[Congressional Record Volume 166, Number 183 (Saturday, October 24, 2020)]
[Senate]
[Pages S6428-S6429]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                          Presidential Debate

  Mr. President, briefly, on another matter, in Thursday's Presidential 
debate, former Vice President Joe Biden said he wants to transition the 
United States from the oil industry. Actually, Governor Abbott 
appropriately said: No, Joe Biden wants to transition hundreds of 
thousands of Texans from their paychecks.
  What Joe Biden is sending is a not too subtly coded message that he 
wants to end our energy industry as we know it. This is an industry 
that, according to one study, directly or indirectly supports one out 
of every six jobs in my State and is a pillar of our State's economy.
  Through tax revenue, high-paying jobs, and downstream economic gains, 
communities across Texas reap substantial benefits from our thriving 
oil and gas industry every day, and those benefits reach beyond our 
borders or the borders of any other energy-producing State.
  That is because of the hard-working men and women on rigs, in fields, 
and in refineries. Because of their work, the American people have 
access to reliable and affordable energy.
  In places like California and New York, folks can't turn on their 
lights, fill up their gas tanks, or hop on an airplane without ever 
thinking about the men and women who made that seemingly simple task 
possible.
  Now we are seeing our Democratic colleagues fighting to leave these 
energy sources in the dust. They are talking about switching to 
renewables, as if it were as simple as turning on a light switch.
  In Texas, we literally believe in an ``all of the above'' energy 
policy. We produce more electricity from wind energy, from wind 
turbines, than any other State in the Nation. But we know what the 
reality of the kind of transition that Vice President Biden has talked 
about would mean. We got a taste of how disastrous it would be earlier 
this year.
  When the coronavirus pandemic hit, the need for Texas's greatest 
natural resource plummeted. With fewer cars on the road and fewer 
planes in the sky, oil and gas producers were left with a lot of supply 
and not much demand, and that is when the layoffs began.
  A new report by Deloitte found that, between March and August of this 
year, about 107,000 energy workers were laid off, and that doesn't 
include the countless workers who had their pay cut or who were 
temporarily furloughed.
  To make matters worse, the study found that as many as 70 percent of 
those jobs might not even come back by the end of 2021, and that is if 
we continue business as usual.
  If the Vice President's plan to destroy our energy industry were 
enacted, these workers would have no jobs to come back to, and it would 
be only the beginning of the cascading negative economic consequences.
  Many Americans aren't old enough to remember the 1970s energy crisis, 
which put our energy dependence in this country in the spotlight. The 
situation was so bad that gas stations were serving customers by 
appointment only. Some States banned neon signs to cut down on energy 
use. A number of towns asked their citizens not to even put up 
Christmas lights.
  It was a cold, hard dose of reality that brought America's energy 
dependence to light and underscored the need to increase our domestic 
resources and wean ourselves off of the dependency on foreign oil. And 
that is exactly what we did. We placed a ban on the export of crude oil 
at that time to grow our reserves here at home.
  With the shale revolution and technological advancements in the 
energy sector, in recent years, though, production has skyrocketed. 
Then it became abundantly clear it was time to lift the export ban, 
which we did.
  Almost 5 years ago, I voted here in the Senate to lift that 40-year-
old export ban, and until COVID-19 hit, we were seeing major gains. 
Last November, for the first time on record, the United States exported 
more crude oil and fuel than we imported.
  Now that we have reached, really, what you could call energy self-
sufficiency, our Democratic colleagues are eager to impose policies 
that would send us right back to the 1970s and that Orwellian energy 
crisis and wreak economic havoc in the process.
  Really, I think Vice President Biden has succeeded in alienating all 
sides on this topic because he has been flipping and flopping back and 
forth about fracking bans, whether it would apply across the board or 
just to Federal lands. But Kamala Harris, his running mate, has been 
abundantly clear and completely consistent. She said last year: 
``There's no question I am in favor of banning fracking.''
  But whether Democrats are talking about a transition, a fracking ban, 
or the Green New Deal, these proposals will kill the goose that laid 
the golden egg--our oil and gas industry--and send the economy into a 
tailspin. They would bankrupt my State, with the best economy in the 
country.
  A study by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce estimates that a fracking ban 
would cost our State nearly 3.2 million jobs by 2025. The annual cost 
of living would go up more than $7,000. Unemployment would skyrocket, 
tax revenue would plummet, and the prepandemic economy that made us the 
envy of the world might never recover.
  The only thing this so-called transition would lead to is a dire 
economic picture for Texas--and I believe the rest of the country as 
well--and unaffordable or unreliable energy resources.
  I want to be clear; I support efforts to drive down emissions. That 
is why this shale gas revolution has been so good for the environment, 
by reducing emissions dramatically.
  The U.S. energy-related emissions dropped by almost 3 percent last 
year, largely due to the increased use of natural gas for power 
generation.
  I also support renewable energy. As I said, Texas is the No. 1 
producer of electricity from wind. But even the strongest supporters of 
renewable sources of energy can tell you right now renewables are not 
capable of providing the energy that our Nation needs. As we all know, 
the Sun does not always shine, and the wind does not always blow. So 
wind turbines and solar panels can't fill the need, particularly with 
about 270-plus million cars on the road and an airline industry--not to 
mention our national defense--that depends on fossil fuels to run their 
engines.
  Last year, renewables accounted for only 17.5 percent of our total 
electricity generation. For comparison, natural gas alone accounts for 
more than double that. While the development and expansion of renewable 
sources is important and something that I support, we simply can't cut 
our nose off to spite our face by denying ourselves access to, really, 
what is a gift, which is our natural resources and fossil fuels.

[[Page S6429]]

  Right now, we have hope that, once daily commutes and nonessential 
travel resume, more Texas energy workers will be back on the job and 
our economy will rebound. But if our country were to implement the 
policies advocated by leading Democrats, particularly their 
Presidential and Vice Presidential nominee, that hope would altogether 
disappear.
  This is not the time, if ever there was a time, to implement heavy-
handed, short-sighted government policies like that. Our energy 
industry is still reeling from the impact of the coronavirus, and our 
Democratic colleagues' disastrous policies would not make that better; 
it would make it worse.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Tennessee
  Mr. ALEXANDER. Mr. President, I am glad I was here to hear the wise 
words of the Senator from Texas. I look at our region, in the Tennessee 
Valley, compared to California. California is moving ahead with a 
policy a lot like Vice President Biden's. They have got a high goal for 
powering that whole State on wind and solar and closing their nuclear 
plants.
  What is happening in California? Rates are going through the roof, 
and they are having rolling blackouts. What is happening in Tennessee 
and the Tennessee Valley? The TVA has very wisely expanded nuclear 
power so that it is more than 40 percent of our electricity.
  Of course, nuclear power is totally emission-free--no carbon, zero 
carbon--it is reliable, and it is, by far, most of the carbon-free 
electricity we produce in this country. The combination of that nuclear 
power, hydropower, and natural gas in Tennessee has given us one of the 
cleanest areas. In the East Tennessee area where I live, I can see the 
mountains clearly now because pollution control is on all the coal 
plants.
  So we need a realistic energy policy, not a fanciful one. We don't 
want rolling blackouts throughout the country like California has 
because they have adopted exactly the policy that Vice President Biden 
is advocating.