Paris Accords Were Flawed

Floor Speech

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Mrs. MILLER. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to speak in opposition to H.R. 9, the Climate Action Now Act.

I represent West Virginia, an energy State. Our natural resources power the Nation, and our coal produces the steel that is the backbone of our country's infrastructure. The bill my colleagues across the aisle have introduced today is a direct threat to the economy of my State and to the security of our Nation.

When President Obama entered into the Paris Agreement in 2016, he made a shortsighted, hasty decision which passed egregious costs on to American consumers and sent $1 billion in taxpayer funds to subsidize other nations' energy agendas without congressional authorization-- while never offering a clear plan for our country to meet the commitments made, aside from the overall goal of killing energy production in the U.S.

This is an attempt to further the war on coal which decimated my State, killing jobs, destroying businesses, and exacerbating the opioid epidemic. We face a bleakness which we are starting to recover from, yet, now, Washington liberals are restarting the charge.

We have seen unrealistic proposals like the Green New Deal put forward which would not only bankrupt our country, but also kill our energy industry once and for all. I will not stand here and let that happen.

When President Trump withdrew from the agreement in 2017, he showed leadership. He showed the world that he was willing to resist diplomatic pressure in order to protect American interests and ensure energy competitiveness.

Those who support this legislation aren't telling the whole story on America's energy production. The Paris Agreement, since its creation, has not accounted for the United States' abundance of natural resources and the hundreds of thousands of Americans employed by the energy industry.

Additionally, the Paris Agreement ignores that America produces affordable, reliable energy, including coal, oil, and natural gas, and it also ignores the importance that energy has to the United States' economy and national security.

In the past 5 years, there has been a 110 percent increase in coal exports, and we still have 259 billion tons of coal reserves, the largest in the world.

Since 2008, the U.S. has increased crude oil production by 48 percent and natural gas production by 53 percent; and looking forward, the increased access to undeveloped energy production could create as many as 690,000 jobs by 2030.

Energy has been our past, and energy is our future. It is important the United States is already leading the world in reducing greenhouse emissions through innovation and technological development. If my colleagues across the aisle were interested in working with Republicans to address climate change, then they would not ignore the fact that the United States has already had the largest absolute decline of carbon emissions among all the countries since the year 2000.

We did not need an international agreement to do it. Forcing America to reenter the Paris Agreement is not the answer for climate concerns. It is restarting a tried-and-failed approach which only leads to less jobs, a weaker economy, and a less safe America.

The answer to the climate debate is not a $93 trillion socialist restructuring of our country. It is innovation, and it is supporting new technology like taking rare-earth minerals and distilled water from previously used coal ash. It is supporting carbon capture moving forward. It is recognizing that, in the dead of winter when the renewable energy grids fall short, we can rely on coal to get us through the next polar vortex.

America cannot afford to reenter the Paris Agreement. We cannot afford to lose jobs. We cannot afford to lose security. We cannot afford the security risks. We cannot afford to weaken our economy. And we cannot afford to say ``no'' to innovation.

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