Department of the Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2024

Floor Speech

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Mr. CASTEN. Mr. Chair, I rise in opposition to this amendment.

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Mr. CASTEN. Mr. Chair, I believe my colleagues across the aisle fundamentally misunderstand or intentionally misrepresent the interests of energy consumers in the United States and the interests of energy producers.

NEPA is critically important to protect all Americans, but let's run through some statistics. There are currently 2,000 gigawatts of electric generation waiting to be interconnected to the queue in this country. That is more generation than we have by almost a factor of 2. Of those 2,000 gigawatts, there is 1 gigawatt of coal, 85 gigawatts of gas, and every other power plant that is trying to be interconnected to the grid is a zero carbon source of energy. They are not represented by NEPA.

Let's talk about the fossil fuel sector. Today, we use about 20 million barrels of oil a day. A decade ago, you know how much oil we used in this country? About 20 million barrels a day.

Today, we use 40 percent less coal than we did 10 years ago. Do you know why? Because those industries cannot compete. People, given the choice, prefer cleaner, cheaper energy.

The fastest growing vehicle segment is electric vehicles. The fastest growing source in the power sector is renewable energy. Energy is getting cheaper. What is the energy industry doing in response? They are becoming exporters. The reason why the gas industry is growing, the reason why the oil industry is growing is because they are building terminals to export overseas. What is hard about that is that the American people don't want you to drill in their backyard. They don't want you to drill a pipeline through their neighborhood just so that you can run it to a terminal and sell it overseas at a profit.

If you are of the opinion that the American people don't have any say in how their communities look, how their natural parks look, how their natural lands look, and if you are of the opinion that the profits of energy producers vastly outweigh the interests of energy consumers, vote for this amendment. However, if you put energy consumers first, this is an absolute ``no.''

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

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