During a House Oversight Committee hearing before the congressional recess, Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-CO) questioned witnesses about the consequences of the Inflation Reduction Act.
00:02Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and thank you for being here to our witnesses.
00:05I just want to start by saying that the Inflation Reduction Act, the idea of it creating jobs is a myth.
00:14This is something from the federal government, and it's actually destroying our grid,
00:19and it's harming every American with inflation and less economic opportunity.
00:26The IRA is actually diverting investments to uncompetitive businesses and jobs.
00:33These businesses cannot compete in our market.
00:37It's literally one side of the government choosing winners and losers,
00:41and we are paying millions for EB jobs that pay less than the national average.
00:47The IRA disproportionately benefits China by increasing the demand for Chinese companies,
00:53and they really dominate the solar and wind supply chains
00:57and directly subsidize Chinese-owned solar and wind projects operating in the U.S.
01:05So I just wanted to clear that up.
01:06It was never about reducing inflation.
01:08The American people were lied to.
01:10It was an Inflation Expansion Act, not reduction.
01:13But on to our witnesses, Dr. McBride, do you know how much CBO originally said
01:20how much the Inflation Reduction Act would cost in renewable subsidies?
01:26Yes, in total, including the tax side and the spending side, $370 billion for the climate programs.
01:33$370 billion, as we are over $36 trillion in debt.
01:38And we know that the original estimates weren't correct that we were given.
01:44So what is the real cost of the green energy tax credits?
01:49Well, the credits alone, that was about $270 billion originally estimated,
01:54now looks to be about $1 trillion or $1.2 trillion when you include the interactions with regulations
02:02like the tailpipe rules.
02:04Absolutely incredible.
02:05Mr. Lieberman, these renewable energy tax credits will cost the American people
02:11approximately up to $4.6 trillion by the year 2050.
02:15Will the green energy sources by themselves support the current energy requirements of the United States?
02:24I don't know if I'd go as far as some people who say they're parasitic energy sources.
02:29That might be a little too far.
02:30But we know that wind and solar are just not available 24-7.
02:34There will always have to be a need for other energy sources to make sure that we have reliable electricity.
02:40And policies like those in the Inflation Reduction Act make it very hard to ensure reliability.
02:46Absolutely.
02:46And I think there are many of us here who are for that all-of-the-above energy approach.
02:50But it's when we're subsidizing and promoting China, lifting them up, using the American tax dollars to pay for this.
02:57That's where we have a problem with it.
03:00Mr. Lieberman, given the growing demand for power in the U.S., what are the unintended risks to our electric grid that we're facing with these displacing proven energy methods?
03:14Well, the North American Electric Reliability Corporation, or NERC, just recently released their summer assessment.
03:23They're warning about potential blackouts in the U.S. and North America over the summer.
03:28And they specifically mention times of low wind and solar.
03:33They also mentioned bringing coal offline and not replacing it with anything that's as reliable.
03:40And having followed these NERC studies for a number of years, their warnings are getting stronger and stronger.
03:46And the links that they're drawing to wind and solar are also being stronger and stronger.
03:52This is real.
03:53We saw in Spain and Portugal very serious blackouts.
03:56They're being studied.
03:57We don't have definitive answers yet, but those are two countries with a lot of wind and solar.
04:05We can't draw conclusions yet, but there's some real reliability risks.
04:10Yes, and their energy sources are unreliable.
04:14And that's why we've seen it in California.
04:16We've certainly seen brownouts there.
04:18In Colorado, they've begun to shut down our coal-fired energy plants.
04:22And they want to stop mining the coal, arguably the cleanest coal in the world right there in Colorado.
04:29And our communities are being regulated into poverty because of it.
04:33But this so-called Inflation Reduction Act, it's a disaster for our energy and the costs and the economy.
04:42It's really this act is what has caused so many problems in increased energy prices.
04:49It was a shameful boondoggle, and it's pushing this unreliable sources, wind and solar, while taxing our dependable oil and gas.
05:00So I want to thank the witnesses for being here, and I yield.
