Terminating the National Emergency Declared with Respect to Energy

Floor Speech

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Ms. WARREN. Mr. President, I want to thank the Senator from Colorado for your energetic leadership in this area. I am very grateful for your voice on this and for the work you do for the people of the country and, also, for everybody around the world. We have got to deal with this problem; so, thank you.

I rise today in support of Senator Kaine and Senator Heinrich's resolution to terminate Donald Trump's Executive order declaring a national energy emergency.

I just want to start by being clear about what is going on here. Donald Trump promised to gut our environmental laws if Big Oil CEOs gave him a billion dollars for his campaign. He was quite open about this. How could he do that? Well, he has figured it out. He declared an emergency that he has focused on that emergency will give him a chance to pay those oil executives CEOs back.

Now, this order is not a serious attempt at lowering anyone's energy costs. And you know how I know this? Because a true strategy to lower people's costs would include clean energy sources like wind and solar, which this order deliberately excludes.

So what does this Executive order do? It lets big oil and gas companies off the hook on following our environmental laws and regulations. And those are the rules that make sure that you have clean air to breathe and clean water to drink.

Why would Donald Trump do this? It is simple. He does not care about lowering anyone's costs or helping create good jobs. All he cares about is his rich as hell--those were his words--his rich as hell donors and helping them make more money.

Let's be clear. Energy prices are too high. Americans are feeling those high prices. Energy prices have been on the rise for the past decade. And last year, one-third of Americans had to cut back on necessary spending in order to pay their energy bills.

Americans are looking for real solutions. And that is why Democrats got to work and passed the biggest climate package in the history of the world to unleash American innovation and to support a clean energy future.

Now, America is producing more energy than ever before, including through offshore wind projects off the coast of Massachusetts, and we are creating good jobs while we are doing it.

Clean energy jobs are now over 40 percent of all the energy jobs in the United States. They are growing twice as fast as other industries, but Donald Trump is now trying to unravel all of that progress. Why? In order to please his big oil and gas donors.

And this sham will have real consequences for our communities-- raising energy costs and cutting American jobs.

Look no further than Somerset, MA, to see what is happening. At Brayton Point in Somerset, there is an old coal-fired powerplant that closed down years and years ago. But a private company called Prysmian had decided that they want to turn part of this plant into a factory to build undersea cables to support American offshore wind farms. They want to build the cables so we can bring that power in and use it, that clean power in and use it here in the United States.

That project would be transformative for Somerset. It would create about 250 to 300 good manufacturing jobs and would deliver more than $10 million in annual tax revenues. That is a big deal for a small town.

So for the last few years, local officials and our Massachusetts Federal delegation has been working hard with the Federal Government to help turn that idea into a reality.

But last month, the company suddenly announced they are ending the project. No more jobs, no more tax revenue. And why? Because of Donald Trump's attacks on clean energy. Somerset's experience is just one of the experiences felt by many communities all around this country. Yes, Somerset will bounce back. But Donald Trump is cutting jobs and raising energy costs on communities all across this country just to please his oil and gas donors. And it is communities like Somerset that are paying the price for that.

Make no mistake: We will fight back, that is why Democrats are here today. That fight starts with ending this sham of an Executive order.

I urge my colleagues to vote yes on Senator Kaine and Senator Heinrich's resolution.

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