Senate Republicans Block Kaine & Heinrich’s Legislation to Stop Trump’s Cost-Raising Energy Agenda

WASHINGTON, D.C. - Today, Senate Republicans blocked legislation led by U.S. Senators Tim Kaine (D-VA) and Martin Heinrich (D-NM) that would have repealed the national energy emergency declaration Trump has used to give Big Oil handouts and bypass environmental laws. Senate Republicans also blocked this legislation from passage in February.

"For the second time, Senate Republicans blocked our legislation that would have repealed President Trump's bogus energy emergency," said Kaine. "Because Republicans refuse to stand up to Trump, Americans will continue to see energy prices go up, clean energy projects across the country canceled, and good-paying manufacturing jobs lost. When will my Republican colleagues choose the side of the American people and vote for policies that help working families, not just Trump's donors and billionaires?"

"In blocking our legislation to end Trump's war on affordable, American-made energy, Republicans have effectively refused to address the affordability crisis facing Americans and chosen to continue raising electricity costs on working families," said Heinrich. "By eliminating energy sources instead of adding more, this administration is driving up prices, forcing families to choose between paying for energy or paying for groceries, healthcare, and school supplies. Nobody should have to make that choice - and no one should be a pawn in President Trump's political games. Republicans own this mess, and it's American families who are paying the price."

On his first day in office, Trump signed an executive order to grant his Administration new powers to promote fossil fuels, bypass bedrock environmental laws, and block clean energy projects. Specifically, Trump's emergency allows officials to oversee the accelerated approval of fossil fuel projects, including oil drilling rigs and pipelines, extend aging coal power plants, and explore infringing Americans' private property rights for the "siting, production, transportation, refining, and generation" of non-solar and non-wind-related energy production.

Since August 2022, Democrat-led investments have created an American-made energy boom, spurring the highest levels of factory construction in U.S. history with more than 400,000 new jobs announced across the country. However, Trump's war on American-made energy and Republicans' rollback of provisions in the Inflation Reduction Act will kill these new jobs, weaken the power grid, increase our reliance on foreign energy, and raise families' annual energy bills by up to 18 percent in total household energy costs over the next five years. Across the country, more than 60,000 jobs have already been lost or threatened, and more than $440 billion in private investments are at risk. By 2030, the United States' GDP is expected to decline by $130 billion each year as new energy development and advanced manufacturing decline under the Republican bill. The Trump Administration has also canceled billions in clean energy projects.

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