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Sarah Huckabee Sanders and Energy Secretary Perry Brief Reporters CSPAN June 27, 2017 7:20pm-8:02pm EDT

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legislate again. i'd like to start legislating again and i'd like to start doing so in the regular order. so i'm hoping that that's what happens over the next week. if it doesn't, then we'll be ready to fight again and i know that there are literally millions of americans who are not going to let up until this bill is dead. i'd yield the floor. the presiding officer: the senate stands adjourned until senate stands adjourned until the new york times writes that this deal president trump an embarrassing setback on a key part of his agenda. the wall street journal reports gop leaders were short of the vote needed for a procedural

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hurdle and are engaged in completing negotiations to get the holdout on board. will continue to cover the story, as always, bring you live coverage of the senate here on c-span two. >> energy secretary rick perry briefed reporters for the first part of the house reading on the administration energy goals and his department was committed to making use of a diverse portfolio of energy options including nuclear power. after, secretary perry, principal sarah huckabee sanders answers reporters questions including the health care law replacement bill in the senate. >> rick perry is here to talk about what the president and others in the ministration are doing all this week to emphasize our commitment to american energy dominance and he will take some of your questions after that. of course, i will be happy to set back up after that and answer questions on other non- energy related topics.

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be nice to him. he's from texas, and i quite arkansas but a good neighbor. >> thank you. my privilege to be here today to share with you a little bit of observation that i have relative to energy week. this week the trump administration will bring together state, tribal, business, labor, all together, one room, happily sitting down and discussing how we will go forward. what the password is for us energy dominance. president trump wants america to achieve energy dominance by utilizing our abundant resources for good, both here and abroad.

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energy dominant america means self-reliance, a secure nation, free from the geopolitical turmoil of other nations who seek to use energy as an economic weapon and energy dominant america will export to markets around the world increasing our global leadership and are influenced. at doe and across the ministration, were ending the bureau credit blockade that has hindered american energy creation. the united states has been a net energy exporter excuse me, and that energy importer since 1953. for almost as long as i've been alive. thanks to innovation, technology advancements, we are on the brink of changing this and in

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very important element of an american energy portfolio, ten years ago people never would have guessed that by 2018 united states would be expected to be a net energy exporter of natural gas. american companies can already have exported us g to our international trading partners in europe and asia. unleashing our full energy potential in this country will lead to robust job growth and expansion in every sector of our economy. this week, we will also reaffirm our commitment to clean energy that binary choice between pro- economy and proenvironment that has perpetuated, or i should say been perpetuated, by the obama administration and set up a false argument. the fact is we can do good for both. and we will.

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there was one factor missing from the headlines about the us withdrawal from the paris agreement. that is that the united states already leads the world in the morning omissions. we've done this to innovation and technology, not by signing agreements. the paris agreement to the taxpayer on the hook for a costly deal. it was $1 billion already out the door. thankfully, this president has the good sense to step in before billions more have been committed. we've already seen the fruits of innovative, clean technology, like the cc us, carbon capture utilization system that tension of a plant just on the outskirts of houston, texas uses a process to remove 90% of the carbon dioxide after coal is burned to generate energy in a clean way. then, it uses that capture

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carbon for enhanced recovery. instead of preaching about clean energy, this administration will act on it. i believe no clean energy portfolio is truly complete without nuclear power and so does the present. if you want to see the environment, and the climate we live on, affected in a positive way you will must include nuclear energy with its zero emissions in your portfolio. do it safe and thoughtfully and economically. under the leadership of the united states, the world can benefit from that. this administration believes that nuclear energy development can be a game changer and an important player in the development of our clean energy portfolio globally. i believe we can achieve this by focusing on the development of technology, for instance, advanced nuclear reactors, small modular reactors, under

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president trump's leadership, we will continue to advocate for a very broad, all of the above, energy portfolio to allow the united states to achieve energy independence, dramatically reducing our trade deficits and create jobs beyond the 6.4 million americans who are currently employed in that sector. we look forward to hearing from americans this week on how we can best move forward to reduce unnecessary government regulations, bureaucracy to promote jobs and economic growth in the energy sector. four years they have been overregulated by washington politicians and bureaucrats who believe they knew best. the lecturing is over with. now, it's time that we listen. with that i will attempt to

