Treasury Secretary nominee Scott Bessent on Thursday disputed claims by Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) that the U.S. is in a clean energy “arms race” with China, saying China will increase coal production this year. He criticized the expected construction of 100 thermal power plants.
During a Senate Finance Committee hearing, Wyden asked Bessent about the incoming Trump administration's efforts to repeal much of the anti-inflation law, which was initially touted as a spending cut, but President Joe Biden also He acknowledged that the name of the bill was incorrect. He called it “the most important climate change law in history.”
“There's a big effort now in the Trump administration to reverse that. I think it's bad for the economy, but it's going to be very good for China, because we're not in an arms race with China. “Because we have,” Wyden said. The Oregon Democratic Party asked whether Mr. Bessent would participate in unraveling the $700 billion climate change bill.
The Treasury nominee said:
Senator Wyden, I want to remind everyone in this room that China plans to build 100 new coal-fired power plants this year. There is not a clean energy competition, there is an energy competition. China plans to build 10 non-solar nuclear power plants this year. I'm in favor of building nuclear power plants, but I would like to note that, as CBO pointed out, the IRA lacks significant control over upward spending.
Wyden said he was “very troubled” by Bessent's opposition to the anti-inflation law.
The Inflation Control Act, inter alia:
- Allow Medicare to negotiate drug prices
- Extending Obamacare subsidy enhancements for three years (costing $64 billion)
- Reduce deficit by $300 billion
- Taxes increased when America was just in recession.
- Increase funding for the IRS by $80 billion, making the IRS larger than the Department of Defense, State Department, FBI, and Border Patrol combined
- Creates hundreds of billions of dollars in green energy slush fund for federal government to donate
- Contains budget gimmicks and fake offsets that hide the real cost of your bill
Penn Budget Model Analysis Updated August 2022 Found The bill would reduce inflation by only 0.1% over five years. Congressional Budget Office (CBO) Found Similar results.
Sean Moran is a policy reporter at Breitbart News. Follow him on X @SeanMoran3.
