[Congressional Record Volume 171, Number 38 (Wednesday, February 26, 2025)]
[Senate]
[Pages S1367-S1383]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                          LEGISLATIVE SESSION

                                 ______
                                 

   TERMINATING THE NATIONAL EMERGENCY DECLARED WITH RESPECT TO ENERGY

  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senate will now resume legislative 
session.
  The Senator from Virginia.


                              S.J. Res. 10

  Mr. KAINE. Mr. President, I rise to begin a discussion that will take 
place, during today, about S.J. Res. 10, which is a resolution that my 
colleague Senator Heinrich and I have filed to challenge President 
Trump's day-one declaration of a U.S. energy emergency.
  And you will hear from a number of our colleagues today, expressing 
the basic point that the declaration is a sham. There is, in fact, no 
emergency, but it has been declared so as to gut various environmental 
laws passed by Congress, still part of U.S. statutory law, in order to 
advantage certain kinds of energy--i.e., oil, gas, and coal--and punish 
other forms of energy--wind, solar, et cetera.
  I am very, very happy to have the support of my colleague Senator 
Heinrich, who is the energy expert on the Democratic side in this body, 
and very, very happy to have so many colleagues who will be speaking on 
this matter today on the Senate floor.
  President Trump took a number of actions on his first day in office, 
and many of them got a lot of attention. One that didn't get so much 
attention was his decision, on day one--on day one--to declare that the 
United States was in an energy emergency and, therefore, we needed to 
bypass environmental laws.
  I want to dig into the sham nature of the emergency declaration and 
then explore why President Trump actually has done this, and, finally, 
conclude with a request to my colleagues that the article I branch 
should not just roll over and play dead when a President

[[Page S1368]]

declares an emergency that does not actually exist.
  So let's first talk about the claim that President Trump has raised 
that the United States is in an energy emergency.
  This is a chart that shows U.S. energy production from 1950 until 
essentially today. The chart goes through about 2023 and does not 
include the 2024 numbers. But I am proud to stand here and tell you, 
especially as one who has supported many of the policies that have led 
to this growth in American energy, that America is producing more 
energy today than at any point in the history of this Nation. America 
is the leader in the world in energy production, and for the last few 
years, we have been an energy surplus nation, producing more than we 
consume.
  You will see that the chart includes different kinds of energy--oil, 
gas, coal, renewable--but the direction of the chart shows steady 
increase in production.
  Let's go into the kinds of energy we are talking about here. In 2024, 
America produced more natural gas than at any time in the history of 
this country. In 2024, America produced more petroleum than at any time 
in the history of this country. And in 2024, America deployed more 
renewable energy than at any time in the history of this country. In 
fact, in 2024, more than 90 percent of the energy added to the Nation's 
energy grid was from renewable sources--wind, solar, and battery 
storage.
  The United States, recently, in the past few years became--there may 
be a technical term for this, but I call it an energy surplus nation. 
We produce more than we consume. That moment happened in 2019, when our 
production started to outpace consumption. In every year since 2019, 
that surplus has grown, and the surplus in 2024 was at record levels. 
And it is a good thing to produce significantly more than we consume.
  Why is it a good thing? Because we are able to sell energy to others, 
reducing our trade deficit.
  I participated with Senators in lifting the ban on export of crude 
petroleum a few years ago, and that plus exports of liquid natural gas 
have helped us with our trade deficit. But more directly related to 
this moment in time, the export of American energy has also helped us 
help other nations that are reliant on energy from petrol dictators. 
The nations in Europe that had to rely on Vladimir Putin, nations in 
other parts of the world that have had to rely on Iran or Venezuela, 
now, increasingly, are able to access U.S. energy.

  I was in Finland over the weekend, visiting Virginia Guard troops 
exercising with the Finnish Army. Finland is importing liquid natural 
gas from the United States and using it for their own energy needs and 
also for the energy needs of other European nations.
  So where is the emergency? More oil than ever, more natural gas than 
ever, more renewables than ever, and a record surplus of production 
over consumption.
  Where is the emergency? The emergency is not in the energy sector. 
The emergency is Donald Trump self-creating an emergency, because 
Donald Trump in other actions taken in the first week of his 
administration has gone full tilt to challenge energy projects that are 
creating jobs and lowering prices all across this country.
  Donald Trump and his administration are attacking wind projects. They 
are attacking solar projects. They are attacking clean energy projects 
that aren't oil, coal, natural gas, and nuclear. And by doing so, they 
are reducing supply and likely raising prices on American consumers.
  There are a number of projects in Virginia, as an example, that have 
benefited from tax breaks that were included either in the Inflation 
Reduction Act, for clean energy projects, or the bipartisan 
infrastructure law, for rollout of electric vehicle charging, for 
example. President Trump's administration has attacked those projects, 
has put them on hold, and the Virginians who were intending to invest 
billions of dollars hiring people to build these projects are now 
uncertain about what they can do.
  Why would a President declare an energy emergency and then attack 
homegrown clean energy projects in my State and elsewhere? And that is 
exactly what President Trump is doing.
  Why would he do that? Well, we don't have to speculate about the 
answer. We know the answer.
  In the summer of 2024, President Trump held a meeting at Mar-a-Lago 
with the CEOs of major oil and gas companies, and they reported upon 
the substance of that meeting. And here is a headline from the 
Guardian, and other publications carried the same news: ``Trump 
promised to scrap climate laws if U.S. oil bosses donated $1 billion'' 
to his campaign.
  One of the oil executives at the meeting quoted Donald Trump saying: 
``You'll get it on the first day.'' Oil and gas will get preferential 
treatment on the first day, with end runs around environmental laws 
passed by Congress that are still part of the statutes we take an oath 
to implement in our jobs. And, in fact, the oil and gas guys did get it 
on the first day.
  What did the Trump fake energy emergency deliver to those he had 
promised to support? Here is what was delivered in the emergency order. 
The President said: There is an emergency, and so we need to bypass 
laws passed by Congress. We need to bypass the Clean Air Act. We need 
to bypass the Clean Water Act. We need to bypass the Endangered Species 
Act, the Marine Mammal Protection Act, the National Historic 
Preservation Act, the National Environmental Policy Act.
  Because of this fake emergency that he has created out of thin air, 
we need to take all of these laws that Congress has passed--many of 
which have been in statute, like the Clean Water Act, for more than 50 
years--and we need to give energy producers and transmitters the 
ability to bypass these laws in order to produce and transmit energy.
  It is interesting, though. When you read the Executive order, it 
talks about energy production, but you have to go to the last section 
of the order to read what ``energy'' means. And President Trump is 
calling for a national emergency and bypassing all of these laws, if 
you want to produce using oil or gas or coal or nuclear or hydro, but 
not for wind, not for solar, not for clean battery storage. If your 
homegrown American low-cost energy is wind, solar, and battery storage, 
you don't get to bypass environmental laws. You have to comply with the 
letter of the law as Congress intends. We are only giving a break to 
the guys who supported Donald Trump, the fossil fuel industry.

  Donald Trump is so willing to give away the farm to Big Oil and Gas 
that he even, in the first provision in the emergency order, said: We 
also need to bypass property rights. He encouraged Federal Agencies to 
make aggressive use of eminent domain to produce fossil fuel energy.
  Those watching understand what this means. Eminent domain is the 
government taking the land from private property owners, and there is a 
set of rules in the Federal Code about when you can use eminent domain 
for energy projects, but Donald Trump has said: You know what, if you 
want to do oil, coal, and gas, you don't have to follow the rules. You 
can even take people's private property by bypassing the rules for oil, 
gas, and coal--but, of course, not for wind and solar, not for wind, 
solar, and battery, the clean energy that has been 95 percent of the 
power added to the grid just last year.
  So we know what the game is. ``You'll get it on the first day,'' Big 
Oil, and they did. And Donald Trump is now giving them an E-ZPass lane 
to speed by clean energy projects that are lower cost and cleaner 
because he told them he would do it if they supported his campaign.
  This is no emergency. It was declared for a corrupt purpose, and it 
is an unacceptable effort to undermine laws passed by the article I 
branch. And so I am on the floor with my colleague Senator Heinrich--
and I am going to yield to him in a second--to just ask Congress: Be 
Congress. Be the article I branch. If a President can just stand up and 
make up an emergency and then gut laws that Congress passed, what is to 
stop President Trump from making up another emergency and gutting other 
laws? What is to stop any President, Republican or Democrat, from 
fabricating a complete emergency and using it to gut laws that Congress 
has passed?
  You know, if President Trump doesn't like the Clean Water Act--I 
happen to like it. I don't think it is perfect. But the Clean Water Act 
has

[[Page S1369]]

helped us to restore the James River in the city of Richmond, where I 
live, which won an international river prize a couple years ago as the 
most improved river in the United States. A river that was a sewer, 
that was closed off to fishing for 50 years, now has fishing, swimming, 
rafting, kayaking, bald eagles that had been extinct along the river 
because of chemicals now breeding in one of the most dense population 
of bald eagles in the United States. I like the Clean Water Act. I 
think it served a valuable purpose for 50-plus years, but maybe 
President Trump, who was elected, has decided that the Clean Water Act 
or the Clean Air Act or property rights protections have outlived their 
usefulness.
  And if he has decided that these laws have outlived their usefulness, 
well, he has got two Republican Houses. He can introduce a bill to 
repeal the Clean Air Act or repeal the Clean Water Act. That would be 
the right way to do this, not invent a bogus fake emergency and 
unilaterally gut these laws.
  But the President has got a problem. If he introduced the bill to 
repeal the Clean Air Act and the Clean Water Act, not even 
Republicans--some Republicans would--but not even Republicans would 
support it. In two Republican Houses, he would have zero luck in 
repealing these laws that have protected the public health and the 
environment. So his attitude is, Wow, I could benefit my Big Oil 
cronies by repealing these laws, but that is a nonstarter in the 
article I branch. So why don't I kick the article I branch to the side, 
create a fake emergency, end-run them, and that is how I benefit my 
cronies.
  Congress should stand up against this and vote for S.J. Res. 10 
because it is the right policy, and we shouldn't gut these provisions, 
except by doing it in the course of ordinary legislative business, 
should that be the will of the appropriate majority of both bodies. 
That would be the way to do this.
  So I am asking my colleagues to stand up and support S.J. Res. 10. 
This would be horrible policy. But more than a horrible policy on these 
laws, it would also set a horrible precedent, a precedent that a 
President of either party can invent a sham emergency and then grab 
away from Congress powers that Congress has under article I.
  Let's not be sheep in this place. Let's not have this be the 
``Silence of the Lambs,'' just doing whatever Donald Trump says he 
wants to do, with the article I branch not saying or mumbling a word, 
not willing to issue a peep, not showing a backbone, not showing a 
voice. We have got a backbone; we have got a voice; but more 
importantly, we took an oath to a Constitution that gives Congress 
certain powers. We should not let the President trample on those 
powers.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Sheehy). The Senator from New Mexico.
  Mr. HEINRICH. Mr. President, I want to thank my colleague from 
Virginia for bringing this resolution to the floor.
  And it was a little less than a year ago, I met with workers at 
several manufacturing facilities in New Mexico. These are the workers 
who are making the solar and wind technologies that are generating 
record quantities of clean, affordable, American-made energy. And at a 
groundbreaking ceremony for Array Technologies, at their factory in 
Albuquerque, I met with over a dozen New Mexicans, and they told me 
about the impact of our investments on their lives, their abilities to 
support their families.
  I talked with folks like Ramon Romero, who joined Array Technologies 
as an entry-level machinist, worked his way up to have a career as a 
production manager.
  I met with Daniel Beltran, who explained how Array's expansion has 
created new job opportunities for himself and many others in his 
community. He told me that the company's growth has been ``life-
changing'' for him.
  And I met with Ray Muddaluri, who spoke about how significant a role 
Array has played in supporting her growth as a young professional and 
her ability to serve her community.
  Here is what every one of those New Mexicans had in common: They were 
able to create better lives for themselves, better lives for their 
families, because of the jobs that were available for them. This is 
what I mean when I say these industries, these clean industries, are 
creating careers that New Mexicans and other Americans can build their 
families around in their home communities.
  And thanks to the investments that Democrats made in the last few 
years, we have seen record growth in new American manufacturing 
facilities. More than 400,000 new jobs have been announced across the 
country as a part of this ``Made in America'' clean and affordable 
energy manufacturing boom. In New Mexico, we celebrated the first wind 
towers coming off the line at Arcosa Wind Towers, a new factory in 
Belen. It was a shuttered plastics factory. And now Arcosa's workers 
are creating the huge steel towers. They are heading straight to the 
SunZia Wind and Transmission Project, a 3\1/2\ gigawatt project. That 
project, SunZia, brought in more than $20 billion to States like New 
Mexico and Arizona in capital.
  And when it comes online, it is going to generate more clean power 
with its wind turbines than the Hoover Dam. It is the largest ever 
built clean energy project in the Western Hemisphere. America is 
actually building big things again. So these projects have enormous 
scope.
  But our affordable, American-made energy boom is already under threat 
because of the uncertainty that President Trump has foisted on the 
energy sector.
  And if you are thinking about opening a new factory, like Array or 
Arcosa did in my State, you don't know what your tax structure will be 
after the Republicans take up their Trump tax bill. If you are trying 
to site and build a new transmission line, the Federal Agencies and the 
staff that you work with just had their expert staff sacked, making it 
hard to get a permit when no one is on the other end of the phone.
  And thanks to Trump's so-called national energy emergency, many of 
the lowest cost, 100-percent clean additions to our grid can't get 
permits.
  Make no mistake, Americans' electric bills are going to go up. I am 
going to say that again: Americans' electric bills are going to go up 
because Trump and his loyal Republicans are picking winners and losers 
on the power grid.
  That is why I am joining my friend and colleague Senator Kaine to 
force a vote to put an end to all of this before any more damage is 
done.
  And I want to be clear about something, and certainly Senator Kaine 
raised this point, but America is the world's leading energy producer. 
And before Trump injected all of this uncertainty, our country was 
producing record quantities of both conventional and clean advanced 
energy. There is no energy emergency. It was made up to skirt the law. 
It was made up to favor some sources and not others.
  But if Trump gets his way, his faux declaration may very well create 
a real emergency, an energy emergency and an economic emergency.
  I also want to be clear to my colleagues across the aisle that this 
clean energy phenomenon has created 400,000 jobs around the country. 
But most of them--most of them--are in Republican-led States. This is 
not a red States or a blue States issue. This is about good-paying, 
blue-collar, skilled jobs in all of our States.
  So what is at risk because of all of this? Let's take a look. In 
North Carolina, there is a new nearly $13 billion--with a ``b''--$13 
billion Toyota battery plant, which will employ 5,000 workers.
  Where are we getting our batteries now? We are getting them from 
China. This is progress. This is putting Americans to work to make 
batteries here.
  In Louisiana, First Solar announced a billion dollars for a new solar 
energy project that is projected to create 700 new jobs, making that 
technology here, not being dependent on China.
  In Kentucky, Ford is building a new battery plant, which will employ 
another 5,000 workers and manufacture batteries here instead of China.
  In Georgia, an estimated billion dollars in projects to modernize the 
power grid--and our power grid needs a heck of a lot of modernization. 
We are going to have more and more demands on this grid in coming 
years, especially with the growth of data centers and AI--a billion 
dollars sidelined to upgrade that power grid in Georgia.
  Do we really want all these jobs to disappear because President Trump

