Washington, D.C. - Energy and Commerce Committee Republican Leader Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-WA) delivered remarks in today’s joint Subcommittee on Environment and Climate Change and Subcommittee on Energy hearing on supply chains for renewable energy sources.
Excerpts and highlights from her prepared remarks:
HOLDING THE BIDEN ADMINISTRATION ACCOUNTABLE
“Record inflation, spiking prices, empty store shelves and car lots, growing risks of blackouts, families are learning what failing energy and economic policies feel like.
“Global supply chain disruptions and demand shocks from the COVID pandemic have been bad enough.
“The Administration is making this crisis worse with its reckless inflationary spending and an anti-American energy agenda.
“Killing pipelines, limiting oil and gas lease sales, imposing new energy taxes, and talking relentlessly about ending American use of fossil energy.
“Unbelievably, President Biden is even considering closing another major energy infrastructure project, Michigan’s Line 5 pipeline, right before winter. Closing Line 5 could kill thousands of jobs and increase the price of heating fuels, like propane, which are already in short supply across the nation.
“This is threatening people’s livelihoods.
“Committee Republicans have requested hearings with the Secretary of Energy, so we can examine the immediate crisis, especially surging costs expected this winter.
“This oversight should also question what the rush-to-green regulatory agenda means for the supply and affordability of energy.
“Policies to make sure people have access to affordable, reliable energy must remain central to this Committee’s work. And that is especially true for today’s hearing."
CELEBRATING AMERICAN ENERGY
“We must recognize the amazing value of our existing energy system for economic growth and ensuring people have the chance for a better life, and for strengthening geopolitical security.
“Energy security is national and financial security.
“We have witnessed the wide-ranging benefits of the American energy renaissance brought about by the shale revolution.
“This has revitalized communities, created hundreds of billions of dollars in economic activity, and thousands of new jobs.
“It has provided strong security benefits in America and lowered carbon emissions more than any other nation on earth.
“We win the future by building on the foundations of this energy system - not by destroying it."
THE DANGERS OF RUSH TO GREEN AND RELIANCE ON CHINA
“This ‘rush to green,’ radical agenda attacks fossil fuel use and mandates expansion of weather-dependent wind and solar, and massive electrification.
“The vision is to replace our fossil energy systems at a pace and scale that defies historical experience. To say it’s possible is to be divorced from reality.
“This will lead to higher costs and less reliable energy.
“This is why Republicans have repeatedly raised concerns about the economic and security dangers of the rush to green.
“The World Bank estimates renewable policies will increase global demand for certain critical minerals 500% over current rates. That’s a lot of mining and processing to keep prices down.
“Absent massive growth in our domestic mining and industrial infrastructure, new mandates will require more reliance on foreign supplies of minerals and materials.
“That means a dangerous dependence upon China, and its use of slave labor and abusive practices in the renewable and EV supply chains.
“All of us should be asking: how do Americans benefit if President Biden trades our strategic advantage in fossil energy for more dependence on Chinese supply chains?
“We should not let that happen."
SECURING OUR SUPPLY CHAINS
“So how do we develop our own secure supplies of these minerals, accelerate the mining, processing, and permitting?
“The International Energy Agency concluded in a recent report that it takes more than 16 years to bring a mine from discovery to initial production.
“How does that timeline fit in with the, by 2030, by 2035, by 2050 taglines from the Biden Administration and the Left?
“I’m hopeful we can get some answers today.
“Radical green policies seek to replace extraction of energy minerals - oil, gas, coal, and uranium - with extraction of non-energy minerals - the lithium, cobalt, rare earths in magnets and batteries.
“I am all for increasing our domestic supply of critical minerals but the reality is, ‘keep it in the ground’ movements apply to fossil fuels and critical minerals.
“This drive to renewables also has a host of land use, disposal, and environmental costs beyond greenhouse gas emissions. How does that fit into our environmental priorities?"
SECURING CLEANER AMERICAN ENERGY
“We need a smart, approach - rooted in reality - to secure a cleaner energy future.
“We should be using our abundant resources and American know-how. That means shale gas, hydropower, and of course nuclear energy, something oddly absent from this hearing on clean energy.
“We can do it right if we reject radical visions that deprive us of the benefits of American resources, that stifle innovation with mandates, and that undermine affordable, reliable energy.
“This is about protecting people’s livelihoods and ensuring they can raise their standard of living."
