[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 160 (2014), Part 5]
[Senate]
[Pages 6774-6775]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                                 ENERGY

  Mr. McCONNELL. Madam President, all year I have been coming to the 
floor to urge Senate Democrats to work with us to help the middle 
class. So far they haven't seemed too serious about it. We saw that 
last week when they insisted on pushing legislation that could cost--
not create but cost--up to 1 million jobs. Seventeen thousand of those 
jobs would be lost in Kentucky alone.
  I am hoping Senate Democrats are finally willing to turn the page. I 
am hoping they are finally willing to get serious about helping the 
middle class, because if they are, here is the energy debate we should 
be having right here this week: We should be having a debate about how 
to develop policies that can actually lead to lower utility bills for 
squeezed families, policies that can put people back to work in 
America's coal country, policies that can help the kind of well-paying 
jobs our constituents want and deserve, and policies that can lead to a 
more effective use of North American energy supplies, that can help 
stabilize the world at a time when energy has become a weapon of states 
that do not hold our interests at heart.
  Middle-class Americans struggle every day just to make ends meet. For 
many, the rising cost of energy is a big part of that. The price of 
electricity has been rising over the last decade, jumping by double 
digits in many States, and that is even after adjusting for inflation.
  So it is unacceptable that it has been 7 years since we have had a 
real debate about energy jobs, energy independence, and energy security 
in the Democratically led Senate.
  Republicans have a lot of good ideas about ways to help alleviate 
pressure on the middle class, and we have good ideas about how to 
create new opportunities through the use of our country's abundant 
energy supplies. I am sure our Democratic friends have some good ideas, 
too, and we would all love to hear them because these days we haven't 
heard a lot of serious energy talk from our friends on the other side.
  We haven't heard many concrete Democratic proposals that would 
effectively alleviate the real concerns and anxieties and stresses that 
my constituents and theirs deal with on an everyday basis. That is what 
we would like to hear from them this week, and that is what the 
American people deserve to hear.
  We know Washington Democrats tried and failed to push a national 
energy tax--cap and trade--through Congress back when they had complete 
control of Washington. We know President Obama hasn't given up on that 
idea, even after the people's representatives refused to go along with 
it--in a Congress that was controlled entirely by his party.
  That is why we see the Obama administration trying to do an end run 
around Congress to get what it wants: to impose through the bureaucracy 
massive new regulations that would make things even harder for already 
squeezed middle-class families.
  So what Republicans are saying is this: Our constituents deserve a 
voice in what Washington Democrats are planning to do up because they 
are the ones whose lives and livelihoods will be most affected by these 
decisions, and through legislation this very week our constituents 
should be able to weigh in on these kinds of Democratic plans.
  For instance, my constituents in Kentucky should be able to weigh in 
on an EPA rule that would negatively impact existing and future coal 
plants. Kentuckians deserve a say on ongoing regulatory efforts to tie 
up mining permits and the redtape that is stifling the creation of good 
jobs in the coal industry and coal country.

[[Page 6775]]

  The American people deserve a debate on how we can best tap our own 
extraordinary natural resources to achieve energy independence here at 
home and how we can help our allies overseas through increased exports 
of American energy too.
  These are what we should be voting on this very week--serious energy 
policy proposals that can jolt our economy, boost middle-class incomes 
and jobs, and improve America's energy security in the world.
  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. MURPHY. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the order 
for the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.

                          ____________________