[[Page S1370]]

wants to create a war on affordable, American-made, clean energy? Do we 
want to import more batteries from China? I don't because that is what 
is going to happen if we turn our backs on these factories and these 
energy sources.
  And among other things, Trump's so-called national energy emergency 
declaration would allow his administration to use eminent domain, one 
of the most controversial powers that a government can have, to take 
private land for oil and gas infrastructure at the expense of our 
American jobs and livelihoods.
  As we speak, President Trump's chaos and incompetence are 
jeopardizing and fueling the real energy emergency in our country. 
Trump's plans to eliminate dozens of advanced energy tax credits, those 
have unleashed more than $165 billion in private sector capital, moving 
into over 1,000 factories and expansions across the country.
  The President has also halted many of the Department of Energy's loan 
guarantees, which will further jeopardize the U.S. energy manufacturing 
expansion and will lead to higher energy bills for millions of 
Americans.
  This is blatant hypocrisy, as Trump's favorite billionaire ``bro'' 
Elon Musk actually took a $465 million Federal loan guarantee from that 
same Department that literally saved Tesla from bankruptcy in 2010.
  And when these massive, multibillion-dollar construction projects 
stall, it is not Trump's billionaire friends who will suffer; it is 
everyday Americans who work in these factories. It is all the families 
who will be stuck with higher electric bills.

  I want to emphasize something that my colleague from Virginia raised. 
More than 90 percent of the electricity generation projects currently 
in line to connect to the grid all across this Nation--in red States 
and in blue States--waiting interconnection are clean energy projects. 
They are wind, solar, storage, nuclear.
  Just last year, 93 percent--93 percent--of new electricity generation 
was carbon-free. That is a record. We added 52 gigawatts--50 nuclear 
power generating station quantities' worth--of solar, wind, and storage 
to the grid in the last year alone. There is a reason for that. In 
addition to being clean and carbon-free--and many of the big companies 
that procure energy care about that--these power sources are cheaper, 
they are faster, they are less capital-intensive than older 
technologies, like coal-fired plants or gas turbines.
  Put simply, clean energy is the cheapest electricity on the grid. You 
can see it right here. Onshore wind and solar are by far the cheapest. 
We have combined cycle natural gas.
  Guess what? You can't get a gas turbine these days. If you order a 
combined cycle natural gas turbine today, you are going to wait 3, 4, 5 
years before that is actually delivered, without permitting.
  Nuclear is great. I hope we build more of it, but we have to get the 
cost down. It is 18 cents a kilowatt hour, average.
  If we don't plug these clean sources into the grid, especially at a 
time of surging demand, the outcome is obvious: Prices will go up. And 
it is not physically possible to stand up enough costly gas plants to 
keep growing power demands and keep prices down. As I said, the wait 
times to just get a turbine is 4 or 5 years.
  If Trump has his way and he keeps blocking American-made clean energy 
projects, we know that significantly higher energy and electricity 
costs are on the way. Is that what we want to do? We want to impose on 
working families that are already struggling to pay for eggs--if they 
haven't crossed that off their grocery list already--the rising cost of 
milk, groceries going through the roof, rent payments going up--we are 
going increase their electric rates because that is what this fake 
emergency is going to do.
  A couple of weeks ago, an Alabama utility company sent a letter to 
customers saying: Sorry, you owe us another $100 because what we 
credited you based on the law is no longer valid. Trump's EO took that 
away, so pony up. Write us another $100 in your electric bill this 
month.
  That is just the tip of the iceberg.
  Advanced groups who do the analysis, folks like the Rhodium Group, 
have looked at what his crusade will mean regarding American clean 
energy investments and electricity costs. And they say that, on 
average, American families' electricity bills could go up by nearly 
$500 a year as a result of these actions.
  Trump's war on American-made clean energy is going to kill thousands 
of jobs in the skilled trades. Huge construction projects are going to 
get stalled. The biggest winner in all of this is going to be China. 
China wants to become even more dominant in the global renewable energy 
marketplace. They will happily take the private investment that could 
have gone to the United States and take those jobs back overseas. The 
biggest loser from this is our economic competitiveness, our national 
security, our families.
  Trump has claimed that his so-called natural energy emergency order 
is needed to unleash more American fossil fuel development. He is also 
wrong about that. Not only is our production--13 million barrels a day 
on average; a little over that--not a record-producing number, but oil 
and gas executives will tell you the truth.
  Look at what ConocoPhillips' CEO said in response to a question about 
this: Would he really increase production with the gloves coming off? 
He said, ``Not really.'' Why is that? Because American oil and gas 
production is already at a record high, and it is not economically 
advantageous to push production further. I know this firsthand because 
we are producing more oil and gas in New Mexico than most other States 
combined, with the exception of one.
  Clearly, we need to put an end to this stuff that will fuel a real 
energy emergency, kill thousands of jobs, and raise electricity costs 
on American families. The most important decision of our energy 
future--worth hundreds of billions of dollars in private sector 
investment, factories, thousands of high-quality jobs--remains in the 
hands of our Senate Republican colleagues.
  If you want to have an ``all of the above'' approach, if you want to 
continue to bring down energy costs, if you want to protect jobs for 
hard-working Americans in our States, and to help America remain the 
global leader in energy production, I would urge you to vote in support 
of this resolution and against higher electricity bills.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Virginia.
  Mr. WARNER. Mr. President, I rise today in support of my 
colleagues'--Senator Heinrich and Senator Kaine--resolution. I 
appreciate their part of the presentations, but I strongly support this 
resolution. I want to also acknowledge one of many reasons we vote for 
this resolution is because it is also Senator Kaine's birthday. I think 
nothing would be a better birthday present for my friend of 40, 45 
years than having this body make a firm statement about being against 
rising utility costs.
  The resolution--I know they both spoke on it extensively--would 
repeal President Trump's flawed and misguided national emergency 
declaration.
  We all know on the first day in the midst of signing Lord knows how 
many Executive orders, President Trump declared a ``National Energy 
Emergency'' and issued an Executive order titled ``Unleashing American 
Energy.''
  Let me be clear. Frankly, I have some fights on this side of the 
aisle because I actually support all of the above in terms of our 
energy mix. Part of that does mean LNG--and for national security 
reasons, to make sure we ship it to our partners in Europe.
  It also means we need to bring more of these energy jobs back here to 
America. I was at a fascinating presentation yesterday with the CEO of 
Commonwealth Fusion. Commonwealth Fusion is a company out of 
Massachusetts, but they are making a major development in Virginia. We 
have been talking about fusion since the seventies. Those kind of jobs 
ought to be here in America, and they can provide an abundance of 
energy.
  But if you actually read the President's Executive order, you will 
see he is not really about promoting energy security. He is interested 
in, frankly, only favoring certain parts of the energy sector. I think 
that is a huge mistake.
  I have the honor of having been the chair of the Intelligence 
Committee. I

[[Page S1371]]

am now the vice chair of the Intelligence Committee. One of the things 
we tried to do on the Intelligence Committee is redefine national 
security so it is not simply who has the most tanks and guns but who 
wins the battle for technology. If we are going to win the battle for 
technology and, particularly, in AI, that is going to require enormous 
amounts of additional energy in the United States.
  It is terribly important that the United States remains in its role 
now as being the world's energy leader. But the truth is, China has 
also made this kind of commitment. In certain ways, China--although 
they are still using, many times, coal-based power--they have made 
massive investments in renewable energy.
  Today, China is the world's top supplier of long-duration energy 
storage batteries, solar panels, and wind turbines. Just last year, 
China added 357 gigawatts of solar and wind generation. That is nearly 
100 more gigawatts of renewable energy than the United States added.
  That is why Congress said: We have to catch up. In a very bipartisan 
way, with both the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act and the 
Inflation Reduction Act, we made a record set of investments to 
incentivize the build-out of a 21st century energy economy here in the 
United States so we can actually beat China in these fields.
  Unfortunately, the President's ``Unleashing American Energy'' 
Executive order is actually attempting to rein in or potentially 
reverse much of the progress that has been made. His Executive order 
actually calls for the pause of any disbursement of funds lawfully 
appropriated and obligated by the Inflation Reduction Act or the 
Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act. That unlawful withholding of 
funds, which already has been rejected by the courts--I know my 
colleague from Virginia has already said this--really jeopardizes a 
whole lot of large-scale manufacturing projects around the country. I 
don't know if Senator Kaine mentioned, but a number of those projects 
are in Virginia. We worked years with our Republican Governor to try to 
get these projects funded. They include things in solar, in wind that 
are extraordinarily important. They were funded because they would 
support this growth of American energy.
  This is printed on both sides of the paper. I will cut to the chase.
  The fact is, what President Trump did on that first day by putting 
out this Executive order which denies the fact that America is already 
the energy leader in the world--we need to make additional investments 
in cutting-edge additional energies where China is making these 
investments--solar, wind, battery. I am a big advocate for small 
modular nukes, both efficient and fusion, which I have talked about.
  A lot of that comes from blending the infrastructure bill and the 
IRA. Why in the heck would we put a halt on all of that? Why in the 
heck would we cut back on cutting-edge energy investment in the United 
States? Why would we cut back on American energy jobs?
  I am all for the natural gas jobs coming out of the Presiding 
Officer's State. I am all for ``all of the above.'' Why restrain us 
though in areas where we have some catching up to do?
  I think about fusion again. We are going to spend about $800 
million--hopefully--in some of this legislation. China is spending 
about twice that amount. If we want to truly create the ample sources 
of energy that is needed in the United States, if we want those jobs to 
be in America, if we want to think about a National security regime 
where we are the leader in the world in cutting-edge energy, then we 
have to support Senator Kaine and Senator Heinrich's resolution to 
overturn this phony national energy emergency. If we don't and we give 
up on these projects that have been vetted--some for years--then we, 
frankly, are going to allow our national security to fall behind China, 
because I can assure you--I get classified briefs on a regular basis--
China is not giving up in investment in all these new domains. China is 
pedal to the metal on the ``all of the above'' energy strategy. That 
should be our strategy, as well.
  I urge all my colleagues to support Senator Kaine and Senator 
Heinrich's resolution. I look forward to that vote later today.
  I yield the floor.
  I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. HOEVEN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for 
the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.


