Last week, I was honored to be appointed as the new Chair of the Energy and Commerce Committee’s (E&C) Subcommittee on Environment, Manufacturing, and Critical Materials. I am excited to take on this new role and to have the confidence of Chair Kathy McMorris Rogers (R-WA), my colleagues, and residents of the First Congressional District of Georgia.

Ahead of next week’s hearing on Ensuring the Cybersecurity of America's Drinking Water Systems, I outlined my priorities for the subcommittee, which include beating China, unleashing American energy and jobs, reducing emissions, and creating a pro-growth business environment like we have in the State of Georgia, which has resulted in several new green energy investments and jobs.

In case you missed it, here are the highlights:

"I don't care if you're in health care, if you're in mining, if you're in energy, everyone agrees that permitting is crushing us." 

"We want to continue on with what Bill Johnson has been doing," Carter said. "The Biden regulations are certainly something that we're very concerned about."

"We need to beat China. Let's face it, China is the OPEC of critical minerals. My district is one of the few districts in America that is mining critical minerals right now, and we need to do more of that." 

“Of course representing the entire coast of Georgia, over 100 miles of pristine coastline, our environment is extremely important to us and that’s why I’m very excited about this position and very excited to have a gavel in my hand” 

“I believe in an all-of-the-above type energy strategy,” Carter said. “Listen, I wish we could go to total solar and total wind and be done with it. But we can’t, and it’s naive of anyone to think that we can. But if we can take an all-of-the-above type energy strategy, then I think we can achieve what everyone wants to achieve.” 

“Carter said one of his priorities on the new subcommittee will be advancing the use of nuclear energy. Nuclear energy regulations have been a controversial topic on Capitol Hill, but Democrats have slowly begun to favor an expansion of nuclear energy, according to Carter. In fact, the United States signed a pledge, along with 20 other countries at COP28 in December, to triple its nuclear energy capacity by 2050.” 

“Carter added that the administration has turned a “blind eye” to the fact that the U.S. is too reliant on China and other adversaries for the minerals.” 

“We understand the importance of supply chains, of manufacturing here in America…decreasing emissions is going to be important, making sure that we unleash American energy, that’s something that I’m very high on because I believe that we’ve got the resources here in America, and creating a pro-growth business environment.”