[Congressional Record Volume 168, Number 115 (Wednesday, July 13, 2022)]
[Senate]
[Pages S3255-S3256]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                          Biden Administration

  Ms. ERNST. Madam President, 200 years ago, the Senate went about 
their business without computers, without cell phones, and any of our 
other modern conveniences that run on electricity, including the very 
lights in this room. Working by candlelight might sound quaint today, 
but many Americans may find themselves doing just that in the not too 
distant future because the Biden administration is taking the country 
back to the era of no electricity.
  Folks, with President Biden and his same team of advisers who created 
a nationwide baby formula shortage and out-of-control inflation 
overseeing their ``energy transition,'' what could possibly go wrong? 
You don't have to look any further than your energy bills to get an 
answer.
  Prices at the pump have nearly doubled since Biden's first day in 
office when he started signing Executive orders to turn off American 
energy supplies. And home electricity prices have increased more than 
20 percent since just last summer. What is worse than these expensive 
energy bills? Well, folks, how about no power at all? Most of the 
Nation is currently in danger of experiencing power outages due to 
energy shortages caused by the closure of power plants as part of the 
Democrats' push towards renewables. These Biden blackouts will make it 
impossible to even run fans and air conditioners on the hottest days of 
the summer.

  But not to worry, folks, Biden's Energy Department has issued some 
tips of what to do in case of an outage, which include stocking up on 
candles, keeping an ice chest on hand, and having a gallon of water 
available for every person in your house for each day you are without 
electricity.
  Folks, that is not the most reassuring advice since no one knows how 
many days we could be kept in the dark during a Biden blackout.
  The reality is these power outages pose a bigger problem than just 
the inconvenience of being uncomfortably warm or unable to watch TV for 
a few hours or possibly days.
  Extended outages could be a matter of life or death for many folks 
who depend upon electronic medical devices or temperature-sensitive 
medicines.
  You are probably wondering how it is even possible in 2022 for there 
to be an energy shortage right here in the United States of America. It 
is simple math: Democratic policies.
  The ongoing closure of traditional power plants is reducing our 
capacity to supply enough electricity for millions of homes and 
renewables are not yet producing enough energy on their own to make up 
the difference.
  The Democrats are predictably blaming global warming, but the truth 
is the rolling blackouts and rising prices are really being caused by 
man-made energy change. Just this year, the Biden administration has 
reduced domestic oil and gas leasing, created regulatory barriers for 
building pipelines, and taken administrative actions that put hundreds 
of solar energy projects across the U.S. on hold.
  We can't just turn off the power sources we depend upon without 
having reliable, abundant, and affordable alternatives readily 
available. Yet that is exactly what the Democrats, at President Biden's 
direction, are doing.
  I am proud that my home State of Iowa was the first State in the 
Nation to adopt a renewable portfolio standard nearly 40 years ago.
  Today, Iowa generates most of our energy from renewables, with wind 
power being our primary source. Iowa also leads the Nation in the 
production of ethanol and biodiesel. And despite what critics say, the 
use of corn ethanol and soybean biodiesel reduce greenhouse gas 
emissions while helping to keep our Nation energy independent and our 
State green and clean.
  However, renewables still only produce a fraction of the total 
electricity the Nation relies on to run, making it impossible and 
irresponsible to simply unplug our traditional energy sources.
  Just look at California, which has set a goal of achieving a carbon-
free power grid. The State is forecasting that energy shortages could 
leave as many as 4 million California residents without power this 
summer.
  The State's utility provider wants to build five new fossil-fuel 
power generators to ensure the availability of reliable electricity in 
the future. But the challenge is more than just making up for the 
reduction in power production because the transition to renewables is 
creating new demands for electricity.
  For example, our increasingly unreliable power grid will face even 
greater strains as more and more electric vehicles are plugged into it. 
To drive just 100 miles, an EV requires about the same amount of 
electricity as it takes to run a home for an entire day, including 
lights, heating and air-conditioning, and appliances. Tesla, the 
world's top EV carmaker, is already asking EV owners to not charge 
their cars during certain hours of the day to better ration the use of 
electricity.
