[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.

[[Page S6551]]

  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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