Ricketts on the Senate Floor: Biden’s “Appeasement of the Far-Left Radical Environmentalists is Wrong”
May 10, 2024
WASHINGTON, D.C. – This week, in a speech on the Senate floor, U.S. Senator Pete Ricketts (R-NE) slammed the Biden administration’s anti-energy agenda. Ricketts cited the electric vehicle mandate and the “Clean Power Plan” as two examples of the president’s appeasement of radical environmentalist activists.
“Instead of supporting high-skill, high-wage jobs, this administration has prioritized the interests of coastal elites and radical environmentalists,” Ricketts said. “They would rather see fossil fuel plants closed and thousands of workers lose their jobs than stand up to these activists. This appeasement of the far-left radical environmentalist wing of the Democrat Party is wrong. It must stop. We must reverse course. We must have some common sense.”
“I’m here today to join my colleagues in standing up for American energy, for American workers, for our way of life,” Ricketts closed. “Together, we’re going to do all we can to overturn this anti-energy agenda through Congressional Review Act legislation and other means. We’re going to support an all-of-the-above energy strategy. We’re going to continue to fight to make sure our workers remain employed, our communities remain prosperous, and our nation remains energy independent.”
Watch the video HERE.
TRANSCRIPT:
“I rise today to join my colleagues in opposing the Biden administration’s anti-energy policies.
“From the EV mandate to the so-called “Clean Power Plan 2.0”, the Biden administration’s war on American energy threatens the livelihoods of millions of Americans and American families.
“Let’s start with the EPA’s delusional and reckless Electric Vehicle Mandate. It requires up to two-thirds of all cars and light trucks being sold in 2032 to be electric vehicles.
“It’s delusional because it will block low-income families from owning a car. Owning a car is pathway out of poverty for many Americans, including many people in my state. And Biden’s EV mandate will drive up the cost of those used vehicles.
“It’s delusional because the Biden administration has no plan for how we’re going to generate the power needed to be able to charge these cars, or the transmission lines needed to transmit the energy from where it’s being produced to where it’s going to be needed.
“It’s also delusional because an EV mandate will make us more dependent on the Chinese Communist Party who controls about 60-80% of all the critical minerals that are necessary to be able to make the batteries for EVs. And they’re leading us in this EV battery technology.
“This is how crazy stupid this administration is.
“They want to mandate EVs on the one hand, but they also want to attack any project that might allow us to be able to mine the minerals that we need to be able to create the batteries for EVs.
“For example, EVs can use up to four times the amount of copper that a regular car uses.
“At the same time though, the Biden administration has blocked a road that would go to the Ambler Mining District in Alaska. Ambler Mining District is one the places that we have a lot of copper. It’s a major copper deposit.
“We need this copper, yet the Biden administration is blocking us from being able get to it. It makes no sense.
“Another thing that makes no sense is an EV mandate that requires dramatically increasing our energy production and transmission on the one hand. And then on the other hand, the “Green Power Plan 2.0” which is going to attack our energy production.
“It’s a classic example of “Bureaucrats Gone Wild.”
“It forces coal or gas-electric plants to reduce up to 90% of their carbon emissions by the year 2039.
“First, the Clean Power Plan 2.0 is illegal. It explicitly is countering the Supreme Court’s decision in West Virginia v. EPA.
“Second, the rule will stifle our industry, not only in Nebraska, but nationwide.
“In Nebraska, 49% of our electricity comes from coal-fired plants. It’s the baseload generation that we have.
“Nebraska actually ranks pretty high when it comes to renewable energy, with over 31% of our energy coming from renewable energy. But we still need that baseload.
“Nebraska in 2022 also ranked third nationwide for the most amount of industrial electricity customers of any state. We just ranked behind Texas and California with regards to those industrial consumers of electricity.
“Fossil fuel plants generate about 60% of U.S. electricity nationwide, and coal contributes about 16.2% of all the electricity in this country.
“Under this rule, more than 78% of coal power plants would have to retire between the years of 2028 and 2040.
“And coal remains that primary source of electricity in 18 of our states.
“And currently, a quarter of the existing 200 plants are scheduled to retire within the next 5 years.
“We don’t have enough new plants coming on-line to be able to replace the power that is coming offline.
“This plan will close down the reliable and affordable fossil fuel plants and American consumers will end up paying the price.
“Again, for us in Nebraska, when you’re driving up these costs, you’re hurting our families and of course our businesses that create the jobs that allow families to be able to send their kids to school, go on the family vacation and so forth.
“The EPA doesn’t have the legal authority to force a complete shift in energy production through bureaucratic fiat.
“But the Biden administration doesn’t care and they’re going ahead with it anyway.
“The Biden administration’s anti-energy agenda doesn’t just stop there. President Biden’s imposed moratorium on new oil and gas leases is also an attack on our energy system.
“The administration has slow-walked these permits for new construction and added new layers of bureaucracy that hinder job-creating energy projects.
“Instead of supporting high-skill, high-wage jobs, this administration has prioritized the interests of coastal elites and radical environmentalists.
“They would rather see fossil fuel plants closed and thousands of workers lose their jobs than stand up to these activists.
“This appeasement of the far-left radical environmentalist wing of the Democrat Party is wrong. It must stop. We must reverse course. We must have some common sense.
“I’m here today to join my colleagues in standing up for American energy, for American workers, for our way of life.
“Together, we’re going to do all we can to overturn this anti-energy agenda through Congressional Review Act legislation and other means.
“We’re going to support an all-of-the-above energy strategy.
“We’re going to continue to fight to make sure our workers remain employed, our communities remain prosperous, and our nation remains energy independent.”