      Waste Emissions Charge for Petroleum and Natural Gas Systems

  Mr. HOEVEN. Mr. President, I come to the floor today to discuss our 
continued efforts to reverse the Biden administration's regulatory 
overreach, specifically as it relates to energy. This includes our 
efforts to work with President Trump to unleash America's full energy 
potential and truly make our Nation energy dominant--not just energy 
secure but energy dominant. Energy security is national security, and 
so it is vitally important for our country.
  We have worked diligently in the Senate to swiftly confirm President 
Trump's Cabinet officials, and we continue to do that. We made it a 
priority to ensure that the President's Department heads are in place 
as we work to empower the United States to produce more energy from all 
of its abundant and affordable coal, oil, and gas reserves.
  The key to this effort was confirming Doug Burgum of North Dakota--my 
State--as Interior Secretary, Chris Wright to be Energy Secretary, and 
Lee Zeldin to serve as Administrator of the EPA. We look forward to 
working with President Trump's newly established National Energy 
Dominance Council, chaired by Secretary Burgum and vice-chaired by 
Secretary Wright.
  We also continue legislative efforts to get our country back to 
energy dominance.
  Soon, the Senate will vote on my resolution to nullify the Democrats' 
natural gas tax rule, using the Congressional Review Act. We will be 
voting on that today. This new tax was mandated by the Democrats in 
their so-called Inflation Reduction Act. It should have been called the 
Inflation Acceleration Act. Not only did it increase spending for their 
Green New Deal, it also put taxes on things like natural gas. No 
wonder, under their watch, inflation went up to 9 percent. That hits 
low-income, hard-working Americans the hardest of all. So we are going 
to change that.
  This tax actually puts a fee on emissions from facilities that 
produce natural gas. It starts at $900 a ton and goes up from there, 
eventually up to $1,500 per ton. So essentially what you are looking at 
is putting a 5-percent-plus added tax on natural gas. Now, think about 
that. Everybody uses natural gas to heat their homes or to cook their 
meals and for many other purposes as well. So it is a tax on every 
consumer, and it is regressive. It hits low-income individuals the 
hardest.
  This, of course, has a disproportionate effect on small oil and gas 
producers in States like mine, in North Dakota, Montana, and other 
States. It hits small businesses the hardest. Of course, ultimately, it 
is paid by consumers.
  It will impact the energy bills of consumers across the country who, 
as I said, are already struggling with high inflation because of the 
Biden administration.
  Today, the United States is the world's largest oil and gas producer, 
and at the same time, we have led the world in emissions reduction.
  Here is a stat I am going to talk about for a minute, and it is 
important to focus on this because at the very same time that the Biden 
administration is putting additional taxes and fees on natural gas, we 
are reducing emissions from natural gas.
  Since 1990, we have reduced emissions from methane by 20 percent. 
Now, that sounds pretty good, right--a 20-percent reduction in methane 
emissions since 1990. But think about this: In that same time, we have 
doubled how much natural gas we produce. So we have doubled the amount 
of natural gas we produce and still reduced overall emissions by 20 
percent. Remarkable. Remarkable.
  Biden's and Democrats' response to that is, well, gee whiz, let's 
raise taxes on everybody that uses natural gas.
  Obviously, not only does that drive up prices, it curtails 
production. Instead, what we need to do is support

[[Page S1372]]

the innovation and empower the technology development that has enabled 
us to reduce emissions while producing more natural gas. That is the 
answer. That is the solution. That is exactly what President Trump and 
Republicans have done and will continue to do, and that is an important 
part of, again, making our country truly energy dominant.
  We are also working with the Trump administration to replace the 
Biden administration's rules that closed off access to vast areas of 
taxpayer-owned energy resources. That includes both offshore and 
onshore.
  For example, in my State, the Bureau of Land Management's--BLM--
public lands rule essentially enables environmental groups to lock away 
Federal coal, oil, and gas reserves under the argument that they are 
somehow undertaking conservation. The reality is, in North Dakota, for 
example, this Biden administration--what they call their Resource 
Management Plan closes off leasing to 45 percent of the Federal oil and 
gas acreage in our State and nearly 99 percent of Federal coal.
  But it doesn't just end there. When they close off those Federal 
lands from development, they also impact everybody else because Federal 
minerals are often colocated in our State and other States with 
privately owned minerals under non-Federal surface acreage. Their 
Resource Management Plan prevents other mineral holders and owners, 
private owners, from exercising their private property rights and 
limits the ability to develop minerals that are owned by the State, by 
the Tribes, and by private individuals.
  That is why I am working with Senator Cramer, Congresswoman 
Fedorchak, and Secretary Burgum to overturn the BLM's Resource 
Management Plan and maximize access to North Dakota's energy resources. 
That approach is not just important in my State, it is vital for 
energy-producing States across the country.
  This truly is about taking the handcuffs off our energy producers and 
empowering them to increase supply and help bring down prices for 
American families and businesses.
  There is an energy component in every product and service we consume, 
and when we make energy more plentiful and bring down that price, that 
helps reduce inflation. When we bring down energy and make it more 
plentiful, that helps us grow our economy, create more jobs and 
opportunities, and, in fact, not only provide for national security 
through energy security but help our allies as well so that they are 
not dependent on Russia or on OPEC or on Venezuela or anyone else--any 
of those bad actors--for their energy because they can get it from the 
United States.
  All these things go with producing more energy. All those benefits, 
all those things go with truly making America energy dominant. That is 
absolutely what President Trump and that is absolutely what Republicans 
intend to do.
  With that, I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Banks). The Senator from Oklahoma.
  Mr. LANKFORD. Mr. President, President Biden liked to be able to say 
over and over again that we are producing record amounts of oil and 
gas. Some of my Democratic colleagues have even come to this floor in 
the last couple of days and have said: We don't have an energy 
emergency.
  Those two things together are kind of a message going out to the 
American people: There is nothing to see here. Move along. Everything 
is fine on energy.
  But if you talk to electricity-generation companies, regional 
distribution networks, and ask them ``How are things going with 
electricity generation? How are we doing with capacity?'' they will 
give you a very different story.
  The feeling is, when you walk into your own house and flick on the 
lights and the lights turn on, you are like: Yeah, the lights are fine; 
there is no emergency. But if you talk to the electric company behind 
it and say ``Two years from now, what does it look like for capacity 
for you?'' they will probably shake their head and say ``We have a 
problem coming.''
  Now, we can either deal with that problem 2 years from now when we 
are having brownouts and don't have enough electricity or we can deal 
with it now. I would rather deal with it now so we don't have the 
challenges ahead.
  How do you do that? Continue to be energy dominant in, actually, the 
energy that we are producing here in the United States and to be able 
to make sure that we are producing truly ``all of the above'' energy 
but we are actually producing energy at a price Americans can afford 
and at the amount Americans need.
  If we are going to be the world leader in AI, if we are going to be 
the world leader in data centers, if we are going to be world leaders 
in innovation, you can't be that if you don't have the power behind it. 
You can't be that if the price continues to go up, up, up for 
continuing subsidies.
  Under the Biden administration, the price of gasoline went up 30 
percent--30 percent in 4 years. Under the Biden administration, in 4 
years, the price of electricity nationwide went up 28 percent. Every 
American feels it. When we pay our light bill, when we put gas in our 
car, we feel it.
  So now the question is: What do we do about it? How do we actually 
engage to be able to make this better?
  Well, there are multiple things that we can do. We have already 
started some of those already. Quite frankly, President Trump, in his 
earliest days in office, stepped in and started the process of turning 
around some of the policies to increase more American energy so we can 
begin to bring prices down and availability up, because sometimes it is 
not just about price; it is making sure, 2 years from now, we are not 
running out and we are not having brownouts all across the entire 
Nation in our electric grid.
  So there are a couple things President Trump did right away. He 
actually changed all the cancellation of leases in Alaska to actually 
drill in the area literally set aside, decades ago, for drilling. That 
is an area that should be a no-brainer, but the Biden administration 
stepped in and said: No, we are not going to allow anyone to drill in 
the area set aside for oil exploration in Alaska. They canceled that.
  President Trump canceled the mandate for electric vehicles, not 
because he hates electric vehicles. There happens to be a guy who hangs 
around him a lot that runs a company that sells electric vehicles. The 
problem is not electric vehicles. The problem is the mandate to try to 
force Americans to be able to shift to that when we don't see that in 
the grid.
  Quite frankly, the electric grid is not prepared, even, for Americans 
to be able to do all-electric vehicles, and frankly, most Americans 
aren't either. If you talk to Oklahomans in rural areas and say, ``Are 
you willing to have an electric vehicle when it is 35 miles to the next 
town from where you are and to be able to take the risk?'' they are 
not.
  And even for a lot of our farmers and ranchers that will say, ``Well, 
there is an electric pickup out there,'' if you ask the question, ``How 
far does that electric pickup go if you are towing a trailer?'' the 
answer you will get from the manufacturers is 80 miles. Do you know 
what? Our farmers and ranchers need to go a little farther than 80 
miles with their vehicles.
  So there are a lot of issues that are out there. To be able to take 
the mandate away and say, ``Let people choose what vehicle they want to 
be able to choose,'' we think is a better option, and, quite frankly, 
with our grid not prepared for the strain on that long term, it is a 
wiser option for everybody in the process.
  Decisive action has taken place on the issue of drilling in Federal 
waters. President Biden, literally in the final hours of his 
administration, put a ban on actually drilling on 625 million acres 
offshore. So 625 million acres that have oil and gas in them, President 
Biden just banned it.
  Well, President Trump flipped that and said: No, we are going to 
allow that to be able to happen--quite frankly, as every other 
President has on that.
  So these are basic things the President can do and has done, but what 
do we, as Congress, need to be able to do?
  We have engaged in several areas already. We have chipped away at 
what we call the methane fee that has been put on. Every single 
homeowner that has a hot water tank that uses natural gas--or even if 
their electricity that is

[[Page S1373]]

coming into their house is produced by natural gas or they cook with 
natural gas--had a new fee added on to them at the end of the Biden 
administration. We have now voted to be able to take that away and say: 
We are not going to raise the prices of everybody because they happen 
to use natural gas to cook their food or to be able to heat their homes 
or heat their hot water or that they get electricity from as well.
  We have also now voted on, quite frankly, a regulation that was done 
by the Biden administration at the very end of their time that was 
intentionally designed to be able to raise the price of offshore oil 
drilling, where they intentionally placed a new fee on any company that 
is drilling offshore. That could be $1 million per well. The reason for 
that is to try to block more development offshore on that.
  What does that actually do? That doesn't decrease the need that we 
have in the country. It increases the number of imports that are coming 
into our country. So we are buying more from Saudi Arabia, more from 
Venezuela, rather than actually producing from our own jobs and our own 
locations.
  I don't have a problem with ``all of the above'' energy. In fact, I 
have had this conversation with multiple people in this body. I am 
willing to put the Oklahoma portfolio for energy against any State that 
is here, as far as our use of renewables versus fossil fuels. Forty-
five percent of the electricity produced in my State today is done with 
wind. We do wind, solar. We do hydro. We do oil, gas, coal. But we are 
working to be able to make sure that we can actually produce 
electricity that is needed for manufacturing and for our homes. That 
shouldn't be a difficult issue for us. That should be what it is 
actually all about.
  Quite frankly, the frustration that we have had is this has been a 
challenge for energy companies just to produce energy in the last 4 
years. This is something that should be normal. America needs energy. 
Every single American needs energy. Every person sitting in this room 
or watching this right now is using energy. We need access to that. So 
let's find the best ways to be able to do it.
  A couple of things that we are working on right now: One is that I 
have a bill dealing with what we are talking about, with the tax 
treatments that we are all debating right now, as well, on this floor, 
called Promoting Domestic Energy Production Act. That act is very 
straightforward. It treats oil and gas companies the exact same way for 
taxation as every other manufacturer is treated.
  Now, a lot of Americans may say: Well, they are not treated the same 
now? No. When Democrats passed the Inflation Reduction Act--which was 
bizarrely named because, actually, inflation spiked after that, with 
all they put into it. When the Inflation Reduction Act was passed, it 
created a new tax on oil and gas companies, specifically designed to be 
able to reduce new wells coming into America and increase the price of 
oil and gas. That was the design of it because their goal was, if they 
could make it so expensive to get gasoline, then more people would 
actually run to an electric vehicle, and they would buy an electric 
vehicle.
  Well, guess what is happening. The more expensive gasoline is 
definitely happening, but more and more people aren't running to an 
electric vehicle. They want to be able to choose. And that is a pretty 
fair option for them for that. So the bill that I have actually moves 
us back to treating oil and gas companies the exact same way as every 
other manufacturer is treated in our tax policy.
  There is another bill that is not just an oil and gas bill. It is 
called the ALIGN Act. This handles what we call bonus depreciation. 
When a company actually buys a big piece of capital equipment, they are 
going to pay their tax that year on it, but they have to decide, for 
that big piece of equipment, how many years it takes to be able to 
depreciate the value of that. The ALIGN Act just says: In the year that 
you bought it, you can also depreciate it, and you can take it off your 
taxes.
  Now, this doesn't change the amount of income coming into the Federal 
Treasury one bit. You are either going to have it over several years or 
you are going to have it over one year. It doesn't change the amount at 
all, but it does make a huge difference to that business, in the year 
they do a big capital investment, that they also get to write that off 
on that same year.
  Well, I think it is just good policy to be able to say: Let's 
incentivize every manufacturer to be able to do additional 
manufacturing. Our economy needs it right now because, when they do 
more manufacturing, that is more jobs in the country. And for energy, 
that means more pipelines, more capabilities to be able to move energy 
at a cheaper rate. Those are commonsense things that don't hurt our 
deficit as a nation but actually benefit our economy and benefit jobs.
  Energy policy should be just commonsense conversation. It shouldn't 
be political. It should be: What do Americans need? And we should look 
beyond just today that the lights are on. We should at least look 2 
years in the future to say what is about to happen in the country with 
our electric grid, anticipate the problems that are coming, and make 
changes in policy here to make sure we don't have an emergency there.
  So let's declare the American energy emergency. Let's fix it before 
we have the challenges that are coming in just a few short months.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Nebraska.
  (The remarks of Mrs. Fischer pertaining to the introduction of S. 750 
are printed in today's Record under ``Statements on Introduced Bills 
and Joint Resolutions.'')
  Mrs. FISCHER. I yield the floor.
  I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The bill clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. JUSTICE. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order 
for the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  Mr. JUSTICE. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that I be allowed 
to address the Senate while seated when necessary.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  Mr. JUSTICE. Mr. President, well, to this great Senate body and to 
all of you, I will speak from my heart. I won't have hardly any notes, 
but I will speak from my heart about something that I think is 
absolutely key to Emerald City, and that is all about energy.
  Absolutely, I am an energy guy. I am from an energy State. In my 
backyard, two-thirds of the population of this entire country is within 
a rocks' throw of West Virginia. If we don't watch out, we are going to 
awaken to a situation, as far as energy in this country, that is 
really, really, really bad. I believe this with all my soul.
  Secretary Burgum is a really good man, and I always called him ``the 
pick of the litter.'' I think President Trump's nominees are absolutely 
great, but with all that being said, I think about Doug Burgum--our 
Secretary of the Interior--a guy that is supersmart, really, really 
experienced, compassionate, and has an unbelievable knowledge.
  Now, with all that being said, if we could just go back to just this, 
we could think about Chris Wright. Chris Wright gets it. He knows what 
we need to do, and if you just step one step further, I would just say 
just this: President Donald Trump understands it. He knows exactly just 
this, and this is all there is to it: Energy is everything. It is 
everything right now.
  It solves the inflation bubble. It insulates us from the standpoint 
of wars all over the place. Why in the world do we in America need to 
blow our own legs off and turn China loose, India loose, whomever it 
may be? That is what we are doing.
  I am an absolute believer--and you have seen it in West Virginia, if 
you are paying attention. I am an absolute believer to embrace all the 
energy forms. We did 100 percent.
  But if you believe today that we can do without our fossil fuels--our 
great fossil fuels--and absolutely if you think we can do without them 
today, I say you are living in a cave. You are absolutely living in 
fantasyland.
  Absolutely, if you don't believe that today--a year and a half from 
today--that we are going to have a crisis in this country, off the 
chart, as far as electricity, you need to wake up because that is what 
is coming.

