On the recordDecember 8, 2015
I appreciate the opportunity to join with Representatives Rothfus and Kelly and all my colleagues here tonight expressing concern about the reports coming from the Conference of the Parties, or COP 21, talks in France of a planned end-around of the Senate. It is unacceptable to me that this administration is negotiating a major international agreement, promising vast sums of taxpayer dollars, with no intention of allowing the people's representatives to weigh in on a final agreement. While the President's team is in Paris trying to finalize a deal, we have been here listening to our constituents. That should be our goal: to listen to Americans and to fight to lower their electricity costs, not obligating taxpayers to send billions of their hard-earned dollars overseas to implement climate change schemes. Nor should we continue down this path of forcing rate increases on the hardworking families in America, yet that has been the President's plan all along, Mr. Speaker. In 2008, President Obama proudly announced his vision for energy costs in our country. He said: ``Under my plan of a cap-and-trade system, electricity rates would necessarily skyrocket . . . coal . . . natural gas . . . you name it . . . whatever the plants were, whatever the industry was, they would have to retrofit their operations. That will cost money, and they will pass that money on to consumers.'' His plan: make them pay more.…
