Trump Treasury Pick Disputes Dem Argument U.S. Is in Clean Energy 'Arms Race'

Treasury Secretary nominee Scott Bessent on Thursday disputed Sen. Ron Wyden’s (D-OR) argument that America is in a clean energy “arms race” with China, charging that China is projected to build 100 coal fired plants this year.

Wyden asked Bessent during a Senate Finance Committee hearing about the incoming Trump administration’s efforts to repeal much of the Inflation Reduction Act, a bill that was first marketed as a measure to reduce spending, but even President Joe Biden admitted the legislation was wrongly named, referring to it as the “most significant climate change law ever.”

“Now, there is a big effort in the Trump administration to reverse it. I think that’s going to be bad for the economy, but it is going to be damn good for China, because we are in an arms race with them,” Wyden said. The Oregon Democrat proceeded to ask if Bessent would be a party to unraveling the $700 billion climate change bill.

The Treasury nominee said:

Sen. Wyden, just so we can frame this for everyone in the room, China will build a 100 new coal plants this year. There is not a clean energy race, there is an energy race. China will build ten nuclear plants this year, that is not solar. I am in favor of building more nuclear plants and I would note that the IRA, as scored by the CBO, is wildly out of control of spending on the upside.

Wyden said he was “very troubled” by Bessent’s opposition to the Inflation Reduction Act.

The Inflation Reduction Act, among other things:

• Allows Medicare to negotiate the price of drugs
• Extends enhanced Obamacare subsidies for three years, which would cost $64 billion
• Reduces the deficit by $300 billion
• Increases taxes while America just entered a recession
• Boosts funding for the IRS by $80 billion, which would make the agency larger than the Pentagon, State Department, FBI, and Border Patrol combined
• Creates hundreds of billions of dollars in green energy slush funds for the federal government to dole out
• Contains budget gimmicks and fake offsets that mask the true cost of the bill

An updated Penn Budget Model analysis in August 2022 found that the bill would only reduce inflation by 0.1 percent over five years. The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) found similar results.