[[Page S1374]]

  Now, let me go one step further, and let me just say just this: Let's 
just say we awaken to an opportunity of AI, data centers, whatever it 
may be, industry, manufacturing, whatever it may be. Do we want to say: 
Nope. We can't do that. We can't do that because we are going to be in 
a situation with our grid and with our energy production in a year and 
a half from today. I promise you, a year and a half from today, we are 
going to be in a situation that we are going to have to decide: Are we 
going to have opportunity and jobs and manufacturing and AI and data 
centers--are we going to have that--or are we going to choose with our 
electricity amounts that we have--we are either going to be able to 
support industry or we are going to have to support homes.
  For God's sake of living, we don't want to go and get cold. We don't 
want to be hot in the summer. We don't need a choice between industry 
and our homes. What we need to be doing is exactly what I am saying. We 
have got to realize that energy is the key to everything here. That is 
all there is to it.
  You know, it does solve all the things that I have already said, 
whether it be inflation or the war situation or our national security 
and on and on and on, but there is something else that it does. And it 
just goes just simply just this: We have a $37 trillion--none of us has 
any comprehension what a trillion dollars really is. None of us has any 
comprehension--can possibly imagine what a trillion dollars is.
  We have got a $37 trillion deficit. How are we going to get out of 
it? Please tell me. Please tell me how are we going to get out of it? 
First of all, what we should do is mind the store. That is what we have 
got to do. Mind the store. That is the first thing you have to do.
  That means cut as much waste as we possibly can. But after we do all 
of that, I will bet you this in every way. See, I am a business guy. I 
am not a politician. You can tell by the way I talk. For crying out 
loud, I am a business guy. With all that being said, I have never 
seen--never have I seen a situation to where you can cut your way out 
of a problem.
  We will absolutely have to mind the store. President Trump is dead on 
point. The DOGE is absolutely real, and we can absolutely make a real 
dent, but it won't be a dent nearly big enough. At the end of the day, 
the only way you can truly get your way out of a mess--mind the store, 
and it grows. That is what we have got to do. You have got to grow 
revenue.

  Say what you want, but at the end of the day, you have got to grow 
revenue. How are you going to grow revenue in America? For God's sake 
of living, the last thing on the planet that anybody would ever want to 
do is raise taxes. That would be the worst thing we could possibly do. 
That would kill us in every way imaginable.
  We need to be supportive of President Trump's tax cuts. We absolutely 
need to grow revenue one way. This is the only way to do it in West 
Virginia. You won't hear me all the time just standing up on a soapbox 
going on and on, but really this is a West Virginia guy that is telling 
America and telling the world just this: We sit on so much energy it is 
off the chart. Why can't we be Saudi Arabia? I mean, for crying out 
loud, it absolutely is the answer, period. If you want to grow revenue 
in this country, absolutely it will start with energy, and it will end 
with energy. That is all there is to it.
  Think about this for just 1 second: Every single country in the 
world--the gigantic countries or the real small countries--every 
country in the world today, the people will live longer and the people 
will be healthier if they have more energy--guaranteed. Every single 
country in the world, the more energy they have, the longer their 
people live, and the healthier they are.
  Absolutely just go back and think just one more thing: Civilization 
only progressed--only progressed with abundant, cheap energy, and now 
it is abundant, cheap, clean energy. America produces the cleanest 
energy on the planet. Our coals are so clean it is unbelievable 
compared to China's coals or other countries.
  Absolutely our natural gas is so good, it is off the chart. Embrace 
all the alternatives. All the wind, all the solar, embrace them all, 
but for gosh sake of living, you cannot--you cannot--forget the very 
thing that God above gave us in our fossil fuels.
  So with all that being said--I didn't even look at the notes--but I 
would just say to you just this: We have a real opportunity in America 
today, a real opportunity to move forward in a way that absolutely can 
solve a lot of the riddle. The riddle is tough.
  The riddle is tough, and absolutely when you step back from it and 
you think about, Well, what are we going to do? Here is a guy that has 
come to you not as a politician. I came to you not as a 40-year-old, 
you know, aspiring to someday being the chairman of some committee. I 
came to you with white hair as a 73-year-old because of one reason and 
one reason alone: I meet up with being a patriot. I am the real deal. I 
challenge the media all the time: Tell me something that, knowingly, I 
have told you is not true. They can't do it because I am going to tell 
the truth.
  My parents taught me that. It is not OK to just tell anything and 
say: Oh, it is just politics in my world. It is not. I am telling you 
from my heart as a business guy and absolutely as a West Virginian but 
first and foremost as an American: I love you with everything in me. I 
love this country with every single thing in me. I want nothing but 
goodness.
  I don't want one thing for me--nothing. I don't want the next hot 
tip. I don't need the next perk. I don't need the next invite. I don't 
want a thing for me. I am telling you, energy is our ticket. It is 
everything. It always has been everything.
  Now, we have got to do something about it. America, you have got to 
listen to me on this one. We have got to do something about it, and we 
have got to do something about it right now. I mean, there is a bad day 
coming, and it is coming right at us like a freight train. Let's do 
something about it, America. God bless each and every one of you. Thank 
you so much for having me.
  Mr. President, I will follow these guidelines correctly and make sure 
I do.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Utah.


                              S.J. Res. 10

  Mr. LEE. Mr. President, the American people are being told once again 
not to trust their own eyes. Democrats are telling them not to worry 
about their soaring electricity bills, telling them to ignore rolling 
blackouts. Republicans are just fearmongering, they say. But, of 
course, the reality is that Americans have seen the power shortages. 
They have paid the higher bills. They have felt the weight of the past 
4 years of the failed policies of the Biden administration, and we 
cannot ignore the resulting crisis anymore.
  The power grid is buckling, energy demand is exploding, and the very 
people who created this mess are now telling us, quite audaciously, 
that there is no emergency. Why? Well, they claim that the United 
States is producing more energy than we have in American history, but 
what they conveniently omit is that we are consuming more energy than 
at any time in American history, and we are expected to need much, much 
more within just the next few years--much more than we are producing, 
much more than we ever have produced.
  So it is not enough to just look at how much we are producing 
relative to what we have produced in the past when you don't take into 
account the demand, what we need, and what we need is going way, way 
up.
  Now, according to Goldman Sachs, artificial intelligence alone--just 
artificial intelligence, nothing else; not population growth, not any 
other uses, household or industrial, of energy--just artificial 
intelligence alone is likely to drive a 160-percent increase in data 
center power demand by 2030. The largest data centers can consume more 
power than 700,000 households. That is equivalent to the energy use of 
a city of 1.8 million people.
  But there is no emergency, according to them. According to the 
sponsors of this resolution, this is just a handout. It is a handout to 
Big Oil, as they characterize it.
  Now, good luck with that. Try telling that to the American families 
and businesses that struggled during the January 2025 polar vortex when 
the U.S. power grid was pushed to its absolute limits. Electricity 
demand hit historic

[[Page S1375]]

highs, forcing grid operators to rely heavily on coal and natural gas--
the very sources of power that Democrats want to eliminate and have 
been working aggressively, with some effectiveness, to do precisely 
that: to eliminate--just to keep the lights on.
  It is not Big Oil that will suffer in the winters if we fail to keep 
the power on.
  Across multiple power market regions, electricity demand during that 
event set new single-day records, as heating demand across sectors 
spiked. In response, grid operators had to rely heavily on dispatchable 
generation--primarily coal and natural gas--to ensure system 
reliability and stabilize supply during the extreme event.
  Now, during that time, coal-fired powerplants dramatically increased 
their electric power output--that is, those coal-fired powerplants that 
have not yet been torn down at the demand of Democratic-backed 
policies. In many regions, coal capacity factors soared above 80 
percent, far exceeding typical winter levels.
  On the other hand, wind and solar were challenged by unfavorable 
weather conditions. On peak days, wind and solar generated only 3 
percent and 0.2 percent of the incremental electricity needed to meet 
demand.
  But what exactly are Democrats worried about? What is their concern 
amidst that very emergency? If that is not an emergency, I don't know 
what is. What is it they are worried about? Not grid failures. Not 
surging energy costs. Not the reliability of our power supply. No. No. 
They are concerned that President Trump is making things worse by 
canceling the wind and solar projects that failed to generate enough 
power to meet demand at those peak moments when it was so badly needed.
  They are using the same old playbook that they always have: Do 
anything to prevent President Trump from getting a win regardless of 
whether his policies might actually bring relief to the American 
people, which, of course, they would.
  I have spent my career fighting against unchecked Executive power. I 
authored the ARTICLE ONE Act to curb the abuse of Presidential 
emergency declarations, requiring congressional approval within 30 
days. But let me be clear. This is not an abuse of those powers--not by 
a mile; not at all; not in any way, shape, or form. It is a real 
emergency, and if President Trump's declaration were put to a vote 
today, this Chamber would affirm it.
  Congress has had countless chances to fix this problem and failed 
every time. Republicans have fought for years to reform our outdated 
permitting laws, only to be met with Democratic resistance at every 
turn. NEPA, the Clean Water Act, the Endangered Species Act--Democrats 
treat these laws as if they were sacred texts, untouchable even when 
they are clearly broken; a sacred text that can't be not just repealed 
but even amended meaningfully to avert the disaster that they have 
created--especially created in the hands of the previous 
administration.

