Senate Republicans Kill Effort to Prevent Energy Price Hikes

Washington, D.C. — During the Senate “vote-a-rama” on Thursday night, Sen. Hickenlooper introduced a measure to prevent amendments to the Republican budget resolution that would raise energy costs on Americans — and every Senate Republican voted no.

While introducing the measure Senator John Hickenlooper said: 

“Most of the energy that’s ready to go today is clean and affordable. Any action that blocks the rollout of that will raise prices for working Americans. It’s going to kill jobs and cede complete control of emerging industries to China. The last few years, we’ve passed bills that make historic investments in American-made energy. These bills created more than 400,000 good-paying jobs, and yet, there’s an effort by this administration to trash the progress we’ve made. These actions will balloon energy bills for families, at least $240 a year for working families everywhere… Rather than limiting energy or firing critical government employees, let’s welcome our new energy future — a future marked by resilient energy, built by American innovation to deliver cheaper, more reliable energy for every Coloradan and American.”

Climate Power executive director Lori Lodes issued the following statement: 

“Energy costs are already going up because of Donald Trump’s agenda, and last night, Senate Republicans admitted they plan to make it worse. Trump and his allies aren’t unleashing American energy; they’re just trying to kill the competition for their oil executive donors, and they know the result will be higher prices for all of us. Senate Republicans had a chance to make a straightforward commitment to not raising energy costs, and they voted it down, leaving working families on the hook for even more pain at the pump and higher electricity bills.”

Here are the facts: