Californians deserve cheap, reliable energy

In case you missed it, I recently authored the Clean Energy Protection Act, a bill that would keep open Diablo Canyon, California’s last remaining nuclear power plant. The state’s push to close the site is part of Sacramento Democrats’ long campaign to subvert California’s reliable energy sources in order to transition to unreliable renewable sources like solar and wind power. The results speak for themselves: the highest electricity prices in the nation, increased energy importation, and Venezuelan-style rolling blackouts.

Since entering Congress in 2003, I have pursued legislative solutions that would secure cheap, reliable energy sources – particularly nuclear energy – for all Americans. To read more about my fight for energy, I recommend this article from The San Joaquin Valley Sun.

ICYMI: Yesterday’s Fox News interview with Maria Bartiromo

In case you missed it, yesterday I spoke with Fox News’ Maria Bartiromo on the latest issues impacting our nation. You can watch the interview by clicking here.

House Republicans aim to modernize America’s dysfunctional health care system

I recently met with Craig Castro, President and CEO of Community Medical Centers, to discuss my efforts to provide Central Valley residents with high quality, affordable, and personalized health care. As the co-lead of House Republicans’ newly formed Healthy Future Task Force, I will be working with my Republican colleagues to craft legislative proposals that empower patients, lower costs, and expand choices and treatments for a healthier America. We will also strengthen U.S. manufacturing of medical products to reduce our dependence on Communist China and other nations for medical supplies.

Americans deserve better than Democrats’ ineffective, one-size-fits-all, government-run health care system. I’m eager to continue working with local health care networks like Community Medical Centers to develop a modern, innovative, and flexible health care system that meets the needs of my constituents and the American people.

The people of Cuba deserve freedom

The Cuban people are rising up against the Communist dictatorship that has ruled them for more than half a century.

The Cuban regime is already deploying its vast security forces to suppress the protestors. But as we saw in the Soviet Union, East Germany, Czechoslovakia, Romania, and countless other Communist nightmares, there comes a time when people simply cannot tolerate the humiliation and oppression of Communism anymore—a time when they’ll risk everything, including their own lives, for liberty.

Communists everywhere come to power promising equality, justice, and social progress. But inevitably, their corruption and economic policies are so disastrous that they can only keep power by creating a massive police state. They constantly spy on the people they’re supposedly serving; secret police squads ruthlessly suppress every element of personal freedom; and society is subject to an all-encompassing propaganda and indoctrination campaign that touts the regime’s success in the face of every conceivable shred of evidence.

Let’s hope the current attacks on the Cuban people will prove to be the last gasp of a depraved, dying regime. The long-suffering people of Cuba deserve their freedom.

Don’t let California nuke affordable energy

Due to utopian green energy mandates, California is facing a sustained energy crisis. The Democrats in Sacramento are trying to phase out fossil fuels without practical, affordable alternatives in place. The result has been Venezuelan-style rolling blackouts and a 40 percent jump in electricity prices in the last decade.

If the Democrats believed their own warnings about an approaching climate apocalypse, they’d be actively building nuclear power plants—a clean, efficient, and safe energy source with zero carbon emissions. Instead, they are forcing the shutdown of California’s last operational nuclear power plant, Diablo Canyon, which is slated to retire in 2025.

Should California Democrats succeed in wiping out both fossil fuels and nuclear power, Californians will face a bleak energy future of even higher electricity prices and more unreliable energy production.

That’s why today I introduced in Congress the Clean Energy Protection Act, a bill that will require California to issue Diablo Canyon the permits needed to keep nuclear power operating in the state, as well as direct the appropriate federal agencies to issue permits to allow the plant to develop an additional 8,000 megawatts of next generation nuclear capacity. In short, the bill will stop California from shutting down a crucial source of reliable, clean baseload energy.

To learn more about my fight to restore sensible energy policies to California, you can watch my interview with Fox Business’ Elizabeth MacDonald here or read my op-ed in the Washington Examiner here.