  And while President Biden and the Democrats keep telling Americans to 
buy an electric vehicle to cut down on the cost of gas, the high 
sticker price makes EVs unaffordable.
  Folks, the cold, hard truth is electric vehicles are not as 
economical, environmental, or ethical as the Democrats want us to 
believe. Proponents of the Green New Deal portray themselves as heroes 
in a fairy tale riding to the rescue--on an EV, of course--to defeat 
the greedy corporations polluting the planet for profit so we can all 
live happily ever after. But the truth is it ain't that easy being 
green.
  Consider the component parts used in both EVs and solar panels. Well, 
they are largely produced by Communist China's State-supported 
corporations, often using slave and child labor.
  As a result, the world will be more dependent on Communist China for 
some energy products in a post-carbon economy than we are on OPEC for 
petroleum today.
  President Biden's own Energy Department admits that ``U.S. 
decarbonization goals are reliant on both Chinese firms and the Chinese 
government.''
  And while we will rely on China for the technology, the communist 
regime will rely more heavily on the forced labor of children and 
modern-day slaves to produce it. Consider, almost half of the world 
supply of polysilicon used in solar panels is made in Communist China, 
often by the hands of forced labor of ethnic and religious minorities. 
And nearly every silicon-based solar panel is likely to contain 
components that originated in the area of China where forced labor 
camps are widespread. China also has significant financial control over 
the world's supply of cobalt, which is an essential element used in the 
batteries of EVs.
  The Congo produces 70 percent of the world's cobalt, and Chinese-
backed companies own or have a financial interest in most of the 
African nation's cobalt mines. These Chinese corporations are 
subjecting the miners to physical abuse and hazardous conditions in 
exchange for very little money. Tens of thousands of children--some as 
young as 4 years old--are exploited to work in the mines with few 
safety protections.

[[Page S3256]]

  President Biden promised to create green jobs, but he didn't mention 
that they would be done by children in Africa or slaves in China. These 
poor kids are mistreated and malnourished and even drugged to suppress 
their hunger so they can work for longer hours. Breathing in toxic 
fumes causes long-term health problems, including lung disease and 
heart failure, as well as birth defects. And miners are often buried 
alive when tunnels cave in.
  These are some of the kids who mine the cobalt to make an EV run. And 
in the other photo are some of the folks who produce ethanol for motor 
vehicles. I know which photo I would rather see. Who powers your 
vehicle?
  In addition to the toxic harm to humans, the extraction of cobalt 
also causes severe environmental pollution to the water, air, and to 
the soil.
  Just take a look at this picture. This is a mine in Congo where 
cobalt is extracted to make batteries for EVs. Nothing about this 
landscape looks like an environmental success story to me. By contrast, 
the picture over here is a beautiful farm in Iowa where corn is grown 
to make fuel for motor vehicles. Every year, I drive through mile after 
mile of cornfields on my 99-county tour. It is the type of scenic drive 
that reconnects you with nature and reminds you of the importance of 
proper stewardship of the land we live off of.
  Folks, we can all have a cleaner conscience knowing that energy made 
in Iowa is creating economic opportunities for our neighbors, while 
keeping our communities green, rather than exploiting children or 
creating a toxic wasteland. Can the same be said about the initiatives 
that are being pushed by the Biden administration? Like begging OPEC to 
pump more oil, sending our Nation's strategic oil reserves to China, or 
subsidizing China's market in slave and child labor.
  Are we going to tell the truth to the children that riding the 
electric school buses that the Biden administration is spending $5 
billion on to purchase, what really makes the wheels on these buses go 
round and round is the exploitation of other children who are their age 
or even younger? Or are we just going to tell them more green fairy 
tales?
  It is time to come clean about the Democrats' Green New Deal. Just 
like President Biden's other policies, this radical agenda is creating 
problems, not solving them, including greater dependency on foreign 
adversaries like China and Russia, reliance on child and slave forced 
labor, harm to human health and the environment, higher costs, and 
energy shortages and blackouts. Democrats are literally trying to keep 
America in the dark about these inconvenient truths.
