[Congressional Record Volume 169, Number 49 (Thursday, March 16, 2023)]
[Senate]
[Page S810]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                                 Energy

  Madam President, now, on energy, yesterday, Speaker McCarthy and 
House Republicans rolled out a bipartisan, unserious, and dead-on-
arrival so-called energy package they laughably labeled as H.R. 1.
  It is not difficult to see that the Republican proposal is nothing 
more than a wish list for Big Oil, masquerading as an energy package.
  No serious energy package would gut important environmental 
safeguards on fossil fuel projects while leaving out necessary 
permitting reforms needed to bring transmission and clean energy 
projects online.
  Rather than prepare for the future, Republicans' Big Oil wish list 
would lock America into expensive, erratic, and dirty energy sources. 
The Republicans' so-called energy plan would set us back decades in our 
transition to clean, affordable energy. It shows the influence that Big 
Oil has on the Republican House caucus because it seems that this 
package was almost written by Big Oil.
  So let me be clear. The House Republicans' so-called energy bill is 
dead on arrival in the Senate--dead on arrival. And I would say to my 
colleagues: We can still get something done. Fortunately, many 
Democrats and Republicans understand that we need bipartisanship in 
order to produce a real energy package. As we speak, there are talks 
happening in good faith about the possibilities of a permitting deal. I 
strongly--strongly--support both sides working together to arrive at a 
real energy bipartisan package, not the partisan wish list Republicans 
have introduced.
  Any genuine energy package must include a permitting deal that will 
ease America's transition to clean energy while also ensuring that 
clean energy is reliable, accessible, and, most importantly, 
affordable.
  Transmission is vital to getting clean energy from where it is 
produced to where people live, but the Republicans' H.R. 1 proposal 
completely ignores this issue, to its detriment and its demise.
  Until Republicans recognize that permitting reform is an essential 
step toward laying the foundation for a clean energy future, no 
proposal or package they put forward will be taken seriously.