{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.curtis.senate.gov/press-releases/curtis-and-rubio-highlight-u-s-energy-leadership-strengthening-gop-voice-in-global-climate-initiatives", "CURTIS AND RUBIO HIGHLIGHT U.S. ENERGY LEADERSHIP, STRENGTHENING GOP VOICE IN GLOBAL CLIMATE INITIATIVES", "2025-05-20", "2025", "2025-05", "Republican", "Senate", "UT", "John R. Curtis", "C001114", "www.curtis.senate.gov", "curtis", "https://www.curtis.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases", "scraper", "A transcript of the exchange is below and the video file can be downloaded here.\n\nSenator Curtis: Mr. Secretary, as you talked about visiting 18 countries and not being with your kids, I had a pang of guilt with you being here today, but thank you for making this a priority and being with us today.\n\nThis might surprise some of my colleagues and maybe even you, but for the last several years, I\u2019ve led a Republican delegation over to the Conference of the Parties, \u201cCOP.\u201d And I believe that a Republican voice is really important at that table.\n\nI would point to issues, for instance, like nuclear. When I first started attending COP, nuclear was out of power, and we were shouting from the housetops that we had to have nuclear power. And I think that that\u2019s shown the influence of a Republican voice over there.\n\nYour agency has done, and I applaud, a lot of reduction and cost cutting. Part of that has been the State Department\u2019s Office of Global Change, which would normally handle the COP arrangements. I\u2019m wondering who we would work with, and if you\u2019ve given any thought of who we can coordinate to make sure that we have a good presence over there in Brazil.\n\nThe Honorable Marco Rubio: Yeah. So, that\u2019ll be rolled into our economics bureau in the restructure. And I think on the energy front, it\u2019s actually going to be at the forefront of foreign policy for the next 100 years. One of the reasons why just AI alone and AI development alone is going to put a strain on the amount of energy that\u2019s going to take to produce AI and AI-driven innovations.\n\nWell, we just don\u2019t produce enough global energy to meet it. And so, it\u2019s going to provide two things. The strategic opportunities for nations that can deliver cost efficient energy in a sufficient volume, it\u2019s going to become an enormous opportunity for these countries to be leaders in the AI space.\n\nBut the other is it\u2019s going to put a strain on everybody else because it\u2019s going to use up those energy resources. So, we need to be at the table to have conversations about how not just what our role in energy is, but how we help invest or partner with countries that have a supply of energy.\n\nSo, as an example, Paraguay has a hydroelectric plant right now, and they were in a long term deal with Brazil, where they sold them 50% of the energy being produced. That deal is now expired. They\u2019re trying to figure out what to do with the 50% of electricity generated by hydropower that is no longer going to be going to Brazil, and they can\u2019t put that in a tank and ship it overseas. So someone, if they\u2019re smart, is going to go down to Paraguay and open up an AI facility.\n\nGuyana has just made extraordinary discoveries on natural gas and oil. This is a country that\u2019s going to become incredibly rich very quickly, and has an opportunity to both invest that wealth to develop their society, but also become a platform for other industries that could help strengthen the region.\n\nCurtis: For the sake of time, I just would love to work with the State Department on that and make sure we have a good presence for that message. I also believe the United States can carry a message that you don\u2019t have to give up affordability, you don\u2019t have to give up reliability and we can also be clean. I think that\u2019s a really strong message of force.\n\nForeign assistance has been talked about a lot today. And I\u2019d like to just point out that there are a number of philanthropic entities, and in Utah, we have The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, who are really ready to stand up and go to work. I know Catholic Charities, there\u2019s many like that, and just want to make sure you\u2019re factoring those into kind of your rebuild and restructure. I know there are a lot of people like that ready to jump in and be part of this.\n\nRubio: Absolutely. And just to go back on foreign aid for a moment, we\u2019re not walking. We\u2019re going to be doing foreign aid. We\u2019re going to be doing humanitarian relief, disaster relief. We\u2019re going to be doing all the things we\u2019ve done before. Maybe not some of the same projects, but we\u2019re going to be doing all of it.\n\nThe difference is it\u2019s going to be coordinated out of the umbrella of the State Department, and it\u2019s going to be part of a cohesive, coherent foreign policy. And it\u2019s going to be driven by our embassies and our regional bureaus.\n\nSo, in the case of the Philippines, which was brought up a moment ago, we\u2019re going to rely not just on the region, the bureau here in Washington, but in our embassy on the ground to help us every single year construct what aid needs to be delivered, be it humanitarian or disaster relief or the like, to that country.\n\nAnd that\u2019s been missing, that sort of cohesive approach to how we treat foreign aid as a tool in our broader toolbox as opposed to its brand, its own toolbox altogether. We want to make it part of our broader toolbox on foreign policy.\n\nCurtis: And I think my only footnote is, as we do that, let\u2019s keep in mind that many people are willing to participate and be part of this, without a drag on the U.S. tax dollar, that I think can complement the vision that you just laid.\n\nI\u2019ve had the opportunity to work with you on the House side on some legislation, and to some degree fill some of your big shoes here on Taiwan and Hong Kong.\n\nAnd I just wanted to touch on that briefly. I know Senator Ricketts brought up Taiwan. With the recent implementation of more national security laws and the blockade style drills around Taiwan, how can Congress better work with you and your department to support you and make sure we\u2019re doing everything that we can do?\n\nRubio: I mean, unfortunately, with Taiwan, I think, I\u2019m sorry, with Hong Kong, as we\u2019ve seen its autonomous stand, I think our law now reflects that is no longer real. It is basically an extension of, and I think one of the great examples of that is a company named Hutchison Ports, which is headquartered in Hong Kong.\n\nAnd they control two of the main facilities, the two main facilities on the Panama Canal. And everyone was saying whether or not a Chinese company. They\u2019re not Chinese, they\u2019re a private Hong Kong company. Well, when Hutchison Ports decided they were going to sell, all of a sudden the Chinese government put all kinds of pressure on them and it slowed down the deal.\n\nSo, how can it be if this company\u2019s an independent Hong Kong company, why do they care what the Chinese authorities think? Well, the reason is because they are under Chinese control and Chinese influence and the fact they\u2019re headquartered in Hong Kong is no longer a protection from that.\n\nSo, I think it\u2019s important for us to understand Hong Kong cannot become a place where China can evade, be it sanctions or restrictions, by simply hiding behind some company who has an address there.\n\nIt is sadly, tragically and unfortunately, fully under the control, for national security perspectives, of authorities in Beijing and sadly as part of that is lost all of the values that were in Hong Kong before of a free press, of free people, that went with that as well.\n\nCurtis: Yeah.\n\nRubio: Those are incompatible with, you know, authoritarian rule.", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T18:20:29Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://www.curtis.senate.gov/press-releases/curtis-and-rubio-highlight-u-s-energy-leadership-strengthening-gop-voice-in-global-climate-initiatives"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 1.9513419829308987, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}