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answer any questions. >> on nuclear power, what specifically do you want to do to accelerate development? as it's been seen in georgia, there still problems, the obama and ministration bogged down primarily because american colonies haven't built power plants in decades. number two if this initiation does advanced production doesn't believe the mountain needs to be opened up? >> is a very astute question you asked about the issue. for 30 years, the supply chain basically was stagnant, it was allowed to atrophy, if you will. this administration truly believes in and all of the above approach. allowing nuclear energy to come into play an important role in a very diverse portfolio so the idea is that over regulating an

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industry -- that is one of the challenges. it's not just about the united states from the standpoint of our being able to have an energy source that is reliable, that is zero emission. it's about america maintaining or regaining maybe a better word, our leadership role in nuclear energy because the russians and the chinese are very actively engaged in across the board, globally, to go put their technology to gain and leverage their political place, if you will. they are using nuclear energy is one of the levers. so, this is a lot bigger issue than just allowing the united states a couple of plants in the southern part of the united states. it's bigger than that.

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it's bigger than just making sure that westinghouse continues to be a stable, american company. this is a massive untrained massively important issue for the security of america. and the security of america's allies. so, keeping that in place, it's important for us to look at the options, clearly having a plan to keep america engaged in the development of nuclear energy. one of the things we want to do at doe is to make nuclear energy cool again. from the standpoint -- to remember when we were kids -- sorry, you're nowhere near my age but when i was younger living in the 60s, a lot of kids wanted to go into the nuclear energy fields. at my alma mater there was a lot of young boys and girls wanted to be nuclear engineers. that's not so much the case today because this industry has

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been strangled, all too often by government regulations, but we need as a country to bring us to that place where the nuclear energy is a part of the portfolio and to be able to sell it in great truthfulness and honesty about what it can add to america, both from an environmental standpoint and from a security standpoint. >> what about -- >> we made no decisions at doe nor has the administration from the standpoint of where were going to look. obviously, those are all options but there's no vent decision made about where will be going. yes, sir. >> you mentioned -- >> why do you all get to questions? [inaudible conversations] >> you mention the paris agreement, do you believe in o one.

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>> i'm in the record but i love giving the opportunity to talk about it again. the climate has changed, man is having an impact on it. i said that time after time. the idea that we can't have an intellectual conversation about just what are the actual impacts, as late as this last week, and undersecretary for the obama administration, steve kunz, he believes that we need to have a sitdown position that the data is not from his perspective, honestly, he was a good enough scientist to be asked by the obama administration to come in and be in undersecretary of the doe he doesn't think that the science is settled so why not have a conversation about that. what is the other side and the people who say that science is done and if you don't believe that your skeptic. i don't buy that. i don't think -- this is

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america, have a conversation. let's come out of the shadows of hiding behind, you know, your political statements and let's talk about it. what's wrong with that? i can be convinced but let's talk about it. >> just to finish a thought, you said you do believe in climate change is happening and you do believe it's contributed but what you're asking for is what to do about it? >> sure, don't you think that's what we ought to do? why? you're an american citizen and you want to have a part. [laughter] >> i come from a place with lots of energy back. [inaudible]

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where do we stand on the india concern? [inaudible] >> well, let me address the global issue of the united states and india and the relationship between the trump administration and the indian administrator. i think there was a picture, yesterday, that i haven't received that i thought was very reflective. it was of these two individuals embracing each other and i think that was a clear message around the world that the united states and india will be substantially closer. energy will play a very, very important role in that. last night at dinner we talked

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about the three areas of which there will be great back and forth, cooperation. dealmaking, if you will. one of those is an lng. the other side is that in clean coal. thirdly it's on the nuclear site. there is a great opportunity for india and the united states to become even stronger allies, stronger partners, energy being the glue. a trend that will hold that partnership together for a long, long time. yes, sir. >> to questions. our gentleman over here is the only one who had an honest. [inaudible] you said that it's not binary but the real question is where does fracking and clean coal opposed to that say that in fact it isn't environmentally safe and that fracking will destroy

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the environment? i like to get your comments on that. >> coming from a state that probably did as much hydraulic fracking as any other state in the nation, interestingly, a number of things happened in texas over the decade plus that i was the governor and one was there were more jobs created in the state than any other. there were 7 million people added to the population roles why was governor. arguably, economically, the state led the country. there's also a lesser-known story that you probably don't know about that i will share with you. that is that during that period of time you had this massive job growth, population growth, do you know what 7 million people live? that's a lot of pickup trucks on highways. that's a lot of nonpoint source pollution. your conventional wisdom would

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tell you because of where you are, geographically, the latitude that you're prone because of that big petrochemical manufacturing capacity along the gulf coast to drive up ozone levels. there's a lot of reason that conventional wisdom would say you did a really fine job of creating wealth and jobs but you played hell with the, excuse me the world. we drove down hydrogen dioxide levels by 20% and the levels of vitamin d and carbon dioxide levels by almost 20% reduction. isn't that our goal? my point is that texas which is the 12th largest economy in the world did exactly what i said. you can have economic growth and you can have the environment affected in a positive way. it can happen. yes, sir back second question i wanted to follow up.

