Terminating the National Emergency Declared with Respect to Energy

Floor Speech

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Mr. KAINE. Mr. President, I rise to conclude the debate. I believe the vote will follow these remarks.

I want to thank my colleagues. Seventeen Democrats appeared on the floor to speak on behalf of S.J. Res. 10. I needn't repeat the comments I made at the beginning. I will be very brief.

No. 1, there is no energy emergency. We have established the United States is producing more energy--more oil, more gas, more renewable energy--than at any time in the history of this country and that we are now a dramatic net-energy-surplus nation, as we are producing more and more energy than we consume every year. That surplus is great because we can export to develop both reducing the trade deficit and helping other nations wean themselves off their reliance on petrodictators.

Second, President Trump's energy emergency declaration is a sham. He ignores the facts of America's energy dominance in order to benefit Big Oil because he told them he would do that. Last summer, he said: If you support me for President and invest in me, I will give you rollbacks in environmental laws on day one of my administration.

And that is precisely what he did.

We can tell that that is what he is doing by reading the exact terms of the energy emergency, in which he sidelines critical environmental laws so long as you are producing oil and gas but not if you are producing wind and solar. If the President really wanted to accelerate energy, he would not leave out wind and solar. Instead, he is doing the bidding of Big Oil by trying to kneecap wind and solar in his energy emergency declaration.

But it is more than the words on a page in the declaration; it is also in his actions. I have many projects in Virginia that have announced with great fanfare--including announced by our Republican Governor--that have relied upon tax credits provided in the Inflation Reduction Act or other incentives in the bipartisan infrastructure law. These are projects all over Virginia--rural areas, urban areas-- creating big jobs to create clean energy that will bring prices down.

President Trump has undertaken a series of actions to put in jeopardy all of these projects in Virginia, to jeopardize the jobs and to jeopardize the energy that would be produced that would lower costs, and he has done the same thing in every State in this country. So we need to reject this energy emergency so that we can have a true energy innovation economy and bring prices down for everyday consumers.

I have listened to the comments of my Republican colleagues as they have argued against my S.J. Res. 10, and they have basically made two arguments.

The first is the argument that they don't believe renewable energy is reliable. So, for that reason, they justify the President's leaving out renewable energy sources in his energy emergency order. To the contrary, 94 percent of the power that was added to the American electricity grid in 2024 was wind, solar, and battery.

Colleagues may stand on the floor and mouth the words that renewable energy is not reliable, but let's look at what the market is doing. The market is investing in these energies because they are reliable, they are American, they are clean, and they are cheap. And I would venture to say that those investing in these sources are more expert about what is reliable and what is not than Members of this body, with all respect.

The second argument that is being made by my colleagues is that they support ``all of the above'' energy, and they use that to argue against S.J. Res. 10. My S.J. Res. 10 is about ``all of the above'' energy, and it is against the notion of leaving out wind, solar, and battery technologies that are driving our green energy economy.

The question is, If you are not opposing, really, because of reliability concerns and you are not really advocating for all of the above, what is the real source of the opposition?

The real source of the opposition is this: People do not want to stand up against Donald Trump. They don't want to stand up against a President who declares a fake emergency. They don't want to stand up against a President who is unplugging jobs in their States. They don't want to stand up against a President whose actions will lead to increased energy costs for consumers. They don't want to stand up to a President who is targeting and reversing investments that they even voted for when they voted for the bipartisan infrastructure law.

At some point, the question to my colleagues is, When will you stand up?

How much do prices have to go up on everyday Americans before you will stand up? How many jobs do you have to lose in your State before you are going to stand up? How many end runs of congressional statutes will you allow a President to take and be voiceless before you stand up?

That is what this is about.

I urge my colleagues to stand up for an American innovation energy economy. Don't let President Trump use a fake energy emergency to kneecap it.

With that, Mr. President, I yield to my colleague from Massachusetts.

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