Securing Growth and Robust Leadership in American Aviation Act--

Floor Speech

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Mrs. CAPITO. Madam President, well, here we go again. The Environmental Protection Agency is back with a barrage of rules and regulations to accomplish two main goals: kill coal and natural gas once and for all, and in doing so, appease the climate activists who the President feels he needs to keep happy in an election year.

So what just happened? Well, in the last 2 weeks, the Biden EPA finalized a slate of four policies as part of their latest--and punishing--climate crusade.

The first is the Clean Power Plan 2.0 that will eliminate coal power generation and block new natural gas plants from coming online in the future.

The second is the updated Mercury and Air Toxics Standards rule that is designed to put coal plants out West out of business by saddling them with unrealistic emissions requirements.

The third is the Coal Combustion Residuals Rule.

And the fourth is the Effluent Limitations Guidelines, sounds pretty technical, for coal plants which both impose unattainable requirements for disposing and discharging waste at these plants.

The ELGs will orphan millions in investments made just in the last 4 years. So our plants have readjusted to make sure they are following, and now they come back 4 years later and say, that $300 million? No good anymore; you have to spend another $340 million.

Again, this administration isn't being shy about what the desired end game is here.

These rules are meant to put coal and natural gas employees out of work. Now, let me tell you, the energy mix in this country now with coal and natural gas is 60 percent of our energy comes from the two of those combined. And the goal here is to shutter these baseload power plants once and for all.

But as I alluded to earlier, they have tried this before. We all remember when the Obama administration attempted to implement a similar, overreaching set of mandates, and the Supreme Court remembers that as well. They turned it down.

So why try again? Why get rejected by the highest Court in the land and then come back with the same playbook? Well, it, sadly, comes back to two of the overall--the same two overall goals: close down reliable American power plants, and try to prop up disappointing poll numbers.

The administration doesn't seem to care whether these regulations are struck down in the end. They are betting that by threatening the electricity sector with rule after rule, investment will be forced away from reliable, baseload power towards the energy sources of their choices, which, by the way, cannot produce the energy that is needed.

Beyond these four rules recently announced, the EPA has rolled out an electric vehicles mandate, an air rule meant to halt manufacturing projects, and a Federal plan that has already suffered legal blows in court because it dictates to States how to address their own unique environmental concerns.

Much of the regulations in the environment space--and we all want clean air and clean water--are left to the discretion of the States with oversight by the Federal.

But the EPA's broader strategy that costs hundreds of billions of dollars and purposefully violates legal constraints set by the Supreme Court is creating a massive problem that every member of the Biden administration just can't seem to see, or perhaps it is one that they choose to ignore.

All of President Biden's environmental regulations impacting everything from power plants to the kind of cars that we drive are working against each other and putting us on a path to an energy crisis.

They are driving up demand for electricity, so think electric vehicles, AI, higher manufacturing, more, more, more demand for energy, straining a grid that even the administration projects will see explosive demand in the coming years. We have seen instances where it has been too stressed, and it has had to pull back, while simultaneously cutting off the electricity supply from our baseload power needed to sustain that grid--more demand, less supply. It is kind of like a parent telling their child that they have to practice for hours and hours every day to make the high school baseball team, but in the same breath telling that same child: Well, you know what? I am going to take your bag, your bag of balls, your glove, and your bat, and I am going to put them in the garage. So good luck. So go get them.

The Biden administration and many on the left desperately need a reality check, and here it is: The inconvenient truth is that coal and natural gas are the backbone of America's current electric grid. I mentioned that earlier, 60 percent.

Many, many people know that I am a huge advocate for nuclear energy and hoping to get a bill passed to really spur the development of small modular nuclear and the advanced nuclear production because we want to see it grow to help with this baseload energy demand that we are going to see. I want energy sources of all kinds to continue playing an increased role, including renewables--wind and solar--in our energy mix, and I believe that with innovation and time, this absolutely will happen.

But, as I said, the reality is roughly 60 percent of electric generation in the United States comes from the two sources of power that the Biden administration is trying to close forever. Not only do these attacks on coal- and gas-fired powerplants make no sense, they pose serious threat to our grid reliability. That means: Is our grid going to be able to sustain the great energy appetite that we have?

And experts have sounded the alarm. Public utilities commissioners, nonpartisan grid operators from Blue States and Red States, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission--better known as FERC--and the nonprofit North American Electric Reliability Corporation all shouted from the rooftops about the ways the Biden administration's proposed Clean Power Plan 2.0 and other rules would jeopardize the reliability of our electric grid. It would ``undermine reliability''; ``materially and adversely impact electric reliability''; ``potentially catastrophic reliability problems.''

These are just a few of the warning signs that we heard about when the EPA brought their plan forward.

The finalized rules announced by the EPA largely brushed aside these concerns. This is what gets me. They ask you for comments and concerns, and then they never listen to the comments or concerns. They brushed aside these concerns and pressed ahead to close down major sources of baseload power with no plan to replace it.

So let's take a step back and look at these rules and regulations from the outside. The results of the EPA's latest action means--what will happen? Americans will lose their jobs, and certainly in my State of West Virginia that will occur. American families and small businesses will pay more for their electricity at a time when Bidenomics is already causing inflation. Just go to the grocery store. Every time we go, we see it.

America's entire grid will be in jeopardy, our electric grid will be in jeopardy. And with an inexplicable ban on new natural gas exports still in place, America's allies will have to go to Russia and Iran and ask for extra help.

It is plain to see that the President's entire energy and environmental strategy actually hurts America and helps our adversaries. So as the Biden administration attempts to put the final nail in the coffin of America's baseload power sources, remember their objectives. To them, it is about accomplishing a decades-long goal of closing down coal and gas plants and hoping it is enough to get over the finish line in an election year. They have shown they have no regard for the opinions of our Supreme Court, no regard for the workers in West Virginia, and no regard for the truth about what happens when you undermine our Nation's electric grid.

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