Washington D.C. — House Energy and Commerce Chair Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-WA) delivered the following opening remarks at today’s Environment, Manufacturing, and Critical Materials Subcommittee hearing titled “Clean Power Plan 2.0: EPA's Effort to Jeopardize Reliable and Affordable Energy for States.”

AMERICAN ENERGY LEADERSHIP 

“Energy is foundational to everything we do.  

“It powers our economy and our security. It’s why America is leading in lifting people out of poverty and raising the standard of living. 

“America’s ability to harness energy through innovation and deploy it through entrepreneurship has transformed the human condition. 

“We’ve achieved this while being a leader in emissions reductions and maintaining some of the highest environmental and labor standards in the world, and we’ve done this while delivering reliable and affordable energy across every state and community.   

“We should be celebrating our accomplishments with solutions that expand on this country’s remarkable legacy of innovation.” 

THREAT OF BLACKOUTS 

“We’ve been blessed with an abundance of natural resources that people and businesses rely on every day.  

“Rather than enacting policies that will undermine our essential energy systems and shut down these key resources, we should be taking steps to build on America’s energy leadership and legacy.  

“The reality is more and more Americans today face threats of blackouts as a result of rush to green policies destabilizing our grid.   

“In California, baseload and firm generation sources were driven out or shuttered by the state in exchange for less reliable weather dependent electricity. 

“As a result, California has had to import a significant amount of hydroelectric power from Washington state to support its grid when sources like wind and solar can’t produce enough energy to meet demand.  

“In Texas, an overreliance on weather-dependent resources has limited the state’s capacity to endure severe weather.   

“Last winter, several Southern state utilities were unable to get the power resources they needed from neighboring states during a severe cold event, forcing blackouts during the holidays.   

“NERC continues to warn that more than half the nation is at elevated risk of forced blackouts. 

“At a recent Energy and Commerce hearing, grid operators confirmed this, warning that accelerated retirements of baseload generation, without adequate replacements, will only increase the threat of these life-threatening blackouts.”  

RUSH TO DISMANTLE RELIABLE GENERATION  

“Rushing to dismantle our nation’s electricity generation will harm people’s lives and well-being.   

“The EPA’s recent proposals, like the Clean Power Plan 2.0, will force states to change fundamentally how they generate electricity and will raise costs across the board.   

“This will cause lasting damage to energy reliability and accessibility.  

“This is a continuation of the Obama administration’s Clean Power Plan, which sought to use obscure provisions in the Clean Air Act to restructure the American power sector by shutting down coal-fired power plants and shifting electricity generation to other less reliable sources.    

“Furthermore, these policies go well beyond the EPA’s congressionally mandated authority, and potentially violate the recent Supreme Court decision in West Virginia v. EPA, where the Court ruled that EPA’s efforts to circumvent Congress and restructure the U.S. power sector through the Clean Air Act were unconstitutional.   

“The Supreme Court’s ruling made clear that the EPA’s actions would transform the nation’s electricity system on a scale that only Congress had the authority to direct. 

“Yet this ruling has not stopped the EPA’s assault on our grid, and I am concerned about additional abuses of power by the administration in an attempt to exceed the authority delegated to the EPA by Congress.  

“We have a lot of questions about how the EPA’s Clean Power Plan 2.0 proposal could harm our way of life.  

“In June, we heard from the electric sector. Today, we will hear from states, who would have to implement these rules, limiting their ability to get reliable, affordable energy to ensure families, communities, and businesses can thrive.   

“What they say about the practicality of these rules, for their communities and their own authorities over their electric systems and electric generation, matters.   

“In order to ensure the American people have access to affordable, reliable energy to keep them safe, fed, and warm, it’s vital that we, the Committee of jurisdiction, understand and take actions to address the EPA’s proposals and what they mean for the nation’s electricity systems as well as America’s energy leadership.  

“That is our goal today.”