Reduction Act and permitting as part of debt limit conversations, we will fail that climate test, and the end result will be an environmental and climate catastrophe.

Climate action and clean energy progress can't be held hostage in this debate. Fast-tracking fossil fuels while attacking renewables is and always has been and always will be the Big Oil game plan. We can't play their game. We can't play with our future.

We cannot default on our debt, and we also cannot allow the destructive Republican budget to be implemented. That is why I have joined some of my Democratic colleagues in calling on President Biden to utilize his authority under the 14th Amendment of the Constitution, which clearly states:

The validity of the public debt of the United States . . . shall not be questioned.

It is in the U.S. Constitution. Using that authority would allow the President and the United States to continue to pay the country's bills on time and without delay. It will ensure that we prevent a potential global economic catastrophe.

But let's not forget that it is the Bush and Trump tax cuts for the wealthy that are the driving force behind the debt that the Republicans are now crying crocodile tears over.

Speaker McCarthy says he wants to limit, save, and grow. What he and the Republicans really want to do is to cut, gut, and slow: cut taxes even more for the wealthy and corporations; gut programs like Medicaid, Head Start, Meals on Wheels, Pell grants, and community health centers; and slow the pace of clean energy and climate action--wind, solar, all- electric vehicles, and battery storage technologies that will revolutionize energy consumption in our country--all to protect Big Oil buddies, gas buddies, all across the country.

A livable future and affordable clean energy are budget realities. We can save money for American families and save our planet at the same time.

The IRA's climate provisions and fossil fuel permitting should be off the table during this negotiation.

We cannot allow the well-being of American families or our planet to be held hostage to a radical, rightwing, conservative House of Representatives that is out of control in terms of its relationship with reality.

I appreciate the attention of the Senate.

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