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[inaudible conversations] >> i want to follow up when jeff is talking about climate change. just to be straight, you're saying. >> as straight as possible. >> you're saying that climate change is a fact but we need to have a discussion about exactly what has to be done about the climate change? not up for discussion, is part of it. >> i have no idea what you just asked. >> climate change, affected. >> you get one more time to assess question. [inaudible conversations] >> i'm putting it out this way, you're saying that climate change, man has affected climate change and the discussion is about what we do with that, not whether we affected it? going forward that is resolved back no, what i said was climate is changing, always has.

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man, at this particular point in time, has an effect on it and how much effect is what the debate here is. more importantly, what is the united states going to do to affect that. are we going to sign an agreement with somebody that really doesn't call anybody to make any changes. if you look at that agreement and what china and india are required to do and it's nothing. how many plants, 300 plus coal plants we built in india. why would we sign on to an agreement that is not holding other people to account and asked us to give $3 million -- that the first ante. the trump administration said that's nonsense. i agree with them, it's nonsense.

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i agree that we should have a conversation, not screaming at each other and not saying that standing up in the middle of my speeches is your climate denier is that i want to have a conversation about this. no, they haven't. when you have a scientist like steve kuhn who stands up and says the science isn't settled yet, i say let's have a conversation and get these guys together. my senate committee i said let's have a hearing and let's have a conversation about blue team, red team and talk this over. >> i want to ask you about cool specifically. scott pruitt, earlier this month, said and he was quoting the department of labor statistics said very simply the us has added almost 50000 jobs in the coal sector, in fact, the core portion he was referring to has only grown $2400 and in the

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last month it only grew 400. only a total of 51000 jobs in this country. is it misleading americans about where the real job growth is right now in this industry? >> i was governor a long enough period of time that job numbers come and go, they go up and down, back and forth but what this initiation wants to do is send a message across the country and around the world that america will use all of its energy resources in a thoughtful, appropriate and economically feasible way. the coal industry is part of that. when i have conversations with my counterparts in rome at the g-7, when i go to the clean coal administrator in china in

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beijing, earlier this month, we talked about paul and we talked about the opportunity about american coal to be so globally. so, the idea that were going to be continuing to be developing that fossil fuel that that's a reality. we are going to use coal as a producer of energy for years to come. i think the question for us is are we able to do it anyway that is economically feasible, environmentally sensitive and i think the answer is yes. so, the point is taking that snapshot insane, okay, this is a static picture may be a little unfair. >> following up quickly, you get

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behind the scenes in ways we don't. you said of canada, that his candidate trumpet was a cancer on conservative. >> that has nothing to do with energy today. >> 's secretary, what you make of it? what do you make of his conservativism? >> he's a great american. >> the president himself, during the campaign, called campaign climate can change a hoax. does he share that view that the climate is changing in human activity at this point in time is contributing? >> i have not had that conversation with him. >> thank you for your time. the electrical grid -- for the growth and development and on gas prices are you concerned

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about the direction that's going to the american people should we expect them to continue to fall? >> let's get on the grid. obviously, the department of energy has a both scientific and a historic reason to be involved with that. one is one of our national labs we have a test. of which we are able to go out, one of the reasons the department of homeland security and doe is about with good security is that doe operates a substantial grid, a test grade, if you well where we can go out and make things. we can invest it. to be able to analyze how we are going to harden our grades so that americans can no that our country is doing everything that it can to protect, defend this country against either cyber attacks that would affect our

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electrical security or otherwi otherwise. the ability for us to be able to continue to lead the world, we all know the challenges -- we saw the report as late as today is what's going on in ukraine. protecting this country, it's grid, against not just cyber but against physical attacks, against taxonomy come from mother nature, weather-related events, all of that is a very important part of what doe, dhs is doing together. >> i'm not in the business of trying to tell people what's going to happen on gas prices. they may go up or they may go down like they've always done. our job is to make sure america has a diverse energy portfolio

