Securing Growth and Robust Leadership in American Aviation Act--

Floor Speech

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Mr. RICKETTS. Madam President, I rise today to join my colleagues in opposing the Biden administration's anti-energy policies. From the EV mandate to the so-called Clean Power Plan 2.0, the Biden administration's war on American energy threatens the livelihoods of millions of Americans and American families.

Let's start with the EPA's delusional and reckless electric vehicle mandate. It requires up to two-thirds of all cars and light trucks being sold in 2032 to be electric vehicles.

It is delusional because it will block low-income families from owning a car. Owning a car is a pathway out of poverty for many Americans, including many people in my State, and Biden's EV mandate will drive up the cost of those used vehicles.

It is delusional because the Biden administration has no plan for how we are going to generate the power needed to be able to charge these cars or the transmission lines needed to transmit the energy from where it is being produced to where it is going to be needed.

It is also delusional because this EV mandate will make us more dependent on the Chinese Communist Party, which controls about 60 to 80 percent of all the critical minerals that are necessary to be able to make the batteries for EVs, and they are leading us in this EV battery technology.

This is how crazy stupid this administration is: They want to mandate EVs on the one hand, but they also want to attack any project that may allow us to be able to mine the minerals that we need to be able to create the batteries for EVs.

For example, EVs can use up to four times the amount of copper that a regular car uses. At the same time, though, the Biden administration has blocked a road that would go to the Ambler Mining District in Alaska. The Ambler Mining District is one of the places where we have a lot of copper. It is a major copper deposit. We need this copper. Yet the Biden administration is blocking us from being able to get to it. It makes no sense.

Another thing that makes no sense is an EV mandate that requires dramatically increasing our energy production and transmission on the one hand, and then, on the other hand, we have the Clean Power Plan 2.0, which is going to attack our energy production. It is a classic example of ``bureaucrats gone wild.'' It forces coal- or gas-generating electric plants to reduce up to 90 percent of their carbon emissions by the year 2039.

First, the Clean Power Plan 2.0 is illegal, explicitly countering the Supreme Court's decision in West Virginia v. EPA.

Second, the rule will stifle our industry not only in Nebraska but nationwide. In Nebraska, 49 percent of our electricity comes from coal- fired plants. It is the baseload generation we have.

Nebraska, actually, ranks pretty high when it comes to renewable energy. We have over 31 percent of our electricity coming from renewable energy, but we still need that baseload.

Nebraska, in 2022, also ranked No. 3 nationwide for the most industrial electricity customers of any State. It just ranked behind Texas and California with regard to those industrial consumers of electricity.

Fossil fuel plants generate about 60 percent of U.S. electricity nationwide, and coal contributes about 16.2 percent of all the electricity in this country. Under this rule, more than 78 percent of coal-powered plants would have to retire between the years 2028 and 2040 while coal remains the primary source of electricity in 18 of our States. Currently, a quarter of the existing 200 plants are scheduled to retire within the next 5 years. We don't have enough new plants coming online to be able to replace the power that is going offline. This plan will close down the reliable and affordable fossil fuel plants, and American consumers will end up paying the price.

Again, for us in Nebraska, when you are driving up these costs, you are hurting our families and, of course, our businesses that create the jobs that allow families to be able to send their kids to school, to go on the family vacation, and so forth.

The EPA does not have the authority--the legal authority--to force a complete shift in energy production through bureaucratic fiat, but the Biden administration doesn't care, and they are going ahead with it anyway.

The Biden administration's anti-energy agenda doesn't just stop there. President Biden's imposed moratorium on new oil and gas leases is also an attack on our energy system. The administration has slow- walked these permits for new construction and has added new layers of bureaucracy that hinder job-creating energy projects.

Instead of supporting high-skilled, high-waged jobs, this administration has prioritized the interests of coastal elites and radical environmentalists. They would rather see fossil fuel plants closed and thousands of workers lose their jobs than stand up to these activists.

This appeasement of the far-left, radical, environmentalist wing of the Democratic Party is wrong. It must stop. We must reverse course. We must have some common sense. I am here today to join my colleagues in standing up for American energy, for American workers, and for our way of life.

Together, we are going to do all we can to overturn this anti-energy agenda through Congressional Review Act legislation and other means. We are going to support an ``all of the above'' energy strategy. We are going to continue to fight to make sure our workers remain employed, our communities remain prosperous, and our Nation remains energy independent.

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