Energy and Climate Ripe for Bipartisan Cooperation
Floor Speech
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Mr. PETERS. Mr. Speaker, energy security and climate action are ripe for bipartisan cooperation in this Congress. Unfortunately, H.R. 1 is a partisan grab bag that fails to meet the challenge before us and reverses our climate progress in many cases.
H.R. 1 would eliminate the methane emissions reduction program, the greenhouse gas reduction fund, and energy efficiency and electrification incentives that reduce energy demand and costs for Americans, all vital components of the Inflation Reduction Act.
Last week, climate scientists issued their starkest warning yet that the world must cut emissions by 60 percent by 2035 to limit the planet's rise in temperature to 1.5 degrees Celsius. We don't have time to waste refighting the battles of last year.
Some of my colleagues on the other side of the aisle have said they don't want a bill that favors one type of energy over the other. The problem is that their bill, H.R. 1, explicitly favors fossil fuels. It ramps up oil and gas leasing and exploration over the clean, affordable fuels and technologies of the future.
Right now, pipelines that carry fossil fuels are already expedited and given regulatory exemptions, while transmission lines, which transmit electricity long distances from all energy sources, don't get the same preferential treatment. The current system favors fossil fuels, risking our energy and climate security.
Look, it is not all bad. There are pieces of H.R. 1 that I believe we can work together on--a better process for determining the level of review to apply to a project, reusing existing data instead of reinventing the wheel at each step, and creating presumptive timelines for reviews so that projects are not indefinitely stalled. I am more than willing to admit that NEPA, a law from 1970, can be updated to meet today's challenges. In fact, clean energy permit reform is required to meet our climate goals, but this proposal fails to match the scale of our climate challenge.
The current power grid took 150 years to build. To get to net-zero emissions by 2050, we have to triple its size in the next 30 years.
According to Americans for a Clean Energy Grid, North America has built just 7 gigawatts of interregional transmission since 2014, less than half of that in the United States, so let's say 4. South America has built 22, Europe 44, and China 260 gigawatts of interregional transmission.
We currently have enough wind, solar, and storage projects in the pipeline to power nearly 85 percent of our economy, but 80 percent of those projects could be canceled due to insufficient transmission.
This decade, we will need to deploy solar and wind at five to six times our historical record pace. We need to be laser-focused on making it easier, not harder, to build clean energy because all the money in the world can't solve the climate crisis if we leave it in the bank or don't move fast enough.
Our country prides itself on accomplishing big things together, whether it is winning a world war, constructing an interstate highway, or discovering the next big medical breakthrough. During World War II, San Diego war factories built a bomber an hour to help combat fascism and support our Allies. During COVID-19, we developed a vaccine in less than 2 years when 10 to 15 years is the norm. Today, we are debating whether a decade is an appropriate amount of time to construct one single transmission line, an offshore wind facility, or a geothermal plant.
With a climate crisis that requires us to move at scale and speed orders of magnitude greater than ever before, we can't be bogged down in reviews and litigation before we even begin to build a given project.
We can fix our judicial review processes to protect vulnerable communities while preventing wealthy NIMBYs, corporations, and bad actors from blocking essential clean energy projects, which is what is happening right now.
We can reduce the level of review for climate projects on non- sensitive land while ensuring that polluting projects remain heavily scrutinized.
What we can't do is simply stand by and accept the status quo that is bogging down clean-energy projects that will combat extreme weather and climate catastrophes that threaten vulnerable communities, endangered species, and stable economies.
Mr. Speaker, I am ready for us to get to this vote on a bill that has no chance of becoming law to get it out of the way so that both sides can come together to work on a bipartisan solution. I invite any of my colleagues to come to me and to talk to Chairman Westerman, who has been working with me on that kind of bipartisan solution. The future of our planet depends on it. We have no time to waste. Welcoming Joe Garcia and Michael Morasco
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Mr. PETERS. Mr. Speaker, I acknowledge and welcome Joe Garcia and Michael Morasco, members of the Escondido City Council, to Washington, D.C. It is my great honor to now represent that wonderful city in Congress. I look forward to working with them.
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