Hearing Wrap Up: Unleash American Energy by Implementing Needed Reforms

WASHINGTON—The Subcommittee on Economic Growth, Energy Policy, and Regulatory Affairs held its first hearing of the 119th Congress titled “Leading the Charge: Opportunities to Strengthen America’s Energy Reliability.” During the hearing, expert witnesses discussed ways to harness American-made energy by reforming outdated infrastructure that has struggled to meet growing power demands. Notably, both majority and minority witnesses advocated for policies aimed at encouraging innovation. Members of the Subcommittee pressed witnesses on these policies, explored opportunities for energy dominance, and advocated for cost-cutting actions. The Subcommittee and the full Oversight Committee stand at the ready to assist the Trump Administration in its effort to cut prices, grow the economy, and support American-made energy.

Key Takeaways

The Biden Administration’s energy agenda “made the necessities of life a financial burden.” Oversight Committee Republicans, in coordination with the Trump Administration, are working to reduce energy costs, champion needed reforms, and restore American energy independence.

• Mandy Gunasekara, the Former Chief of Staff of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, called out the Biden Administration’s detrimental energy policies and celebrated President Trump’s efforts to unleash American energy: “From January 2021 when Team Biden-Harris walked through the door, Americans saw energy prices skyrocket. Home heating oil increased 36%, electricity increased 32%, and natural gas increased 25%. As a result, one in six American families have been behind on their electricity bills, and the cost for an average household rose approximately $10,000 significantly straining family budgets…There is a critical need for reliable, affordable energy and we know how to deliver on this need in the United States better than any other country. President Trump understands this as do the majority of the American people that have entrusted him to once again deliver on the promise of American energy dominance and support the America First policies necessary to achieve it.”

• Today, the House of Representatives will vote on H. J. Res. 35 to reverse Biden-era regulations that limit domestic energy production and increase Americans’ energy prices.

As the demand for power increases, reforms to America’s energy infrastructure are needed to maintain a reliable grid. Opportunities for these reforms include unleashing nuclear power, utilizing already functional fossil fuel plants, and removing onerous permitting processes.

• Alex Epstein, the President and Founder of the Center for Industrial Progress, described the irrational “near-criminalization of nuclear” energy that must end if the United States hopes to remain competitive: “In the ‘70s, clean, safe nuclear power became affordable and quickly grew to 20% of American power, with potential to get far more affordable and plentiful. But crushing, irrational regulation made nuclear expensive or impossible to build. Congress and the Administration should work to unleash nuclear energy from irrational, pseudoscientific regulations…Unleashing nuclear is crucial for our medium and long-term electricity future. But it’s not a quick fix. To fix our grid problems as quickly as possible we need to address the policies destroying, delaying, and defunding the fossil fuel power plants.”

• Alex Herrgott, the Chief Executive Officer and President of The Permitting Institute, detailed the bureaucratic hurdles that energy producers face thanks to chronic permitting issues: “…energy projects are frequently hindered at various stages of development by disconnected and fragmented federal and state review processes. Permitting is often complicated by contradictory and redundant rules, timelines, and policies that lead to delays, cost overruns, and, in some cases, project abandonment…Chronic permitting issues are worsened by a lack of transparency and bureaucratic accountability. Our broken system allows agencies to sit on applications for years, even decades in some cases, with no certainty of eventual project approval or any response at all.”

Unleashing the full potential of American energy production will drive down inflation, grow our economy, create good-paying jobs, and reestablish U.S. dominance in manufacturing.

Member Highlights

Subcommittee on Economic Growth, Energy Policy, and Regulatory Affairs Chairman Eric Burlison (R-Mo.) shed light on how burdensome regulations stymie economic growth and hamstring energy producers’ ability to innovate.

Subcommittee Chairman Burlison: “As the former Chief of Staff at the EPA, you have a unique perspective on how federal agencies work or do not work. When thinking about the role of the federal government and how it encourages economic growth, how do regulations stand in the way of encouraging economic growth?”

