Lower Energy Costs Act

Floor Speech

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Mr. CARBAJAL. Madam Chair, I rise today to share my disappointment and to oppose H.R. 1.

As a Representative of California, I work to find solutions that deal with price spikes at the pump, bring down high heating bills, and deliver lower costs overall to my constituents.

You can imagine my optimism when I first saw on our agenda a bill that supposedly aims at lowering energy costs.

When I read it, I was shocked to see that the only lower thing that it does is lower standards for our Nation's polluters.

This bill doesn't deliver less cost to families. It only forces more giveaways of our public lands to Big Oil, the same oil companies that already have thousands of unused drilling permits.

This bill doesn't decrease energy prices. It increases the number of loopholes in our public health laws.

This bill just doesn't fail to help families bring their utility bills down. It actually repeals solutions that we put in place last year to bring down heating costs and to help folks upgrade to more efficient home energy appliances.

Higher levels of pollution, higher costs for families, and, let's not forget, higher budget deficits to the tune of $2.4 billion over the next decade--is that being fiscally responsible?

Madam Chair, putting polluters ahead of people is bad enough, but actually raising energy costs and our Federal deficit while proclaiming to care about this is even worse.

Madam Chair, I urge my colleagues to vote ``no'' so we can actually work together to build on the laws we have passed that promote clean energy, cut energy costs for families across the country, and reduce the deficit.

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