{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.thune.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/press-releases?ID=DE75A615-80D7-4BD1-80AC-988842236273", "Thune: Democrats Prioritize Radical Climate Agenda Over Addressing Skyrocketing Energy Prices", "2022-08-04", "2022", "2022-08", "Republican", "Senate", "SD", "John Thune", "T000250", "www.thune.senate.gov", "thune", "https://www.thune.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/press-releases", "scraper", "Click here to watch the video\n\nU.S. Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.) today discussed how Democrats\u2019 proposed energy tax hikes would hurt Americans who are already suffering from high energy prices. Thune noted that the Democrats\u2019 bill is wasteful and irresponsible and would do nothing to ease the economic pain that their policies have helped create.\n\nThune\u2019s remarks below (as prepared for delivery):\n\n\u201cMr. President, last week Democrats unveiled their so-called Inflation Reduction Act \u2013 a bill that will do nothing to reduce inflation, but will double down on Democrats\u2019 wasteful government spending, along with imposing hundreds of billions in tax hikes.\n\n\u201cYes.\n\n\u201cHundreds of billions of dollars in tax hikes.\n\n\u201cOur economy has posted negative economic growth for the past two quarters, and Democrats think it\u2019s a good idea to raise taxes on American businesses.\n\n\u201cPerhaps Democrats think that current prices aren\u2019t high enough.\n\n\u201cOr that businesses aren\u2019t struggling enough with the inflation Democrats helped create.\n\n\u201cThe worst part, of course, is that a substantial part of the burden of these tax hikes will fall on ordinary Americans.\n\n\u201cAmericans who are already struggling with historically high inflation.\n\n\u201cAmericans who are seeing their grocery bills balloon and their rent skyrocket.\n\n\u201cAmericans who are paying more than $4.00 per gallon every time they fill up their car.\n\n\u201cNow Democrats are going to pass tax hikes that will hit these Americans hard.\n\n\u201cA tax hike on businesses that will almost undoubtedly result in lower growth, lower wages, and fewer jobs.\n\n\u201cA tax hike on investment \u2013 investment we need to grow our economy and create opportunities for American workers.\n\n\u201cAnd tax hikes on energy production.\n\n\u201cYes.\n\n\u201cTax hikes on energy production \u2013 to the tune of $60 billion.\n\n\u201cMr. President, as I mentioned, Americans are still, on average, paying more than $4.00 a gallon every time they go to fill up their cars \u2013 as they have been for months.\n\n\u201cTheir electricity bills are up.\n\n\u201cThe price for utility gas service is up \u2013 by almost 40 percent.\n\n\u201cAnd Democrats think now is a good time to raise taxes on oil and gas production.\n\n\u201cI guess maybe they\u2019re hoping that they can force Americans off conventional energy by continuing to keep gas and energy prices high.\n\n\u201cAnd in case anyone was thinking that Democrats would be content with shutting down domestic production \u2013 with a methane tax, higher royalties, excise taxes, and costly permitting delays \u2013 and would rather Americans receive conventional energy from abroad \u2013 well, Democrats have a tax hike for that too.\n\n\u201cThe Democrats\u2019 bill would impose a new tax hike on U.S. refiners importing crude oil and petroleum products intended to make conventional energy prohibitively expensive.\n\n\u201cBut of course Americans still need conventional energy \u2013 and that will continue to be true for a while yet no matter how much wishful thinking Democrats engage in.\n\n\u201cAnd Democrats\u2019 energy tax hikes are setting ordinary Americans up to continue to suffer under high energy prices for the foreseeable future.\n\n\u201cSo what are all these tax hikes for, Mr. President?\n\n\u201cWhat government spending is worth imposing tax hikes that run the risk of pushing our economy into a longer recession \u2013 or stagflation?\n\n\u201cWell, let me just review some of the \u201cpriorities\u201d Democrats will be spending that tax hike money on.\n\n\u201cThere\u2019s $1.5 billion \u2013 billion \u2013 for a grant program to plant trees.\n\n\u201cAnd $1.9 billion for things like identifying gaps in tree canopy coverage.\n\n\u201cYes.\n\n\u201cIdentifying gaps in tree canopy coverage.\n\n\u201cThere\u2019s $1 billion for electric heavy-duty vehicles like garbage trucks.\n\n\u201cI\u2019m not really sure why the federal government is going to be spending money on electric garbage trucks \u2026 or how that\u2019s going to reduce inflation.\n\n\u201cThere is $3 billion for the U.S. Postal Service to purchase zero-emission delivery vehicles.