  Now, at this moment, we hear that they are ready to play ball. Now 
and only now do they say: Oh, yeah, we need to deal with this. Now, if 
that is true, great, but let's see. If Democrats are serious about 
fixing it, now is the time to prove it. Until Congress acts, how can 
anyone really blame the President for stepping in to address this 
emergency? Which it is, which it has become, which it undeniably is. In 
some cases, an emergency can be created by the government itself or at 
least severely exacerbated, and that is the case here.
  His Executive order tells Agencies to do exactly what Congress has 
neglected to do for years, exactly what Congress has been unable to 
do--in large part because Democrats have resisted that, getting back to 
the sacred text theory of these same laws that have become part of the 
problem.
  However, rather than working with President Trump and Republicans in 
a productive way to try to make energy more accessible for Americans 
and more reliable and, of course, remain affordable, Senate Democrats 
are forcing a vote on a resolution to terminate President Trump's 
declaration and reinstate the restrictive energy policies from the 
Biden administration's Green New Deal.
  Look at where those policies have left us, where they have put us, 
where we are, and where we are headed. Energy prices increased by 30.54 
percent, gasoline prices increased by 30.5 percent, electricity prices 
increased by 28.55 percent, and natural gas prices increased by 33.3 
percent.
  Meanwhile, Democrats' message to American families is clear: Pay 
more, expect less.
  That is the sort of gospel of scarcity, the idea that we have to live 
off of scarcity because that is what they demand because government 
wants it that way for reasons that only they can fully articulate but 
that the American people do not find persuasive.
  This is a problem. The United States is, in fact, in an energy 
emergency--not because of a lack of resources but because the Biden 
administration's unrelenting regulatory assault on domestic oil and gas 
production in blind adherence to the climate cartel has put us in this 
position.
  Now, President Biden's Executive orders--including orders he issued 
on his very first day as President of the United States back in January 
of 2021--pausing all new oil and gas leasing on Federal lands, where 
nearly 25 percent of U.S. oil production occurs, significantly hindered 
U.S. energy independence.
  Even after courts mandated the resumption of these leasing programs 
essential to our energy development, Secretary Haaland slow-walked the 
process, offering the fewest acres for lease since World War II and 
holding a record-low number of offshore lease sales.
  The chilling effect of the Biden administration's anti-production 
policies is as undeniable as it is indefensible as a matter of public 
policy. Oil companies are withdrawing from investments in Federal lands 
due to the uncertainty created by erratic leasing decisions and hostile 
regulatory policies.
  Now, let's remember, of course, this is made more severe by virtue of 
the fact that the U.S. Government is not just the largest landowner in 
the United States, but it owns around 28 percent--between one-quarter 
and one-third of all land in the United States. We compound that by 
giving enormous discretion to Federal land management Agencies, to the 
executive branch, and then you put in place an administration that 
wants to preach and live by the gospel of scarcity, and that is a 
recipe for disaster.
  Biden's EPA contributed meaningfully to the problem as well. The 
Biden EPA introduced methane fees starting at $900 per metric ton in 
2025 and increasing to $1,500 over just a fairly short period of time. 
That imposes significant financial burdens on producers, particularly 
small operators.
  Now, lest anyone led by the Democratic talking points might be 
tempted to look at this and say ``Oh, but they are businesses. They can 
afford it. Suck it up. Just deal with it,'' that is not really who pays 
for this, no. These things get passed on. The wealthy folks--at least 
the wealthy folks who own these businesses--they are not the ones 
hardest hit by this. Those hardest hit are American families, 
particularly in low- and middle-income brackets, those who, like so 
many Americans, live paycheck to paycheck. It is those people whose way 
of life, whose livelihood, whose ability to afford life is so 
dramatically affected by these regulatory intrusions into the 
marketplace. Those are the people who get hurt, and that really is a 
problem.
  Meanwhile, as our domestic production slows, our reliance on foreign 
oil increases. In 2023, we imported 1.3 million barrels per day from 
OPEC, up nearly 50 percent from 2020 levels. Meanwhile, critical 
mineral dependencies on foreign nations--particularly China--threaten 
everything from titanium in pacemakers, to cobalt in batteries, to 
copper in transmission lines and antimony in semiconductors. The 
absence of just one of these minerals would devastate the sectors they 
serve. Yet the Biden administration, with its vast discretion as it 
invented and reinvented Federal regulations and as it presided over 
this Byzantine labyrinth of Federal regulations--laws put in place by 
unelected, unaccountable bureaucrats--can make those things much worse, 
and it did make those things much worse, and the American people, hard-
working Americans, are paying too high a price.
  The American people are done. They are done with Joe Biden's failed 
policies. Over 77 million Americans voted

[[Page S1376]]

for President Trump just a few months ago, and a recent poll shows that 
60 percent of Americans support expanding American oil and gas 
production.
  Senate Republicans will not let Democrats delay and obstruct any 
longer. They have created and exacerbated an emergency. President Trump 
is addressing it, as the law allows him to do. We will ensure the 
President has the tools necessary to deliver the results that the 
American people justifiably expect, demand, and truly do deserve, 
because the facts are undeniable. America is in an energy emergency 
because of the Federal Government and specifically because of the 
previous administration's failed policies.
  Instead of embracing abundant, affordable, and reliable energy, 
Democrats--again preaching and living by the gospel of scarcity to 
which they are so closely wedded--are doubling down on a radical agenda 
to make everything, from gasoline to electricity, more expensive for 
working families.
  Remember, as the price of those energy inputs goes up, so, too, does 
the price of everything else because it becomes more expensive to make, 
to process, to buy, to sell, to transport all of those same things.
  Instead of learning from those failures, Senate Democrats are trying 
to block President Trump from taking action to fix it. What? Are they 
too afraid that their own policies will be exposed as the source of a 
significant amount of the problem? You will have to ask them about 
that. But one could certainly make that argument, and it certainly 
appears to many that this is the case.
  They are standing in the way of relief for American families, hoping 
that if they delay long enough, the American people will simply accept 
high costs as the new normal. Only in Washington could you light the 
house on fire and then act shocked when someone else tries to put it 
out. Make no mistake, that is exactly what is happening here.
  We refuse to let that happen. We applaud President Trump for taking 
action to address an emergency created by our own government--presided 
over, directed, embraced, and now defended by the Democratic Party.
  I urge my colleagues to vote no on this resolution.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Alaska.
  Ms. MURKOWSKI. Mr. President, I join my colleague from Utah, the 
chairman of the Energy Committee, in speaking today in clear opposition 
to S.J. Res. 10, which would terminate the energy emergency that has 
been declared by President Trump.
  I think my colleagues here on both sides of the aisle know that I am 
not afraid to suggest when I think that the President may be heading in 
the wrong direction. But, folks, on this one, he absolutely, positively 
clearly hit the mark, and I think that the chairman of the Energy 
Committee has outlined in pretty good detail how that has come about.
  We know that our country is blessed with extraordinary--
extraordinary--assets. We have the potential to become the world's 
leading resource superpower. But in order to do that, we have to be 
able to produce more energy domestically, and that means we have to be 
able to extract more minerals. We have to be able to build more 
transmission lines. We need to be able to overhaul what is clearly a 
broken Federal permitting process. And we can do this. We can do this 
in a way that is cheaper, that is more reliable, more clean, really, 
than any other nation in the world. But we have got to kind of dig out 
now from where we have been over these past 4 years, where we saw 
setback after setback for resource-producing States like mine, the 
State of Alaska.
  Let me give you a little detail in terms of what we are facing in the 
State of Alaska--a State that, again, is known for its resource wealth. 
But right now, in the south central part of the State, we are on the 
verge of importing LNG to meet the needs of some 75 percent of our 
population during the colder winter months.
  I will just repeat that. Alaska, the place where everybody knows we 
have got extraordinary oil resources--we have extraordinary natural gas 
potential, not only in the North Slope but down in Cook Inlet. Well, 
Cook Inlet reserves are on the decline, and we are actually talking 
about importing LNG from Canada. That ought to just be considered a 
nonstarter for anyone who knows and understands the extraordinary 
potential for resource development that we have in our State with the 
wealth that we have.
  Right now, in some of our remote communities across the State, 
residents are truly in what I would describe as an energy emergency. 
They might not use that term anymore because they have just gotten so 
used to the fact that they are paying so much to keep their lights on 
and to keep warm. We have residents in many communities that are 
spending up to one-half of their incomes on energy just, again, to keep 
the lights on and to keep warm.
  Think about what that means when you are spending half of what you 
make for just the basic necessities. It means that you have less to 
feed your family, to educate your kids. We have got communities where 
power costs 10 times the national average, where gasoline can easily 
exceed $10 a gallon, and that includes diesel as well.
  And those costs, of course, impact everything--everything--because 
you have got to move your food, your goods, usually by airplane, 
sometimes over the water, sometimes you are able to drive it. But when 
you are paying this much for diesel, for gasoline, for avgas, it 
impacts everything. So it is not unusual to go into a village store, 
and if you can find a gallon of milk, see that it costs 18 bucks a 
gallon.
  I do my comparison shopping by checking the prices of a box of Tide. 
People need to be able to wash their clothing just for sanitary 
purposes. Almost in every village that I am going to, you are looking 
at prices over $50 a box--$50 for a box of Tide laundry detergent--and 
it is not because Tide is any more expensive than anything else. It is 
just the reality of what we are paying here. So I think we have got an 
energy emergency when it comes to affordability.
  Right now, in our State, we have an oil pipeline that is one-quarter 
filled. We have this pipeline that has been pumping oil safely from the 
North Slope to delivery down in Valdez, going to other parts of the 
country for refining. That oil pipeline was completed in 1974 and has 
been producing for America ever since. But right now, it is about one-
quarter full.

  That pipeline starts in, again, one of the most geologically 
prospective regions on the Earth. But what is happening is you have 
Federal Government control that surrounds most of the lands there, and 
it has led to decreased opportunities to expand production up there and 
a pipeline that, again, is about one-quarter full.
  I mentioned the benefits of oil here and talked about natural gas, 
but we also have known deposits of about 50 critical minerals, the 
building blocks of our modern society and our national security. We 
have just about everything that our Nation needs to break its deep 
dependence on China, to be able to rebuild our supply chains. But if 
you can't access it, you can't produce it, and we can't benefit from 
it.
  When we try to build a road from the Dalton Highway to the Ambler 
Mining District--this is explicitly provided by a 1980 Federal law--we 
did this as part of a grand compromise. The road corridor was in 
exchange for the creation of a massive national park and preserve. But 
we can get that project approved in one administration, only to have 
the next one come in, reopen it, ignore the law, and then make a 
political decision to reject it.
  And then, here in Congress, we run into a partisan wall with some 
less interested in the rule of law than the whims of the very same 
environmental groups that pushed this resolution.
  And then, meanwhile, what is happening when we are not able to 
produce in our own home States, China is cutting us off from its 
mineral exports, including the gallium and the germanium that we could 
produce from the Ambler District, if only the Federal Government would 
uphold its promise to allow Alaskans to responsibly access it.
  So, yes, when I look at my home State, when I look at Alaska, I do 
see an energy emergency--I see several, actually--and I see even more 
reasons to be concerned nationally.
  As the chairman of the Energy Committee just noted, electricity 
demand is growing, and yet we can't permit new powerplants or build 
transmission

[[Page S1377]]

lines. We can't build pipelines in the Northeast or almost anything, 
particularly mines, on Federal lands in the West.
  And, you know, I guess I am listening to some of the arguments that 
are being presented here, and maybe I would feel differently if my home 
State was producing more than 2 million barrels of oil per day, as some 
are. But we are not, and it is not because we can't. It is because we 
have been denied the opportunity to do so. And that is why I am very 
thankful for President Trump and the administration for the focus that 
they have given to the State of Alaska with a specific Executive order 
to allow us to unleash Alaska's energy and resource potential.
  I have shared with the Secretary of the Interior, as well as the 
Secretary of Energy, that we need to stop treating energy like it is 
some kind of an evil or a bad thing. We need to recognize that it is 
good. When I was chairman of the Energy Committee, we had a little 
bumper sticker, and I summed up my whole policy with ``Energy is 
good.''
  I haven't deviated from that policy. Energy makes us stronger, makes 
us less vulnerable, and it is an asset, not a liability, like we have 
seen it treated as such. We need to be unleashing our resources, 
including--including--all of our renewables, because that is all part 
of the energy basket as well. So it is not an either-or in my view. It 
is all of the above. And that is good for our economy. It is good for 
our security. It is good for our geopolitical power.
  America's resource production is good for the global environment 
because, when we are producing our resources--where we stop paying 
countries that have little to no environmental standards, no interest 
in reducing their emissions, and that often rely on child or slave 
labor and that, frankly, don't even like us--so why not seize the 
opportunities that we have here, benefit our own people, our own 
economies, and, again, benefit the global environment as well.
  So if an energy emergency helps us figure this all out, then I am 
good with that. And if it helps us take the Federal sanctions that we 
have seen placed on Alaska and return my State to the heart of our 
national strategy for resource production, then that is also good. I 
think we will all be better off.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from New Hampshire.
  Mrs. SHAHEEN. Mr. President, I come to the floor today in support of 
S. J. Res. 10, which would terminate the misguided national energy 
emergency that President Trump signed on his first day in office.
  It has been 37 days since President Trump declared, for the first 
time in this Nation's history, a national energy emergency. This is an 
attempt to throw red meat to the base of the Republican Party and to 
seem like Donald Trump is the oil and gas President.
  But there is no evidence to support that. In fact, the evidence we 
have points in exactly the opposite direction. This emergency was 
declared despite the fact that the United States is producing more oil 
than any other country ever in this Nation's history. And we have been 
doing that for the past 7 years.
  The emergency was declared despite the fact that the United States is 
in the midst of a clean energy boom and a manufacturing renaissance. We 
generated 17 percent more electricity in 2023 than the high point of 
the first Trump administration. Clean energy jobs are growing at twice 
the rate of the economy overall. And this emergency was declared 
despite the fact that, as the Wall Street Journal headline noted after 
the election: ``Trump's Oil and Gas Donors Don't Really Want to `Drill, 
Baby, Drill.' ''
  They are very happy to lock in demand for the long term. But increase 
supply and potentially undercut profits? Not so much.
  So we find ourselves with an emergency declaration in search of an 
emergency. But it is not without consequences. President Trump has 
assumed vast power for the executive branch through this emergency 
designation. He is encouraging the use of eminent domain that could 
literally allow the government to take your land away. He is waiving 
away key protections for clean water. And he is suggesting that a 
timeline of just 7 days is sufficient for public comment on projects 
that could cause irreparable harm to historic and cultural resources.
  President Trump campaigned on ``lowering the cost of everything'' and 
he promised:

       Your energy bill within 12 months, will be cut in half.

