Congressman Keith Rothfus [PA-12] and Congressman Mike Kelly [PA-3] led a special order hour on the House floor Tuesday night to highlight the critical role affordable, reliable, and abundant sources of energy have played in improving the lives of the American people and billions around the globe. Congressman Rothfus emphasized the vital role of affordable energy plays in improving our quality of life and brought attention to the high human cost of the President's regulatory agenda. President Obama and other world leaders recently championed stringent energy regulations as well as generous climate change commitments at the COP-21 Summit in Paris. The Special Order participants also discussed the importance of following constitutional principles and ensuring that the President submit any agreement reached in Paris to the Senate for ratification as a treaty.
I wanted to take the opportunity this evening to take a different look at American produced energy.
As many of you know, one of my core convictions is the importance of upholding the dignity of human life.
Our task here in Washington should be to promote ideas and policies that allow people to live longer, healthier, and more rewarding lives.
It is in that spirit that I have joined with my fellow Pennsylvanian, Representative Kelly, and our like-minded colleagues to host tonight's special order.
Starting last week, world elites gathered in Paris to negotiate climate change commitments and promises that, if enacted, could undo generations of human progress -- progress that has provided us with the affordable and reliable energy necessary for humans to truly flourish.
I'm here tonight to tell another side of this story, one that abandons the dogma of scarcity put forward by elites in Paris and climate change zealots in Washington.
I want to shift this debate to focus on the remarkable story of human abundance. Affordable, reliable energy has been responsible for helping to improve and prolong the lives of billions of people around the world.
Energy powers our businesses; it keeps the lights on in our homes; it allows us to have fresh food and clean water; and it powers our schools and hospitals.
Energy is -- in many respects -- a life or death matter. It's a moral issue, and it deserves more careful consideration than it's given by the President.
As you can see, for much of human history, our lives were short, miserable, and lacking in fulfillment. Consider that, until the industrial revolution, people lived 27 years on-average, earned little money, and faced limited opportunities.
As people learned to access the bounty of energy available, we turned it to our advantage. As we got better at it, incomes and populations soared.
In China and India, both of which have industrialized over the last generation, life expectancy has increased by more than a decade. Infant mortality has plummeted by 70 and 58 percent respectively. And this is all correlated with increased energy use -- and the availability of affordable energy resources.
As Alex Epstein argues in the Moral Case for Fossil Fuels, "hundreds of millions of people [ ] have gotten their first lightbulb, their first refrigerator, their first decent-paying job " With all of our world's problems, affordable energy has helped make this the brightest, most abundant time in human history.
Some may disparage this story as one of unseemly consumption and excess. I see it as a tremendous triumph of human ingenuity and a victory for those of us who put human well-being as our top priority.
We can tell the same story about Western Pennsylvania, where we are once again witnessing increasing prosperity, attracted by affordable and reliable energy. This entails better opportunities for Pennsylvania's youth and a better quality of life.
That's why I'm so troubled by the President's actions at home and in Paris.
In negotiating a global compact, which will likely entail further restrictions on our access to energy, the President is unknowingly endangering our future well-being.
By not taking his plans to Congress for approval, as should be the case with a treaty, the President is ignoring the will of the American people.
This is not a trivial point. The American people will be denied the opportunity to weigh in on something that will drastically impact their daily lives. Remember, the President said when he was a candidate in 2008 that "electricity rates would necessarily skyrocket."
And all of this comes in addition to heavy burdens that the American people already have to grapple with.
Take the so-called Clean Power Plan as an example. By forcing more power plant closures and placing stricter requirements on those that remain, the President's plan will raise energy prices by $289 billion through 2030, hurting American families and businesses large and small.
Research suggests that we'll see 224,000 fewer American jobs being created each year because of this rule. We'll also see reduced disposable income and weaker economic growth.
And minority communities will be especially hard-hit. A study from the National Black Chamber of Commerce found that the Clean Power Plan would increase poverty among African-Americans by 23% and Hispanics by 26%.
This is unacceptable and it is immoral. Real people will be hurt by these actions, yet few in Washington seem to care about these real human costs.
That's why I've introduced a bill called the FAIR Burdens Act. This bill would prevent the President from endangering our prosperity and well-being until the EPA can verify that a sufficient number of countries have enacted similarly stringent policies.
In other words, the FAIR Burdens Act would ensure that Americans aren't made to needlessly suffer and that our jobs aren't forced overseas as the President unilaterally slows the American economy.
But we can't just rely on legislation -- we need to change the narrative and educate the public.
Affordable, reliable energy is a vital ingredient for human prosperity and well-being. Ignoring this fact -- and taking ill-conceived policy actions as a result -- condemns millions of Americans and billions around the world to dimmer futures, higher energy costs, and less prosperity.
We owe it to our constituents to defend their ability to live fulfilling, prosperous lives.