Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act of 2015
Floor Speech
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Thank you, Mr. President.
This administration is shutting down coal-fired powerplants in the United States. I thank the Senator from West Virginia, Mrs. Capito, the other Senator from West Virginia, Mr. Manchin, and we have Senator Heitkamp here. We had Democrats and Republicans in colloquy talking about what is going on with coal-fired plants and the Clean Power Plan of this administration.
This is what is happening. It is killing good-paying jobs for union workers, for pipefitters, for boilermakers, and tribal members in my State with these so-called Clean Power Plan regulations. At the same time, it is stifling investment that could lead to innovation to make coal cleaner in the United States.
As I travel across Montana, I have heard Montanans describe the EPA as--a rancher once told me it stands for ``Eliminate Production Agriculture.'' A union member recently told me it stands for the ``Employment Prevention Agency.'' President Obama and his ``Employment Prevention Agency'' continues to wage war on American energy, American families, and on American jobs. This so-called Clean Power Plan is an all-out frontal assault on affordable energy and good-paying union jobs as well as tribal jobs. This will leave President Obama directly responsible for skyrocketing energy bills, a loss of tax revenue for our schools, teachers and our roads and the unemployment of thousands of hard-working Americans. The President ignores the fact that more than half of Montana's electricity comes from coal, as do thousands of jobs and $120 million in tax revenue every year.
In fact, 40 percent of our Nation's energy comes from coal. When a young person plugs their iPhone or their smartphone into the wall and charges it, most likely it is being charged by coal.
In my hometown of Bozeman, we have a Tesla charging station at one of our hotels. Elon Musk at Tesla did an amazing, innovative job creating electric vehicles, but when they plug those Tesla vehicles into those chargers, those Tesla vehicles in Montana are likely powered by coal.
The facts are that coal production in the United States is much safer and less carbon intensive than coal from other nations. As had been mentioned, this is a global challenge we must think about and address. The Powder River Basin in Southeast Montana has coal that is among the cleanest in the world. It has lower sulfur content and cleaner than Indonesian coal. Shutting down U.S. coal will have a negligible impact on global coal demand and global emissions. However, it will ultimately make it more likely that less technologically advanced coal production techniques will be used around the world.
This is the way to think about it. The United States consumes about 10 percent of the world's coal. Said another way, 90 percent of the coal consumption in the world occurs outside the United States, and the global demand for coal-fired energy will not disappear even if the United States were to shut down every last coal mine and every last coal-fired plant.
Again, individuals are entitled to their own opinions but not to their own facts. Here are the facts. Coal use around the world has grown about four times faster than renewables. There are 1,200 coal plants planned across 59 countries. About three-quarters of them will be in China and India. China consumes 4 billion tons of coal per year versus the United States at 1 billion tons. China is building a new coal-fired plant every 10 days, and that is projected to last for the next 10 years.
In Japan--I used to have an office in Tokyo. My degree was in chemical engineering, and I was part of a software company with offices around the world. I remember the big earthquake that struck Japan--the 9.0 quake. The Fukushima nuclear reactors were disabled. How is Japan dealing with that? They are building 43 coal-fired powerplants. By 2020, India may outbuild 2 1/2 times more coal capacity as the United States is about to use. So it is shortsighted and misguided to move forward on an agenda that is going to devastate significant parts of the economy. It is going to raise energy prices and destroy union jobs and tribal jobs.
We are seeing that already in Montana. Earlier this month, in the month of October, a customer of the Crow Tribe, the Sherco Coal plant in Minnesota announced it needs to shut down two units. This cuts off a significant portion of the customer base for Crow coal. Because the Crow Tribe relies on coal-fired Midwest utilities for most of its non-Federal revenue and for good-paying private jobs at the Absaloka Mine, the unemployment rate on the Crow reservation today is in the high 40 percent. Without these coal mining jobs, that unemployment rate will go to 80 to 85 percent.
Ironically, some of the first impacted by the Obama administration's new regulations are those who can least afford it. You have heard it from Senators on both sides of the aisle today. Under the final rule, the Colstrip powerplant in Montana will likely be shuttered, putting thousands of jobs at risk. We must take action. We need to stop these senseless rules.
This past weekend I joined the Montana attorney general, Tim Fox, in Helena to announce that Montana, along with 23 other States, has filed a lawsuit against the Federal Government because of Obama's recent decision. There are currently 26 States--the majority of the States in this United States--through three different lawsuits that have requested an initial stay on the rule.
As Leader McConnell mentioned in 2010, a Democratic-controlled Congress could not pass these regulations. The people's House stopped it, but now President Obama and the EPA are moving forward without the people's consent.
I am thankful to partner with a bipartisan group of my colleagues, Leader McConnell, Senator Capito, Senator Inhofe, Senator Manchin, and Senator Heitkamp, who are speaking out and working to stop this harmful rule. I am proud to stand and join them as a cosponsor of two bipartisan resolutions of disapproval under the Congressional Review Act that would stop the EPA from imposing the anti-coal regulation.
Coal keeps the lights on, it charges our iPhones, and it will continue to power the world for decades to come. Rather than dismissing this reality, the United States should be on the cutting edge of technological advancements in energy development. We should be leading the way in using clean, affordable American energy.
America can and should power the world. We can only do it if the Obama administration steps back from the out-of-touch regulations and allows American innovation to thrive once again. In summary, we need more innovation, not more regulations.
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