- 6/11/2025
Senate Democrats held a press briefing on Wednesday on the Republican Big Beautiful Bill.
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00:00Markey in Blount, Rochester. Is she here? On her way. On her way. We have Tiernan Sittenfeld of the League of Conservation Voters,
00:11Dean Warch of the great IBEW electricians, and Brad Van Wert, the Montana Renewable Energy Coalition.
00:18So I want to thank everybody for being here. Look, one of the greatest accomplishments we had in the last Congress
00:26was getting the best pro-environmental bill ever passed through the Congress and signed into law.
00:34And one of the mainstays of those provisions was tax credits for clean energy, tax credits for wind,
00:42tax credits for solar, tax credits for hydro, you name it. We put it in there to help clean energy grow.
00:52And it was hugely successful. Originally, we estimated it would be about $370 billion would use the tax credits,
01:00but it's now close to a trillion. And solar and wind and clean energy are among the fastest growing energy components.
01:07We say we need more energy in America. The quickest and best way to get it, the cheapest way to get it,
01:14is clean energy, plain and simple. And yet what has happened is this. The House has sent us a bill
01:24that kills the program. This is not just a haircut. This is not just a trim. This is death with a dagger
01:32through the heart by the provisions they put in, in the dark of night, at the last minute.
01:36Most House Republicans didn't even know, didn't even know what was going on. And yet these provisions,
01:46if passed, would basically end clean energy. You all know what they are, but just listen to the,
01:51just listen to the perfidy of this one. If you don't have a new project in the ground 60 days after the
01:58bill passes, you get no credits. If you had any relationship in any way with China, even decades ago,
02:06you get no credits. By all estimates, it would kill the bill. So what does this mean? Why do the
02:10Americans, why does the American people compare, care about this so much? Well, one, it's going to
02:17raise their costs dramatically. And we just got new estimates today. We thought that originally it
02:24would cost Americans about $32 billion on their household energy bills. We've gotten a new estimate
02:30that it's much, much worse, unfortunately, $170 billion. It's the new modeling that has come out
02:37from one of the most respected modelers. Where's Tim? Called? Energy Innovation. And they've been our
02:47lodestar for a long time. A $170 billion to keep your lights on. Isn't that incredible? Electricity bills
02:59would go up more than 10 percent next year. In some states, Republican states, Kansas, Missouri,
03:05South Carolina, they'd go up 15 percent. And if you live in Kentucky, you can pay $860 more a year.
03:12So that's the cost. Second, the jobs. We estimate there are 850,000 clean energy, good-paying jobs
03:22in this bill. Gone. Gone. That's a load of jobs, and about 70 percent of them are in red states. So
03:31this is not a Democratic or Republican issue. This is an American issue. And third, if you wanted to
03:37write a law that surrenders American energy independence to the Chinese Communist Party
03:43and to the Chinese government, this is it. Look no further than this bill. China's gaining in solar,
03:49wants to dominate. If we cut off all solar production, China will dominate. And our children
03:58and grandchildren, and even many of us, will be at China's whim. China will have a grip
04:06on our energy policy. It will be outrageous. Outrageous. And so why did all this happen? How could they be so
04:14bad? The reason they're making these cuts is they want tax breaks for billionaires. It's outrageous.
04:21Outrageous. And a small group in the House led by Chip Roy. These are not even mainstream energy
04:29producers. These are not the Exxons or the Chevrons who have an all-of-the-above policy,
04:33but rather the hard right people who made a fortune hitting oil or gas in the Permian Basin,
04:43the Anadarko Basin, etc. They hate clean energy like a religion. It's not even policy for them.
04:50They hate it like a religion because they know clean energy is the future and fossil fuels are the past.
04:58And soon enough, fossil fuels, just by market mechanisms, will be replaced by clean energy.
05:06I have spent so much time, all 24-7, fighting this since it came out. We're working with unions.
05:14We're working with utilities. We're working with tech companies who know they need more energy for AI.
