WASHINGTON, D.C. - Today, U.S. Senator John Barrasso (R-WY), chairman of the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works (EPW), delivered the following remarks on the on the “Green New Deal" resolution that was introduced by Democrats last week.
Senator Barrasso's remarks:
“Republicans have kept our commitment the past two years to put Americans back to work.
“We provided much-needed tax and regulatory relief for people all across the country.
“We reined in Washington and freed job-creators.
“And now we are producing more jobs than can be filled.
“America is back in business.
“Our economy is booming - economic growth has accelerated.
“In just two years, we have created 5 million jobs in this country - 3 million jobs since Republicans passed tax relief.
“And 600,000 of these new jobs are in manufacturing.
“Last month alone, we added a phenomenal 300,000 jobs.
“More welcome news: Americans are seeing bigger paychecks.
“Wages are up 3 percent - the highest jump in over a decade.
“And our unemployment rate is at a 50-year low.
“Clearly, our country is headed in the right direction.
“Pro-growth Republican policies have improved Americans' lives.
“Democrats, on the other hand, want to reverse course.
“Just last week, Democrats released their Green New Deal proposal - a big-government takeover of the economy masked as an environmental policy.
“The proposal isn't green and it's not new. It's not a green deal - it's a raw deal.
“If implemented, the plan will put millions of people out of work and it will cost tens of trillions of dollars.
“The plan to me is less about climate change, more about putting government in control of every facet of our lives.
“Even if it were affordable - and it is not- the proposal is so far outside of America's mainstream that it's scary.
“The proposal reads like an absurd socialist manifesto.
“They calls for a ‘national mobilization' to ‘transform every sector of our economy and society' and do it by the year 2030.
“In just 10 years, Washington would create a command-and-control economy to eliminate choice in how we live.
“Washington would tell us how to travel, what our houses should look like, and what food is on our grocery store shelves - that's just a starting point.
“The plan includes a laundry list of government giveaways: a guaranteed housing, college, food, health care, and a job.
“Even a people who refuse to work, according to one press release, would be guaranteed a paycheck.
“In it's lunacy the Green New Deal embodies the Democrats' hard left turn.
“Under the plan, the nation's energy system would undergo a big-government takeover.
“Through heavy-handed mandates we would all be forced to meet all our power needs from costly zero-carbon and renewable-energy sources.
“The green new deal eliminates energy sources that currently provide power to three-out-of-every-five U.S. homes and businesses as well.
“It mandates the use of expensive energy sources that realistically can't meet America's needs.
“It will mean the end of the internal combustion engine in cars, boats and planes.
“The plan will force every driver in America to purchase an electric vehicle or rely on public transportation.
“It also will eliminate airplanes and ships.
“American-made goods could no longer be exported around the world. There'd be no way to send them.
“Americans living on islands in Puerto Ricans and Hawaiians will be stranded.
“And it would put a stop to Americans taking vacations abroad.
“An extensive and expensive national high-speed rail system would have to replace air travel.
“The state of California currently is attempting to build just one of these high-speed rail system to replace air travel.
“The cost is $89 million for every planned mile of track.
“So what happened today, just a few hours ago, in California?
“Well, California governor Gavin Newsome said he is ending the state's effort to build a high speed rail line between San Francisco and Los Angeles.
“Madame President, that's what the Green New Deal says we're going to do.
“And yet the governor today said they're going to discontinue the plans.
“Newsome said in his State of the State address today that it would cost too much and take too long.
“Well that looks like the Democrats' entire Green New Deal.
“He said it would cost too much and take too long to build the line long championed by his predecessor Jerry Brown.
“Latest estimates pin the cost at $77 billion and completion in 2033. That is where we are today, Madame President.
“There's another victim of the Green New Deal, it's ice cream. Livestock will be banned.
“Say goodbye to dairy, to beef, to family farms to ranches.
“American favorites like cheeseburgers and milkshakes will become a thing of the past.
“Millions of American workers will lose their jobs.
“Living this ‘green dream' will be a national nightmare.
“Just the energy portion of the plan will cost at least $5.7 trillion - and it's feasibly impossible.
“Plus, the government handouts and giveaways will cost tens of trillions more.
“The Green Deal will bankrupt the country.
“The guaranteed-job program alone would cost hundreds of billions each and every year.
“Taxes will go through the roof as will energy prices.
“This is the tip of the iceberg.
“This green scheme undermines our entire way of life.
“The deal will impose a burdensome mandate on homeowners.
“Every building nationwide will have to be overhauled.
“Home heating and electric costs also will surge.
“One estimate, said that the average energy bills will rise by as much as $3,800 per year per home.
“In reality, the only thing green about the Green New Deal is the cash it will cost American families.
“This is simply a Washington power-play posing as a clean-energy plan.
“It's the same failed socialist goals the far-left has pushed for decades.
“Socialism has failed everywhere it's been tried, from Venezuela to the former Soviet Union.
“The path to cleaner energy lies in supporting private innovation, not government regulation.
“American energy-related carbon dioxide emissions have steadily fallen in recent years.
“The United States is currently on pace to reduce its emissions by 17 percent below 2005 levels and we're going to do it by 2025.
“We are leading the world in lowering emissions, over the past decade.
“A Washington takeover of the energy sector is going to interfere with that progress.
“Congress should support affordable energy solutions that will actually reduce emissions and grow our economy.
“Cutting-edge technologies including nuclear power, carbon capture and carbon utilization hold enormous promise.
“Nuclear power currently provides about 60 percent of America's emission-free energy.
“Some supporters of the Green New Deal have even talked about banning nuclear power.
“Republicans support a common-sense approach to addressing climate change.
“We're interested in solutions, not socialism.
“We must make American energy as clean as we can, as fast as we can, and we can do it without raising costs on the American public.
“The Democrats' plan is a hard left turn that will drive our economy off a cliff.
“It's the first big step on that dark path to socialism.
“Simply put Madame President, the Green New Deal is a raw deal for the American people.
