[Congressional Record Volume 167, Number 127 (Tuesday, July 20, 2021)]
[House]
[Pages H3676-H3677]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                              {time}  1030
                            HOT FERC SUMMER

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Illinois (Mr. Casten) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. CASTEN. Madam Speaker, I trust most of my colleagues have heard 
of ``Hot Girl Summer'' and the broader Megan Thee Stallion oeuvre.
  Madam Speaker, I rise today to declare the start of ``Hot FERC 
Summer,'' with FERC, of course, being the Federal Energy Regulatory 
Commission. Why, you might ask? Well, to paraphrase Ms. Stallion, 
because now that FERC has put in all that work, it is time for them to 
be the MVP.
  Now, some might say that FERC isn't, dare I say, hot enough to 
warrant that attention. But for those of us who are serious about 
fighting the climate crisis, they sure should be.
  The Commission ensures our energy markets, generation, and 
transmission

[[Page H3677]]

are operating and providing us with affordable, reliable energy. But 
the best kept secret of all is that FERC is absolutely key to achieving 
our clean energy goals and a zero carbon economy.
  For the last few decades, FERC's biggest push has been to encourage 
competition in the power sector. FERC Order 888, which just celebrated 
its 25th birthday a few months ago, may not have cracked the Billboard 
Top 100, but it has been almost singularly responsible for 
decarbonizing our electric sector. The order, like most things FERC-
related, was, frankly, pretty wonky. But by incentivizing lower-cost 
gas, nuclear, and renewable energy, it drove the private sector to 
drastically lower their greenhouse gas emissions and slash electricity 
costs.
  From the perspective of anyone who pays for electricity, that is 
fantastic news. You pay less for cleaner power.
  From the perspective of someone who cares about climate change, it is 
also amazing because once a clean energy plant is built, you don't need 
to pay the wind to blow or the Sun to shine. Clean energy is the 
cheapest source of energy out there, and those old, dirty plants just 
can't compete.
  In my home State of Illinois, a recent study found that it would be 
cheaper to sell a coal plant that was just built a decade ago for scrap 
and procure cleaner replacement power through those FERC-organized 
markets. Thank you, FERC.
  To kick off ``Hot FERC Summer,'' I have introduced bills that will 
help FERC build on this success. The first of these was the 
Interregional Transmission Planning Improvement Act, which I introduced 
with Senator Heinrich, that will ensure that our grid operators are 
thinking properly about the benefits of building transmission wires 
across the country.
  The second, the Energy PRICE Act, which I introduced just today with 
Representatives Levin, Huffman, and Bonamici, would help ensure that 
FERC lives up to its legal responsibility to protect the public welfare 
by not approving electricity rates that don't account for the cost of 
greenhouse gas emissions.
  I will be dropping a third ``Hot FERC Summer'' bill--I am sorry, a 
third hot jam next week.
  But right now, FERC is at a crossroads. For the first time in years, 
President Biden has an opportunity to create a Democratic majority at 
FERC; a majority that will ensure that these incentives are in place to 
build an electric grid for our 21st century economy; a majority that 
will ensure that State renewable energy rules are respected and 
integrated into regional markets, a majority that will ensure that 
uneconomic fossil fuel plants are subjected to the competitive 
pressures of a free market that have given us an explosion in solar and 
wind energy over the past decade; a majority that will ensure that we 
make further progress in our clean energy goals rather than trying to 
fight against it.
  But in order to do any of that in time to prevent more climate 
devastation, the President must nominate a Commissioner to FERC, and 
the Senate must confirm that individual. I urge both to do so as soon 
as possible to ensure that FERC stays at its full power and that it 
will be able to continue to be the most important clean energy agency 
that most of us have never heard of.
  As you, of course know, Madam Speaker, ``Hot Girl Summer'' ain't 
about degrees, but ``Hot FERC Summer'' most definitely is. The record 
temperatures from Portland to Death Valley, the wildfires, and the 
coming hurricane season are all the direct result of our failure to 
decarbonize as quickly as we must.
  While this summer is the hottest FERC summer yet, it is coming on the 
heels of 2020, which was the hottest summer North America has ever seen 
for as long as we have records. In point of fact, the 10 warmest 
summers on record have occurred since 1998. If we fail to act, they 
will be nothing compared to the summers we will experience over the 
coming decades because while the best chance to take action on climate 
was 30 years ago, the last chance is now.

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