Grid Reliability

Floor Speech

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Mr. CLINE. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman for holding this Special Order and for her leadership on energy issues. The House is truly fortunate to have her as a Member.

Mrs. Fedorchak is exactly right. We have, as our top priority, the need to restore energy independence for this country and energy dominance, especially in regard to our relationship with nations like China that are pushing to lead in AI and other technologies.

We are dependent on China for rare earth minerals that are so important to powering our grid, powering the technologies that support AI. That is why it is great that the Trump administration is leading on ways in which we can explore not only in the continental United States for rare earth minerals but also talking to other countries, talking to countries like Greenland and Ukraine, quite frankly, making comments about the need to ensure that the U.S. has the rare earth mineral supply that it needs to support the AI initiatives that are happening in this country. We need to be the leader in AI globally. If not, we cede it to China.

We just had a hearing yesterday in the Judiciary Committee about what would happen with the censorship-industrial complex if other nations, whether it is Europe and their privacy directive or China through their efforts in AI, to dictate what can and cannot be said on the internet.

When it comes to energy, what is most important is the American consumer, the American citizen. What we have seen over the last several years is that American citizens are suffering under the Green New Deal agenda, the increasing dependence on other countries for our energy needs, and the need to restore that energy independence in order to target costs, bring down inflation, and actually allow Americans to be able to afford the important technologies and appliances and other things that are critical to daily living.

According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, since 2021, energy prices under the Biden administration outpaced inflation, with consumers seeing an average rise of 10 percent. This is all despite the massive glut of subsidies that the Biden administration pushed to prop up Green New Deal technologies that otherwise wouldn't exist without government handouts.

Thankfully, we have a new President, a new sheriff in town, one who will bring online more energy production and ensure that the days of $5 gas prices are left behind along with Biden's failed legacy.

Moreover, this administration will prioritize affordability and consumer choice in appliances, focusing on cutting burdensome red tape, not on regulating your gas stoves or water heaters at home, which we saw the Biden administration seek to regulate in the waning days of the administration, the outgoing days of that administration.

Just this week, Energy Secretary Chris Wright signed his first secretarial order meant to unleash a golden era of American energy dominance. I look forward to working with them and the administration to lend whatever support and authority is needed from Congress to achieve tangible results for the American people.

At the end of the day, that is what it is all about, is making sure that we deliver for the American people and ensure that this great Nation continues its energy dominance that we had under the first Trump administration, that we lost under the failed Biden administration, and that we are seeking to regain under the current Trump administration.

I thank the gentlewoman for her leadership, and I look forward to working with her on these issues.

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