“Picking winners and losers is not good tax policy. Especially when the winners are America’s rivals. And when the losers are hard-working Americans who lose their jobs, their financial security, and pay more to heat and cool their homes.”
Click here to watch Sen. Barrasso’s remarks.
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, at a Senate Committee on Finance markup on “The Clean Energy for America Act,” U.S. Senator John Barrasso (R-Wyo.) criticized Democrats for choosing to use the tax code to intentionally destroy America’s fossil energy industries and jobs.
Senator Barrasso’s remarks:
“As we all agree, energy is the backbone of America.
“Energy keeps our country moving. It powers our daily lives, from keeping lights in our houses on, heating our homes during the winter, and powering American manufacturing.
“Who can we thank for powering America? Hundreds of thousands of American workers. We are an energy independent nation as a result of those workers.
“Why then, is this committee considering legislation to destroy American energy industries?
“Legislation that would not only destroy America’s energy independence and raise energy costs for all Americans, but also destroy the jobs of thousands of American workers.
“Oil rig, coal mine, and pipeline workers make up a large part of my home state’s workforce.
“This bill puts a target on the backs of them and their jobs.
“America needs all of the energy – the oil, the gas, the coal, the uranium, the wind, the solar – we need all of it.
“That is how we maintain our economic strength, and our energy independence.
“Picking winners and losers is not good tax policy. Especially when the winners are America’s rivals.
“And when the losers are hard-working Americans who lose their jobs, their financial security, and pay more to heat and cool their homes. This is not the direction in which we should head.
“Last weekend, the Wall Street Journal published an article highlighting the massive investments being made in wind and solar.
“The article states that ‘total investment in renewable energy projects, electric vehicles and other green efforts exceeded $520 billion last year, a record.’
“This represents a 12% increase from a year earlier and an almost 60% increase from 2015.
“Why then, are we increasing subsidies to these industries at the expense of America’s fossil fuel industries and America’s energy independence?
“Choosing to use the tax code to intentionally destroy America’s fossil energy industries, to hurt our economy, to force our American workers to lose their jobs, and to strengthen the economic power of the governments of China, Venezuela, Iran, and Russia is not the path that I want to go down.
“I will continue to support American energy independence.
“I will continue to be on the side of and support American fossil energy workers, their families and their communities.
“I will not vote to abandon our allies and open the door for our adversaries to use energy as a geopolitical weapon against us.
“For me the choice is clear.”
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