Building on a background as a public servant, university president, and teacher, United States Senator Roy Blunt was elected to the United States Senate in 2010.
Senator Blunt serves as the Chairman of the Senate Republican Policy Committee and as the top Republican of the Senate Rules Committee. He also serves on the Senate Appropriations Committee; the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee; and the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence. He is also the top Republican of the Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education.
More American energy means more American jobs.
That’s why Senator Blunt supports an all-of-the-above energy policy to help create more good-paying, full-time jobs for workers and families in Missouri and nationwide. He believes the United States should use every available resource at our disposal, including clean coal, nuclear energy, and natural gas. And he’s in favor of increasing the exploration of oil and natural gas to reduce our dependence on foreign energy and grow the economy.
Washington shouldn’t pick winners and losers through legislative or regulatory policies that penalize low-cost energy sources that many Americans depend on. Missourians rely on coal for 80 percent of our electricity needs, and bad energy policies hurt the poorest families who can’t afford to pay more to fill up their gas tanks and heat their homes.
Senator Blunt has fought hard against the Obama Administration’s attempts to implement a cap-and-trade program, and he has introduced several legislative measures to prevent a carbon tax that would penalize the poorest Americans. In January 2014, Senator Blunt also led a bipartisan group of 21 Senators in sending a letter to President Obama urging him to stop punishing the most vulnerable American families with higher utility bills.
Unfortunately, the Obama Administration continues to try to circumvent the will of Congress by issuing burdensome regulations that threaten to significantly hamper our nation’s access to cost-efficient and reliable energy. As part of his ongoing efforts to stop executive over-reach, Senator Blunt co-sponsored legislation to stop the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) from taking over all private and state water in the United States, and he has been vocal in his opposition to the EPA’s proposed regulations on coal-fired power plants.
Senator Blunt is a strong supporter of shovel-ready projects like the Keystone XL Pipeline, which Congress passed in 2015, but President Obama continues to oppose. During the Keystone debate, Senator Blunt introduced two amendments to protect workers and families, including a provision blocking President Obama’s unilateral agreement on greenhouse gases with China, which is a bad deal for American workers and families.