Comer Releases Report on the Biden Administration’s Detrimental Green New Deal Agenda

WASHINGTON – Today, House Committee on Oversight and Accountability Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.) issued a report outlining how the Biden Administration’s Green New Deal energy policies have led to higher gas prices, growing uncertainty in America’s power sector, confusion in the market for new cars and appliances, and a labyrinth of expensive regulatory hurdles which have led to—and will continue to lead to—increased costs for all American consumers and businesses.

“The Biden Administration weaponized the power of the executive branch to wage a war against American-made energy production and cement in place radical, far-left energy policies that jeopardize domestic energy development, overload America’s power grid, and raise costs on all American consumers and businesses,” said Chairman Comer. “From day one, the House Oversight Committee has worked to expose the Biden Administration’s radical climate agenda. The Committee will continue to fulfill its responsibility to hold this Administration accountable for its detrimental Green New Deal policies that are impacting Americans across the country.”

The report, entitled “The Biden Administration’s Green New Deal: Paying More for a Dimmer Future,” details major problems facing critical sectors of the U.S. economy exacerbated by the Biden Administration’s shortsighted energy policies and ongoing failure to recognize the potential of American energy production. In addition, the report highlights the Biden Administration’s whole-of-government regulatory blitz which has slowed opportunities for economic growth and innovation and raised costs at an unprecedented pace.      

Below are key findings from the report:

The disastrous energy policies of the Biden Administration have led to significantly higher gas prices. Gas prices were $2.39 per gallon the day after President Biden took office on January 20, 2021. On February 25, 2022, the day following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the national average for a gallon of gas had already reached $3.57—indicating that gas prices were already sky-high and rising under the Biden Administration despite protestations from President Biden that Russia was solely responsible for domestic fuel inflation. On June 14, 2022, average national gas prices surged to an all-time high, with the price of a gallon of regular unleaded gas reaching $5.016.

The Biden Administration’s whole-of-government avalanche of regulations has imposed over $1 trillion in additional regulatory costs on American businesses and consumers. Since assuming office on January 20, 2021, the Biden Administration has pursued a “whole-of-government” regulatory blowout that has substantially increased costs and added millions of hours of new annual paperwork demands.

While Committee Democrats continue to demonize America’s energy producers in the oil and gas industry, the Biden Administration’s electrification push is rapidly driving up electricity prices for all Americans. The Bureau of Labor Statistics has indicated that over the past year electricity prices have risen faster than the pace of inflation and more so than any other commodity. Sweeping electrification initiatives—such as for electric vehicles (EVs) in the automotive sector—scaling of artificial intelligence utilization, enormous data center expansions, and federal incentivization of onshore manufacturing in the industrial sector, have dramatically increased the demand facing our nation’s electrical grid.

The Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) drastic new emissions rule for America’s fossil fuel-fired powered plants disregards science, policy recommendations, and stakeholder feedback warning that EPA’s actions are neither feasible nor cost-effective. Documents obtained by the Committee show the EPA and this Administration is willfully disregarding the cost and legality of its proposed emissions rule which would jeopardize America’s power grid, raise long-term energy costs, and cement Green New Deal priorities.

Federal subsidies in the Democrats’ Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) will cost taxpayers millions. On March 12, 2024, the Subcommittee on Economic Growth, Energy Policy, and Regulatory Affairs held a hearing featuring testimony from an expert witness who explained how the IRA will distort markets and estimated that IRA production tax credits could cost taxpayers $3 trillion by the year 2050.

Click here to read the report.