The Green New Deal
Floor Speech
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Mrs. CAPITO. Mr. President, last week, I joined several of my colleagues to highlight the unrealistic and unreasonable and impractical ideas of the Green New Deal--the staggering cost, which is more than the Federal Government has spent in our history; the misguided assumptions about what it would take to decarbonize the U.S. economy on such an aggressive timeline; and the sorts of social programs that fundamentally change the United States, and, I would add, not in a good way, in my opinion.
But the worst part that has been talked about is a point I made last week. This resolution, this green deal resolution, dismisses or ignores the realistic and pragmatic environmental solutions that this Congress and past Congresses have already been working on.
I serve on the Environment and Public Works Committee with Chairman Barrasso, who just spoke, and we have been working together in many different areas to get the same sorts of ends.
The supporters of the Green New Deal actually claim Congress has done nothing. Unfortunately, some in the media and some others seem to be reiterating that same message.
As in so many policy arenas, the latest shiny object distracts from the great bipartisan work that is being done in these Halls--work that sometimes just doesn't get noticed--and that is exactly what is happening here.
Well, today I would like to highlight some of the practical, realistic, bipartisan efforts that will put us on the right path without killing jobs or overburdening Americans with government spending and higher costs.
Just yesterday, President Trump signed into law the bipartisan lands package we passed in the Senate last month, and it was an overwhelming vote. As part of that legislation, we permanently reauthorized the Land and Water Conservation Fund, which is a critical resource for protecting and preserving some of our country's most beautiful public lands, including those in my State of West Virginia.
Another example of the legislative solutions that we have advanced is the FUTURE Act, which I led with my Democratic colleagues, former Senator Heidi Heitkamp from North Dakota and Senator Whitehouse from Rhode Island, along with Chairman Barrasso. That legislation had a bipartisan group of 25 cosponsors and the support of an incredibly diverse and broad coalition of supporters: environmental groups, oil and gas companies, Governors from around the country, and labor unions.
What cause could bring these diverse stakeholders together? Carbon capture utilization and storage--CCUS.
The FUTURE Act reauthorized and improved the section 45Q tax credit for CCUS, and it requires the certainty that the carbon stays captured for good and is used in real products for market potential.
It is not about research and development. There are other Federal programs that are reserved for that important endeavor. It is about establishing real incentives for the commercial deployment of CCUS technologies and establishing a national market for carbon.
Only a market-based solution like the FUTURE Act can lead to broad adoption of CCUS. And CCUS is something that the International Panel on Climate Change at the U.N. and several other climate and scientific organizations say must be a part of the international solution to this global challenge.
The FUTURE Act also includes support for direct-air capture projects, and that means not just from a power source or some other manufacturing source. It is actually capturing it in the free air in the environment, which can literally pull CO
The United States can be a leader in this space because the environment is a global concern, and we can't control other countries' industrial and environmental policies, nor do we want them controlling ours.
With CCUS and direct-air capture, not only can we cut our emissions while maintaining high-paying coal, gas, oil, and manufacturing jobs, but we can also capture emissions emitted abroad and use them in value- added products.
The FUTURE Act was passed as part of the bipartisan Budget Act last Congress, and we are already seeing new projects being proposed to benefit from this policy. Even more will be coming forward as we build on this success, and that is where the USE IT Act comes in.
We introduced that legislation with the same group of cosponsors with Environment and Public Works Committee Ranking Member Carper stepping in for Senator Heitkamp. We have a similar coalition of supporters across industry, environmental groups, State governments, and labor.
The USE IT Act will direct an interagency council to review the guidelines and create a playbook for permitting CCUS projects and associated carbon dioxide pipelines. This certainty from Federal Agencies is essential so that those seeking to utilize the 45Q tax credit that I talked about previously in the FUTURE Act can do so before it expires.
I look forward to advancing this legislation in Congress. We have already had a hearing on it--a very great bipartisan hearing on this-- and I look forward to furthering our achievements in the CCUS space.
The FUTURE Act also includes seed money for breakthrough innovations in carbon capture. This expands on the good work that is already being done in CCUS research and development, primarily through the funding of the Fossil Energy Research and Development Office.
Congress has invested more than $4 billion in CCUS through that program alone, in addition to several other programs to make more efficient and environmentally sound use of our fossil resources. Some of these breakthroughs are being developed at the National Energy Technology Lab in Morgantown, WV, in conjunction with outside partners like West Virginia University.
I will continue to advocate for this kind of robust funding for these sorts of innovative energy programs, and I will support improving energy efficiency and ensuring that the United States remains a leader in carbon-free nuclear energy.
Doing the hard-nosed legislating and coalition building to achieve these goals is tough enough without all of the noise around a Green New Deal. Despite this distraction, I am confident we can continue to notch wins in this arena. We have to because there is simply too much riding on it for our economy and for our environment.
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