Reliable Power Act

Floor Speech

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Mr. ALLEN. Mr. Speaker, I thank my friend from Texas for yielding.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of H.R. 3616, the Reliable Power Act, of which I am a proud cosponsor.

My home State of Georgia has been named the number one State to do business in for 12 consecutive years, making it a popular destination for new manufacturing facilities and data centers. While I join Georgians in welcoming these economic drivers to our State, it also presents increased demand for our grid that we must address.

We know electricity demand is expected to grow significantly over the next several years, which means this body has a duty to ensure our constituents have a dependable grid that meets the needs of hardworking families.

Mr. Speaker, unfortunately, both the Obama and Biden-Harris administrations were guilty of using the EPA to promote radical policy designed to drive out baseload generation in favor of wind and solar, which simply cannot assure adequate grid reliability. It increases the risk of rolling blackouts.

H.R. 3616 will correct that very problem by improving Federal rulemaking to ensure that future regulations impacting power generation will not harm electricity reliability, especially in already vulnerable regions.

Under this bill, if FERC finds that a proposed rule will have a significant impact on reliability, the rule cannot be finalized. That is about as commonsense as it gets.

Mr. Speaker, the United States has an abundant energy supply. The question we must ask ourselves is not if we have enough energy resources but can we produce energy at the necessary levels to meet the growing demand? The Reliable Power Act will help us do just that, and I urge a ``yes'' vote on H.R. 3616.

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