[Congressional Record Volume 170, Number 99 (Wednesday, June 12, 2024)]
[Senate]
[Pages S4038-S4039]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
Energy Regulation
Mr. HOEVEN. Madam President, I join my colleagues today to discuss
the Biden administration's onslaught of energy regulations that will
make electricity more expensive and less reliable for homes and
businesses across the country.
In April, the Environmental Protection Agency finalized four new
regulations specifically targeting our coal-fired electric
powerplants--certainly the coal-fired powerplants in my State of North
Dakota--including an expensive, unachievable new mercury and air toxics
standards, or MATS, rule, despite the EPA's own regulatory analysis--
their own regulatory analysis--stating that the previous rule was
adequately protecting public health; the Clean Power Plan 2.0--so-
called Clean Power Plan 2.0--requiring existing coal-fired and new gas-
fired plants to reduce CO2 emissions by 90 percent when the
technology is not yet commercially viable. They can't do it. That just
puts them out of business, meaning less baseload electricity.
And also they put forth a new coal ash management rule and water
discharge rule, imposing costly, unachievable requirements on power
generators, all at a time when we need more electricity.
Now, the Biden administration's regulatory blizzard comes at a time
when the North American Electric Reliability Corporation, or NERC,
continues to raise concerns about elevated risks of blackouts and
brownouts.
The Presiding Officer comes from a State where you know how important
it is, in these really hot days--100-plus degrees--that we have power
to power people's air-conditioning. It can be a life-threatening
situation if we don't.
Further, multiple independent grid operators are warning that EPA's
power sector rules will further threaten reliability. We need this
baseload for reliability of the grid nationwide. That includes the
Southwest Power Pool, which covers part of my State of North Dakota,
which stated that it, meaning the Southwest Power Pool, ``remains
concerned . . . about the impact the Final Rule''--the findings of
these final rules--``may have on the region's ability to maintain
resource adequacy and ensure reliability.''
Again, this is about that baseload electricity that we need for
stability and reliability of the entire grid nationwide.
The PJM Interconnection, which serves 65 million Americans, noted
that ``the Final Rule may work to drive premature retirement of coal
units that provide essential reliability services and dissuade new gas
resources from coming online.'' Again, less power when we need more.
ERCOT, covering Texas, stated that EPA's rule poses an unacceptable
risk to the reliability of the ERCOT system.
So, in all cases, these are examples where, across the country, the
very institutions required to make sure that that grid is stable, the
baseload power is there on the hottest day or the coldest day for
reliability, they are sounding the warnings--very clear. They are
sounding the warnings.
These regulations will drive up the cost of operations and force
powerplants to prematurely close. This approach is in direct conflict
with our Nation's energy reality. We need more energy, not less.
Multiple forecasts show that electricity demand is projected to rise in
the coming years as much as 27 percent in some parts of the country.
Fast-growing areas, again, like the Presiding Officer's State, probably
are going to see that 27 percent and maybe more as a function not only
of growth but the fact that we are using more electricity in so many
ways.
Much of the demand is coming from things like data centers, for
example, that support cloud computing and artificial intelligence.
Dispatchable resources like coal, gas, and nuclear powerplants remain
critically important to meet demand, precisely because of their ability
to operate regardless of weather conditions.
That is why, in North Dakota, we have been working for over a decade
to crack the code on carbon capture technologies, allowing us to
continue leveraging over 700 years of fuel supply in the form of coal
supplies with the best environmental stewardship. We have worked to
bring regulatory certainty, and, as a result, our State became the
first one to be granted regulatory primacy for class VI wells to ensure
that CO2 is safely and securely stored below the surface.
Wyoming and Louisiana are the only other States in the Nation that also
have this authority.
We also recently secured $350 million in a demonstration grant from
the Department of Energy to advance Project Tundra, which will enable
the coal-fired Milton R. Young facility to capture and store 4 million
metric tons of CO2 per year.
We also have proven that we can lead the way in preducing
SOX, NOX--sulfur oxides, nitrous oxides--and
mercury emissions, and now we are working to lead the way forward on
CO2.
However, the Biden administration's regulations are adding these
costly regulatory burdens at the very time we are working to deploy
these new technologies. So think about it. Think about it. We are
deploying these new technologies to produce more energy more reliably,
baseload electricity that will stabilize the grid; and we are putting
new technologies on that will enhance our ability to reduce emissions--
not only SOX, NOX, and mercury, but
CO2 as well. But the regulations the administration is
bringing forward are going to impede our ability to do exactly that:
produce more energy more cost-effectively, more dependably--right--with
better environmental standards.
And that means not only deploying those technologies here, but then
other places around the world will follow our lead on this. I mean,
that is the solution, and it is being impeded by these regulations that
go so far that they prevent the industry from deploying the new
technology. That makes no sense. That is not common sense. That is not
the way to solve a problem.
So, again, Congress needs to push back against the EPA's regulations
that go too far, undermining the reliability and affordability of the
grid.
I am working with 12 of my Senate colleagues on a congressional
review resolution of disapproval to overturn the MATS rules, and we
will have CRAs to overturn other of these rules as well. For example,
Senator Capito is leading the effort to overturn the Clean Power Plan
2.0 rule, and Senator Mullin has also got a CRA to overturn the EPA's
coal ash rule.
Our Nation is a global energy powerhouse. We have vast resources with
its coal, oil, natural gas--many different sources, many different
types of energy. We need to use them all. And we have the best
environmental standards in the world. We lead in terms of those
technologies and, again, environmental standards. It only makes sense,
for all those reasons as well as national security reasons, to produce
that energy here at home rather than forfeit that energy production to
other parts of the world that pose either a security threat to us or,
at the same time,
[[Page S4039]]
produce energy with vastly inferior environmental standards. Again,
common sense.
Blackouts and brownouts are simply unacceptable in an energy-rich
nation such as ours. And, again, it is about global competitiveness.
Almost everything we do requires energy. If we are going to compete in
a global economy, we need low-cost, dependable energy so that we can
outcompete the rest of the world.
Instead of overregulation and Green New Deal-style mandates, we need
to take the handcuffs off our energy producers, and we need to allow
American ingenuity to continue to do what they can do better than
anyone else in the world: produce more energy more cost-effectively,
more dependably, with the best environmental standards. That is the
right approach--not an approach of overregulation that handcuffs our
energy producers.
With that, I yield the floor.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Nebraska.