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so that we have as many options as we can have. whether it is developing, and to demand a -- we developed huge wind energy in texas was governor because gas prices went to and we had way too much invested, if you will, in one or two sources of energy we thought it made sense to look at these renewables from the same point of having diversity in our grid. so, that's our job. to try to have a diverse energy portfolio as we can in this country. the market will manage the cost of gasoline, supply and demand will work. >> on that cyber attack you are talking about connie give us an update -- using the energy grid is targeted with this particular cyber attack smart. >> i don't have any reason to be

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different from you to think and know that there are cyber actors out there, cyber terrorists, they may or may not work with nationstates and maybe lone ranger attackers, if you will. they might try to get in to hold companies, hostage in some sort of fashion. whether it is a particular country, i don't have any reason to point at one country and say this one -- we know they are involved in certain places in the world, they are out there. instead of worrying about who they are and what is going on, and hear any public setting, doing the work to make sure that, as he asked, and made a point about, having the best security that we can and have the best defenses that we can to

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identify and protect our grid. >> you mentioned the paris climate agreement a number of times. president trump said he wanted to get a better deal. had he or you or anyone in the demonstration begun the process? duty as possible given that the leaders say it can be renegotiated. >> i'm pretty sure the president of the united states wakes up every day thinking about how to get a better deal in a host of different things. specifically, to that, i never said mr. president let's talk about what the better deal is. with that said, i don't have a problem whether it's renegotiation and after which some of you have been around long enough to know that i was involved with the original nafta negotiations and i think, renegotiate the deal, get a better one. that's what president trump

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does, that's his mindset and i think our allies and those that may not be our allies need to understand that's where were coming from. >> you mentioned that you did this work in texas. what you see is the role -- you mentioned a greater length whether it's fracking or clean coal, as you cited it, or nuclear -- where you see the role for renewables moving forward from this administrati administration? >> renewables, i think, are proving themselves to be valuable diverse portfolio. i expect solar, wind, maybe some form of energy that we don't even know yet and one of our extraordinary national labs is being looked at right now that may give us some potentials that we don't even realize we have. yes, ma'am.

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>> i want to ask about jobs because that's where the jobs are happening now, especially in solar and wind. do you see this is a growth for the american job market? >> sure. [inaudible] talk to us about your plan with cool and it's basically. [inaudible] >> i'm not sure i agree with your observation that we haven't figured out a clean use for coal yet from the standpoint. there are some that you can't make it clear enough, that's what i'm referencing to. when you can take 90% and upwards of the co2 out of the air when you burn coal, you know, i don't know how high you have to raise the bar to make some people happy.

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with that said, let me share with you some of the things that were seen in our national labs for instance. coal is the resource of rare earth minerals and if we hadn't done this work on clean coal technology we would not have realized that there are ways that we can extract these rare minerals out of coal, coal ash, and again, i ask people to be open-minded about innovation. you all remember 15 years ago and we're hearing this fellow travel around the country and give a speech about oil. we have found all the oil there was, sarah, even your dad and i went to a lot of public and government meetings and one of them this guy came and gave the speech. he said we found all the fossil fuel, all the oil and gas has been found in is a downward slope and that's a fact.

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subtle science, may have been his word, i don't recall that but he might've said that. that was the point, though. all the oil and gas has been found. george mitchell didn't read it or believe it. innovation, technology, drives this country, it always has. i think that we ought to be able to be skeptical when someone says this is the end of it, this is bad, it's okay to ask those questions. my point is that with cold, there may be some uses of coal that we never even dreamed of before that can make a big difference because when you think about the rare minerals that are controlled by countries outside the united states and our been able to come up with the technology to retrieve those may be a real game changer. with that,. >> one last question, sir. you're a former governor and

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people are talking about states as it relates to repealing the base of the obamacare. if you have state rights. >> i won't talk out of anything but energy but you touched on my favorite subject which is federalism. [laughter] here we go, you asked. thank you, ma'am. i happen to believe that the states are laboratories of innovation. they are innovators just like we have our national labs. i mean, governors, i think, have within their states and their bright, young people who work with them and in the private sector they will come up with ways to deliver healthcare that can put more people under coverage for less money. and give options to their citizens. i know for a fact that connecticut is not like texas.