  Folks, the Biden blackouts will be the latest unneeded reminder that 
the Democrats' Green New Deal can't hold a candle to the Republicans' 
record of producing an abundant supply of affordable energy right here 
in the good old United States of America.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Tennessee.
  Mrs. BLACKBURN. Madam President, it is so interesting being home for 
July 4 and talking with Tennesseans, and it sounds like Senator Ernst 
heard some of the same things from her constituents there in Iowa.
  But what came up a lot in our conversations was the feeling and the 
awareness that the Democrats and the media have spent the last few 
months trying to convince the American people that oil companies are to 
blame for Biden's energy crisis.
  At one point, they even tried to blame the people running the local 
gas stations, all the moms and pops, but Tennesseans know whose fault 
it is. Tennesseans are smart. They are watching very closely. And they 
know that President Biden became responsible for their pain the moment 
he chose a radical, environmental agenda over the fully realized vision 
of American energy independence.
  That is right, we were energy independent the day he took office.
  So President Biden canceled the Keystone Pipeline. He canceled leases 
and energy infrastructure, and he got behind dozens of regulations that 
have made it almost impossible for American energy producers to do 
their job.
  At the time, Democrats claimed this was all for the greater good. It 
is temporary. It is transitioning to the liberal world order. But I 
think any reasonable person would agree that what has happened is 
things have gotten worse--terribly worse.
  If you don't want to take my word for it, talk to the local leaders 
who are responsible for keeping the lights on in their communities. 
City budgets are stretched thin. School budgets aren't doing any 
better. Parents want to know if the buses will keep running and what 
will happen in August if the schools can't afford to turn the air-
conditioning on. Everyone wants to know what will happen to public 
transportation, to emergency services, and to law enforcement if the 
price of a gallon of gas gets too expensive. They have no idea how far 
the Biden administration will allow this to go, and that is what 
concerns them the most.
  Joe Biden hasn't just failed ``we the people,'' he has sabotaged the 
pocketbooks of millions of Americans and given our adversaries a huge 
advantage.
  The Democrats gambled on the Green New Deal. It is evident they lost. 
Their gas holiday was a gimmick, and that failed. Energy prices are 
through the roof, but they still pulled a million barrels of oil out of 
the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, and they sent it to communist China.
  Now the President of the United States has gone hat in hand to Saudi 
Arabia so that he can beg for oil. He is even trying to cozy up to the 
Iranians with a new Iran nuclear deal, begging for oil. Our hard-fought 
energy independence is gone, along with our Nation's credibility on 
this issue.
  The world is watching Joe Biden. They are watching the Biden 
blackouts that are really taking a toll on American energy and American 
consumers, and you and I both know that all the wrong people are seeing 
this as an opportunity to profit.
  If the Biden administration continues to squander our country's 
resources, we will lose even more ground to the axis of evil. Russia 
still has a stranglehold on European energy. American supply chains are 
still hopelessly entangled with China. Iran is ready to steamroll Biden 
for that new nuclear deal. North Korea is deploying hackers to the West 
at an alarming rate. I don't think a Civilian Climate Corps has a 
chance in this match-up.
  I would admonish the President to remember that the new axis of evil 
is playing by a different set of rules. Their only goal is to find our 
vulnerabilities and exploit them to try to take us down.
  I would remind my Democratic colleagues that Biden's energy crisis is 
a vulnerability, and it is your duty to help lead the country out of 
it. Don't be complicit. Restart the Keystone Pipeline, open up those 
leases on Federal lands, get the regulators out of the way, and unleash 
American energy before it is too late.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Iowa.
  Mr. GRASSLEY. Madam President, before I speak, I have been asked to 
make a unanimous consent request that Senators Scott, Hoeven, Barrasso, 
and I be permitted to speak for up to 5 minutes each prior to the votes 
and that Senator Bennet be permitted to speak for up to 10 minutes 
prior to the votes.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.