House Advances Special Interest Energy Policy

Statement by Todd Wolf, Union of Concerned Scientists

Published Dec 3, 2015

Washington (December 3, 2015)—Today, the U.S. House of Representatives passed an energy bill that would make the United States more reliant on fossil fuels, taking the country in the wrong direction, according to the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS).  

The bill doubles down on the United States’ outdated dependency on fossil fuels by undermining implementation of the Environmental Protection Agency’s Clean Power Plan, speeding up the construction of natural gas pipeline extensions and rolling back energy efficiency standards.  The legislation lacks constructive policies to incentivize the development and deployment of clean energy and includes provisions that encourage fossil fuel use over renewable energy.

Below is a statement by Todd Wolf, senior Washington representative for the Climate and Energy Program at UCS.

“It’s disappointing that the House chose today to advance legislation that locks us into more fossil dependence and does virtually nothing to encourage the deployment of clean energy. Members of Congress continue to bury their heads in the sand when it comes to developing an energy policy that will help address the impacts of climate change. 

“This bill also misses an opportunity to protect consumers from higher electricity rates by diversifying the U.S. energy mix with renewables. Instead it lays the groundwork for consumers to be over-reliant on natural gas

“The House put the interests of the oil and gas industry ahead of consumers and the future of our country. Eighty years ago Upton Sinclair said, ‘It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends upon his not understanding it.’ It seems the more things change, the more they stay the same.”