Energy and Water Development and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2024

Floor Speech

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Mr. ROY. Mr. Chairman, the amendment that I have here fully defunds the Department of Energy's Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy.

The FY23 omnibus gave this office $3.5 billion, and while the underlying bill and rule cut funding down to $2 billion, we believe we ought to defund it entirely.

That is particularly true coming on the heels of the $1.2 trillion, if you believe the media accounting and reports on the impact of the so-called Inflation Reduction Act. We believe this is additional spending that the American people do not need.

Let the market do what the market is going to do. If people want to go out and get electronic vehicles, and people want to go out and spend their money on something, good for them, great.

This office continues to be funded to continue to perpetuate this when the office's mission is ``to equitably transition America to net- zero greenhouse gas emissions economy-wide by no later than 2050,'' which is a fool's errand.

We are undermining our own national security and undermining our own economy in the process, making us beholden to China and undermining our ability to actually have a serious policy in the Middle East, by the way. Right now, we don't even have sanctions in place. We are allowing Iran to make billions of dollars, upward of $30 billion to $60 billion, depending on what reports you look at, on exporting oil to China. We have totally blown it with Saudi Arabia, which has created the environment that we are now dealing with in the Middle East, all while this administration, by the way, dumped the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, all of this while pursuing this foolish energy policy, which is undermining our own national security and economy.

Now, we are going to go ahead and say, sure, let's appropriate another, in this case, $2 billion for the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy. We don't need to be doing this. Let the American people go sort this out.

We say that we are going to subsidize wind and solar because it is supposedly enhanced reliability. Tell that to the people of Texas. Texas has more wind than any other State in the country. Thumbs up. That is great. Say that to all the people who are wondering whether they are going to have power because the grid in Texas is getting dangerously close to not having the ability to sustain. The only reason we are able to sustain it is because Texas is trying to push and hold up the coal and the gas-fired plants that actually provide reliable energy.

We are subsidizing the unreliable energy at the expense of the reliable energy. Instead of building nuclear power, instead of making sure a gas-fired plant is sitting there ready to roll--there is no investment in any of the projects going on into Texas' gas-fired plants. American, Texas gas that we should, by the way, be exporting around the world, including to Europe. Instead, we are undermining our very grid, our own reliable energy, and we are undermining our ability to compete in the world.

I suggest that this money would be better spent, especially when, I don't know, the last time I checked we had $2 trillion in deficits.

What are we spending our money on? Seriously, how are we actually going to balance our budget and eliminate deficits when we keep spending money on projects like this?

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Mr. ROY. Mr. Chair, while I thank my friend and colleague and I appreciate the fact that through his work and the work of Republicans, we did reduce it by $1.5 billion, but there remains another $2 billion of funding.

I say to my colleagues on both sides of the aisle: How are we going to ever balance the budget when we continue to fund things like this?

That is my question. Why don't we pay for this, then? Can we at least pay for this out of something? Why don't we pay for this out of the Inflation Reduction Act? Why don't we pay for it by eliminating some of the IRS agents that got expanded?

Tell me. Go to the American people and say, what would you like to give up to pay for that? That is what I would like to know. I would like to know for the American people: What would you give up in order to pay for $2 billion of more of this kind of subsidy?

By the way, in the Inflation Reduction Act, 90 percent of the subsidies go to corporations making over a billion dollars.

Mr. Chair, 78 percent of electric vehicle tax credits are claimed by Americans making over $100,000. Couples making up to $300,000 are still eligible.

These subsidies could make wind and solar account for nearly 60 percent of U.S. electricity generation by 2050, which might sound fine in unicorn land, but for the people who need reliable energy on a cloudy, windless day, we might actually want to have gas or coal or nuclear.

By the way, all of this subsidizes the heck out of China. We are talking about making us not reliant on foreign energy sources.

Well, what about China? China is the one producing most of these solar panels and a lot of the battery elements. Why are we continuing to do that?

I suggest that that is a waste of taxpayer money, it is unpaid for, and we shouldn't continue to perpetuate it.

Mr. Chair, I yield back the balance of my time.

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Mr. ROY. Mr. Chair, I demand a recorded vote.

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