[Congressional Record Volume 167, Number 36 (Thursday, February 25, 2021)]
[Senate]
[Pages S877-S878]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                Nomination of Jennifer Mulhern Granholm

  Mr. BARRASSO. Mr. President, when Governor Granholm came before the 
Energy and Natural Resources Committee for her nomination hearing, she 
said she was committed to American energy dominance. She stated she 
understood the importance of having a broad energy mix and supporting 
energy innovation.
  Now, I asked her if it was a good thing that the United States is the 
world's leading producer of oil and natural gas, and she said it was. I 
asked her if low energy prices and high-paying American energy jobs 
were good things, and she agreed that they were. And when I asked her 
if America exporting its energy influence around the globe was a good 
thing, she again affirmed that it was. She has demonstrated that she is 
dedicated to supporting carbon capture, nuclear power, and American 
uranium production.
  For these reasons, she cleared our committee with broad bipartisan 
support and will soon be confirmed by the Senate. I expect we will work 
together closely on these efforts when she leads the Department of 
Energy.
  During her nomination hearing, Governor Granholm also said that she 
didn't want to see anyone lose their job or get left behind. Yet this 
is exactly what the Biden administration is doing to thousands of 
American energy workers.
  On Inauguration Day, the President spoke of unity and bringing our 
Nation back together. Once he arrived at the White House, however, he 
threw that rhetoric out the window, picked up his pen, and started 
signing radical Executive orders.
  His orders to ban oil, gas, and coal leasing on Federal lands and to 
kill the Keystone XL Pipeline will throw thousands of Americans out of 
work. These workers' livelihoods are being sacrificed in the name of 
the Biden agenda. Leaders in the administration are telling these oil 
rig and coal mine and pipeline workers that they can simply get new 
jobs building solar panels.
  Actually, John Kerry said that the Biden administration policies will 
give these workers better choices. In 2019, the average salary of a 
solar panel technician was about $30,000 a year less than the average 
salary of a worker in the gas, oil, and coal industry. So John Kerry 
flies around the world, private jet, but is asking American energy 
workers to each take $30,000 a year less in income. And that is if 
these green energy jobs even exist.
  To that point, the Washington Post Fact Checker took a look at what 
John Kerry had said, and they said he was offering ``false hope with a 
misleading use of statistics.''
  Look, we have heard it all before. When President Biden was Vice 
President, the Obama administration promised thousands of green energy 
jobs--jobs that never materialized. Millions of taxpayer dollars were 
wasted on green energy companies that went belly-up.
  Now the ``Solyndra Syndrome'' has returned. The Washington Post Fact 
Checker said it expects just a little over 10,000 new wind and solar 
jobs over the next 10 years.
  In Wyoming alone, the long-term leasing ban would result in 33,000 
workers losing their jobs. And where are these Wyoming workers supposed 
to go?
  Hundreds of thousands more workers are going to lose their jobs in 
New Mexico, Colorado, Texas, and other States. How will they provide 
for their families?
  The Biden ban won't just hurt workers; it is going to hurt kids too. 
A long-term leasing ban is going to eliminate hundreds of millions of 
dollars in State revenue--the dollars which go for essential services, 
for public schools, for roads, bridges, and hospitals. A long-term 
leasing ban is going to hurt teachers, students, and the communities 
they call home.
  America needs all the energy--the oil, the gas, the coal, the 
uranium, the

[[Page S878]]

wind, the solar--all of them. Banning fossil fuels will hurt our 
economy and force more workers out of work.
  President Biden has declared war on American energy and American 
energy workers, and I just can't stand by as this administration tries 
to crush Wyoming's economy. I can't support an administration that 
throws my constituents out of work and hurts the schools and the 
hospitals in the communities and the teachers who teach the children.
  Energy is a force multiplier. American energy is--America is an 
energy superpower. We need to act that way.
  President Biden seems to want to pull the plug on American energy 
dominance. So I cannot in good conscience vote to approve his nominee 
for Secretary of Energy
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from West Virginia.