05:19We're working with everyone we can, the big producers of the jobs, and sending the message out to our
05:28Republican colleagues, change this bill. It's horrible for consumers. It's horrible for jobs.
05:34It's horrible for American independence with China. We're going to fight this, fight this, fight this,
05:40and believe we have a good chance of succeeding in at least modifying and maybe even killing
05:46the awful provisions in the House bill. With that, let me call on Senator Whitehouse.
05:53Thank you, Chuck. And let me thank Chuck Schumer for the intensity of his leadership
06:02on this issue. When he says that he and his team are on this 24-7, he is not kidding. And it's a New
06:08York 24-7. It's a hardworking 24-7. So I'm really grateful for the effort that Team Schumer is putting in.
06:18We have to face the fact that the anti-clean energy provisions of this bill are the product of
06:24corruption run amok. In the wake of Citizens United, the fossil fuel industry succeeded at a hostile
06:34takeover of the Republican Party. And now owning all three branches, Senate, House, and all the
06:41political branches and the White House, they have essentially gone berserk. The problem that they
06:50ignore is that after 15 years of blocking clean energy legislation, bipartisan clean energy legislation,
07:00that could have solved this problem, we're now under the era of consequences. We're into the
07:06consequences that the scientists predicted 20, 30, 40 years ago. It is happening now. And it is happening
07:14first in insurance and mortgage markets. Look no further than the meltdown in Florida. So in addition
07:23to the $170 billion increase in electric bills, in addition to the loss of millions of jobs, there is
07:32also this looming catastrophe as insurance and mortgage markets melt down in the face of climate upheaval.
07:43It's not just me who is saying this. Fed Chair Powell came to the Banking Committee just six weeks ago to say
07:5310 to 15 years, 10 to 15 years, whole regions of the country, no mortgages left because of this problem.
08:00The chief economist for Freddie Mac has been warning for years of the climate meltdown, leads to insurance
08:06meltdown, leads to mortgage meltdown, leads to property values crash, leads to recession. He started
08:13saying that about coastal risk that Eddie Markey and I face, particularly up in New England. But now you got the
08:20the wildfire risk that they're seeing in Montana that is just as severe to set this cascade in motion.
08:31So there is an enormous, enormous storm ahead of us. And any good captain should pay attention to
08:42real warnings of real storms. And we're not paying attention because of the influence of the fossil fuel
08:51industry. And the cost to American consumers will be extremely, extremely grave. With that,
08:57I think I turn it over to Eddie Markey. Beautiful. Thank you, Sheldon. My New England colleague.
09:03Thank you, Sheldon. And thank you for all of your great work. I want to thank Chuck as well. Chuck is
09:11spending so much time and energy on this. He's become like a perpetual motion machine. But by the way,
09:20it's clean energy and you would qualify for the tax break as a new energy source. That's how much energy
09:29you have thrown into this effort, Chuck. So we thank you for everything that you are doing. A couple of
09:36numbers. One, last year in the United States, 94% of all new installed electrical generation capacity was
09:46wind, solar and batteries. Let me repeat that. In 2024, in the United States of America, 94% of all new
09:55installed electrical generation capacity was wind, solar and battery, meaning the revolution is on.
