Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer told House Republicans that their gift to big oil energy bill is dead on arrival.
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Majority Leader Schumer said on the Senate floor:
Today, House Republicans are rolling out a partisan, dead-on-arrival, and unserious proposal for addressing America’s energy needs that they have laughably labeled H.R 1. It is a non-starter in the Senate.
Republicans’ so-called energy proposal is as bad and as partisan as it gets. H.R. 1 will lock America into the most expensive and volatile dirty sources of energy, and will set America back a decade or more in our transition towards clean, affordable energy.
Even a brief glance at the House GOP proposal is enough to show it’s not a serious package.
This package is a wish list for Big Oil, gutting important environmental safeguards on fossil fuel projects, while doing none of the important permitting reforms that would help bring transmission and clean energy projects online faster.
Considering America’s serious energy challenges—and not to mention the disruptions caused by the War in Ukraine—it is bewildering to see House Republicans waste time on a Big Oil wish list instead of taking our energy needs seriously and ignoring clean energy as they do.
Thankfully, many Democrats and Republicans understand that the only way we will pass a genuine energy package this Congress is through bipartisan cooperation. I’m glad that there are good faith talks under way right now between both parties in both houses to figure out what sort of permitting deal is possible.
I strongly support these efforts, because Americans should not have to go broke just to meet their daily energy needs. We should work on a comprehensive, bipartisan permitting package that can secure enough votes to pass the Congress and reach the President’s desk.
Any serious permitting package must also focus on the needs of the future: as America transitions to clean energy, we need to take steps in Congress to ease that transition and ensure clean energy is reliable, accessible, and most importantly, affordable.
That includes efforts to expedite the onshoring and construction of industries critical to our economic and national security, like work we did in CHIPS and Science. Permitting reform is an essential step towards laying the foundation for a clean energy future, and Republicans must work with Democrats on a package that meets this challenge if we’re going to get anything done.
What House Republicans have come up with in the meantime, is something that falls pathetically short.
It wouldn’t be surprising if HR 1 was written by oil lobbyists. It is that much of a wish list for the oil industry.
The premise of the bill is based on a lie. Increasing oil production does not lower energy costs for American consumers due to the fact that the oil belongs to the oil companies who are free to sell it wherever they want in the world.
The House bill would wreck the environment, jeopardize public lands, and has zero chance of ever becoming law.
House Republicans are trying to make clean energy disappear at the request of the oil industry overlords. Thanks to Democratic control of the Senate, this legislation is dead on arrival.
Jason is the managing editor. He is also a White House Press Pool and a Congressional correspondent for PoliticusUSA. Jason has a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science. His graduate work focused on public policy, with a specialization in social reform movements.
Awards and Professional Memberships
Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association