Repealing of Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund

Floor Speech

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Mrs. DINGELL. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in strong opposition to H.R. 1023, the so-called Cutting Green Corruption and Taxes Act.

Republicans have, yet again, brought another bill to the floor looking to deceive and mislead the American people and attempting to repeal the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund and the Methane Emissions Reduction Program.

The Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund was established by the Inflation Reduction Act, inspired by legislation I championed. The program leverages the expertise and existing models of community lenders across the Nation, including in my home State of Michigan. Revoking this program is misguided.

To my colleagues who want to dismantle this program, I will just say that when we did this in Michigan at the State level a number of years ago, everybody screamed and yelled, but it worked, and energy costs went down.

Investing in clean energy and the survival of our environment is something we all need to be working on together. We have a moral responsibility, and it is a great economic opportunity. Republicans continue to attack any investment like this, but we need to be investing in American families and manufacturers and working to address the climate crisis.

I myself am tired of once-every-100-year storms happening every year. We saw the Canadian fires in the Great Lakes region last year. People couldn't breathe and had asthma for weeks. Today, it is snowing in Michigan. It was 70 degrees in Michigan last week. Global climate is real, if my colleagues just open their eyes and watch what is happening.

We have to level the playing field because China is beating us. We are in a global marketplace. If we do not invest in this country, we are abandoning ourselves. I want our country to succeed.

The Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund will help clean-energy financing be more accessible to low-income and underserved communities that have for far too long carried the brunt of environmental pollution. It will help us attack the climate crisis head on. It will create jobs while lowering energy costs.

I am not going to cede our leadership in innovation and technology to anyone, anybody, anywhere, and we are going to outdo China. It is our responsibility as legislators to protect this country. We have a responsibility to compete.

I have worked hard to ensure that the dollars from this fund support projects that would not be built otherwise and ensure that these investments are additive and do not duplicate other efforts. We have to make sure that these dollars are spent in the right way.

I know Republicans want to see the EPA and the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund fail. I beg my colleagues to work with us to make sure that this program is implemented effectively. I ask them not to bet against it. Give it a chance before trying to defund it, before any dollars have gone out the door.

Blocking EPA from doing its work is no way to lead, and that is why it is vital for my colleagues to oppose this bill.

I am going to give a couple other factoids since I have another minute.

Since 2021, in terms of private investments for electric vehicle and battery manufacturing, the U.S. went from lagging behind China to leading the world. That is where we need to be.

Since 2021, more than $160 billion of private capital has been committed to boost U.S. capacity to make electric vehicles and batteries, and more than 200,000 jobs have been announced.

Since 2021, 15 gigafactories have been commissioned to make batteries in the U.S. For just the chargers alone, 40 facilities are now being set up, enough to produce a million chargers per year here in the United States of America.

NADA, the National Automobile Dealers Association, estimates that electric vehicle drivers save an average of $5,000 on fuel over 5 years. It is no surprise that nearly 7 in 10 Americans now report being interested in buying or leasing an electric vehicle for their next car.

Data from Cox Automotive shows that electric sales are increasing four times faster than any other segment of the market, and available models now number over 114. They have nearly doubled.

If my colleagues want to keep this country competitive, we need to oppose this bill.

Mr. Speaker, I cede our leadership to no one.

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