A confirmation hearing exchange between Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR) and Treasury Secretary Nominee Scott Bessent is highlighting a sharp contrast between Democratic and Republican energy policy.
Wyden pressed Bessent on Republican efforts to roll back portions of Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) of 2022, particularly those pieces dealing with clean energy.
With a Republican majority in both houses of Congress, House Speaker Mike Johnson has pledged to target the Green New Deal, to expedite drilling permits, to do away with electric vehicle (EV) mandates and to eliminate tax credits for solar panels, EVs, wind turbines and clean-energy manufacturing.
Wyden claimed that the U.S. is in an “arms race with clean energy with China” and asked Bessent, “Do you want to be on the side of the people who want to unravel this?”
Bessent’s responded that China is building 100 new coal plants this year and that, “This is not a clean energy race. There’s an energy race.”
🚨Watch this mic drop moment from President Trump’s Treasury Secretary nominee Scott Bessent destroying the Democrats’ war against fossil fuels:
Wyden: “We are in an arms race in clean energy with China. Are you going to be on the side of people who want to unravel this?”… pic.twitter.com/1y7rloUwRp
— Steve Cortes (@CortesSteve) January 16, 2025
Bessent also noted that China will build 10 nuclear power plants this year and affirmed his support of greater use of nuclear power here in the U.S.
The nominee for Secretary of the Treasury also pointed out that the IRA, as scored by the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) is “wildly out of control on spending, in terms of the upside.”
Not all Republicans are firmly on board for eliminating tax credits for clean-energy manufacturing, due to concerns about the economic impact on industries in their districts that have been the recipients of billions of dollars of taxpayer-funded “investments” under the IRA.
Isn’t energy policy a state issue? There is no authority under this Constitution for a “national energy policy” run by a bunch of corrupt politicians in Washington, D.C.? If Massachusetts’ government wants to install 300 windmills off the coast, that’s its decision, and it’s up to the good citizens (if there are any left) to pay for them. The same goes with citizens across the country in Nevada, Texas, Iowa, Hawaii, etc… The hypocrisy of Republicans preaching fiscal restraint (no recent evidence of that position) while expressing concern over loss of subsidies to their constituents only highlights the importance of strict adherence to constitutional limits!
Lots of land suitable for mining and drilling has been confiscated by the Federal Government. Other than that your point holds but you can bet that the Clean Air and Waters Act along with many other Bills have provisions within them that restrict states and violate original sovereignty. The waters off the coasts are navigable and controlled by the Federal Government. It’s a mix and match mess which makes it fertile for lawsuits.
Fiscal restraint disenfranchises voters. Liberals spend to buy votes that keep them in power. The more that people depend on them the better. Republicans can’t seem to put the breaks on anything which may end up with them being categorized as biased, racist bigots. Republicans should be reducing regulations so that private companies risk their own capital and stay away from subsidies which, as you know, is welfare.