10:05It's working. It's creating jobs by the hundreds of thousands all across our country. Union jobs,
10:13jobs, IBEW jobs, jobs for workers who have not just jobs, but careers for the next generation in
10:24installing this clean energy future for our country. The Republicans are planning on gutting all these
10:36tax breaks. That's what came out of the House of Representatives. Why are they doing it? They're
10:41doing it for the natural gas industry. The natural gas industry wants to kill the offshore wind industry
10:50because that will provide a source of electricity all along the East Coast, Rhode Island, Massachusetts,
10:57New York, all the way down to Virginia. Even as we have the tax breaks that will wind up with an
11:03installation of all of those new energy sources. The AI industry, by some estimates, is going to lead
11:11to a doubling of the electricity demand in our country over the next 10 years. We're going to
11:17need wind and solar. We're going to need battery storage technologies for the future. Otherwise,
11:23if the natural gas industry has its way, we will only have natural gas and there won't be enough of it
11:30because they are now exporting massive amounts of it overseas in LNG. And the prices for consumers
11:38are going to spike. They're going to continue to rise and rise and rise because of that fossil fuel
11:45agenda. So what we need is we need the jobs by the hundreds of thousands and eventually millions
11:53that will be created. And there'll be union jobs. We need the reduction in greenhouse gases because as
12:00Senator Whitehouse said, the planet's running a fever. There are no emergency rooms for planets. We have to
12:06put the preventative care in place or else it will be unlivable in many parts of our country. And third,
12:13we must honor our obligation to the next generation of young people. They should not have to bear the
12:21responsibility of what this generation did. So that's the responsibility which we have. And we just have
12:29to make sure we discharge it. And we're going to try to find Republicans. We're going to work with Republicans
12:34on a common sense basis because 80 percent of all of the funding so far has gone to red states.
12:42Eighty percent of the jobs. Eighty percent of the funding. And I think common sense solutions can be
12:46found. And that is what we are trying to accomplish. Now let me turn and introduce our great senator,
12:54Lisa Blunt Rochester from Delaware. Thank you, Senator. Good afternoon, everyone. Thank you,
13:02Leader Schumer and to my colleagues and our ranking member White House. I'm a member of the Environment
13:08and Public Works Committee. And so I am grateful to be here. But I'm also a member of the Health
13:13Committee, Health, Education, Labor and Pensions. And I think this bill really does encompass
13:20everything that we deal with, whether it's health care or whether it's the economy or whether it's our
13:26environment. And I want to just take one moment to pause and think about the historic passage of the
13:35Inflation Reduction Act. The people behind me and around us help make that possible. Investments that
13:43really do touch each and every one of us and prepare us for the future. And so what this fight is about,
13:50let me be blunt, that's my name, let me be blunt, what this fight is really about, it is about people,
14:00our constituents who are writing into us and saying, my energy costs are too high. We fought to get energy
14:08efficiency and things in that bill that would lower the cost of goods for people, but also lower their
14:16energy costs. This bill is bad for people. This bill is bad for people who are trying to live their
14:23purpose and who are working incredible jobs. Labor, jobs, Delaware is in the house. That's right.
14:34Matter of fact, my name is Lisa Blunt Rochester. Matter of fact, we always say you can't spell labor
14:39without LBR. Labor. This is about jobs. Hundreds of thousands of jobs are at risk because of this big, bad bill.
14:52This bill is also about our planet. Without the planet, it is all a moot point. What are we talking about?
15:00And so the message is very simple. We want people to know that across the spectrum,
15:09across party lines, this bill is bad for the American people. And I am, I don't think I knew
15:18he was coming to the press conference here. But I'm going to point out our former chairman,
15:26Senator Tom Carper from the great state of Delaware, who worked hard to ensure that we pass that
15:32historic investment in our, our, our planet and our climate and in our jobs and our economy.
15:39And I will again, just close with, um, these are uncertain times. Um,
15:48but I stand here, not just as the former secretary of labor under Tom Carper,
15:53not just as a member of the environment and public works committee, but also as a mother and a
15:58grandmother. We are fighting for our planet. We are fighting for our people. We are fighting for
16:07jobs because this moment demands it. And so my message to you is kill this bill.
16:14Well done. All right. Next we have Tiernan Sittenfeld of LCV, League of Conservation Voters.
16:23Thank you so much, Leader Schumer. Thank you, Senators Whitehouse, Markey and Lisa Blunt,
16:28Rochester. And of course, I don't know if he's still here, but thank you, Senator Carper,
16:31for your incredible leadership. We are really honored to be here with you today on this very hot day.
