[House Hearing, 117 Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]


                  WEALTH FOR THE WORKING CLASS: THE CLEAN 
                              ENERGY ECONOMY

=======================================================================

                                HEARING

                               BEFORE THE

                       SUBCOMMITTEE ON INNOVATION, 
                            ENTREPRENEURSHIP,
                       AND WORKFORCE DEVELOPMENT

                                 OF THE

                      COMMITTEE ON SMALL BUSINESS
                             UNITED STATES
                        HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                    ONE HUNDRED SEVENTEENTH CONGRESS

                             FIRST SESSION

                               __________

                              HEARING HELD
                             JULY 27, 2021

                               __________

[GRAPHIC NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]
                               

            Small Business Committee Document Number 117-028
             Available via the GPO Website: www.govinfo.gov
             
                               __________

                    U.S. GOVERNMENT PUBLISHING OFFICE                    
45-131                    WASHINGTON : 2021                     
          
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------                
            
                   HOUSE COMMITTEE ON SMALL BUSINESS

                 NYDIA VELAZQUEZ, New York, Chairwoman
                          JARED GOLDEN, Maine
                          JASON CROW, Colorado
                         SHARICE DAVIDS, Kansas
                         KWEISI MFUME, Maryland
                        DEAN PHILLIPS, Minnesota
                         MARIE NEWMAN, Illinois
                       CAROLYN BOURDEAUX, Georgia
                         TROY CARTER, Louisiana
                          JUDY CHU, California
                       DWIGHT EVANS, Pennsylvania
                       ANTONIO DELGADO, New York
                     CHRISSY HOULAHAN, Pennsylvania
                          ANDY KIM, New Jersey
                         ANGIE CRAIG, Minnesota
              BLAINE LUETKEMEYER, Missouri, Ranking Member
                         ROGER WILLIAMS, Texas
                        JIM HAGEDORN, Minnesota
                        PETE STAUBER, Minnesota
                        DAN MEUSER, Pennsylvania
                        CLAUDIA TENNEY, New York
                       ANDREW GARBARINO, New York
                         YOUNG KIM, California
                         BETH VAN DUYNE, Texas
                         BYRON DONALDS, Florida
                         MARIA SALAZAR, Florida
                      SCOTT FITZGERALD, Wisconsin

                 Melissa Jung, Majority Staff Director
            Ellen Harrington, Majority Deputy Staff Director
                     David Planning, Staff Director
                            
                            
                            C O N T E N T S

                           OPENING STATEMENTS

                                                                   Page
Hon. Jason Crow..................................................     1
Hon. Young Kim...................................................     3

                               WITNESSES

Ms. Leticia Colon De Mejias, Chief Executive Officer of Energy 
  Efficiencies Solutions and Co-Chair for the Building 
  Performance Association, Energy Efficiencies Solutions, 
  Windsor, CT....................................................     5
Mr. James Hasselbeck, Director of Operations, ReVision Energy, 
  Inc., South Portland, ME.......................................     7
Mr. Samuel Gilchrist, Western Campaigns Director, Natural 
  Resources Defense Council, Denver, CO..........................     9
Mr. Tom Greer, Proprietor and Owner, Hub City Brewing Co., Belen, 
  NM, testifying on behalf of the Consumer Energy Alliance.......    11

                                APPENDIX

Prepared Statements:
    Ms. Leticia Colon De Mejias, Chief Executive Officer of 
      Energy Efficiencies Solutions and Co-Chair for the Building 
      Performance Association, Energy Efficiencies Solutions, 
      Windsor, CT................................................    30
    Mr. James Hasselbeck, Director of Operations, ReVision 
      Energy, Inc., South Portland, ME...........................    40
    Mr. Samuel Gilchrist, Western Campaigns Director, Natural 
      Resources Defense Council, Denver, CO......................    44
    Mr. Tom Greer, Proprietor and Owner, Hub City Brewing Co., 
      Belen, NM, testifying on behalf of the Consumer Energy 
      Alliance...................................................    53
Questions for the Record:
    None.
Answers for the Record:
    None.
Additional Material for the Record:
    ClearFlame Engine Technologies...............................    56