Ms. Gunasekara: “I think what we saw in the last Administration was putting your thumb on the scale against traditional energy resources: coal, oil and, natural gas, that provide the bulk of our daily energy needs but then also provide that important baseload generation that I referenced earlier. When you have overregulation, it increases costs. It increased litigation opportunities and that equates to uncertainty throughout various industries that are necessary for us to live out our daily modern lives. So really paring back various regulations that have either skewed from EPA’s actual mission, which is to protect the environment and improve efficiencies, not put certain businesses out of business. To get away from that, to comport with the law and ensure that there is stability and certainty going forward for those that want to make the investments we need to meet this future growth in energy demand.”

Rep. Gary Palmer (R-Ala.) explained that America’s national security is inextricably liked to energy independence. He emphasized that the United States will be unable to compete with China in the technology arms race without prioritizing energy innovation and dominance.

Rep. Palmer: “So while there are people out there that are trying to save the planet with misguided energy policies that undermine our national security, China is working every day to dominate the planet. Mr. Epstein, can we compete with China in the development and utilization of artificial intelligence with renewable power only?”

Mr. Epstein: “I mean, with renewable power only, we can’t compete with Ghana.”

Rep. Palmer: “Would you agree that we are in a technology arms race with China for dominance in AI and quantum computing?”

Mr. Epstein: “Yeah, I mean, it’s just so scary because I was writing about fossil fuels in 2020 and this was so clearly going to happen so I had a section on AI… So we need to wake up and live in reality. And it’s a scary reality if we don’t dramatically change our practices.”

Rep. Palmer: “…While China is building some renewables, they’re really focused on hydrocarbon, coal-based power generation. They’re building it at an unprecedented pace, and they’re also advancing in small modular nuclear where we’re not. And this is the existential threat to the United States, and it is also a threat to our economy. Ms. Gunasekara, would you agree with that?”

Ms. Gunasekara: “Yeah, I would. And I would say one of the biggest issues with China’s approach versus the U.S. is the coal plants they’re building aren’t using pollution control equipment that our coal facilities have been using for decades. So, while we stand by and sign pieces of paper with them pretending like they’re going to do something to lower their emissions, they continue on this trajectory, build these plants that actually ship particulate matter and things along those lines, over to places like California that continue to struggle with meeting air quality standards from the early 2000s as a result.”

Rep. Scott Perry (R-Pa.) dismantled the radical climate activists’ argument that carbon emissions justify raising energy prices and highlighted how radical climate policies risk America’s global competitiveness. He also pointed out that the Earth’s carbon levels are currently at their second-lowest point in world history.

Rep. Perry: “I’m not a scientist, but we’re living in, I think, the second lowest atmospheric carbon content in Earth’s history, not in man’s history, but in Earth’s history. I think we’re in the second lowest point of atmospheric carbon in the Earth’s history. Is carbon pollution or is it like plant food? And how do the effects, I’m from Pennsylvania, and in Pennsylvania we talk about a thing called RGGI, the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative. Can you discuss the effects of that initiative and what these effects would be on the energy market, on prices and availability of energy?”

Mr. Epstein: “…Compared to Earth’s history, we are at a low point and we’ve had mammals and our descendants and stuff like that exist at much lower higher levels of CO2 and thrive. My argument is, we can thrive at almost any conceivable level of CO2 that has existed. We can thrive at a wide variety of temperatures. The only concern is, is the rate of change so much that you’re just changing infrastructure too quickly…So this idea that change equals catastrophe is an anti-human idea that denies our ability to adapt and master our surroundings and also just treats anything we cause as bad because we caused it. Now, in terms of how this manifests in RGGI and other policies, basically RGGI has addressed our carbon tax. You’re forcing people to pay more money for electricity in particular that involves CO2. So what you do is you take the cheapest form of electricity, which is not being outcompeted and you make it more expensive. That means energy is more expensive. That means everything is more expensive. That means your region is less able to compete.”

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