Secretary of the Treasury nominee Scott Bessent told Democratic Oregon Sen. Ron Wyden that America is not engaged in a clean energy “arms race” with China during his Thursday confirmation hearing.
President-elect Donald Trump intends to redirect unspent funds from the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) — President Joe Biden’s climate law — to spending on infrastructure, the Daily Caller News Foundation reported in late November. When Wyden appeared to suggest that this would disadvantage America in its competition against China for clean energy advancement, Bessent asserted the U.S. adversary is set to construct numerous coal plants in 2025.
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“One last question, and that is about the legislation that was written in this room that was the biggest transformation on clean energy in American history, that is our package that basically said the tax code as it relates to energy is a broken down mess. And we basically said we’re going to have a technology neutral system,” Wyden said. “The more you reduce carbon, the bigger your tax savings. 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 on clean energy with them. Are you going to be on the side of people who want to unravel this?”
“Just so we can frame this for everyone in the room: China will build a hundred new coal plants this year. There is not a clean energy race, there is an energy race. China will build 10 nuclear plants this year. That is not solar,” Bessent responded. “I am in favor of more nuclear plants. And I would note that the IRA, as scored by the CBO [Congressional Budget Office], is wildly out of control in terms of spending on the upside.”
Wyden responded that he was “very troubled” by Bessent rejecting the idea that the U.S. is in an “arms race with China on clean energy.”
China in 2022 approved two coal-fired power plants per week, according to the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air. The country in 2024 limited its approvals of new plants to 12 in the first six months of the year, which was a substantial decrease from the last six months of 2023, according to the organization.
“President Trump will rapidly defeat inflation and bring down all prices by ending the Democrats’ anti-energy crusade, which will cut energy prices in half during his first 12 months in office,” Karoline Leavitt, Trump-Vance transition spokeswoman, told the DCNF in a written statement in November. “He will also terminate the Green New Scam and rescind all unspent funds from the so-called ‘Inflation Reduction Act’ and redirect them to spending on real infrastructure.”
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