Repealing of Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund

Floor Speech

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Mr. DUNCAN. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman from Washington, our chairwoman of the full Energy and Commerce Committee, for yielding time.

Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of H.R. 1023, the Cutting Green Corruption and Taxes Act. By repealing the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund, H.R. 1023 protects taxpayers from waste, fraud, and abuse.

This bill would repeal and rescind the $27 billion Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund, commonly referred to as EPA's green bank, which was originally enacted in the Inflation Reduction Act. This is nearly three times the amount of funding EPA received in their 2023 budget.

It is completely outside the scope of the EPA's mission, and they don't have the capacity nor the expertise to manage a $27 billion climate bank. They are not a financial institution. Even worse, they are funding projects that benefit China. Solar panels, EVs, and wind turbines all have supply chains tied to the Chinese Communist Party.

In addition to repealing the green bank, this bill would also repeal the natural gas tax. This tax is especially troubling for small and independent oil and gas producers that will not be able to afford to maintain their operations. This tax comes in addition to a suite of methane regulations that creates a structure unworkable for small and midsize companies.

There are about 9,000 independent oil and gas producers in the United States. For the gentlewoman from Michigan who just spoke, 75 percent of them will go out of business in the State of Michigan if the methane tax stays in effect. These companies are not Big Oil. On average, they employ just 12 people.

The methane regulations included in this natural gas tax would crush these producers, but that is the goal, isn't it, of the Biden administration and the left, to end U.S. oil and gas production and to use taxpayer money to prop up their climate special interests.

In fact, we said yesterday President Biden got on an airplane, Air Force One, and flew to Saudi Arabia to beg the Saudis and OPEC to increase their fossil fuel production while at the same time killing U.S. fossil fuel production. It is not that they don't like fossil fuels because he went to Saudi Arabia to beg for more. He just doesn't like fossil fuels produced in this country.

Mr. Speaker, we have to stop the madness and increase American energy independence.

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Mr. DUNCAN. Mr. Speaker, we are showing how misguided this $27 billion green bank is, and the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Joyce) knows about fossil fuel production and what this would mean to the great State of Pennsylvania that produces a lot of energy.
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Mr. DUNCAN. Madam Speaker, we pointed out yesterday that Americans are paying more for transportation fuels than they were just a few short years ago before the Biden administration started this war on energy. They are paying higher utility bills because green energy projects are costing more and driving up utility rates.

If anybody watched the debate that the gentlewoman from Florida mentioned a minute ago, which occurred in our committee this week, they will see that we need to build out a pipeline infrastructure to deliver resources, produce American resources, deliver those resources, utilize those resources, and export. There is energy poverty in the world; not just in the United States, but globally. We can help with that by exporting more U.S.-produced, cleaner burning natural gas.

Georgia has been leading on this issue and here is another Representative from Georgia to talk about it.

Madam Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Carter).

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Mr. DUNCAN. Madam Speaker, this $27 billion green bank will benefit China, so it seems like the Biden administration and the House Democrats support China over the American people.

Madam Speaker, I yield such time as he may consume to the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Pfluger). He is somebody that knows energy being that he is from the Permian Basin.

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Mr. DUNCAN. Madam Speaker, I have no additional speakers, and I am prepared to close.

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Mr. DUNCAN. Madam Speaker, I yield myself the balance of my time to close.

I was just informed by staff that I have 10 minutes left on this debate. I promise you, I am not going to take that, but I could because this issue is important to the American people.

The border issue is number one across the country because we are being invaded across our southern border, and it is not secure.

The second biggest issue the American people are interested in are their utility bills and the price at the pump, what it costs them to fill up their tank to take their kids to school, to go to work, to earn the money that is taxed by this government and spent recklessly by this government.

We see $27 billion given to an EPA that doesn't have the mechanisms set up to be a bank, to do grants, to do these type of funding mechanisms. We pointed that out this week during energy week. We have talked about energy since we got here Tuesday, but I promise you, this isn't the end. We are going to continue to talk about American energy because it is time for America to become energy dominant once again, to be a net exporter of oil and to increase our LNG exports.

We see this war by the Biden administration on American energy. He doesn't mind fossil fuels because he went and begged the Saudis to produce more to help lower the price because it is an election year. He has drained the SPR, the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, to the lowest level since 1980. The SPR is set up to handle national emergencies-- times of war and times of other climatic events that happen to help the American people. However, he drew it down for political purposes to lower the price at the pump because it was an election year, and we haven't refilled it.

All these issues that were brought out this week during energy week have been important to the American people. The Republicans have pointed out that a lot of this $27 billion is going to end up in the Chinese Communist Party because they will be the beneficiary, just like Vladimir Putin is the beneficiary of lowering American energy production. He hasn't stopped. He is selling energy all over the world to help fund his war in Ukraine.

Money that is going into the pockets of the oligarchs in Russia is funding the invasion and the battle that is going on in Ukraine right now. We could stop that. We ran the Germans out of oil during the Battle of the Bulge. It helped us win World War II. It was an energy issue then. It is an energy now. We could take the money away from Vladimir Putin and his ability to keep funding the war in Ukraine.

However, today this bill talks about the EPA and their green bank and that slush fund that only caters to the radical environmentalists on the left. We are talking about the methane tax that is going to hurt producers across this Nation. It is going to drive energy prices up.

Madam Speaker, I urge my colleagues to support Gary Palmer's bill that we are debating today. It has been a heck of an energy week, and I am glad that the United States Congress is finally focusing on American energy producers to be energy dominant, energy secure once again.

I urge my colleagues to support this bill, stop this green bank, end the methane tax, and help make America be stronger once again. Yes, we passed this bill or versions like it two or three times. We can pass it 10 more times, get the United States Senate to actually wake up and do their dadgum job and start taking up bills that the House passes in order to help make America stronger, to lead once again in the realm of American energy because energy is the foundation of everything. The American people know it. I am glad the United States House of Representatives, at least on our side of the aisle, understands that, as well.

Madam Speaker, I urge my colleagues to support this bill, and I yield back the balance of my time.

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