  Voters responded to those promises, and Americans do want to see 
lower energy costs. I am all for that. I focused, as Governor, on how 
we could address the high energy prices in New Hampshire. We permitted 
two gas pipelines through the State--both gas coming from Canada. And 
we negotiated a deal with our largest utility company that lowered 
rates 16.5 percent.
  I am all for lowering energy costs. We absolutely should be talking 
about that. But let's take a step back here, and let's talk about what 
President Trump's energy policies actually are and how they affect the 
American people. In the first 37 days, we have seen the Trump 
administration cut off funding for solar, wind, and clean manufacturing 
projects that are cheaper and faster to build than fossil fuel 
infrastructure. We have seen him halt energy efficiency programs and we 
know energy efficiency is the cheapest, fastest way to deal with our 
energy needs.
  He has prepared a 10-percent energy tax in the form of tariffs on 
heating oil, propane, gasoline, and other energy we import from Canada. 
And that hits New Hampshire really hard because of the energy sources 
we get from Canada. I talked about the two gas pipelines that come down 
from Canada. And because we have so many households that burn No. 2 
fuel oil to heat our homes and because it is cold in New Hampshire at 
this time of year, that hits us really hard.
  He has fired more than 1,000 workers at the Department of Energy, 
including those who were keeping State energy programs and 
weatherization up and running to respond to emergencies and to help 
folks like we have in New Hampshire stay warm this winter.
  And tomorrow, what we expect is that Senate Republicans will roll 
back a commonsense fee on venting or flaring of methane rather than 
capturing it for productive use. If that passes and the President signs 
it, it will cost the taxpayers $2.3 billion over the next 10 years, 
effectively lighting money on fire to save Big Oil a few bucks.
  In New Hampshire, as in other States, President Trump's actions have 
sown chaos and uncertainty. They are raising costs for families, for 
farmers, for small businesses, and for town budgets.
  For example, the tariffs that are set to go into effect--and I 
understand the President has now decided he is going to wait until 
April--but they could mean about $150 to $250 more for the average 
family in New Hampshire who are using heating oil just to keep warm 
through the winter. President Trump's efforts to cancel promised 
funding for electric charging infrastructure in New Hampshire harms our 
travel and tourism sector, particularly in northern New Hampshire where 
ski areas and other outdoor recreation drive our local economies. A 
recent study found that the State risks losing an estimated $1.4 
billion in overall economic impact if we don't build up our charging 
infrastructure.
  One small business owner in Barrington, in the seacoast of New 
Hampshire, told me that he has nearly $3 million in projects. Those 
projects are on hold this year, including work for school districts 
with the State and with other customers to install solar projects that 
provide long-term taxpayer savings. They are on hold because of what 
President Trump has ordered.
  Farms and local shops across rural areas of New Hampshire are nervous 
about receiving promised reimbursements for energy-saving work through 
the Rural Energy for America Program, the REAP program. At least one 
business owner at Seacoast Power Equipment has been covering interest 
with the bank until his grant--which he has a signed commitment for--is 
actually paid out. Of course, this is affecting his bottom line.
  Then we have Super Secret Ice Cream in Bethlehem, NH, the northern 
part of our State--an award-winning small business that provides the 
best ice cream you have ever eaten. They were gearing up to install 
solar panels using $15,000 in Federal funds. Now that project is on 
hold. Many family-owned

[[Page S1378]]

businesses like Super Secret Ice Cream have very tight margins, and 
this small investment of $15,000 would help Kristina and Dan grow their 
business and lower the electric costs that they are paying to store 
their ice cream.

  Then we have the town of Peterborough in the western part of New 
Hampshire. They plan to use funding from the Bipartisan Infrastructure 
Law to enhance much-needed workforce development. But, of course, they 
have had to wait far too long for Federal approvals.
  And in rural towns like Berlin in the northern part of our State, 
residents eagerly signed up for federally funded projects that will 
insulate and add solar arrays to their manufactured homes. This is a 
real solution to their high utility bills. But these projects are now 
on hold because the contractors are uncertain that they are going to be 
paid.
  I could go on, as I know my colleagues could, but since we have 
people waiting, I want to close with a point of agreement. In his 
Executive order, President Trump stated:

       We need a reliable, diversified, and affordable supply of 
     energy to drive our Nation's manufacturing, transportation, 
     agriculture, and defense industries and to sustain the basics 
     of modern life and military preparedness.

  That makes sense to me. I agree with that. But, unfortunately, that 
is about the only thing he said related to energy in the past 37 days 
that does make sense. Lowering energy costs, creating good jobs, and 
increasing America's economic competitiveness in the world--those ought 
to be things that we can all agree on. But if we give up our leadership 
on clean energy now, the People's Republic of China, who President 
Trump claims is our greatest competitor--and I agree with him on that. 
I just don't understand how the Trump administration policies are 
allowing us to be competitive--but China is going to be more than happy 
to fill the void for its own economic advantage.
  I think we should also agree Americans deserve clean air, clean 
water, and a chance to have a say in what happens in their communities.
  I want to work with my colleagues on both sides of the aisle on these 
goals. That work starts by ending this disastrous, misguided emergency 
declaration and by stopping the chaos. I hope my colleagues will join 
me in voting to restore Congress's appropriate role in setting energy 
policies that benefit the American people by supporting this 
resolution.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Rhode Island.
  Mr. WHITEHOUSE. Mr. President, I am here to join my colleagues in 
objecting to President Trump's fake energy emergency, which is part of 
the Trump continuing strategy to hurt families and help billionaires--
in this case, the fossil fuel billionaires who put at least $100 
million into getting him elected, probably a good deal more because so 
much of the money was dark money. We don't know. But there is every 
reason to believe it was multiple hundreds of millions of dollars spent 
to get him elected and it is payback time for the big donors.
  Tough bounce to the families whose bills are going to go up as a 
result.
  How are families bills going to go up? For starters, renewables are 
less expensive than fossil fuel. When you add them to the mix, the grid 
runs on a cue, and it takes the cheapest sources and puts them in the 
line. And as you demand more and more electricity, you finally get to 
the more expensive energy sources. And inexpensive renewables coming in 
drives out the expensive fossil fuel from the top, and it lowers energy 
costs overall.
  So when you stop doing that, the most expensive plants have to come 
back online, and that will raise utility bills but, most importantly to 
Trump, profits for fossil fuel billionaires.
  We make ourselves, with this, more vulnerable to the OPEC fossil fuel 
cartel, the oil and gas cartel. They raise prices by manipulating 
international markets. The American oil and gas companies follow up. 
Even if they don't need to make that much money, they will follow the 
OPEC prices. As a result, they have declared the biggest profits in the 
history of humankind at the expense of American families both at the 
fuel pump and at home on their electric bills. It doesn't matter to 
this administration. It is a win for the fossil fuel billionaires who 
paid good money to get this administration in, and families will be 
hurt to help the fossil fuel billionaires.
  Another one is LNG export. What happens in the natural gas market 
when you take our natural gas, liquefy it, and send it offshore 
someplace else? It doesn't go into the pipelines here in America. It 
pinches the supply available to Americans, which raises prices for 
Americans, unless you want to repeal the economic laws of supply and 
demand.
  So over and over and over again, these pro-fossil fuel, mega donor 
policies hurt American families, raise families' electric utility 
bills, and provide huge benefits back to the big donors who spent good 
money to get him into office.
  Who gets hit the most when you attack solar and attack wind power?
  Well, here are the top solar States by installed capacity. Start with 
California. Obviously, it is the fifth biggest economy in the world, 
but the next four are Texas, Florida, North Carolina, and Arizona. 
There are a lot of red voters in those States who are going to pay the 
price for this bad policy. Look over to wind. The top State is Texas, 
the next is Iowa, the next is Oklahoma, and the next is Kansas. Again, 
red States will pay the price for this donor-oriented policy.
  The Trump administration doesn't even concede that solar and wind 
power are energy. When they use the word ``energy,'' they only mean 
fossil and nuclear. They have literally defined solar and wind out of 
the energy mix by a process of vocabulary magic.
  So we are headed for a bad place, and consumers are going to pay--all 
to make big fossil fuel barons even richer than they are.
  The shame here is that there actually is an emergency out there. 
There actually is an energy emergency out there, and the energy 
emergency is happening because fossil fuel emissions are changing the 
weather and the natural systems of the Earth so that the risk of 
weather disasters, whether it is wildfire or flooding, is getting so 
bad that property insurers can't keep up. So we are having a crisis in 
property insurance markets that is fully developed in Florida, and 
California is not far behind.
  What the chief economist for our mortgage giant, Freddie Mac, has 
warned of is that the property insurance crisis morphs into a mortgage 
crisis because if you can't get property insurance on a property, guess 
what else you can't get on a property--you can't get a mortgage on it. 
And the mortgage crisis devolves into a property values crash because 
if you can't find buyers because nobody can get a mortgage on that 
property, your property's value just collapsed. Then that morphs into a 
nationwide economic crash on the scale of 2008. That is what they said 
just about coastal property values. Now we have the wildfire risk 
coming along side by side--the evil sibling.
  So is there an emergency? Yes. It is coming on, and it is coming on 
soon enough that the Fed Chair, in testimony just over a week ago here 
in the Senate, said: After a decade goes by, there will be regions of 
the United States of America where you can't even get a mortgage any 
longer.
  What is that going to do to property values and people's homes? By 
the way, if that is the case for 10 years out, markets are going to 
start to move sooner. So this is a problem that is on us now. We have a 
real emergency coming. It is going to clobber us economically.
  Our friends on the Republican side don't want to listen to us because 
of all the fossil fuel money that goes into their party. The President 
doesn't want to listen to it because he got paid so many hundreds of 
millions of dollars in political funds to get himself elected. But 
nature's rules can't be repealed by man. This is coming on. We ought to 
be prepared for it.
  With that, I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Connecticut.
  Mr. BLUMENTHAL. Mr. President, I am pleased to follow my colleague 
and friend from Rhode Island and to join with the Senator from 
Virginia, Senator Kaine, in supporting S.J. Res. 10, which is a joint 
resolution to terminate President Trump's illegal Executive order 
declaring an energy emergency.

[[Page S1379]]

  It is not only nature's rule that is being violated, as Senator 
Whitehouse just said so eloquently; it is also this Congress's rule. In 
effect, the President is flouting and defying this Congress--this 
independent, separate body of the U.S. Government--in the money that 
has already been appropriated for projects that will help avoid an 
energy emergency in the future and reduce the prices of energy for 
American families.
  To the families of America, let's just be very clear. President Trump 
is illegally withholding appropriated funding for for projects in your 
communities and your neighborhoods, not only projects to increase 
energy efficiency but also to strengthen the electrical grid that 
brings electricity into your home and projects to build out America's 
clean energy infrastructure that will avoid pollution in your 
neighborhoods.

