Terminating the National Emergency Declared with Respect to Energy

Floor Speech

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Mr. MERKLEY. Mr. President, here is the question: Do we pursue the 20th century energy vision featuring dirty, expensive fossil fuels, or do we pursue the 21st century energy vision featuring inexpensive and clean, renewable energy?

Trump's energy emergency declaration is about one thing: He is choosing the strategy of dirty, expensive fossil fuels. You know, he asked the powerful, big oil companies to contribute a billion dollars to his campaign, and now he is paying them back at the expense of the American people. Families lose; billionaires win.

The plan. The plan features giving fossil fuel companies the power to seize public lands. It features giving fossil fuel companies the power to skip environmental assessments, environmental assessments that show how their projects will poison the air, pollute the water, kill wildlife, and despoil our ecosystems.

It is the plan of giving fossil fuel companies the power to bypass the public comment period so the public can't weigh in about the terrible ideas the fossil fuel companies are putting forward.

The public can't weigh in about the drilling rigs and the leaky pipelines and the export terminals polluting their communities. This is not government of, by, and for the people; it is government of, by, and for the oil and gas companies. Families lose; billionaires win.

This emergency declaration is certainly a sham because renewable energy costs less than fossil fuel energy. The International Renewable Energy Agency found that the cost of new wind or solar is at least 30 percent cheaper than the cost of running most fossil coal plants. So it is no surprise that in 2024, 94 percent of the new energy on the grid came from renewables, from harnessing the power of the sun and the wind.

Prioritizing expensive fossil fuels over cheap renewables drives up the price of energy that families pay on their bills every month. That is Trumpflation.

Exporting more fossil fuels mean families pay more at the pump, and they pay more to heat their homes. That is Trumpflation.

And burning more fossil fuels intensifies climate chaos and wildfires and hurricanes. It blows the top off the cost of insurance for people's homes as insurers flee the markets. That is Trumpflation.

Meanwhile, fossil fuel companies make even bigger profits. Families lose; billionaires win.

You know, this is not a red State or a blue State issue. Since August 2022, investments from the Inflation Reduction Act have created more than 400,000 clean energy jobs with more than half of those jobs in red States. In fact, 19 of the 20 Congressional districts at the top of clean energy investments are represented by my colleagues on the Republican side of the aisle.

What are the top three States overall of clean energy job growth? Idaho, Texas, and New Mexico--two out of those three States represented by Republicans in the Senate. For wind energy, it is Texas, Iowa, Oklahoma, Kansas, and Illinois--four out of five States represented in this Senate by Republicans. For solar energy it is California, Texas, Florida, North Carolina, and Arizona--three out of five of those States represented by Republicans.

So this is not a blue versus red situation. Nearly 3.5 million Americans now work in the clean energy field, more than a million of those jobs in red States. And it is estimated that these investments will continue to create hundreds of thousands of jobs across the country.

Prioritizing fossil fuels will kill this job growth for working Americans. So this strategy, this energy emergency strategy, this is an energy strategy in which families lose; billionaires win. And there are far fewer good-paying jobs for Americans.

And, by the way, prioritizing fossil fuels is helpful to China.

If we have a national energy emergency, we shouldn't be fueling our competitors by selling our energy to China to make their economy run better. If we have an emergency, we shouldn't cede the future of clean energy and all the jobs it will create and the less expensive energy it creates to China. We would want to make these products here and export them to the world, not have to buy them from China, helping China's economy grow at the expense of our own.

This phony national emergency declaration comes down to this: Do we want families to win or do we want billionaires to win?

Let's come together, red States and blue States together, and say: We want these jobs. We want this clean energy. We want this less expensive energy for America because we are fighting for the families, not for the billionaires.

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