16:37It's hot summer day in the nation's capital. I am Tiernan Sittenfeld with the League of Conservation
16:42Voters and also really glad to be here with many colleagues, organizers and advocates and activists
16:47from the Climate Action Campaign, from Climate Power, from other environmental organizations,
16:52of course, with our friends in labor. And we are also here to say, kill this bill. This House passed
17:00abomination of a bill is lose, lose, lose for the American people. It is bad for families. It is bad for
17:08workers. It is bad for businesses. It is bad for states across the country. And it is bad for the
17:14planet. Why? All for the sake of massive tax breaks for billionaires. This big, ugly bill would kill jobs.
17:23It would raise energy costs on families and businesses already struggling. It would hurt the
17:29reliability of the grid and threaten our air, our water, our lands and our health with more pollution.
17:35Senator Schumer referenced the new analysis from Energy Innovation that is just out today that
17:41shows that this big, ugly bill will kill 840,000 clean energy jobs by 2030 and another 790,000 jobs by 2035.
17:53That is staggering. That is horrifying. That is absolutely unacceptable. He also, of course,
17:58mentioned the total costs on American families and their energy bills. That would boil down to the
18:04average annual household energy bill for families going up $262. In some states, it would be much,
18:11much higher. People cannot afford this. We cannot afford this. At a time when we are all worried
18:17about rising energy costs, we simply cannot afford to ban clean energy. We cannot stop people from making
18:26their own clean energy choices. Now is the time to produce more clean energy, not less to drive down
18:34these costs. I also want to note that eliminating these clean energy investments would leave the
18:39electric grid weaker and more vulnerable at a time when we need it most. We have all seen what happens
18:45because of the climate crisis getting worse. From severe heat to ice storms to other extreme weather,
18:51thousands of people then lose power. People's lives are put at risk and businesses lose millions of
18:57dollars. So now more than ever, we need to protect these clean energy investments that are already
19:04creating good paying jobs, saving people money and protecting our health, our air, our water,
19:10our lands and so much more. So thank you again for the incredible leadership of all these senators. And now I
19:15am so happy to turn it to Dean Warsh from IBEW and let's kill this big, ugly bill.
19:23Before Dean takes over, the IBEW, I want to say two things. One, the IBEW has been great in so many
19:30of the states mobilizing their workers. But second, I just want to convey through you the condolences.
19:39I called Kenny Cooper last night. He's the great leader of the IBEW and he lost his mom.
19:43Thank you Senator Schumer and everyone for inviting me here to speak on behalf of the 860,000
19:53highly skilled electrical workers of the IBEW. The saying goes, we keep the lights on,
19:59but the IBEW does much more than that. Whether it's power plants or power lines, solar panels or the
20:06Super Bowl, the IBEW is committed to keeping the country running, often in the most fundamentally
20:12dangerous jobs there are. IBEW members belong to a long history of providing electricity we rely on.
20:20They have been at the forefront of every energy revolution since the dawn of electricity,
20:25including the one transforming our country today. Clean energy is the only way to meet skyrocketing demand
20:33for electricity we are facing. Estimates show a staggering 25% more electricity needed in the
20:41next 10 years and up to 80% more by 2050. What's driving this surge? One of the items we probably
20:49use this week or this morning, AI. Depending on who you ask, ChatGPT uses anywhere from 5 to 10 times the
20:58energy of a standard Google search. This is transforming how we use and how we create electricity.
21:06Solar fields, wind turbines, and data centers of the size of football fields are popping up
21:12all over this country. Investing in every form of domestic clean energy is how we establish energy
21:19security so we can answer the demands of the 21st century without depending on America's adversaries.
21:25But the current version of the GOP tax bill shuts down this much needed development,
21:31canceling a half a trillion dollars in private investments. This will wipe out over 2 million jobs
21:38nationwide and tens of thousands of good IBEW jobs. Family sustaining, community building, economy
21:47boosting union jobs. These investments in Americans are what we are talking about. Regular,
21:55hard-working Americans that were cut out of the tax bill to make room for tax breaks for the rich.
