Testimony Before the U.S. House Committee on Energy and Commerce
Mark P. Mills testified in a hearing titled America Leads the Way: Our History as the Global Leader at Reducing Emissions.
Good morning. Thank you Chair Johnson and Ranking Member Tonko for the opportunity to testify.
Permit me to begin by contrasting rhetoric with reality. The phrase, an “energy transition,” the goal to replace hydrocarbons, has origins that trace back to a 1977 speech by President Jimmy Carter. There we find a lot of familiar rhetoric such as, “the greatest challenge that our country will face during our lifetime,” and the need to “act quickly” in order to “have a decent world for our children and our grandchildren.” This was all motivated by the belief the world was running out of hydrocarbons.
In our time the “transition” rhetoric is directed at replacing the over abundant supply of hydrocarbons in service, of course, of reducing carbon dioxide emissions. Despite decades of transition policies and spending, oil, gas, and coal today supply 82% of global energy.
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Mark P. Mills is a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute; a partner in Cottonwood Venture Partners, an energy-tech venture fund.
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