The Green New Deal

Floor Speech

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Mr. STAUBER. Mr. Speaker, I rise today with my colleagues in opposition to the Green New Deal.

This disastrous plan, cooked up by out-of-touch Washington elites, simply does not work for Minnesota families.

According to the Energy Information Administration, 68 percent of Minnesota's energy consumption comes from a combination of coal, natural gas, nuclear, hydropower, and gasoline, all of which are to be banned completely by the Green New Deal in 10 years.

Allowed under this radical pipe dream are wind, solar, and biomass, which barely account for 15 percent of Minnesota's energy consumption.

Picture a family in Ely, Minnesota, where wind chill temperatures reached 71 below zero this January, waking up in a warm house heated by natural gas.

They start a hot pot of coffee, powered by our affordable electric grid; take a hot shower, again, heated by natural gas; drive their kids to school in their van, powered by reliable, affordable gasoline; go to work, possibly at a mine or a local hospital; drive home again in that same gasoline-powered car; make dinner for their family, using their gas-powered stove; and then wake up again and do it all over.

The little things that we take for granted every day are powered by conventional energy.

The Green New Deal would have a severe impact on our everyday lives, something that northern Minnesotans do not want or need.

The Green New Deal would force every Minnesota family to turn in their cars for electric vehicles and retrofit their homes to run on renewable sources, like solar or wind.

I understand elites from D.C. and New York City may love this plan, but I know the reality. I encourage my colleagues, especially those who support this plan, to go back to their districts, like I did last week and really listen to their constituents, listen to their concerns, listen to how this plan would devastate the middle class and devastate hardworking Minnesota families.

Retrofitting homes, buying electric cars, and ending the mining, airline, and much of the shipping industries may be fun ideas for the ultra-wealthy, but I know what it really means for middle-class families in northern Minnesota.

We cannot let these unrealistic ideas get in the way of actual progress. We must develop renewable forms of energy, but at the same time, not shut out conventional, affordable energy sources on which millions rely.

Do not let the Green New Deal distract from what northern Minnesotans care about: expanding rural broadband for better internet access, bringing good paying jobs back to our communities, and protecting Social Security and Medicare.

With the projected cost of tens of trillions of dollars, the Green New Deal puts all of this at risk.

I will not risk the future of Medicare and Social Security. I will not risk the future of middle-class families.

However, I will stand up for the farmers, our miners, our small business owners, manufacturers, and workers threatened by this Green New Deal.

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