[Congressional Record Volume 167, Number 17 (Thursday, January 28, 2021)]
[Senate]
[Pages S182-S183]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                                 BUDGET

  Mr. McCONNELL. Madam President, now, on a totally different matter, 
the country has waited to see whether the new administration would 
follow a pro-job, pro-worker, pro-working family approach or give in to 
the far left and put ideological concerns before kitchen table ones. 
Unfortunately, we didn't have to wait long.
  As recently as October, now-President Biden said: ``You can't 
[legislate] by executive action unless you're a dictator.'' Well, in 1 
week, he signed more than 30 unilateral actions, and working Americans 
are getting short shrift.
  The President abruptly canceled the Keystone Pipeline, a massive 
setback for energy security in North America. The Canadian leader 
called it ``a gut punch.'' I imagine the 11,000 American workers, 
including 8,000 union workers who were counting on that work, feel the 
same way.
  We have headed back into an international pact that would have us 
self-inflict serious pain on working families, has failed to curb 
China's emissions, and without which our own emissions have been 
dropping anyway. And yesterday, the administration slammed the brakes 
on further domestic energy development on the huge swaths of land owned 
by the Federal Government: no new oil, gas, or coal leases on Federal 
land.
  Our responsible use of these lands accounts for more than a fifth--
one-fifth--of our domestic production, about 2.8 million barrels per 
day. That is almost the equivalent of Kuwait's daily oil production 
from our Federal lands alone; plus, more than 10 percent of domestic 
natural gas.
  And 2019 marked the first time in nearly 70 years when U.S. energy 
exports outpaced imports. For the first time since the 1950s, our 
Nation ran an energy surplus, not a deficit. That has been great news, 
but some leftwing elites are not happy. The sources of this affordable 
domestic energy are not sufficiently trendy.
  As John Kerry explained yesterday on behalf of the administration, he 
wants the large numbers of American workers in those sectors to find 
``better choices''--better choices than their good jobs that feed their 
families and strengthen our independence. Remember, with the pipeline 
cancellation, the President effectively closed the door on thousands of 
American jobs with the stroke of a pen.
  According to one news report, one welder from Pipeliners Local 798, 
who had been working in Nebraska, says he has already had to lay off 
his whole

[[Page S183]]

team before losing his job himself. He said he sat down in his truck 
and simply cried.
  This latest new prohibition will replicate that heartbreak many times 
over. According to one study, the decision on Federal lands will leave 
us down nearly 1 million American jobs by next year alone--1 million 
lost jobs by next year alone.
  It is a heck of a way to kick off a Presidency: mass layoffs of our 
own citizens, and working Americans in other sectors will pay as well. 
One analysis found this decision could increase household energy costs 
by almost $20 billion over the next decade, and President Biden, John 
Kerry, and the whole gang appear to be just getting warmed up.
  Mr. Kerry admitted yesterday that even if the United States somehow 
brought our carbon emissions to zero, it wouldn't make much difference 
in the global picture. That is because our competitors, including 
China, have already gone roaring past us.
  But there is one kind of cooling these policies will achieve. They 
will ice the job market in communities all across America. In the State 
of New Mexico, 65 percent of oil and gas production is tied to Federal 
lands. By one estimate, 16,000 jobs will be on the chopping block in 
that State alone--that State alone--next year if President Biden's ban 
holds up.
  In Colorado, it would cost another 3,000 jobs and more than 40 
percent of the State's natural gas production.
  As a Kentuckian, I am all too familiar with the way these Democratic 
policies can hurt communities. Kentucky paid dearly for the first round 
of these liberal policies under President Obama. We have no desire to 
be subjected to a sequel, especially when John Kerry says we should 
take the rate at which coal is already declining and quintuple it.
  In her confirmation hearing yesterday, the President's nominee to be 
Energy Secretary referenced ``jobs that might be sacrificed.'' Yeah, 
that is absolutely right. Well, she gets some points for honesty. That 
is what happened the last time these folks called the shots. Jobs were 
sacrificed, including, ultimately, some of the jobs of the Democratic 
politicians who backed these policies.
  There is a concept in sports that a coach or a manager should never 
make a decision that will make the opposing team happy. If they are 
torn about a risky play call or if they are overthinking a pitching 
change, they should ask themselves which decision their opponents would 
rather see and do the opposite. Our new administration is failing that 
test on domestic energy.
  China, Russia, and our other competitors must be thrilled, absolutely 
thrilled that our new government is essentially declaring war on some 
of our own economic foundations to satisfy a craving for symbolic 
gestures--willfully throwing our own people out of work, reducing our 
domestic energy security, raising costs and prices for working 
families--all for no meaningful impact on global temperatures, just to 
buy applause at those international conferences, where the participants 
all assemble by private jet.
  It shouldn't be this way, not with a President who campaigned on 
protecting the lunch-pail union jobs that his left flank wants to 
eliminate. The President was not elected to enact policies that prompt 
a certain young Congresswoman from New York City to boast online that 
her radical ideas are shaping his energy policies. The last 4 years 
proved that growing our prosperity, reducing emissions, and expanding 
domestic energy are actually not in tension. We can achieve all three.
  There is nothing green about a tsunami of pink slips for American 
workers or carting Canadian crude around in trucks and trains instead 
of a pipeline. This piecemeal Green New Deal is the wrong prescription, 
wrong for the environment, wrong for national security, and most of all 
for the working Americans who will soon be formerly working Americans 
if this keeps up.

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