“People need affordable, reliable energy. Traditional energy projects are still the most affordable, still the most reliable. If we really care about people in developing countries, then we ought help them turn on the lights.”
Click here to watch Sen. Barrasso’s remarks.
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, U.S. Senator John Barrasso (R-WY) spoke on the Senate floor about how the Biden Administration’s new energy orders won’t hurt China but will hurt the United States and developing nations who look to America for help.
Excerpts of Senator Barrasso’s remarks:
“I come to the floor today as I’ve done twice before over the past month to sound the alarm about the new administration’s attacks on American energy.
“Yet there’s still more to talk about. President Biden has continued this assault on American energy as well as the American economy.
“Now he is taking that attack further. He is taking the attack on energy around the world as well as an attack on the needs for energy of a number of our allies around the world.
“President Biden signed an executive order to cut off all loans for coal, oil, and gas projects in some of the poorest nations in the world.
“Now some of these nations are our friends that we work with and we try to help. These are people who desperately need affordable energy, and they don’t have it.
“Democrats close to the administration have reported that what the administration and President Biden is trying to do is to ‘isolate’ the Chinese Communist Party.
“The Biden Administration thinks that by refusing to make these loans to folks around the world that the Chinese Communist Party will be shamed for using fossil fuels for energy and will shame the Communist Party of China for loans that they make to countries to develop coal fired power plants, natural gas plants and other projects that use fossil fuels.
“The Chinese Communist Party will not be shamed.
“China has a totalitarian regime. China puts Uighurs in concentration camps. I’m not sure what makes President Biden and his administration think that the Chinese Communist Party will be ashamed of using an affordable, reliable source of energy – coal.
“In reality, President Biden, by this executive order, is giving China a gift. President Biden is giving China another advantage on the world stage and putting ourselves at a disadvantage if you think about it.
“If the United States and those we fund through the World Bank refuse to provide loans to those countries to build the power plants that they need, that’s going to leave a vacuum. They’re going to need the resources to use the resources that they have, if they have plenty of coal or natural gas, and the Chinese Communist Party is going to come in and make the loan.
“China already funds 7 out of 10 new coal plants around the world.
“Thanks to President Biden’s misguided effort, that’s likely soon going to be close to 10 out of 10.
“Just like President Biden’s other energy orders, this new policy will make China stronger, it will make America weaker, China will have more influence and the United States will have less.
“This order is not going to hurt China at all. The people that it will hurt are those who look to the United States for help and for friendship.
“It’s going to especially hurt the 840 million people around the world who don’t have access to electricity today.
“Developing countries desperately need the electricity. They need it to be affordable. They need it to be reliable.
“Helping developing countries get a stable supply of energy is one of the best things we can do to help people around the world in their fight against poverty.
“In many parts of the world, countries with abundant energy resources just need our help, and turn to us for our help, so they can use the resources that they have.
“A good example of what I’m talking about is Kosovo.
“I’ve been there on three separate occasions specifically to visit members of our troops, the men and women in uniform, people from Wyoming who are serving in Kosovo.
“Well Kosovo is one of the poorest nations in Europe. But it has vast energy resources.
“Despite being physically smaller than the state of Connecticut, Kosovo has the fifth largest reserves of coal in the world.
“So the World Bank has cut off Kosovo’s funding for a new state of the art coal-fired power plant.
“The World Bank said it would only support new energy projects from renewable sources.
“So this is what Kosovo’s Minister of Economic Development said, ‘in a poor country [like] Kosovo…we don’t have the luxury…’ The luxury of only focusing on renewable resources.
“The Minister of Economic Development is absolutely correct. Developing countries cannot afford elitist environmental agendas of presidents who become climate elitists – especially those in charge of those issues, the former Secretary of State John Kerry.
“Let me repeat myself so I make this absolutely clear.
“We—the United States—have peace-keeping troops in the country of Kosovo.
“We—the United States—are driving the government of Kosovo into the clutches of the Communist Chinese Party.
“Because of a holier-than-thou attitude of the climate alarmists in the White House.
“So we pay to put our troops on the ground, but then we say go to China if you need help providing power for your country.
“People need affordable, reliable energy.
“Traditional energy projects are still the most affordable, still the most reliable.
“If we really care about people in developing countries, then we ought help them turn on the lights.
“I urge the Biden Administration to reverse course, to rethink this, to look at all the implications of the decisions they’re making.
“We need to stop this senseless attack on energy jobs.
“We need to stop this reckless attack on developing nations.
“We need to stop pushing our allies into the waiting arms of the Chinese Communist Party.
“The American people and our friends around the world deserve better than what we are getting from this administration. And we need to reverse course.”
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