Key Vote NO on H.R. 4521

The American Energy Alliance urges all members to oppose H.R. 4521 the vehicle for the America COMPETES Act. While some parts of this legislation, especially those focused on China’s human rights violations, may be laudable, the larger package hijacks these important issues in an attempt to jam through significant green spending that could not pass through the normal legislative process.

The billions of dollars for the so-called Green Climate Fund are especially egregious. US taxpayer dollars should not be going to a global environmental slush fund that will be used to fuel corruption and anti-energy policies around the world. The subsidies for solar manufacturing included in the legislation recall the most wasteful parts of the 2009 stimulus when billions of dollars were thrown at uncompetitive sham companies like Solyndra. Other provisions would encourage the export of some of America’s most harmful environmental policies to other countries. In those countries as in the US, the harms of these policies fall hardest on the poor, who can least afford the higher energy costs that these environmental policies cause.

Legislation ostensibly about competition with China should not be hijacked by green ideology. The AEA urges all members to support free markets and affordable energy by voting NO on H.R. 4521. AEA will include this vote in its American Energy Scorecard.