DEFUNDING BIDEN CLIMATE PROGRAM
Voting 220 for and 214 against, the House on July 26, 2023, adopted an amendment that would prohibit funding in HR 4366 to carry out an executive order by President Biden leveraging the scale and purchasing power of the federal government to sharply reduce carbon emissions throughout public and private sectors of the U.S. economy.
Under the order attacked by this amendment, the administration is pursuing goals such as a carbon-pollution free electricity sector by 2030; the elimination of new-vehicle carbon emissions by 2035; immediate or near-term net-zero greenhouse-gas emissions in federal procurement; infrastructure that can withstand climate change; net-zero carbon emissions by 2045 in building construction and a 65 percent decrease by 2030 (compared to 2008) in greenhouse-gas discharges by federal facilities.
Floor Debate, Pro & Con:
Sponsor Chip Roy, R-Texas, said: “The fact is, our national security is dependent upon our ability to produce and export liquefied natural gas and being able to use the God-given minerals that we have in this country, oil and gas, to be able to power the world.”
Opponent Debbie Wasserman Schultz, D-Fla., said: “Despite the wildfires, smoke-covered skies, life-threatening heat waves, and extreme weather we now face nearly every day in the United States, this amendment would hamstring our ability to address the accelerating threat of climate change. “
A yes vote was to adopt the amendment.
REMOVING CLIMATE CHANGE FROM TURBULENCE RESEARCH
Voting 206 for and 227 against, the House on July 19, 2023, defeated an amendment to a Federal Aviation Administration funding bill (HR 3935) that named “weather” rather than “climate change” as the focus of a study into reducing air turbulence. Weather describes short-term atmospheric conditions. Climate change is the average rate of change over long periods in conditions including rainfall and temperature in a particular region. The amendment directed federal agencies to ignore climate change in the turbulence research required by the bill.
Floor Debate, Pro & Con:
Sponsor Andrew Ogles, R-Tenn., said his amendment would change the bill’s focus from climate change, which he called a “woke” ideology, to weather patterns, which are “a common cause of turbulence. Jet streams, storms and the movement of warm fronts and cold fronts can all cause it.”
Opponent Hank Johnson, D-Ga., said: “To deny the existence of climate change is to deny reality. There are copious amounts of data to show that climate change has been happening for decades.”
A yes vote was to adopt the amendment.
DEFUNDING CLIMATE AND NOISE RESEARCH FOR AVIATION
Voting 127 for and 308 against, the House on July 19, 2023, defeated an amendment to a Federal Aviation Administration bill (HR 3935) that sought to block $100 million in Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) grants to spur private-sector development of technologies that reduce engine noise and produce alternative fuels that burn more cleanly and efficiently than those now in use. The amendment sought to block the bill’s expansion of the FAA’s main environmental initiative, the Continuous Lower Energy, Emissions and Noise (CLEEN) program.
Floor Debate, Pro & Con:
Sponsor Scott Perry, R-Pa., said: “Why can’t these projects be funded by private industry alone? Surely, if they improve fuel efficiency, that is a clear profit-driven motive to invest in new technologies. The program also funds the development of `alternative’ jet fuels, which is just another facet of the left’s crusade to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to meet completely arbitrary and unscientific targets. The administration aims to achieve `net zero’ greenhouse gas emissions from the aviation sector by 2050.”
Opponent Rick Larsen, D-Wash., said: “There is a race on” in aviation “to implement and use new fuels that are more efficient and that are also cleaner….[A]nd other countries and regions of the world are investing in that race, putting their companies at a competitive advantage over the U.S.- based companies. The CLEEN Program is one of our tools to participate in that race….I want to win that race, and part of winning that race is ensuring that the federal government is a partner in winning that race.”
A yes vote was to adopt the amendment.
DEFUNDING GLOBAL WAR ON CLIMATE CHANGE
Voting 217 for and 216 against, the House on July 14, 2023, adopted an amendment to the fiscal 2024 military budget (HR 2670) that would prohibit the Department of Defense from funding seven executive orders by President Biden to respond to the global climate crisis domestically and abroad. In part, the orders are intended to cushion economic damages in areas including the disruption of supply chains; prepare for an influx of climate refugees from global hot spots; use the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 to speed clean-energy construction; invoke “environmental justice” measures to reduce the disproportionate impact of air and water pollution on poor neighborhoods, and advance the administration’s goals of achieving a carbon-free U.S. electricity sector by 2035 and net-zero carbon emissions for the overall economy by 2050.
Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin calls climate change an existential threat to U.S. security, but Republican critics, calling Biden’s orders a “fetish,” say the Pentagon’s transition from fossil fuels to green energy undermines national security. This amendment was supported by 217 of the 220 Republicans who voted and opposed by all 213 Democrats who voted. The overwhelming consensus of scientists is that climate change is caused by human activity and that the planet is warming at a rate that will prove ruinous to civilization in coming decades if industrial nations fail to sharply reduce their discharges of greenhouse gases.
Floor Debate, Pro & Con:
Sponsor Chip Roy, R-Texas, said: “We should not be pursuing this politically motivated climate fetishization that undermines our national security.”
Opponent Adam Smith, D-Wash., said: “If 80 percent of the scientists believe that climate change could destroy the freakin’ planet, then it’s worth saying that’s a national security threat at least equivalent to China.”
A yes vote was to adopt the amendment.
INFLATION REDUCTION ACT & CLIMATE INVESTMENTS
Voting 220 for and 207 against, the House on Aug. 12, 2022, gave final congressional approval to a Biden administration bill (HR 5376) that would make the largest-ever federal investment to curb climate change; reduce Medicare drug costs including the price of insulin for seniors; extend Affordable Care Act premium subsidies for millions of policyholders; and expand Internal Revenue Service resources for pursuing corporate and individual tax dodgers. Named the Inflation Reduction Act, the bill was projected to reduce deficit spending by $300 billion over 10 years as a result of revenue measures including a 1 per cent excise tax on corporate stock buybacks and a 15 percent minimum income tax rate for billion-dollar corporations that often pay no taxes under current law.