At the House Energy Committee markup hearing for the GOP budget reconciliation bill, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) slammed the GOP reconciliation bill.
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00:00I just want us to be clear about the provision ahead of us in front of us
00:07right now. There are plenty of things that seek permitting and that need a
00:13permit whether it's solar energy, wind energy, gas, oil. If you want to
00:19construct something big you need to go through a process of review to seek a
00:24permit. This bill says to oil and gas, to fossil fuel companies and fossil fuel
00:32companies only, you can pay money when health care experts, environmental
00:41experts are saying if you place a pipeline here through this community
00:45people will get cancer, people could get reproductive cancers, people could be
00:53poisoned, people could be exposed to mercury, lead, there could be grave health
00:59and environmental factors, and an oil and gas company can pay ten million dollars
01:08to waive all of that away to be deemed quote in the public interest. Even if that
01:16pipeline is not shown to increase to lower energy costs, even if that pipeline is
01:21shown to to increase health or environmental risk factors. And what
01:27this amendment does, the only thing this amendment is asking us to do is to say
01:34can the inspector general, the watchdog of the Department of Energy, certify that
01:42corruption risks are not increasing to jeopardize the integrity of the
01:47permitting process. This amendment isn't even changing that underlying, very
01:52disturbing provision. This is saying can we certify that there's not a risk of
01:58corruption here. And I am finding that the opposition to this is not really being
02:08stated. Additionally, I think also to the ranking members point, in just just the fact of paying ten million dollars in the
02:16ten million dollars makes it automatically in the public interest alone. And what happens
02:21when that ten million dollars in the public interest then starts to run up
02:26against real environmental health and other risk factors? Which prevent which
02:30public interest prevails? The check? And I want to, you know, I'm interested in the
02:37ranking members thoughts in reading these provisions on the bill. So I'm happy to yield to
02:42you if you have any thoughts on that, Mr. Palom. Well, it literally says, I mean, I've never heard
02:47anything like it, it's so outrageous, that the non-refundable charge shall be deemed in the public interest.
02:55So I don't know how you can read that other than to say that actually paying the fee satisfies the public interest criteria.
03:03So I've never seen that in any piece of legislation in my life where, in other words, what they're saying is, it's in the public interest for you to pay.
03:12It's in the public interest for you to give us a million dollars. That's the public interest.
03:16So will the ranking member yield back? So we're hearing here right now that this bill has carved out a specific industry, not any, not anyone seeking permitting reform, a specific industry, just oil and gas.
03:32To just pay to bypass all of the guardrails, all of the safety, all of any of the rules and guidelines to cite anything responsibly.
03:45And you can just pay money to bypass any concerns around around health risks.
03:54And for some reason, there's no corruption risk there.
03:58I mean, I spent six years on the oversight committee taking on corporate corruption, taking on governmental corruption, including on bipartisan, on a bipartisan basis.
04:09I, too, have never seen anything like this ever.
04:12However, I said on the Natural Resources Committee, saw and heard testimony from tons of people, whether it's from mining, whether it's from any other kinds of exposures, kids with developmental disabilities that can never be recovered.
04:27And all we are asking for is a certification that risks of corruption will not increase from the inspector general under the Trump administration's own Department of Energy.
04:36That's the only thing that's up here today.
04:39And I yield back.
04:40I yield back.
04:41Mr. Chair.
04:41I don't know from California yields back.
04:43Is there.