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they are just not. and to say that washington dc can come up with a one size fits all solution to healthcare that's going to address all this and do it in an economically, feasible, thoughtful way is just so much nonsense. you know that is not true. let the states have this medicaid opportunity, so, the ones that wanted -- those who want to have washington take care of the me, that's their call. but the states are to be given the opportunity and i will suggest to you that states could save substantial amount of money and come up with their options for citizens that are substantially better for the citizens of their states and say this country mountains of money. >> going back to the. [inaudible] >> i think our national labs are

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looking at all options. that being one of them. [inaudible] are you saying that you would block efforts for foreign companies to purchase. [inaudible] >> i know the process. that is a classified piece of information that i will not give here. >> have you been getting reports about a current cyber break in in a number of us nuclear plan plants? the investigation is named nuclear 17, do you have any information? >> no, sir. >> this morning president macron of france called president trump and invited him to come to

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bastille day, july 14th. do you see this as a way that the french are taking up his aggression toward negotiating a new climate change agreement and what you urge him to make the trip? >> i would always look at the invitation as a good thing. [laughter] >> you're very enthusiastic about nuclear power and the potential that it has. a lot of people are still scared of nuclear power because of nuclear waste and nuclear plants. this has been happening since the 60s when one television documentary said it hasn't changed in terms of what we know to do with nuclear waste which is a much. can you assure the american people that nuclear waste nuclear plants safety are such that we should expand nuclear power in this country? >> i would reflect that, deflect

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that, if he was here, to president macron of france. he gets 70 plus% of our power from nuclear energy. this is a country that would invite texas beef for some reason. yet, 76% of their energy comes from nuclear power. so, the french, who always thought were little different and that's in a good way, they recognize that as they recognized us as a state back in the 1830s and we have a close, personal relationship with france. we like them. we had an embassy in paris. they had one in austin, a matter of fact, it's still there. i invite you all to come and see it. but the french are different when it comes to somethings. one of those, i would find it interesting that our french friends are very comfortable getting 76%, thereabouts, of

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their energy from nuclear and i assure you they're very fond of getting it at the rate they are getting it. >> you mentioned federalism and the power of governors. recently, as you know, the health trumpet ministration has drafted these clean power plants which were hampering many states and now you have governors who have certain authority and who are saying we are going to institute the clean power plant in our state anyway, regardless what the epa says it doesn't those put the states at a tremendous economic disadvantage? what would be your message to those governors? >> governors and their citizens need to be given that right to make those decisions. i said, many times, i thought

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colorado was wrong in allowing for the use of marijuana which they decided to do but that's their call. i will defend that right robustly but that ought to be there call. if they want -- jerry brown, we were together in beijing, china for the clean air and we shook hands as we are going by. jerry decided he wants the state to be involved with the pears agreement, however, that works. which is fine. that's his call. texas will still be there to take any businesses that would like to relocate. that's the beauty that allows america to be competitive. allow americans to pick and choose where they want to live and under what types of

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governments and will figure it out. senate republicans today push back the vote on health care law a replacement bill after they failed to get enough support from moderate and conservative

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republicans to move the measure forward. we will get an update next on c-span. jennifer haberkorn covers health units for political -- "politico." the day began with the senate republican leadership insisting they there would be a procedural vote as early as tomorrow and they would vote on thursday so walk us through the day's developments and how it all went forward. >> guest: republicans were still down five votes on a procedural motion that they wanted to have the votes today or on wednesday and a couple of hours ago senate republicans said they are not going to hold the votes this week

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Sarah Huckabee Sanders and Energy Secretary Perry Brief Reporters
CSPAN June 27, 2017 7:20pm-8:02pm EDT

At the beginning of the daily White House briefing, Energy Secretary Rick Perry talked about the Trump administration's energy goals, telling reporter his department was committed to making use of a "diverse portfolio" of energy options, including nuclear power. Other topics included climate change, which he said he believes it is happening and that people have had an impact on but that further discussion was needed to determine the extent of and what to do about it.

Afterward, Sarah Huckabee Sanders answered questions on several issues that included the stalled Senate Republican Affordable Care Act replacement bill, a White House statement and warning to Syria about further use of chemical weapons, and a retracted CNN story on alleged ties between Russia and a Trump administration aide that resulted in the resignations of three CNN journalists.

People: Rick Perry; Sarah Huckabee Sanders
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