[Congressional Record Volume 159, Number 123 (Wednesday, September 18, 2013)]
[Senate]
[Pages S6550-S6551]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
ENERGY AMENDMENT
Mr. BARRASSO. Mr. President, today I would like to follow up on some
of the comments by Senator Cornyn about these massive burdens on
American families, how it is impacting their lives, their quality of
life. Those are burdens forced upon them by this administration.
I rise to talk about an amendment I filed to the energy efficiency
bill that we will be debating today on the floor. This amendment would
stop President Obama's attempt to impose a massive increase to the
national energy bill. It will affect all Americans because, in a sense,
essentially what we have is a huge energy tax caused by government
regulations.
My amendment blocks the issuance of new carbon pollution standards
for new and existing coal-fired powerplants. Those standards are due
out from the Environmental Protection Agency this very week. They can
do great harm to the American economy and to American families.
We need to make America's energy as clean as we can as fast as we
can. Everyone knows that. It is important, though, that we do it
without hurting our economy and without costing thousands of middle-
class jobs. The American people, through their elected representatives
in Congress, have rejected President Obama's reckless energy policies
in the past. This past June President Obama issued a Presidential
memorandum directing the EPA to issue carbon pollution standard
regulations.
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My amendment would require the approval of Congress for any
regulations causing increases of our national energy bill, just like
the one the EPA would create with these regulations. If these
regulations are allowed to take effect, they will increase energy costs
for the people who can bear the burden the least--seniors, low-income
families, small businesses.
High energy costs will destroy thousands of jobs in places such as my
home State of Wyoming but also in Missouri, Ohio, West Virginia,
Montana, and many other States. We have already seen coal-fired
powerplants shut down and reduce capacity, putting many people out of
work. That has been the President's plan all along. These new
regulations would be the latest step.
Remember, President Obama said that under his plan ``electricity
rates would necessarily skyrocket.'' Skyrocket. That is his word, not
mine. He said energy producers could still build coal-fired
powerplants, but that the cost would be so high it would bankrupt them.
The President should be looking for ways to help businesses grow, to
help create jobs, not pushing his regulations to find backdoor ways to
bankrupt them.
My amendment accomplishes a number of goals, beginning with
protecting American jobs. That has been our focus in this difficult
economy. The Nation's recession ended more than 4 years ago. We have
not had the recovery, though, we should have had because the
President's policies have failed. The President promised he had a plan
to create so-called green jobs. People have seen that those green jobs
never materialized.
Now the President is going after the red, white, and blue jobs that
continue to power our country. The Obama administration and its allies
in the fringe environmental movement say we need to get rid of those
jobs to make way for new ones. They say coal miners and powerplant
workers should fade into history along with the men and women who built
stagecoaches, telegraphs, and record players. Their idea is that if we
simply let coal die, those folks can start making something new.
That kind of thinking is a luxury a lot of Americans do not want and
cannot afford. When excessive Washington redtape crushes a coal mine or
a coal-fired powerplant in a small community, those jobs are not the
only thing that go. The town loses its revenue base. That hurts its
public schools, its police, its fire departments, senior busing
services for those who cannot drive. Everything that town does to serve
its people suffers because of decisions made by this administration in
Washington, DC.
Before long, people start to move away, looking for a better chance
somewhere else. Small businesses do not have enough customers, so they
shut down, and the town withers away. When Washington uses the heavy
hand of excessive regulation, there are a whole host of ways it hurts
American communities. One of those ways is its impact on public health.
Studies consistently show unemployment increases the likelihood of
illness, hospital visits, and premature death. Families where a parent
is out of work are more likely to fall into poverty. Children in poor
families are four times as likely as other children to be in fair or
poor health.
The bureaucrats at the EPA can shake their magic eight ball to
predict health impacts of carbon pollution on virtual people who have
not been born yet, years into the future. But if their predictions are
wrong, and I expect they are, they will simply shake their magic eight
ball again.
Meanwhile, the health effects caused by their excessive regulations
are very real for real families, real children, real seniors. My
amendment addresses this public health issue. It does it by preventing
this massive unemployment that would result from new redtape and higher
energy costs.
Finally, my amendment is clear that Congress should act on an
affordable energy plan. Nothing in my amendment says Congress should
not work with State and local governments to protect communities from
severe weather events where lives are at stake. My amendment is clear
that these kinds of decisions should be for Congress to make, not for
the President to make on his own. That is true whether the President is
a Democrat or a Republican. I hope to get a vote on my amendment to
ensure that the Obama administration does not impose an increase in our
national energy bill on the American people.
Along the same lines, I want to speak briefly about another
opportunity we have to ensure a stronger energy future for our country.
This week will mark an anniversary that I hope will spur the American
people to demand some action from the Obama administration. Five full
years ago TransCanada first applied for permission to build the
Keystone XL Pipeline. President Obama still cannot make up his mind to
approve the permits. He dithers, he delays, he makes excuses.
It is time to act. It is time finally to approve the Keystone XL
Pipeline so America can start to get the benefits of this important
energy project.
According to the State Department analysis, the pipeline's
construction could support 42,000 jobs across the country. The
President should be grabbing any opportunity he can to help the private
sector create jobs. Instead, he says the jobs the Keystone XL Pipeline
would create are ``a blip relative to the need.'' Is this how the
President sees the livelihoods of 42,000 American families, a blip?
This is the fourth major pipeline project between Canada and the
United States since 2006. All the others were approved and the process
took between 15 and 28 months for each of them. The permit process for
Keystone XL is now 60 months and still counting. Why is it taking so
long? In October 2010, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said her
department was ``inclined'' to approve the project. In July 2011, the
administration said it was ``publicly committed to reaching a
decision'' before the end of the year. That was 2011. The deadline came
and it went.
This past June, the President suddenly raised the bar. He said the
``net effects of the pipeline's impacts on our climate will be
absolutely critical'' in his decision. We know today what those effects
would be. Studies show the Keystone XL Pipeline would not have a
substantial impact on greenhouse gas emissions. That is because even if
the pipeline does not get built, the energy is still going to be
developed. China has absolutely offered to buy the energy from Canada.
This pipeline has the support of more than 70 percent of the American
people. It has the support of major labor unions, of every State along
its route.
A bipartisan majority in the House and 62 Senators support it. Still,
President Obama cannot make up his mind. He delays his decisions on
this vital infrastructure project and at the same time orders
regulations that would impose what amounts to a national energy tax. He
stalls a pipeline that would create thousands of jobs and at the same
time orders regulations that would destroy thousands of jobs. He stalls
a pipeline that would help middle-class families while he promotes a
policy that would take more money out of the pockets of hard-working
Americans. We need to improve America's energy picture, without
destroying jobs or bankrupting our country.
President Obama can help do that. He can do it today by doing two
things. First, he should drop his plan to impose a new increase on
national energy costs and let it be debated by Congress. Second, he
should immediately approve the Keystone XL Pipeline. If the President
is serious about helping middle-class families, he will prove it. If he
is not ready to join Democrats and Republicans in Congress in making
reasonable energy policies that help American families, then the Senate
should act.
Struggling middle-class families are asking for our help. It is time
to give them the help they need.
I yield the floor.
The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The Senator from Hawaii.
Mr. SCHATZ. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent to speak for up to
15 minutes.
The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. Without objection, it is so
ordered.
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