Martin Heinrich, who is ranking member on the U.S. Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources, announced yesterday that he is formally challenging the Trump Administration’s energy emergency declaration.
Virginia Senator Tim Kaine, at the same announcement, said that he and Heinrich will take the rare procedural step of challenging President Trump’s declaration, calling it a “complete sham.”
Trump declared the energy emergency on his first day in office, calling for a push to generate more energy from oil, gas, coal, and other non-renewable sources, while shutting down wind and other green energy initiatives.
Both Kaine and Heinrich said the declaration was a promise made to oil and gas companies during the campaign and that last year was an all-time record for fossil fuel production in the United States.
Heinrich said it was a banner year for non-renewable energy production and job creation as well.
“ We've created a juggernaut. When you look at a grid that had 95% of its generation last year come from non-carbon sources, that means the market has spoken," said Heinrich.
"How much damage they can do in the next four years, I think that's an open question, but this industry—it is not going away. And we're going to do everything we can to fight to make sure we keep those jobs and we keep people's electric rates as low as possible.”
The New Mexico senator said that maximizing non-carbon sources of energy is particularly important as the demand for energy skyrockets.
“It's been decades since we've seen surging demand in this country," said Heinrich.
"But because of AI, because of data centers, because of the electrification of large parts of our economy, we have enormous demand. And the cheapest, fastest solutions are the clean solutions. If you take those off the table, everything else gets very expensive, very fast.”
Heinrich and Kaine said there would be a senate floor debate on their challenge to the energy emergency declaration by next Friday.
