Senate Republicans on Wednesday voted down an effort from their Democratic colleagues to overturn President Trump’s energy emergency declaration.
The resolution was unlikely to ever become law, but came as a messaging tool for Democrats who oppose the Trump administration’s energy agenda, which has largely consisted of bolstering fossil fuels and nuclear energy while blocking renewable energy.
“President Trump told Big Oil donors that if they cut a $1 billion check to his campaign, he’d give them everything they want on day one of his presidency. Then, within hours of his inauguration, he declared a sham ‘energy emergency’ to put his thumb on the scale for those donors and hamstring other affordable energy sources,” said Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) in a written statement, referring to Trump’s request that the industry give $1 billion to his campaign and a report that he told them it would be a “deal” to do so.
“It turns out Trump himself is the energy emergency — energy prices are through the roof and hundreds of thousands of good-paying clean energy jobs are in serious jeopardy because of federal funding he yanked,” he added.
The White House criticized the Democrats’ effort.
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“President Trump is restoring American energy dominance to fuel economic prosperity and lower costs for all Americans. Only the radical Democrats could oppose this commonsense policy effort,” spokesperson Liz Huston said in an email.
On his first day in office, Trump declared a national emergency in regards to energy as part of an effort to unlock additional tools to jump-start energy production.
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Since that time, he has sought to use emergency powers to approve more power stations for artificial intelligence, fast-track fossil fuels and mining on public lands and expedite hundreds of projects.
However, the administration has also taken steps to hamper renewable energy development.
