The Congressional Record is a unique source of public documentation. It started in 1873, documenting nearly all the major and minor policies being discussed and debated.
“Nomination of Jennifer Mulhern Granholm (Executive Session)” mentioning John Barrasso was published in the Senate section on pages S877-S878 on Feb. 25.
Of the 100 senators in 117th Congress, 24 percent were women, and 76 percent were men, according to the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress.
Senators' salaries are historically higher than the median US income.
The publication is reproduced in full below:
Nomination of Jennifer Mulhern Granholm
Mr. BARRASSO. Mr. President, when Governor Granholm came before the Energy and Natural Resources Committee for her nomination hearing, she said she was committed to American energy dominance. She stated she understood the importance of having a broad energy mix and supporting energy innovation.
Now, I asked her if it was a good thing that the United States is the world's leading producer of oil and natural gas, and she said it was. I asked her if low energy prices and high-paying American energy jobs were good things, and she agreed that they were. And when I asked her if America exporting its energy influence around the globe was a good thing, she again affirmed that it was. She has demonstrated that she is dedicated to supporting carbon capture, nuclear power, and American uranium production.
For these reasons, she cleared our committee with broad bipartisan support and will soon be confirmed by the Senate. I expect we will work together closely on these efforts when she leads the Department of Energy.
During her nomination hearing, Governor Granholm also said that she didn't want to see anyone lose their job or get left behind. Yet this is exactly what the Biden administration is doing to thousands of American energy workers.
On Inauguration Day, the President spoke of unity and bringing our Nation back together. Once he arrived at the White House, however, he threw that rhetoric out the window, picked up his pen, and started signing radical Executive orders.
His orders to ban oil, gas, and coal leasing on Federal lands and to kill the Keystone XL Pipeline will throw thousands of Americans out of work. These workers' livelihoods are being sacrificed in the name of the Biden agenda. Leaders in the administration are telling these oil rig and coal mine and pipeline workers that they can simply get new jobs building solar panels.
Actually, John Kerry said that the Biden administration policies will give these workers better choices. In 2019, the average salary of a solar panel technician was about $30,000 a year less than the average salary of a worker in the gas, oil, and coal industry. So John Kerry flies around the world, private jet, but is asking American energy workers to each take $30,000 a year less in income. And that is if these green energy jobs even exist.
To that point, the Washington Post Fact Checker took a look at what John Kerry had said, and they said he was offering ``false hope with a misleading use of statistics.''
Look, we have heard it all before. When President Biden was Vice President, the Obama administration promised thousands of green energy jobs--jobs that never materialized. Millions of taxpayer dollars were wasted on green energy companies that went belly-up.
Now the ``Solyndra Syndrome'' has returned. The Washington Post Fact Checker said it expects just a little over 10,000 new wind and solar jobs over the next 10 years.
In Wyoming alone, the long-term leasing ban would result in 33,000 workers losing their jobs. And where are these Wyoming workers supposed to go?
Hundreds of thousands more workers are going to lose their jobs in New Mexico, Colorado, Texas, and other States. How will they provide for their families?
The Biden ban won't just hurt workers; it is going to hurt kids too. A long-term leasing ban is going to eliminate hundreds of millions of dollars in State revenue--the dollars which go for essential services, for public schools, for roads, bridges, and hospitals. A long-term leasing ban is going to hurt teachers, students, and the communities they call home.
America needs all the energy--the oil, the gas, the coal, the uranium, the wind, the solar--all of them. Banning fossil fuels will hurt our economy and force more workers out of work.
President Biden has declared war on American energy and American energy workers, and I just can't stand by as this administration tries to crush Wyoming's economy. I can't support an administration that throws my constituents out of work and hurts the schools and the hospitals in the communities and the teachers who teach the children.
Energy is a force multiplier. American energy is--America is an energy superpower. We need to act that way.
President Biden seems to want to pull the plug on American energy dominance. So I cannot in good conscience vote to approve his nominee for Secretary of Energy
I yield the floor.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from West Virginia.
Alerts Sign-up