Leader Schumer Floor Remarks On Energy Costs Soaring Across The Country And How Republican Attacks On Clean Energy And Jobs In The “Big, Ugly Energy-Killer” Bill Will Make It Worse

Washington, D.C. – Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) today spoke on the Senate floor, vowing to fight President Trump and Congressional Republicans’ “Big, Ugly Energy-Killer” bill, which would skyrocket energy costs for American families and businesses. Below are Senator Schumer’s remarks, which can also be viewed here:

One of Donald Trump’s core promises on the campaign trail was that he would lower energy costs, he said, by 50%.

But the opposite is happening: energy costs are soaring across the country.

People are paying more on their monthly electricity bills.

Small businesses are struggling just to keep the lights on.

And Donald Trump and the Republicans’ “Big, Ugly Energy-Killer” bill is about to make energy costs go even higher.

Under the Republicans’ bill, the average national electricity prices would go up by about 10%.

American families will pay $32 billion more in household energy costs.

Clean energy projects that would lower costs would face massive new taxes.

And that’s not to mention the hundreds of thousands of jobs – hundreds of thousands, it's estimated as much as 800,000 –would be lost. And they would occur especially in red states.

Republicans, did you hear that? You're throwing hundreds of thousands of people working in your states in good-paying jobs out of work, all to embrace the ideology of the extremists in the fossil fuel community.

The bottom line is simple: the oil and gas magnates and the fossil fuel community hates clean energy, because they know it's the future, because they know it's cheaper, because they know it's the quickest way to get more energy.

Are Republicans truly so beholden to the fossil fuel industry, who harbors blind hatred of clean energy, because they know it’s the future? Are they so beholden? If we need more energy because of AI and everything else, why cut off one of the main ways we can get new energy, in terms of wind, solar, hydro, and things like that?

Are Republicans really willing to send energy costs for families skyrocketing, just to satisfy the ideological hatred the fossil fuel industry has for clean energy? The fossil fuel industry knows its days are numbered and wants to cut off an alternative. And that’s going to make prices go up and let China become the leader in clean energy, which our children and grandchildren will pay a dear price for.

So, Senate Democrats are going to fight this bill with everything we’ve got, so families don’t have to foot the bill for Donald Trump’s disastrous energy policies.

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