22:01It just doesn't add up unless you're a billionaire. For the rest of America, this bill is a direct
22:08assault on good jobs their communities can't survive without. Right now, just the threat of gutting the IRA
22:15tax credits has paused billions in project investments that were already underway. These tax credits are more
22:23than just policy. They are investments in working families, climate resilience, and our future as a
22:30nation. Holding onto these investments is just common sense. They have already sparked historic job growth,
22:37putting skilled workers like IBEW members in careers that build life-changing generational stability that all
22:45Americans deserve. Cutting these tax credits will shrink the number of young people who benefit from good
22:51union careers. It'll shrink paychecks of the workers who build our cities and our towns. And it will shrink
22:58the local economies of those same communities. Every project that is abandoned because of this bill is a good
23:05job cut short, a retirement delayed, and a future held back for the benefit of billionaires who do not need
23:13Congress's help. But working Americans do. And thankfully, it's not too late for responsible leadership. Defending
23:22these tax credits is how the Senate can protect the voters that elected them, preserve the progress that's
23:28already underway, and demonstrate with their action that their priority is the American worker. Thank you.
23:35Thank you, Dean. Our last speaker is Brad Van Wert of the Montana Renewable Energy Association. Brad.
23:43Thank you, Senator. Thank you for having us here today. And as we've heard, we're talking about clean energy,
23:48but what we're really talking about is more energy in a time when we need every electron we can find.
23:54Distributed generation and solar projects are some of the quickest to come online,
23:58and that's incredibly important at this time right now. What we need to do in Montana, our industry
24:03represents a thousand good-paying careers, and many of those are on the chopping block overnight,
24:08if this bill were to pass. We need to protect those jobs. This industry is part of the fabric of
24:13Montana's economy. It affects not just our careers and workers, but also it affects engineers and architects
24:20and all of the other people working adjacent to this industry. And the jobs that we're creating,
24:25the careers that we are training into, they are there to build out America's energy future now
24:30and our future tomorrow. So we need to protect these jobs, and we need to do the best that we
24:35can to ensure that we have this strong, resilient industry today and in our future. Thank you.
24:40Thank you, Brad.
24:41We'll take questions on this subject only, because we've got to hurry. Yes, yes, and yes. That's it.
24:50Thank you, Peter. Have you gotten any commitments, anything concrete from Chair Crapo or anybody else on the Senate Republican side?
24:58Yeah. We have a group, some of whom are here at East Park. All the people who are here are part
25:03of it, of seven or eight Democrats who are talking to their Republican colleagues who they have close
25:08relationships with. We have the unions talking to a lot of the folks. We have the energy providers
25:15talking to the folks, the clean energy companies. And we're getting some vibes that people realize
25:19this bill went too far. And we're hoping they can all go together to John Thune and to Crapo and say,
25:26change it. We can't be for it the way it is. Yes.
25:29Yeah, I put a similar question, you know, seeing Senator Curtis and Silverstein,
25:33you don't have to touch with him. Are there other Republican senators?
25:36We have a list of 11, of 16 Republican senators who have shown some discomfort with this. And
25:43that's the main group we're focused on. It's much more than the two of them. Yes, last one.
25:49Yes. Can you talk a little bit, I think you had a question, can you talk a little bit about your
25:55plans? Yeah, the industry folks are aligned with us. Many of them are on the other side of the
26:02aisle. Many of them are just business leaders who are nonpolitical, but they know how damaging
26:06this will be to their own companies, to their own employment. So they fanned out yesterday,
26:12not with Democrats, we're all against this proposal, but with Republicans. And I spoke to a
26:17couple of the people, their leaders of places, you know, like Duke and Southern, and they were getting
26:23good vibes, no commitments, but good vibes. We're going to keep at this and keep at this and keep at
26:28this until we get change. Thank you, everybody. Appreciate my colleagues coming.