Kaine & Heinrich Statement Regarding Republicans’ Rubber-Stamping of Trump’s War on Affordable, American-Made Energy

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, U.S. Senators Tim Kaine (D-VA) and Martin Heinrich (D-NM), the Ranking Member of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, released the following statement after their legislation to terminate the national energy emergency President Donald Trump declared to benefit Big Oil was blocked by Senate Republicans, thereby rubber-stamping Trump’s war on American-made energy that will raise energy costs and kill good-paying jobs:

“The United States is producing more energy than any country in the world at any point in history. If President Trump wants to find the real emergency, he should look in the mirror. His war on American-made energy is yet another Trump mistake that will weaken our economy, raise prices, and kill new, good-paying jobs. And today’s vote goes to show, once again, that Senate Republicans refuse to do their jobs and put the American people above the wish lists of Trump’s donors and billionaire energy tycoons. To our colleagues: don’t say we didn’t warn you when your constituents’ energy bills go through the roof. To the American people: we’re going to keep fighting for you.”

In the hours following his inauguration on January 20, 2025, President Trump signed a slew of executive orders, including the national energy emergency order, to withdraw support for renewable energy—despite its benefits to America’s economy and environment—and grant his administration new powers to promote fossil fuels at the cost of bedrock environmental laws. Specifically, the emergency will benefit Big Oil by giving his unelected cabinet officials the power to oversee the reckless approval of fossil fuel projects, including oil drilling rigs and pipelines, and explore the use of eminent domain to take Americans’ land for the “siting, production, transportation, refining, and generation” of non-solar and non-wind-related energy production.    

Since August 2022, Democrat-led investments have created an American-made energy boom, spurring the highest levels of factory construction in American history, with more than 400,000 new jobs announced across the country. Trump’s war on American-made energy will kill these new jobs and raise families’ annual energy bills by up to 12 percent. That’s $32 billion more in total household energy costs over the next five years.

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