Energy and Commerce Ranking Member Frank Pallone, Jr. (D-NJ) delivered the following remarks at the opening meeting of Senate and House Conferees on S. 2012, the Energy Policy Modernization Act of 2016:
Thank you Senator Murkowski for formally convening this conference.
It isn’t a secret that the House and Senate took two very different paths to this conference. While the bipartisan Senate bill, in my view, could be much stronger in a number of areas, the House version, which was the result of a highly partisan process, would unacceptably increase energy use and costs to consumers, and would undermine our nation’s climate goals.
As we begin the process of working to reconcile two very different bills, it is important that any final conference report include three essential components: infrastructure investment and modernization; direct benefits for consumers, including programs that empower them to manage their energy consumption and costs; and it must be consistent with our nation’s climate goals to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Any final conference must also include adequate funding for these three areas.
Today, much of our energy infrastructure is aging, rooted in the past and doesn’t really serve our current and future energy needs. A final product should focus on modernizing our infrastructure and reducing its vulnerabilities to extreme weather and attacks from those seeking to do us harm. It should also facilitate the deployment of smarter electric grids that support more distributed and renewable energy generation.
Any final conference report should accelerate efficiency gains, not undermine them. Today, consumers are demanding energy efficient products, and we must continue to make progress in order for consumers to see additional benefits.
Finally, any modern energy policy must deal with climate change. Certainly, we have made progress with renewable energy and efficiency, but there is much more that we can and must do to reduce our overall energy use and to switch to cleaner energy sources.
The cost of climate inaction is growing, and my state has already paid a steep price. The number of extreme weather events - and the costs of those events in lives and property - continues to rise. We don’t need a blue ribbon commission to debate the science. Instead, we need an energy policy that embraces the deployment of newer, cleaner, and cheaper technology that will grow our energy choices and economy, while reducing both consumers’ bills and greenhouse gases.
Clearly, there’s a lot to do, yet very little time to do it. Nonetheless, it is still possible to produce a consensus product that the President will sign. I am certainly willing to continue working to make that a reality. However, in order to accomplish that goal, we must be honest with ourselves about our limited ability to resolve highly contentious and complex matters in the short timeframe we have.
In conclusion, if we produce final legislation that makes significant progress on these three key issues - infrastructure investment, sustained consumer benefits and addressing climate change - then we will produce a product that I would support.
