Repealing of Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund

Floor Speech

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Mr. CASTEN. Mr. Speaker, first, I remind my colleagues that Donald Trump called the Saudis and said to please do everything they can to raise the oil price because gasoline is so cheap, and they did. I appreciate them keeping the gas price up.

In the words of a great American, I regret that I have but 3 minutes to explain all the stupidity in this bill, so I am just going to focus on the methane emissions reduction plan for now.

Nobody really understands methane out there in the public, so let's just put this in terms folks understand. Imagine that you live in a town that has two dairies. They take cow milk and turn it into downstream products.

One of them makes milk. They make cream. They make half-and-half. They make 2 percent. They are a productive plant. They don't waste anything. They have good jobs. They grow the American economy.

The one next door says: We are just making 2 percent. We are going to throw away all the cream. We are going to throw away all the half-and- half. We are going to pour it in the river, and the town is going to stink to high heavens of sour milk. You can't swim in the water. In addition, by the way, we are not making much money because we are throwing away all of our product.

Now, let's imagine that the government came in and said: We want both of these businesses to be competitive. We want workers in both of those plants to have good jobs and a good future, so we are going to provide you with the capital to capture that cream so you can sell it, stop polluting, and make more money.

Then, let's imagine that one political party said: How dare you cry over spilled milk? Spill the damn milk. We want to keep pouring that cream in the river. We want to keep this factory open so that they can keep spilling cream and wasting money.

That is what this bill does. It says to a gas pipeline company that is leaking methane, the thing they sell, that rather than give them the ability to sell more, rather than help stop polluting, we want to protect their right to be a bad citizen and uncompetitive, so we can drive more business to China because our gas is going to be too expensive. We are going to spill all ours.

This bill is so stupid. If my colleagues love pollution, hate capitalism, hate competitive American businesses, vote for this bill, but don't be stupid. Let's get back to real work.

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Mr. CASTEN. Madam Speaker, I thank the chairman for granting me more time because there is still so much silliness left in this bill.

I will shift now to the elimination of the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund. Let's talk about what this program does.

This program helps to pay for projects that reduce climate pollution, help grow energy independence, lower energy bills, and revitalize communities that otherwise would not be funded.

So what does that mean? These are projects that are good projects that help people out, but they struggle to get capital.

Maybe it is an inner city school that would like to put solar panels on the roof to cut their energy bills, lower their pollution, but they are not in a town that can afford to raise the bond to do that.

Maybe it is an Appalachian coalfield Superfund site that would like to build a green space and grow their community, help attract capital, but they are struggling to get money.

Maybe it is a rural area that needs an EV bus program to reduce pollution, but you could never justify private money investing there, but it helps out the local folks.

No, all of those projects--I could go on--but what do they have in common? They lower greenhouse gas emissions. They put more money in the pockets of local communities we all represent. They would help the neediest among us. They would create local jobs and most importantly, they would be cheaper than fossil energy.

I get it. That is a real problem for my colleagues across the aisle. The natural gas industry wants the price of energy to be expensive because that is how they make money.

As I mentioned before, during COVID, April 2020, Donald Trump called the Saudis and said: I am going to take troops out of your country unless you cut oil production because our oil industry is hurting. They did it. That is what you did.

I don't remember anybody saying: Boy, we should call the Saudis and do the other when the price of oil went up. I understand what you are rooting for.

So why do you want to defund that program? I don't know.

Maybe you are concerned that energy is just too damn cheap. Maybe you think that unemployment is too low and would like to--I don't know-- help your party win the next election. Maybe you just misremember that speech.

It doesn't say blessed are the powerful. It doesn't say blessed are the polluters. It doesn't say blessed are the least meek.

I don't know why you are doing it. For goodness' sake, in the meantime, vote ``no'' if you care about making sure that pollution goes down, energy prices go down, and the American people win.

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