Jeff Duncan

Mr. DUNCAN

Mr. DUNCAN. Madam Speaker, I want to thank the gentleman from Georgia, and he was one of the first members of the House Energy Action Team. He comes from the Energy and Commerce Committee, working with me alongside some others on the HEAT team. I want to applaud Whip Scalise for allowing the House Energy Action Team to be reformulated, give us a chance to talk, communicate directly with the American people about American energy renaissance, American energy issues. I would like to recognize the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Olson). Before I do, I will say that one of the biggest honors I have had in my life came this year when Governor Abbott made me an honorary Texan. So I am proud to stand alongside my fellow Texan, Pete Olson from Texas, to talk about what is going on in the great State there. Madam Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Olson).

Mr. DUNCAN. Madam Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Olson) for being here tonight. We hear a lot about the Green New Deal. That proposal is based solely on solar, wind, and hydropower in an effort to drastically cut carbon emissions across the country. In my State of South Carolina, we have seven reactors that produce 95 percent of the State's emission-free electricity, 53 percent of our total electricity costs. I want to show a graph really quickly before I introduce the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Allen). This graphic shows the magnitude of one nuclear reactor and compares the capacity factors of one reactor, rated at 1,154 megawatts, to wind turbines. To match one reactor, it takes 2,077 windmills. Yes, there are 2,077 windmills on this graph, and 2,077 would be needed. Think about the amount of acreage that it would take just to put the windmills up to meet the electricity generated from one nuclear reactor. I mentioned earlier the State of Georgia is building the only nuclear reactor being built in this country right now, and that is down at Vogtle in Augusta, Georgia. Madam Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Allen), from Augusta, and I am sure he is going to talk about nuclear energy.

Mr. DUNCAN. Madam Speaker, I appreciate the gentleman's comments, and I thank him for leading the group down to look at that nuclear reactor. Madam Speaker, it was cold this winter up in Michigan. Had it not been for fossil fuels, a lot of folks would have had a hard time. Madam Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Michigan (Mr. Walberg) to talk about his role on the Energy and Commerce Committee and here on the House Energy Action Team.

Mr. DUNCAN. Madam Speaker, America watching tonight will see that we have got a lot of great leaders in Congress that understand energy, and they come from a lot of different States. The State of Arkansas produces oil, produces coal, produces a lot of biomass, and produces hydroelectric. They also produce a lot of ducks. I enjoy going to Arkansas and hunting. Madam Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Arkansas (Mr. Hill) to talk about what is going on in his great State.

Mr. DUNCAN. Madam Speaker, I thank all of the members of the House Energy Action Team for coming to the floor tonight and communicating with the American people about the American energy renaissance. When our constituents think about cost of energy, a lot of times their first thoughts are transportation fuel. How much is it going to cost them to fill up the tank? Is there going to be enough money left over after their transportation fuel costs to feed the family, buy groceries, maybe do improvements, and other things that American families spend money on. But one of the factors in energy cost is what you pay for that electricity and what do our manufacturers pay for that electricity? Where does that electricity get generated? And, most importantly, will it be a 24-7, 365-day baseload power supply always on, available when they want to manufacture that next BMW in Greer, South Carolina, or that next Boeing aircraft in Charleston, or the next component that goes in one of those manufactured all over the country. We take for granted in this Nation that we do have a 24-7, 365-day baseload power supply always on, and it is transmitted over tremendous infrastructure, but that infrastructure needs to be improved. We need pipelines to transfer and transmit the natural gas that is being produced and the oil that is being produced in places like Texas, Louisiana, Arkansas, and Oklahoma. But also the wind power that is generated wherever wind is generated and solar power wherever solar power is generated, there has to be transmission lines to get that power to the grid so that it can be used. So as we have the conversation in America about all of the above--and one thing the House Energy Action Team is about is all of the above; we like wind, solar, and hydro, it is all groovy--but we know what works, and that is nuclear power and that is hydro and fossil fuels, supplemented by the alternative fuels that are coming online. We have got the GrayMatter innovators and entrepreneurs in this country to meet some of the things that Mr. Hill talked about: the battery capacity. And that is there to store that power to be used when needed, when it is generated by wind and solar. It is intermittent to store that power, it's generated when the Sun is shining and generated when the wind is blowing, and it is stored to be used at night or when the wind isn't blowing. Nuclear power always runs, and natural gas always runs. These are components of this debate that we need to talk about. Madam Speaker, I appreciate Members of the House Energy Action Team coming to the floor and talking with America with so much passion about American energy to meet the needs of our constituents, but at an affordable price that helps our constituents meet their budgets. General Leave

Mr. DUNCAN. Madam Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous material on the topic of this Special Order.

Mr. DUNCAN. Madam Speaker, I appreciate the opportunity for this Special Order, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. DUNCAN

Mr. DUNCAN. Madam Chair, I rise in favor of the Chabot amendment. Our country faces serious threats around the globe. We have cyber threats coming from China, Russia, and Iran, and others. Iran is also pursuing nuclear weapons that threaten our friends and our ally, Israel, and indeed the rest of the world. While ISIS is defeated and on the run, radical islamic terrorism remains one of our Nation's greatest threats, thanks in part to Iran's actions as a leading state sponsor of terrorism. It is, therefore, extremely irresponsible to take our attention and resources off of these known and proven threats to American national security and divert those funds and attention to climate change. The intelligence community, which is tasked with protecting Americans from fiscal and cyberattacks, should not bear the burden of silly, politically correct, left-wing social policy. But just as Democrats politicized military policy with the NDAA, here they go again with the intelligence policy. That is a mistake, it is irresponsible, and that is why I support this amendment to strip out this silly idea and refocus the intelligence community on the actual threats to our national security. Madam Chair, I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. DUNCAN

Mr. DUNCAN. Mr. Chair, I have an amendment at the desk.

