Thank you for yielding, Congressman Terry. I rise today in support of American energy and the families that it supports. Mr. Speaker, American families are struggling. Many are living paycheck to paycheck as the price of everything…
Thank you for yielding, Congressman Terry.
I rise today in support of American energy and the families that it supports.
Mr. Speaker, American families are struggling. Many are living paycheck to paycheck as the price of everything continues to rise: a gallon of gas, a gallon of milk, electrical costs. And do you know who the rising electrical costs will affect the most? American's seniors on a fixed income and the poor.
Here in the House we have solutions, like investing and expanding American energy production. It creates jobs on which families can depend and lowers costs at home and for businesses.
Mr. Speaker, my father was a United Mine Worker in Illinois for over 30 years. It was hard work, but it was a good-paying job and provided for our family, and we are proud of the work my dad did. It afforded me the opportunity to pursue an education and become the first person in my family to receive a 4-year college degree. I went on to medical school and became a surgeon. His job as a coal miner made the American Dream possible for me. This is what America is about.
In my home State of Indiana, over 80 percent of our electricity comes from coal. My district is home to nine coal mines, every mine in the State, and they employ thousands of Hoosiers. Next door, in southern Illinois, more coal mines, which employ Hoosiers. Coal not only keeps the lights on in Indiana, but it puts food on the table for Hoosier families.
I have been to several coal mines recently, went down in the coal mine--because I like going down in coal mines since I did it when I was a kid--and talked to the hardworking men and women who every day are working these jobs. And I keep hearing the same thing, Mr. Speaker: Washington regulations are crushing our business and I am afraid for my job, what that may mean to my family.
The fact is that coal is being mined cleaner and safer than it ever has. Despite what this administration would have you believe, the coal industry has made great strides in protecting our environment while providing low energy costs for their consumers.
But every time they invest their own money to improve their mines, this administration moves the goalpost. They do this without consideration of how many jobs they are eliminating in southwest Indiana and other coal-producing States. How this impact on the energy prices consumers pay has an effect on Indiana's families.
In my district, two coal-fired power plants are closing because of this administration's energy policies.
It is not just coal jobs that are being threatened. Indiana's manufacturing jobs are beginning to feel the impact of these harmful energy regulations. You see, manufacturing makes up around 28 percent of our gross State product. We are a huge manufacturing State; in fact, the highest percentage of gross State product in the country.
Indiana also leads the Nation in manufacturing employment, and low- cost energy is part of the reason.
But the plants in my district are telling me they may not be able to survive when Washington continues to squeeze them more and more. How can Alcoa, with 3,000 jobs, stay open in my district if their energy costs double or triple?
We can bring more manufacturing to the United States, Mr. Speaker, more jobs--which is what this is about--if we just get Washington, D.C., out of the way of American businesses.
Yesterday, in a committee hearing, I asked the EPA to visit my district and, for that matter, other coal-producing States, to hear our story and listen to what my constituents have to say. While we wait for their response, the House is working.
I am proud to have supported H.R. 2, the American Energy Solutions for Lower Costs and More American Jobs Act. This comprehensive package that has already been outlined by Congressman Terry included the best energy ideas that the House has produced this Congress. The most important piece of this legislation is it will ensure every American access to affordable, reliable energy.
This legislation approves the Keystone pipeline, the most studied pipeline in history, which even the President's own State Department has determined will not negatively impact the environment.
This project is critical to our future generations to address their future energy needs, but, unfortunately, this administration has been blocking his project for years for politics. While they turn their back on our Nation's energy needs, they have been implementing new regulations that have been costing our Nation billions of dollars. It just doesn't make sense.
Part of H.R. 2 includes Representative Bill Cassidy's Energy Consumers Relief Act, which ensures congressional oversight of energy- related rules costing more than $1 billion.
This commonsense bill will allow Congress to have oversight of some of those billion dollar regulations that are crushing American consumers across the Nation and that probably won't meet our standards once they are looked at by Congress. They are just costing too much, with no benefit other than an ideological approach for the administration. We need to get back to science and common sense.
H.R. 2 also included legislation that helps speed up the permitting process on Federal lands, protects our Nation's electrical grid, and protects coal mining jobs.
Most of these bills had already passed the House and are sitting over in the Senate waiting for action. They are waiting for a vote. In fact, they are waiting for a hearing, waiting for a debate amongst our Senators about the energy solutions the House has passed.
I understand that the Senate at this point--or at least one party in the Senate--may not agree with these ideas, but let's have a discussion about it. Let's hear your ideas in the Senate to lower our Nation's energy costs. The House has spoken. This is what our constituents expect of us, Mr. Speaker, an honest, vigorous debate about the issues facing our Nation.
Doing nothing is not an energy policy, and it is no way to legislate.
I hope our friends across the Capitol and the President are watching and learning from the House's example.
Mr. Speaker, finally, in closing, I want to say we need to tap our energy resources. We are on the verge of an energy renaissance in the United States, a manufacturing renaissance. What does this mean? Low- cost energy, American jobs, putting families back to work. And that is what we all want, that is why we are here, that is why we ran for office, Mr. Speaker, to help people. It provides for lower costs. We are doing it in a cleaner way than we ever have.
Mr. Speaker, let's not look right in the face of success in creating jobs and look the other way.
I am hopeful that the Senate will take up some of the House-passed bills, including this one, before the end of the year. If not, Mr. Speaker, the next Congress in this House will act again to show the American people we want lower costs for their energy, we want good- paying jobs, we want manufacturing in America, and we will act again and, hopefully, the Senate in the next Congress can see it to where they will step forward and act.