[Congressional Record Volume 168, Number 193 (Tuesday, December 13, 2022)]
[House]
[Pages H9692-H9693]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                            HOT FERC SUMMER

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Illinois (Mr. Casten) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. CASTEN. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in recognition of the work that 
we did to pass the Inflation Reduction Act, the single largest 
investment in climate action in American history.
  Thanks to the IRA, not only will we see expanded access to lower 
energy costs, but we will also lower emissions and give our children a 
better shot at an inhabitable planet. But if we are going to build all 
that clean generation and connect it to all those new loads from 
electric vehicles to heat pumps, we are going to have to enhance our 
electric grid, and that is not going to happen without an independent, 
fully staffed Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, or FERC, as they 
say in the streets.
  Now you all remember that last year, as we worked on what became the 
Inflation Reduction Act, the White House had not acted to fill a 
vacancy at FERC, and FERC was frozen into inaction. We needed a hot 
FERC summer, and this Chamber--along with Megan Thee Stallion, Fergie 
and Dolly Parton--delivered.
  Yet now, we are on the verge of freezing again. This time, because 
the Senate has failed to act to reconfirm Chairman Glick.

  Just at the moment when we need to expedite transmission permitting 
reform to ensure cheap, reliable energy and fix power markets, FERC is 
again on the brink of being deadlocked.
  So with a little help from Rihanna this time, it is my duty to once 
again remind the legislative branch of our desperate need to FERC, 
FERC, FERC, FERC, FERC, FERC.
  Climate change is urgent. Capital markets are mobilizing in response 
to the Inflation Reduction Act. There is no time to have us lurking.
  To be blunt, Mr. Chair:

       I do nuh like it, and you know I have dealt with it the 
     nicest . . . but this delay is nuh righteous . . . and now we 
     are in a crisis.

  A deadlocked FERC would eliminate up to 80 percent of the emissions 
reductions created by the IRA. We need them working now to ensure that 
we can rapidly bolster interregional grid connections, shorten 
interconnection queues, and reform the siting and cost allocation 
processes that doom so many projects today.
  Sing with me, Mr. Chairman.
  We got to FERC, FERC, FERC, FERC, FERC, FERC.
  You can do it. Come on.
  To my colleagues in the Senate, the eyes of the Nation, and of this 
Chamber are on you.

       We will never, no, never neglect you. We do not hold your 
     past against you. But you need to get this done, done, done, 
     done, done, done.

  Our utilities, our electricians, our consumers, and our planet 
believed you when you said that failure to ensure comprehensive 
permitting reform was, ``not an option.'' But now they are asking 
whether you really believed that.
  Did you really mean it when you said you would give them ``something 
that they'd never seen''? Or are they right now when they cry that this 
is just a dream of ``something that you've never been''?
  It is time for the Senate to give our energy markets reasons to 
believe in ``all their dreams, their adoration''.

[[Page H9693]]

They don't have ``much more patience''.
  We need them to con-firm, firm, firm, firm, firm, firm.
  A person who will work, work, work, work, work, work.
  To ensure that we can FERC, FERC, FERC, FERC, FERC, FERC.
  Mr. Speaker, ``What else I say? I am tryin', babe.''

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