\n\n\u201cQuite a lot of money for an agency that is supposedly self-funded.\n\n\u201cThere\u2019s funding for road equity.\n\n\u201cAll told, there is more than $60 billion in funding for \u2018environmental justice.\u2019\n\n\u201c$60 billion.\n\n\u201cThat\u2019s more than the federal government spent on highways in 2019.\n\n\u201cThere\u2019s also at least $30 billion in climate slush funds \u2013 part of which is allocated for, among other things, climate-related political activity.\n\n\u201cYes.\n\n\u201cPolitical activity.\n\n\u201cSo in other words, Democrats are raising taxes on Americans so that they can provide federal funding for Green New Deal activism.\n\n\u201cAnd I haven\u2019t even talked about all the tax credits for adopting Democrats\u2019 preferred green energy technologies.\n\n\u201cThere are tax credits for purchasing electric vehicles and for refitting windows and skylights and doors to meet Democrats\u2019 required level of energy efficiency.\n\n\u201cYes.\n\n\u201cDemocrats are raising the tax burden on working Americans to pay for tax credits for wealthy Americans to purchase a brand-new electric vehicle \u2013 or do some home remodeling.\n\n\u201cOf course, these tax credits aren\u2019t officially limited to wealthy Americans.\n\n\u201cBut I\u2019m hard-pressed to think of many working families who can afford to spend $60,000 on a new electric vehicle while inflation is at a 40-year high.\n\n\u201cMr. President, I am a longtime supporter of clean energy.\n\n\u201cI come from a state that is leading the way toward cleaner and more efficient energy technologies.\n\n\u201cAnd I have worked with colleagues from both parties to advance clean energy, including through the responsible use of energy tax credits to bring clean-energy technologies to the point where they can compete on their own.\n\n\u201cBut this bill has nothing in common with the bipartisan work I and many others have done to responsibly advance clean energy.\n\n\u201cThis bill is wasteful and irresponsible and will do essentially nothing to reduce warming globally as other nations continue to skate by.\n\n\u201cIt will, however, waste a lot of taxpayer dollars and create a lot of economic pain for hardworking Americans.\n\n\u201cOne think-tank analyzed a plan similar to the one Democrats are pushing and found that it would result in staggering job losses, higher energy bills, and a tremendous reduction in economic growth.\n\n\u201cMr. President, one sensible move to advance clean energy \u2013 and necessary investment in conventional energy \u2013 would be to address the arduous permitting process, which can hold up both renewable and conventional energy projects for years.\n\n\u201cThat\u2019s something we should be focused on \u2013 to promote investment in the conventional energy we still need and in the renewable energy technologies of the future.\n\n\u201cInstead, we\u2019re being asked to support a bill that will squander billions and billions of taxpayer dollars on Green New Deal activism and road equity and monitoring tree canopies.\n\n\u201cAnd we\u2019re supposed to vote for it based on the vague promise that the Senate will consider \u2013 consider, mind you, not pass \u2013 permitting legislation.\n\n\u201cPermitting legislation that may or may not meaningfully address the broken and burdensome permitting process or negate spurious lawsuits from far-left environmentalists.\n\n\u201cAnd even if it did provide meaningful reform, my hopes are not high that the Biden administration would actually act on the legislation.\n\n\u201cCanceling the Keystone XL pipeline \u2013 a project that endured a decade of permitting, was already underway, and was to be paired with $1.7 billion in private investment for renewables \u2013 does not instill confidence that even approved projects are safe from the president and Democrats\u2019 Green New Deal ideology.\n\n\u201cMr. President, Democrats\u2019 reckless, $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan spending spree helped plunge our economy into an inflation crisis that has left Americans struggling to make ends meet.\n\n\u201cAnd if this new partisan tax-and-spending spree passes, Americans can look forward to a lot more economic pain in the future.\n\n\u201cBut at least they\u2019ll be able to console themselves with the knowledge that their tax dollars are going to fund tree canopies.", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T18:26:22Z"]], "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.thune.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/press-releases?ID=DE75A615-80D7-4BD1-80AC-988842236273"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 2.105975989252329, "source": 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