Palmer Votes in Favor of Power Plant Reliability Act, Speaks on House Floor
For Immediate Release
Media Contact: Hope Dawson (202) 225-4921
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, Representative Gary Palmer (AL-06) voted in favor of H.R. 3632, the Power Plant Reliability Act. This bill passed by a vote of 222 - 202.
Prior to voting for the Power Plant Reliability Act, Rep. Palmer made the following remarks in favor of the bill on the House floor:
“Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of H.R. 3632 the Power Plant Reliability Act, sponsored by my colleague Rep. Griffith from Virginia’s 9th Congressional District.
H.R. 3632 enhances existing authority under the Federal Power Act to protect the bulk power system from premature retirements of baseload power and ensures more effective long-term planning for our generating resources.
It is no secret that we find ourselves in a reliability and affordability crisis driven by irresponsible decisions to shutter reliable and affordable baseload power plants.
My colleagues on the other side of the aisle claim their positions are based on science, but the problem is that their science is political science that will lead to higher energy costs and less reliability.
Even the head of the National Energy Regulatory Commission (NERC), who is charged with protecting reliability of our nation’s bulk power system, recently called the reliability crisis a ‘five alarm fire.’
This is the path that was laid out by the Biden Administration and Congressional Democrats, pushing their misguided and dangerous political science. Making a bad situation worse, we need significant energy resources to compete in the artificial intelligence arms race with adversarial nations like China. Whoever wins the A.I. arms race will not be A superpower, they will be THE superpower. Manufacturing and industrial processing and A.I. data centers all require affordable and abundant capability that only comes from baseload and dispatchable resources. If these energy intensive industries could run on wind and solar, they would already be doing so.
The Power Plant Reliability Act is another tool in the reliability toolbox for states and grid operators to keep the lights on for households and fuel the next generation economy.
I urge my colleagues to support the legislation, and I yield back.”
Watch Rep. Palmer’s remarks by clicking on the video below.
###