Leader Schumer To Unveil Senate Democrats’ Plan To Cut Energy Costs As Trump Policies Drive Prices Higher

Washington, D.C. - Today, Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) will unveil Senate Democrats' new energy affordability agenda as American families face skyrocketing prices at the pump and with their utility bills.

This evening, at the League of Conservation Voters Capital Dinner, Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) will unveil Senate Democrats' new, forward-looking plan to lower energy costs - in stark contrast to Donald Trump's broken promise to cut bills in half. Instead, costs are rising across the board, driven by Trump's crooked policies and ideological vendettas: scrapping clean energy projects and killing good paying union jobs, siding with Big Oil in pay-to-play deals, and waging war in the Middle East that is fueling costly instability abroad. The result: higher prices, fewer jobs, and more pressure on working families.

If given a Senate Majority, Democrats will take a different approach - one focused on lowering costs, strengthening energy independence, and putting consumers first. The agenda includes:

1. Build more clean energy - the cheapest energy available today
2. Cut delays, not protections, to get clean energy projects and transmission built
3. Upgrade our aging grid with more transmission and storage to lower costs
4. Make data centers pay their fair share - not working families-and promote healthy communities
5. Put in place real protections to keep energy bills down

This agenda is part of Senate Democrats' year-long affordability initiative exposing how Trump-era policies are driving up the cost of housing, groceries, energy, and more. Last week, Leader Schumer and Ranking Members Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) and Martin Heinrich (D-NM) released a 'Broken Promises' report detailing how Trump's attacks on clean energy and deference to Big Oil has led to skyrocketing energy costs for American families.

Below are excerpts from Leader Schumer's remarks as prepared:

"It's been a very difficult 14 months, and we've all seen the terrible, terrible things Donald Trump has done to clean energy and climate action. We remember his devil's bargain to Big Oil: raise me a billion dollars and I will give you a sweet deal. And that is precisely what he's done."

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"The single best thing we can do long term of course is tackle the climate crisis. Climate change makes everything expensive -groceries, healthcare, energy, and property insurance. I will never waver on this responsibility to tackle climate change head on-now more than ever, leaders in Washington must pledge their commitment to climate action. Nor will Democrats waver on our fight to lower costs during these hard times."

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"Trump's attacks on clean energy - and the price spikes it has caused for American families - is a unique opportunity to expand our movement. We can bring new voters and allies into the fight for a cleaner environment by showing how clean energy is affordable energy."

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"Trump is taking clean energy off the grid - and Americans are feeling the pain. We have an opportunity to put forward new policy solutions to the American people that can both lower costs and make real progress on climate change. Because again clean energy IS affordable energy. It's the cheapest and fastest way to add energy to the grid, and it reduces our emissions at the same time."

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