European Energy Security and Diversification Act of 2019

Floor Speech

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Mr. KEATING. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. Sires), the chair of the subcommittee dealing with the very important issue that we are dealing with now in the Western Hemisphere and Venezuela, and I associate myself with his remarks in that regard.

I thank the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Rooney), who has been a strong advocate of energy diversification and renewable energy on the Foreign Affairs Committee, for his support.

Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of H.R. 1616, which is a bill I introduced with the ranking member, Representative Kinzinger, as well as a bill I sponsored towards the last days of the last Congress with Senator Chris Murphy of Connecticut, showing bipartisan and bicameral support for this effort.

Mr. Speaker, we saw again last weekend with the summary of the Mueller report coming forward just underscoring, once again, the attack that was made on our country by Russia. There is no mistaking it now. There was little mistake, given our intelligence sources at the time.

This is not only a way that Russia is seeking, number one, to attack the democracies of our country, but also to strategically create a wedge with the greatest asset we have, something that they certainly do not have.

That asset is the coalition we have with our European allies. It is one of our greatest strengths, and it is unique to this historic coalition.

One of the ways Russia is continuing to break up this Western coalition and cause great damage, is not just the attacks like they had in the U.S. over their election and democracy, but also wielding energy as a weapon to break up this great coalition we have, hurt democracies in Europe--particularly Eastern Europe and here--undercutting our interest in sharing the values that we have with our greatest allies.

This is something in terms of the energy resources we can't take for granted. We know that this is a time when the U.S. is a great exporter of energy in this world, and it is something that will benefit our economy going forward but will also benefit the diversification of energy in Europe as well, something that will advance their economy, but something also that will give them great protection against this Russian threat.

We also know that it is not just the exporting of this energy that is going to be of value, but this bill also targets renewable energy development as well, and that is something that brings the European countries together with the U.S., and also, together, sets us at a greater stage to compete worldwide.

We can work together exchanging technological advances. We can work together as we share investments in each other's countries. This is something that will both help the U.S. economy as a major exporter, but also help our growth going forward. So, we need to work more closely. Specifically, this bill authorizes financing for private-sector investments both in energy security projects in the United States and likewise in the trade that will ensue in renewables.

Mr. Speaker, I want to thank the committee for taking such early action in this Congress. I think it states the priority nature of this, knowing that this is going to be something that enhances European security, our security, enhances our economy and theirs, and seeks to protect us. Because as they talk about projects like Nord Stream 2 in Germany, they are using right now that leverage to create a threat and to isolate countries like Ukraine from their basic energy economic development.

This is important in so many respects. I urge my colleagues on both sides of the aisle, showing the leadership of this bipartisan bill, to move it forward quickly.

I also want to recognize, again, Senator Murphy who has been such a leader of this on the Senate side. It is rare that we have such strong bipartisan support for a bill, as well as bicameral support. Let's go ahead and move this forward today.

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