Democrats’ Energy Agenda Puts Foreign Leaders’ Applause Ahead of American Families

U.S. Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) delivered the following remarks today on the Senate floor regarding Democrats’ reckless tax and spending spree:

“In a few days, President Biden is set to gas up Air Force One and jet to Scotland for a global conference about the climate.

“According to press coverage, the President’s agenda is clear:

“‘Biden Wants to Show World He’s Serious About Cutting Emissions.’ ‘Joe Biden Gets Real On Climate Change.’

“We’re talking about a meeting… to review a plan… that failed to get its own signatories to meet its unenforceable ‘commitments.’

“A deal that couldn’t compel the world’s largest carbon producer, China, to commit to any less than another nine years of rising emissions before it starts to turn things around. This is a country with single companies that emit more carbon than nations the size of Canada.

“And all the while, the United States, from outside the deal, cut our emissions more than any major country inside the deal.

“The Biden Administration is desperately chasing bad deals to win applause from foreign leaders. That’s what this is about. Signing the American people up for self-inflicted pain for no meaningful gain.

“The only thing that’s serious about President Biden’s environmental agenda is the trouble it’s already causing here at home.

“Our adversaries like Russia are salivating over big windfalls while working American families are feeling the pain.

“Remember, on day one, this Administration put a freeze on crucial development of domestic energy and killed the Keystone XL pipeline — along with over a thousand jobs.

“Combined with Democrats’ flood of inflationary spending, it’s no wonder that consumers are facing the highest prices at the pump in seven years…

“The most expensive home heating forecast in more than twelve years… And soaring prices on the household goods that are costing U.S. manufacturers more to make.

“But wait, there’s more. When President Biden jets off to next week’s summit, his fellow Democrats will be busy plotting yet another reckless taxing and spending spree that would compound the pain with more anti-energy policies.

“They want to create new taxes on the most affordable and reliable forms of American energy that would put producers out of business, workers out of jobs, and make home heating even pricier this winter.

“They want to put billions more into ‘environmental and social justice block grants,’ whatever that means. They want to subsidize the favorite products of blue-state elites, like electric cars and even electric bicycles.

“Democrats also want to pour billions of dollars into a made-up government work program they’re calling the ‘Civilian Climate Corps.’

“This is pure socialist wish-fulfillment. We’ve already got a worker shortage and record numbers of open jobs, but Democrats want taxpayers to put aside $8 billion for make-work programs for young liberal activists that they admit ‘[wouldn’t] measurably reduce emissions.’

“And under their latest batch of proposed regulations, states that fail to keep pace with heavy-handed emissions targets would face ‘consequences’ — like freezes on funds for major transportation projects that employ lots of American workers. They want to bully every state to become more and more like California.

“Washington Democrats are plowing ahead with all this precisely as the Ghost of Christmas Future is providing us with a cautionary tale from across the Atlantic.

“Across Europe, natural gas prices have jumped 400% since the start of the year. Countries are scrambling to rediscover and reactivate the reliable systems they’d left behind to follow the latest fads.

“Thanks in part to the Biden Administration’s own inaction, Putin’s Russia has turned its controlling share of Europe’s gas production into a political weapon.

“But instead of heeding this cautionary tale, President Biden seems to want to follow suit.

“His regulations have squandered the energy independence we enjoyed before he took office. U.S. imports of Russian oil have doubled. As gas prices soar, his Administration is reportedly asking OPEC to cut us some slack.

“As one academic summed it up, ‘Biden policy promotes a multiyear, multitrillion-dollar windfall’ for adversaries like Russia.

“‘To raise energy prices while enabling Moscow to tighten its grip over Europe’s energy supply is to turbocharge a Russian regime that was staggering and showing its age.’

“Pain for the American people. Payoffs for our adversaries. So that President Biden can receive cheers from the crowd in Glasgow.

“Small comfort for his own citizens.”