  This funding freeze sweeps a range of programs having nothing to do 
with unleashing American energy, whatever President Trump thinks it 
is--we are talking about funding for clean drinking water projects that 
will enable better drinking water for your homes; brownfield 
remediation so that businesses can be developed in places that now are 
polluted; heating assistance for low-income households during the end 
of this winter--causing confusion and consternation across the country.
  But make no mistake, if this funding is withheld, the projects and 
the needs and the challenges don't go away. There will still be a need 
to clean up those brownfields, to deliver through the electric grid, to 
make energy efficiency real in communities and neighborhoods, but you 
will pay. Your taxes will be increased at the State level and the local 
level, and those projects will become more expensive. So there is a 
double and triple whammy here. Increase the costs now and in the future 
for projects that are absolutely essential to the health as well as the 
energy efficiency of our country.
  The Republicans say they are for an ``all of the above'' approach to 
energy, but then they turn around and they attack renewables. They say 
they are for cleaning up brownfields, but then they support this kind 
of Executive order that is illegal and also stymies or stops that 
brownfield remediation.
  Like all of the actions by Executive order President Trump has taken 
in his first month of office, it isn't actually solving the problem; it 
is exacerbating it. It is lining the pockets of his billionaire 
buddies--in this case, oil and gas executives--at the expense of 
everyday Americans. If there is an energy emergency, it will be created 
by President Trump--it won't be solved by him--and congressional 
Republicans will be complicit in it.
  There is also an effect on jobs. In fact, thousands of jobs are 
threatened by this Executive order. Repealing the Inflation Reduction 
Act by Executive edict threatens 400,000 new jobs that have been 
announced since August of 2022. Connecticut alone has around 50,000 
workers in the clean energy sector. All of those jobs are at risk. They 
are threatened by President Trump's attack on the industry.
  To my colleagues across the aisle, make no mistake, this is going to 
affect your constituents as well. Studies have found that a majority of 
clean energy jobs created during the first full year after the 
Inflation Reduction Act passed actually were in the South, in 
Republican States. Jobs in clean energy are not in one State or just 
blue States; they are across the country. Eight out of ten 
congressional districts that received the most funding under these laws 
were represented by Republicans.
  It shouldn't be a partisan issue. It is, as we say all the time, an 
American issue. We stand ready to work with anyone who wants to lower 
costs for consumers and support domestic energy production by building 
on historic investments made by the Infrastructure Investment and JOBS 
Act and the Inflation Reduction Act, but President Trump's order in no 
way helps; it simply harms that effort.
  I urge my colleagues to vote yes on this resolution.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Colorado.
  Mr. HICKENLOOPER. Mr. President, the United States is in an energy 
boom. Our Nation has never produced more electricity or oil and gas 
than we are producing right now. This ``all of the above'' approach to 
energy using everything--including solar, wind, and geothermal--is 
keeping energy prices as low as possible for working families but at 
the same time is recognizing that climate change is real and moving 
toward a clean energy future.
  Excluding coal, the United States produced more energy than any other 
country in the history of the world in 2023. It appears that some in 
this administration are determined to undo that progress.
  Despite American leadership in energy, the President signed an 
Executive order on his first day declaring a national energy emergency. 
That sounds dramatic, almost theatrical, because it is meant to be. 
Let's call this political theater for what it is--an attempt to 
accelerate oil and gas projects while at the same time holding back our 
renewable energy.
  Of course, there are things that we need to be doing to keep energy 
cleaner, prices lower, and to cement American energy independence.
  For starters, we need to increase energy production. We need to meet 
our energy future by streamlining the permitting of our new energy 
projects--of all of our energy projects--while at the same time being 
mindful of the environmental impacts and giving impacted communities a 
public forum. We need to upgrade our grid. We need to increase clean, 
domestic, critical mineral production. But that is not what this 
Executive order will do. In fact, it won't do a single one of these 
things.
  They claim we are in an emergency, an energy emergency, but they 
continue to block Federal wind and energy permits. They claim we are in 
an emergency, an energy emergency, but then they ship oil and gas 
overseas. They claim we are in an energy emergency, and yet their 
actions would cede complete control of what eventually will be an 
enormous global market in renewable energy to China.
  The administration has also fired thousands of government workers who 
play vital roles in American energy--all in the name of government 
efficiency and giving tax cuts to the ultrawealthy.
  Listen, I am all for making the government more efficient. I have 
worked on that most of my public life. If you want to seriously look at 
how we spend money and where we can actually cut fraud, waste, and 
abuse, I am game. But hastily, almost randomly firing Department of 
Energy employees or letting go 300 workers who maintain our nuclear 
security and safety--I don't think that is the way to do it.
  Our office has even heard from a private company that worried that 
the Federal employee responsible for managing their permitting process 
is about to be fired, placing the entire success of their project at 
risk. They help bring energy to our local communities. This will stop 
them dead in their tracks and raise prices for households at the same 
time.
  America's energy economy is booming, in large part because of the 
bipartisan infrastructure law and the Inflation Reduction Act--bills 
that make historic investments in American-made energy.
  These bills have created more than 400,000 good-paying jobs. Yet 
there is an effort by some in the Congress--mostly Republicans; I 
should say all Republicans--and the administration to slash and impede 
the progress that we have made, even though an estimated 70 percent of 
the benefits--the jobs, the investments, the increased energy--are 
going to red States.
  Cutting funding from these critical pieces of legislation is going to 
hit our rural communities the hardest, where it could provide the 
greatest benefit. It will shrink county government revenue; it will 
force layoffs; and, ultimately, it will increase the cost of energy.
  Clean energy isn't just some liberal boogeyman. It is not some 
notion. In fact, most of the energy that is ready to go as we expand 
our capacity--it is ready to go--is clean and affordable.
  Solar, wind, and storage, they make up 95 percent of the capacity of 
new energy ready to connect to our grid. Wind generates 10 percent of 
our electricity now and will provide much more affordable renewable 
energy if more permits were made available.
  Withholding funds already appropriated by Congress through these laws

[[Page S1380]]

could balloon energy bills by up to 12 percent for American families. 
That is at least $240 a year for working families that they will have 
to come up with one way or another. When you are struggling to afford 
eggs at the grocery store, trying to balance your checkbook at the end 
of the month, the last thing you need is an increase in your energy 
bill.
  Some in Congress, some Republicans, have introduced their budget 
which strips critical services for Coloradoans while adding $4 trillion 
to our national debt, all primarily so they can give tax breaks, which 
more than half go to the ultrawealthy who, at least many in Colorado, 
don't even want them.
  I put an amendment on the floor that would strip any provision from 
their budget that would raise energy costs for Americans. How can 
people be opposed to that? Yet every Republican voted against it. I 
think they are putting politics over people.
  We are able to keep energy prices low for working families because we 
use everything: oil, gas, geothermal, wind. So rather than limiting 
energy sources, proclaiming a false emergency, or firing critical 
government employees, let's meet the moment and usher in a new energy 
future that helps everyone, a future marked by a resilient energy grid 
built by American innovation that delivers low-cost, reliable energy 
for every Coloradan, for every American.
  If this administration is looking for a bipartisan roadmap on this, 
we have one. We should pass permitting reform that streamlines review 
for all energy projects, not just oil and gas. We can build a modern 
electric grid that will reduce energy prices for all.
  Let's continue supporting emerging technologies like advanced 
geothermal and nuclear so that we can remain dominant in the markets 
that are emerging.
  And let's stop picking winners and losers. The vast majority of new 
electricity is coming from low-cost solar, wind, and energy storage. 
Let's follow the law and let the investments in energy from the past 
few years go to the communities that need them.
  Let's cut the nonsense. This isn't an energy emergency; it is an 
emergency opportunity. This administration's actions certainly would 
cause an emergency for many Coloradoans and American working families.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Maryland.
  Mr. VAN HOLLEN. Mr. President, I want to start by thanking my 
colleague from across the Potomac River, Senator Kaine of Virginia, and 
also Senator Heinrich of New Mexico for bringing this resolution before 
the U.S. Senate.
  We are now witnessing in realtime two of the most corrupt bargains in 
American history. One of those corrupt bargains is the one that 
President Trump made with Elon Musk.
  Elon Musk spent $280 million to help elect Donald Trump President of 
the United States--$280 million--and President Trump has handed the 
keys of Federal Agencies over to Elon Musk. He even appeared at the 
Cabinet meeting today with other members of the Cabinet that went 
through the advice-and-consent process of the U.S. Senate. Elon Musk 
didn't do that, but he did spend $280 million to help elect President 
Trump.
  And now the actions that Elon Musk is taking are designed to rig 
government Agencies to do the bidding of people like Elon Musk and 
other billionaires. In fact, we have been reading more and more about 
the billions of dollars of Federal contracts that Elon Musk has gotten 
and more to come. Just within the last 48 hours, we are talking about 
an FAA contract for Starlink.
  This has nothing to do with government efficiency. If it did, you 
would not start by firing all the inspectors general across the U.S. 
Government whose job it is to look out for waste, fraud, and abuse. In 
fact, what you would do when you get rid of the inspectors general is 
open the door to waste, fraud, and abuse.
  So we should be on full alert here in the U.S. Senate as to what is 
happening.
  As others have said, we are also watching them claim to make savings, 
which actually they have had to change their, sort of, tally board 
every day because of misrepresentations. But they do want to clear the 
way to provide tax cuts to very, very wealthy people like Elon Musk at 
the expense of everybody else in America. And, of course, the House 
just passed a budget resolution to set up that process last night.
  So that is one corrupt bargain that is playing out right now, and 
thousands of patriotic Federal employees around the country who do the 
people's work are being fired based on lies. I say ``lies'' because 
they are claiming they are firing them based on performance, only to 
find out that these Federal employees are coming forward with glowing 
performance reports as part of their most recent assessments. So that 
was a lie because that was the standard that had to be met, even if 
they had to make it up.
  All these cases are now finding their way through the courts. We have 
over 60 court proceedings. Many Federal judges have issued temporary 
restraining orders to put a halt to this rampage of illegal activity.
  The other corrupt bargain is the one that brings us to the Senate 
floor today because it was in May of last year, during the campaign, 
that Candidate Trump promised the Big Oil executives that he would 
deliver their wish list if they spent a billion dollars to return him 
to the White House.
  So much has happened since then, I think some people forget, but here 
is the Washington Post headline from May 9, 2024:

       What Trump promised oil CEOs as he asked them to steer $1 
     billion to his campaign.

  The story describes how the CEOs there were stunned--stunned--when he 
went on to say:

       You are all wealthy enough . . . that you should raise $1 
     billion to return me to the White House. [And] he vowed to 
     immediately reverse dozens of President Biden's rules and 
     policies.

  And as the article indicates, among the things he promised to scrap 
were the efforts to develop more clean vehicles, more electric 
vehicles, and to develop more wind energy. So he promised to provide 
more opportunities for the big oil companies while harming their 
competitors in the clean energy industry.
  He promised he would do all of this on day one. He also made another 
promise as to what he would do on day one. He promised the American 
people he was going to lower prices on day one. We all know that that 
is just not happening. Prices are going up. Grocery prices are going 
up. Rents are going up. Home prices are going up. The price of eggs is 
through the roof. So President Trump is not delivering on that day-one 
promise.
  He is delivering on his promise to the Big Oil executives to issue 
that order that has made it even easier for them to produce, when they 
are already producing close to maximum current levels.
  In fact, as my colleagues have said, for the past 6 years in a row, 
the United States has been producing more crude oil than any other 
nation at any other time ever, ever. In fact, the last administration 
actually approved more oil and gas leases during those 4 years than 
Donald Trump did during his first term in the White House.
  And there is plenty of room to grow. Under existing leases, about 
half of U.S. oil and gas leases are currently not being used.
  So here he issues an Executive order to allow even more to move 
forward, even when a lot of potential is still not being tapped, but 
doing it in a way that will negatively impact the public health, 
sacrifice clean air and clean water.
  That is only half the problem. That is half the problem because what 
President Trump is doing is not only giving a blank check to the big 
oil companies, he is also sabotaging clean energy in the United States 
of America. They, of course, provide competition to the big oil 
companies.
  So by throttling and sabotaging efforts when it comes to solar power 
or wind power or electric vehicles, you are actually producing less 
overall energy. You are actually giving the big oil companies a 
competitive advantage. That means prices go up, not down.
  I can tell you that in my State of Maryland, people are feeling the 
impacts of higher electricity prices. We need to generate more 
electricity. We have got data centers coming onboard. AI consumes a lot 
of energy. So why in the world would President Trump be trying to 
cripple the clean energy industry?

[[Page S1381]]

  Well, that is what he told the Big Oil executives he would do: He is 
going to crack down on wind power.
  I will tell you that solar and wind energy are among the cheapest 
forms of energy in the country. And at a time when American pocketbooks 
are tight, renewable energy will help keep energy bills down.
  In fact, renewable energy is expected to save Americans $38 billion 
on electricity bills by the year 2030 and produce more than 350,000 
jobs in America. So why is President Trump trying to sabotage bringing 
that additional energy onto the grid and to Americans?
  In Maryland, we are planning investments in offshore wind that will 
create 2,600 local jobs and power over 718,000 homes. That is wind 
power energy. That is what Donald Trump is trying to sabotage.

