Ranking Member Kaptur Remarks at Fiscal Year 2026 US Department of Energy Budget HearingPress ReleaseTradeJobs and the EconomyEnergy

*** WATCH A FULL RECORDING OF THE HEARING HERE ​***

Washington, DC - Today, Congresswoman Marcy Kaptur (OH-09), Ranking Member of the House Appropriations Energy and Water Development and Related Agencies Subcommittee, delivered the following opening remarks at the subcommittee's fiscal year 2026 budget hearing for the US Department of Energy with Energy Secretary Chris Chris Wright:

Good morning, and thank you all for joining us.

As the Ranking Member of this subcommittee and a lifelong advocate for America's energy independence in perpetuity, I welcome this opportunity to examine the Department of Energy's recent actions and to discuss your proposed budget.

Let me begin with a plain truth: The essentials of life are freshwater, food, and energy. The United States cannot afford to shortchange our energy future. US energy independence is essential for our liberty. I served President Jimmy Carter during the turbulent era not so long ago when the US slid into unconscious dependence on global energy supplies. My motto from then until now "never again."

The Department of Energy is the engine room of our nation's energy security. It drives innovation. It serves as a critical steward of our nuclear security enterprise, and environmental obligations. We have not always done well there. It powers our economy. It protects our grid. It supports cutting-edge research, and ensures that our people - working families, industrious small and large businesses, farmers, our retirees - all have access to affordable, reliable energy and continuing energy innovation.

And yet, we are confronted with proposals to slash $20 Billion in Department of Energy programs, despite clear and present threats to our energy stability. The Administration's devastating 74 percent cut to Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy is not just shortsighted, it is dangerous. Since January, the Department of Energy has suspended critical energy programs, cancelled executed awards and contracts authorized by Congress, severely reduced staffing, including removal of the Inspector General who tries to go after the crooks, and changed contracting policies. The resulting confusion has disrupted communities, businesses, and project developers across our country. This chaotic approach to this critical sector of a strong America and our national security impacts every family, business and community. Already, our people are feeling directly how the pinch feels when rising energy costs impact every American family and business.

Let me be crystal clear. Weakening US energy progress at DOE is a direct threat to America's energy security and gives our enemies relief. Weakness in advancing America's energy intelligence leaves us open and exposed to foreign influence. Radical cutbacks weaken our domestic supply chains and delay the very innovations that would shield our economy from global price shocks and hasten enemy targeting. I am shocked by the damage the Administration's proposals are causing and will continue to cause.

Energy is essential to our way of life and economic growth of all of our communities. The United States is producing more oil than ever before - record-high production levels - something that, in theory, should be bringing gasoline prices down, not bobbing back and forth. But the reality is, American families have not been seeing sustained record-low gas prices. Why? Because we are still tethered to a volatile global energy market dominated by cartels and petroleum dictators. Oil prices declined recently after the OPEC cartel and its allies agreed to a further boost to output. US crude fell 2 percent to $53.13 a barrel, its lowest value since February 2021. Let me be the first Member of Congress to warn you that dependence on foreign crude is not in the national security interests of our nation.

Forty-eight years ago, as our nation's economy tanked and sank into deep depression due to the first Arab oil embargo, President Carter and our predecessors in Congress created the US Department of Energy. With their vision and steadfast bipartisan commitment over decades, our nation has steadily made progress in attaining domestic energy independence. We cannot take our foot off the accelerator.

Over the last 40 years, America has made remarkable progress through expanding domestic oil and gas production. Ohio knows this well. We have developed cheaper, cleaner energy sources. Competition brings lower prices in energy. Innovations, including biofuels, solar, energy storage, and thermal recovery, are pushing into new energy frontiers of fusion, advanced nuclear, and hydrogen.

Let's not forget - when Russia invaded Ukraine, it wasn't just a European crisis. That illegal invasion sent energy prices soaring around the world. The Department of Energy's swift action to deploy strategic reserves and accelerate clean energy deployment helped soften the blow. But without a fully resourced Department, our ability to respond next time will be severely limited. This posture is dangerous.

American energy independence is about more than geopolitics. Hardworking families in Northwest Ohio and across our country feel these pressures at the pump, see it in their utility bills, and at the checkout counter at the grocery store.

Our nation is approaching 350 million people. We cannot behave as though this is 1950. Undermining the US Department of Energy by severely underfunding advanced energy research risks higher energy costs, increased geopolitical volatility, and weaker national security. That is not a future America should accept.

Mr. Secretary, I would also like to close by raising for your awareness a district-centric issue that holds national implications: two of the five worst commercial nuclear power incidents in our nation's history occurred in Ohio's Nuclear North that I represent. That's 40 percent! These dangerous and ultimately criminally negligent operations represent the worst management of commercial nuclear power in our nation's history.

Ratepayers in Ohio have for 40 years been the victim of these corrupt commercial nuclear operations - all through the willful federal and state abdication of quality management by the Atomic Energy Commission, the Department of Energy, and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Our ratepayers deserve and are due justice - they have been paying for the crimes and slipshod decision. So I ask that you help me from your position to achieve justice for Ohio's billed ratepayers; the price gouging continues as we meet here today.

As we work on FY 26 appropriations, I will fight to ensure this Energy and Water bill invests in America's every future, our energy independence, in world-class innovation, and diversifying energy supplies as fundamental to our continuing economic strength. I have a notebook I have prepared for you and your staff outlining what has been going on in Ohio. It is absolutely un-American what has gone on there, and it has gone on for a long time. America's energy future is in your hands. Everything must be "Made in America," for America to assure a remarkable history for the generations to come.

Thank you, and I look forward to the discussion ahead.

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