Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez

We will work with the Biden-Harris Administration to rapidly transition to a renewable energy economy.

Our need to develop domestic supply of these materials, it will only increase in urgency as the demand continues to increase.

We must refuse to harm Central America, indigenous and many other communities around the world who live at or near sites of extraction, and we must update and enforce mining laws to ensure development benefits all people.

We cannot continue to import critical minerals from places like Guatemala in order to make clean energy possible here at the expense of lives and livelihoods of vulnerable groups elsewhere.

To give them a fighting chance at long-term survival, we need to safeguard what's left of their home. That requires no leasing and no drilling.

Thank you. I yield back to the Chair.

Thank you for having me here today to discuss the bipartisan H.R. 6285, or Alaska's Right to Produce Act.

Because a couple of years ago, we had enormous tax cuts for the wealthy, writing off private jets and yachts and giveaways.

About $6 million, even on the high end. Even if you take 100 percent of that cut from that $14 to $15 million, that is still less than 1 percent of the CBO estimates that the then-Republican Majority said would pay for all of these tax…

In order to pay for this and offset it, we know exactly what we are going to do. We are going to sell oil and gas leases on the Arctic Refuge.

Instead of considering a bill that puts the interests of oil companies over those of the planet and the people, I wish we could be here discussing how we can lead, how we can move to save our planet while prioritizing the lives of…

On leases in the Arctic Refuge, it is well established that the Secretary of the Interior has authority to cancel leases that were issued in violation of statute or regulation.

While I strongly oppose the Administration's decision to approve Willow, I am optimistic about the latest decisions to cancel the remaining Arctic Refuge oil and gas leases to promote conservation in the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska…

Fossil fuel development is a looming threat to the Gwich'in people.

Hunters are being forced to travel further and further to find resources and to avoid hunting grounds now dominated by industry.

Oil and gas development exacerbates all of these threats.

The climate crisis is not only here, but will grow more catastrophic without rapid and deep cuts to greenhouse gas pollution.

Rolling back these protections puts far too much at risk.

Some say this is necessary for domestic energy production and energy security, but I remind my colleagues that the lease sales were quite a disappointment compared to the original estimates of revenue and industry interest when they were…

This is a responsibility of mines and private companies that inflict this damage, and it is yet another example of the ways in which these large companies often privatize benefits and profits, and socialize the costs and harm.

Coal mining has, and much of the abandonment of these mines, has left a toxic legacy of contaminated soil, polluted waters, and public health disasters across the country.

Yet, as we heard earlier in your testimony today, many modern coal mines are going un-reclaimed.

Congress made its intention clear in the Infrastructure Investments and Jobs Act that the abandoned coal mine land reclamation funding should create good paying jobs for displaced coal workers and incentivize union labor.

For all the talk of the 'people's house' that we have been hearing from the other side of the aisle, this bill is anything but.

True energy and economic security will come when we create an equitable, clean energy economy that puts communities first and ends our reliance on this global extractive industry.