  So if you really want to create more energy and you want to reduce 
energy prices, you wouldn't be doing what Donald Trump is doing when it 
comes to putting the screws to clean energy production.
  I do want to mention one other way in which this is really going to 
harm America's interests, and that is, it is going to open the door 
even wider to our adversaries who are competing in the space--
principally China. We spent a lot of time trying to improve our supply 
chains, develop supply chains for minerals that we need to develop 
electric vehicles, and by sabotaging this sector, we are opening the 
door to China just to run into this market and leave us behind.
  That is not ``America First''; that is America in retreat, just as it 
is America in retreat for us to vote with Russia and North Korea at the 
U.N. General Assembly the other day, against the people of Ukraine and 
freedom-loving people around the world.
  So, Mr. President, I hope we will support this resolution. I hope we 
will ensure that we can develop our clean energy sources that will 
produce more energy supply for the American people and help lower 
prices.
  I know, back in May of last year, Candidate Trump told the big CEOs 
that not only was he going to help them develop more but he was going 
to help them by hurting their competitors in the renewable energy 
industry. That is no way to conduct an energy policy for the United 
States of America.
  I urge my colleagues to support the resolution.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Democratic whip.
  Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, it has been almost 6 weeks--maybe a couple 
of days beyond 6 weeks--of the new administration of Donald Trump and 
his second term. It is a lot different than his first term. I was here 
for that occasion as well.
  What we have found is unique is a blizzard of Executive orders issued 
by President Trump from the beginning of his administration. Among 
those Executive orders was his declaration of an energy emergency--
energy emergency. It turns out that claim is not based on fact. There 
is no energy emergency in America.
  Under the Biden administration, we saw record deployment of wind, 
solar, biofuels, batteries, oil, gas, and nuclear. In fact, the United 
States is producing more power than ever. Last year, the United States 
of America produced more oil than any other nation in the history of 
the world. Yet President Trump continues to insist that America is on 
the verge of nationwide blackouts and that clean energy will raise 
prices. It is simply not true.
  So what is the reason for the President to try to mislead the 
American people? The short answer is that he wants to give handouts to 
his billionaire buddies in the fossil fuel industry. Before Elon Musk 
showed up with his multibillion-dollar fortune, it was reported that 
then-Candidate Donald Trump invited fossil fuel executives to Mar-a-
Lago to ask for--hold on to your seats--a $1 billion campaign 
contribution--1 billion bucks.
  Now that he is in office, President Trump is doing everything he can 
to keep those billionaires happy. That means tax cuts for the 
ultrawealthy--which is on its way, I am afraid--opening up Federal 
lands and waters for drilling, and, yes, declaring this phony energy 
emergency.
  Why is he doing it? Declaring an emergency grants the President 
additional statutory authority. Donald Trump is using these authorities 
to fast-track pipelines and drilling in the Gulf of--may I say it?--
Mexico. But there is nothing in this declaration to support fossil 
fuel's cleanest competitors: wind and solar.
  If Trump doing the bidding of billionaires wasn't bad enough, his so-
called emergency will also raise the electric bills of thousands of 
families. Wind and solar are the cheapest energy in the world, and 
those cheap prices get passed on to the families who take advantage of 
them.
  I know personally. A few years ago, my wife and I made the decision 
to install solar panels on the roof of our home. Our home project gave 
union workers in my community a good-paying job, and it was just one 
project contributing to hundreds of thousands of jobs created in the 
Biden administration.
  Since Democrats' Inflation Reduction Act was enacted 2\1/2\ years 
ago, more than 1\1/2\ million Americans have installed solar panels. 
Was it a good idea? Well, I compared the electric bills I had been 
receiving in my home before and after the solar panels. Before the 
solar panels were installed on my roof, my monthly bill was about $115 
for electricity. Now it is $15 because of the solar energy.
  Every one of these installations also helped to create good-paying 
jobs for electricians, carpenters, and other workers, and supplying 
those panels created thousands of new jobs at factories around the 
country. But President Trump is not impressed. He wants to eliminate 
those jobs.
  We have an opportunity to undo the harms of one of President Trump's 
many lies today. I want to thank Senator Kaine of Virginia for leading 
this effort. We need to raise up American workers, lower utility bills, 
and put America back on track to lead the world on clean energy.
  I urge my colleagues to support the Kaine measure.


                           January 6 Pardons

  Mr. President, on January 6, 2021, a solemn constitutional proceeding 
was disrupted when a mob of thugs, egged on by President Trump, 
attacked and trashed the U.S. Capitol in an attempt to overturn the 
results of a Presidential election.
  The grim result of that insurrection was the subsequent death of 5 
law enforcement officers and injuries to approximately 140 others, many 
of whom are still paying the price to this day.
  It came as a shock when, on the first day of Donald Trump's 
Presidency, he issued a blanket pardon for those who had been convicted 
for that January 6 attack on the Capitol.
  We all saw the videos. We all saw the photographs. Here is an 
illustration of one of them.
  Listen to what President Trump said about 1,600 pardons at a recent 
press conference when he was asked: Why did you pardon all those people 
who attacked the police officers at the Capitol Building?
  He said:

       I pardoned people that were assaulted themselves. They were 
     assaulted by our government. . . . They didn't assault. They 
     were assaulted, and what I did was a great thing for 
     humanity.

  The American people overwhelmingly disagree with the President, and 
they disagree with his decision. In fact, 83 percent of them oppose the 
pardons that he gave. That includes 70 percent who lean Republican in 
their voting.
  Despite this overwhelming opposition, the Justice Department has now 
broadened the scope of President Trump's pardons for January 6 rioters 
to include separate charges stemming from searches conducted during 
those investigations. I will describe a couple of them to you.
  Federal prosecutors recently dropped explosives and firearm crimes 
being pursued against two January 6 defendants pardoned by President 
Trump: Daniel Ball and Elias Costianes.
  Ball and Costianes had both been charged in separate proceedings with 
illegally possessing weapons that law enforcement discovered during the 
January 6-related search.
  Ball had been accused of throwing an ``explosive device that 
detonated upon at least 25 officers'' during the Capitol riot and of 
``forcefully'' shoving police who were trying to protect the Capitol.
  Ball was barred from possessing firearms because of his prior 
criminal

[[Page S1382]]

record. Listen to this prior criminal record of a man who was pardoned 
by Donald Trump: Before January 6, Ball was convicted of domestic 
violence battery by strangulation, resisting law enforcement with 
violence, and battery on a law enforcement officer.
  President Trump says that poor man was assaulted by the police. Does 
it sound like it? Remember, President Trump told us Ball and his fellow 
rioters were the actual victims. No wonder so many of the January 6 
perpetrators have shown a stunning lack of remorse.
  Just last Friday, just a few days ago, a number of these pardoned 
individuals decided to hold their own press conference outside the U.S. 
Capitol to announce their intent to sue the Justice Department for 
prosecuting them for this--dangerous individuals, including former 
Proud Boy leader Enrique Tarrio, who had been serving a 22-year 
sentence for seditious conspiracy before the Trump pardon; Proud Boy 
Ethan Nordean, who had been serving an 18-year sentence; Dominic 
Pezzola, the first rioter to breach the building on January 6, who was 
serving a 10-year sentence for stealing a police riot shield and using 
it to break a window. I will bet you saw that video. I did.
  The group paraded through the Capitol after the press conference, 
following the same route they took on January 6, 2021. They posed for 
photos, chanting as they did that day:

       Whose house? Our house.

  After the press conference, Mr. Tarrio was even arrested again 
outside the Capitol for assaulting a female counterprotester.
  Tarrio also posted video of himself stalking Michael Fanone and Harry 
Dunn, former police officers who had defended the Capitol on January 6. 
Tarrio was following them through the lobby of a hotel where the 
officers were attending a conference. While Tarrio followed them, he 
was calling out at them that they were ``cowards'' and telling them to 
``keep walking.''
  Does this sound like a man ashamed of his actions on January 6 and 
full of remorse? Does this sound like an innocent victim of assault? 
No. This sounds like a man who now thinks he is above the law with his 
Trump pardon and expects to be bailed out by President Trump for every 
crime he decides to commit.
  In another horrifying turn, the same hotel that I discussed earlier 
where these rioters were stalking policemen had to be evacuated after 
someone claiming to be MAGA emailed a threat about four bombs--two in 
the hotel and one in Officer Fanone's mother's mailbox. After listing 
the names of several of the conference attendees and singling out 
Officer Fanone, the email said they ``all deserve to die.''
  These are men and women in police forces who risked their lives for 
Members of the Senate and the House of Representatives on January 6.
  The perpetrator of this tweet claimed to be acting ``to honor the 
[January] 6 hostages recently released by Emperor Trump''--his words.
  These are just last week's updates on the January 6 rioters President 
Trump pardoned. The list of crimes committed by these thugs just keeps 
growing longer and longer.
  We must be clear that these individuals are a threat, and the more 
power and freedom they are given, the more danger they pose to our 
democracy and the law enforcement officers and families of those 
officers that they are harassing.
  Just this month, dozens of January 6 offenders joined forces on 
social media to compile and publicize the identities of at least 124 
individuals who had been involved in their convictions, including 
prosecutors, judges, and FBI agents. The post, which has received at 
least 60,000 views, included names, photos, disparaging remarks, and 
demands for accountability.
  In January, another pardoned January 6 defendant who pleaded guilty 
to assaulting police officers, Ryan Nichols, Sr., identified in a 
Twitter post ``officers in the DC Jail who need to be investigated for 
corruption and abuse,'' adding the names and LinkedIn profile photos of 
two DC jail employees.
  This is stalking and harassment of law enforcement men and women who 
were assigned to this Capitol to protect us. The men and women who 
bravely defended the Members of this body deserve better than this, and 
we should honor them for their heroic efforts on that day, not excuse 
the rioters who attacked this Chamber and the ideals it represents. 
Government employees should not fear for their safety or that of their 
families for simply doing their job.
  I hope that all of us, regardless of our political persuasion, will 
finally agree on one thing: Violence has no place in a democracy, and 
Donald Trump's pardon of these 1,600 January 6 attackers is not only an 
insult to the Capitol Police who risked their lives to stop them but 
has emboldened these convicts to harass these officers and their 
families.
  The question for the Senate is simple: Whose side are you on--the 
police or the rioters'?
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Arizona.


                              S.J. Res. 10

  Mr. KELLY. Mr. President, I want to state the obvious: The United 
States has real energy needs. We have to produce enough reliable energy 
to make utility bills affordable for families and to bring online the 
advanced manufacturing and data centers that are powering our economy 
and will power our economy into the future.
  We are seeing this in Arizona. The demand for energy keeps going up. 
It is going up rather quickly.
  Now, here is the good news: The United States is producing more 
energy than ever before.
  We are using everything at our disposal. We are finally bringing the 
manufacturing of solar panels and batteries and wind turbines back to 
America. Now, that creates great-paying jobs across the country, jobs 
that you can actually raise a family on, jobs that are in places like 
Arizona and Oklahoma, Colorado and Texas. We are investing to develop 
new technologies to produce even more energy.
  Now, for years, my colleagues on the other side of the aisle have 
raised very legitimate concerns about the need to reform our permitting 
processes to cut redtape and unleash American manufacturing.
  Well, Mr. President, here is the bad news: President Trump is now 
throwing redtape around our energy production, which will raise utility 
bills and send American manufacturing back overseas. One of his first 
actions as President--one of the first things he did--was to block 
approvals of new wind projects on Federal land and then freeze loans 
and freeze grants for clean energy projects. He is making permitting 
harder or impossible. That is the opposite of what my Republican 
colleagues--your colleagues--wanted done.
  Now, he also wants to change the definition of energy to only include 
fossil fuels.
  Mr. President, it is 2025. We all need to live in the real world. 
More than 90 percent--get this: 90 percent--of new energy production 
connected to the grid last year was renewable energy. And it takes 3 or 
4 years just to build a natural gas powerplant.
  There is no good reason to block wind projects, to block solar 
projects that, by the way, are already underway to bring more energy to 
American homes and businesses.
  President Trump, what he is doing is he is trying to pick winners and 
losers. When it comes to energy, he wants to decide, and the winners 
are fossil fuel companies and China. And the losers, Mr. President--the 
losers--that is everybody else. That is you. That is your family. That 
is your business.
  And families especially--families--are going to face higher utility 
bills. And manufacturers, they are going to lose the support that they 
were relying on. And workers are just going to see their jobs go back 
overseas.
  You think China doesn't want to make more of this stuff and sell it 
to us? Of course, they do. They will be happy to do that, and we will 
pay the price. They would love to see President Trump drive clean 
energy manufacturers that are in America out of business.
  China would want us to cancel our manufacturing plants and cancel 
these energy projects. We should not let this happen.
  We have got an opportunity this week to turn this around. So I am 
going to be voting for Senator Kaine and Senator Heinrich's effort so 
that we can focus on our energy future.
  Now, fortunately, there is so much that we agree on: the need to 
modernize our power grid, to bring manufacturing back to America, to 
create

[[Page S1383]]

jobs and reduce our reliance on imports, and to develop the energy 
technologies of the future right here in the United States of America, 
not in another country, not in China. And all of this supports American 
jobs, and, at the same time, it keeps utility bills low for American 
families.
  Now, some of it will require us to cut some redtape and make things 
more predictable and efficient for utilities and for energy producers. 
Me and many of my colleagues, we have shown that we are willing to work 
on these reforms on a bipartisan basis. So let's do it.
  And Mr. President--not you, but the President of the United States--
let's reverse the shortsighted targeted attacks on our energy supply. 
If we do that, I know that we can work together and continue to expand 
the amount of energy this country has at its disposal and bring down 
the prices for American families and American businesses.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Schmitt). The Senator from Colorado.

                          ____________________