Mr. DUNCAN. Mr. Chairman, I rise today to offer a commonsense amendment that will allow the Department of Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson to restore the longstanding, scientific definition of gender as it relates to federally subsidized same-sex housing. The underlying legislation strips the Secretary of that power, and my commonsense amendment simply gives it back to him. I ask the House to support my amendment, and I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. DUNCAN. Mr. Chairman, I yield 2 minutes to the gentlewoman from Missouri (Mrs. Hartzler), chairwoman of the House Values Action Team.

Mr. DUNCAN. Mr. Chairman, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Roy).

Mr. DUNCAN. Mr. Chair, I ask my colleagues to support this amendment. It is important that we give the Secretary the ability to set this definition. I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. DUNCAN. Mr. Chair, I have an amendment at the desk.

Mr. DUNCAN. Mr. Chairman, I rise today to offer another commonsense amendment that will allow the Department of Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson to restore the longstanding and scientific definition of gender as it relates to federally subsidized same-sex homeless shelters. The underlying legislation strips the Secretary of that power, and my commonsense amendment simply gives it back to him. By doing this, we are working to protect at-risk homeless women and children in the shelters. I ask the House to support the amendment, and I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. DUNCAN. Mr. Chairman, I yield 2 minutes to the gentlewoman from Missouri (Mrs. Hartzler), who heads up the Values Action Team which is an important voice for Americans.

Mr. DUNCAN. Mr. Chairman, I want to thank the gentleman for his Freudian slip because he knows we shouldn't allow men in the bathrooms with our female children. Mr. Chairman, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Roy).

Mr. DUNCAN. Mr. Chairman, I want to thank my colleagues for joining me on this. We all know that many of the homeless on our streets have mental issues, but my colleagues on the other side of the aisle are okay with allowing those homeless men in the bathrooms with our female children, and that is just wrong. Mr. Chairman, this is a commonsense amendment. I ask my colleagues to support it, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. DUNCAN. Mr. Chairman, I demand a recorded vote.

Mr. DUNCAN

Mr. DUNCAN. Mr. Chair, I rise in opposition to the amendment.

Mr. DUNCAN. This amendment I am speaking in opposition to is actually shortsighted. We have been producing oil and gas offshore all over the country on the Outer Continental Shelf for a very long time. We can do it safely. I believe the ones who don't want to see the areas mentioned in this amendment opened up for offshore leasing really just don't want fossil fuel development. We are in an energy renaissance in this country where we are finding more oil and gas, to the point that we are now a net exporter of oil and a net exporter of gas. That means we are producing more in this country than we are using in this country, so we have a surplus. We are able to help our friends and allies around the world, in Europe, to lessen their dependence on Russian gas. Shutting down the opportunity to explore on the Outer Continental Shelf in these areas is really not wanting to find out what is out there. What harm does it do to look, to begin the seismic work, to find out what may be off the coast of the great State of South Carolina? Recently, they just found, off the coast of Suriname and Guyana, 32 trillion cubic feet of natural gas by using 21st-century, 3D seismic technology. If we allowed the seismic work to happen in these areas that y'all are wanting to exclude from energy exploration, we might find 32 trillion, 50 trillion cubic feet of natural gas. Then the Southeast is playing in the energy renaissance in this country. I think this is shortsighted. What harm does it do to look, to allow these areas to be opened for exploration and then, ultimately, production to help meet the energy needs of this Nation and others around the world going forward? Mr. Chair, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. DUNCAN. Mr. Chair, I have seen, in the Natural Resources Committee, when I was there years ago, where fear tactics were used, saying that whales and other sea mammals, dolphins, would be killed because of the seismic work. We had the chief biologist from BOEM say not a single marine mammal has ever been harmed in the exploration and seismic work that we have done all over the globe, off the coast of the Falklands, in the Mediterranean, off the coast of Africa. These fear tactics of oil spills and things are just shortsighted on meeting our energy needs, and the gentleman from Arizona gets that. Mr. Chair, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Arizona (Mr. Gosar).

Mr. DUNCAN. Mr. Chair, I would urge my colleagues to defeat this amendment because I think it is shortsighted. There are States that want to play in the energy matrix. They want to play in the renaissance. They want to, hopefully, experience a 37.5 percent revenue-sharing back to the State. Hopefully, they can experience the jobs that are created in the oil and gas industry that is an economic boom, not only for the State coffers through tax revenue but also with the jobs that are created in those communities. Mr. Chair, I would urge my colleagues to defeat this amendment, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. DUNCAN. Mr. Chairman, I rise as the immediate past chairman of the Congressional Sportsman's Caucus, the largest bipartisan caucus in the United States Congress, both Republicans and Democrats, and I agree with what the gentleman from Alaska just said. Hunters have conserved more acres and protected more animals all across the globe than many in this Chamber. I realize we are an urban Nation, that we are having more representation from urban areas and we have gotten away from our days of hunting and fishing and understanding the role that the hunter plays in conservation, but, as the gentleman from Alaska said, we are going to tell other countries that they can't allow hunting because we are going to shut off the ability of the American hunter to bring certain trophies back. These folks live with 5-ton animals that are damaging their crops, a whole season's worth of crops in one single night. Elephants are dangerous. Ultimately, if you take the hunter out of that situation, the hunter is paying with his hard-earned dollars, not your tax dollars, his money. Mr. Chair, I urge my colleagues to defeat this amendment.

Mr. DUNCAN. Madam Chair, I have an amendment at the desk.