Mike Pompeo: “The amendment that I presented would decrease the Department of Energy's Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable…”

“The amendment that I presented would decrease the Department of Energy's Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy program by $45.6 million and the funding for DOE's Vehicle Technologies Program. While I am certainly 100 percent behind innovation and the development of domestic sources of energy and new vehicle technologies, this program is simply not the way to do it. We shouldn't take money from one set of citizens to subsidize companies that, frankly, have had subsidies for too long in the development of new energy vehicle technologies. Look, it's a subsidy program, plain and simple. The program is part of this present administration's liberal agenda to replace the free market with government bureaucrats in determining which energy sources we ought to use to propel our vehicles and for transportation. You know, we are already seeing tremendous advances in hybrid technology and electric vehicle technology. In the State of Kansas, we have got folks coming up with wonderful, great, innovative ideas. They are seeking private capital markets to make that innovation happen. We have enormous venture capital firms that have made significant investment in these technologies. Why would the government use taxpayer money to compete with those ventures? They don't need the subsidies. They'll make these things work. This is a quarter billion dollars in an R&D subsidy in a sector that has received subsidies for decades, and they no longer need that.…”