 
         WEALTH FOR THE WORKING CLASS: THE CLEAN ENERGY ECONOMY

                              ----------                              


                         TUESDAY, JULY 27, 2021

              House of Representatives,    
               Committee on Small Business,
      Subcommittee on Innovation, Entrepreneurship,
                                 and Workforce Development,
                                                    Washington, DC.
    The Subcommittee met, pursuant to call, at 10:02 a.m., in 
Room 2360, Rayburn House Office Building, Hon. Jason Crow 
[chairman of the Subcommittee] presiding.
    Present: Representatives Crow, Davids, Phillips, Newman, 
Bourdeaux, Luetkemeyer, Williams, Tenney, Garbarino, and Young 
Kim.
    Chairman CROW. Good morning. I call this hearing to order. 
Without objection, the Chair is authorized to declare a recess 
at any time.
    Let me begin by saying that standing House and committee 
rules and practice will continue to apply during hybrid 
proceedings. All members are reminded that they are expected to 
adhere to these standing rules, including decorum.
    House regulations require members to be visible through our 
video connection throughout the proceedings, so please keep 
your cameras on. Also, please remember to remain muted until 
you are recognized to minimize background noise. If you have to 
participate in another proceeding, please exit this one and log 
back in later.
    In the event a member encounters technical issues that 
prevent them from being recognized for their questioning, I 
will move to the next available member of the same party and 
will recognize that member at the next appropriate time slot 
provided they have returned to the proceeding.
    Those members and staff physically present in the committee 
room today, we will continue to follow the most recent OAP 
guidance. Masks are no longer required in our meeting space for 
members and staff who have been fully vaccinated. All members 
and staff who have not been fully vaccinated are still required 
to wear masks and socially distance.
    In the first half of 2020, extreme weather events rocked 
the United States and countries worldwide. Historic winter 
storms in Texas, raging wildfires in Oregon, and unprecedented 
floods in Michigan remind us of the imminent danger that 
climate change poses regardless of location.
    Just last week Secretary Holland was in my home State of 
Colorado meeting with local leaders about the worsening drought 
and wildfire conditions. These extreme weather events in the 
U.S. are mirrored by similar episodes across the globe. This 
wealth of evidence makes it abundantly clear that a climate 
crisis is a threat to human lives and to economic prosperity. 
That is why we must act now to protect our plant and create a 
more sustainable economy.
    Developing the clean energy economy won't be a small task 
and comes with its fair share of challenges. At the same time 
we must understand the many benefits that going green can 
deliver to small businesses and the American economy.
    For businesses relying on renewable power generation or 
increased energy efficiency can lead to lower costs and 
consumption and ultimately a higher bottom line. By increasing 
investment in renewables on a macro basis we can transform the 
U.S. into a global leader in clean energy, reducing our 
dependence on foreign nations.
    Going green also has the potential to reinvigorate the 
labor market by creating millions of good paying jobs spread 
across tens of thousands of businesses. In fact, across the 
country, we already see the ways that clean energy can benefit 
our economy.
    Clean energy firms account for roughly 35,000 businesses 
across the country and employ over 3 million workers. Small 
businesses dominate the clean energy sectors, with nearly 90 
percent of businesses employing fewer than 100 employees and 
nearly a third of those with fewer than five.
    These jobs also pay well with medium hourly wages 25 
percent higher than the national average, and they tend to hire 
local workers as well. Yet these small firms often lack access 
to capital necessary to expand their operations and meet the 
clean energy demand. That is why I am planning on introducing 
the House companion version of the 504 Green Energy Enhancement 
Act which would increase 504 loan amounts for energy efficiency 
and renewable energy projects.
    With fighting the climate crisis being one of the top 
priorities for the President and the 117th Congress, the clean 
energy economy will likely continue to grow and create more 
better paying jobs for the American people. Unfortunately, if 
Americans don't have the requisite skills to fill jobs in the 
clean energy economy, they won't experience these benefits. 
Many firms in the sector already report difficulty finding 
workers. Without adequate investment in workforce development 
to ensure qualified workers are available, we run the risk of 
grounding the clean energy economy before it has a chance to 
take off. This would have profound consequences for the health 
of our economy and our decarbonization goals, so it is vital 
that Congress works to ensure workers have the skills and 
credentials needed to fill these roles.
    Today's hearing will allow us to explore different types of 
workforce development initiatives and what Congress can do to 
facilitate their implementation.
    With that, I want to thank all of our witnesses for being 
here today, and I look forward to our conversation.
    I would now like to yield to the Ranking Member, Mrs. Young 
Kim, for her opening statement.
    Mrs. YOUNG KIM. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, for holding this 
hearing. And I also want to welcome and thank the members for 
participating in person or joining us via Zoom today.
    Prior to the pandemic and under the previous 
administration's pro growth and deregulatory agenda, an 
extraordinary 160 million Americans were employed, and the 
unemployment rate fell to a 50-year low. Additionally, wages 
for rank and file workers and nonsupervisory employees were 
rising faster than the wages for managers or supervisors. Now 
3.2 million Americans are unemployed, all while small 
businesses place help wanted signs on their storefronts and 
struggle to find the labor force to meet heightened demand.
    As we safely reopen our communities and transition to 
recovery, I hope we can continue to work together to help small 
businesses stay afloat while also supporting American workers.
    Despite the tremendous amount of financial relief flowing 
to small businesses, many continue to endure a challenging 
recovery. Since January of this year, inflation has increased 
every single month and is climbing at the fastest rate in 13 
years. We cannot continue the current path of reckless spending 
which in turn is becoming a tax on America's workers, middle 
class families, and small businesses.
    In May, roughly half of small businesses, 48 percent, were 
forced to raise their prices. This is the largest percentage 
reported in 40 years. Small businesses and workers are 
particularly vulnerable to changes in the price of fuel, food, 
and materials, and now they are simultaneously experiencing a 
decrease worth of their paychecks.
    To pay for this administration's spending plans, the 
President has proposed various tax increases that will impact 
small businesses and workers. Within the American Jobs Plan, 
which focuses on items, including the Green New Deals, climate 
change initiatives, the President is proposing to pay for the 
spending by increasing the corporate tax rate from 21 percent 
to 28 percent. This will impact over a million small businesses 
organized as C corporations. I think it is worth noting that 55 
percent of subchapter C corporations have five or fewer 
employees and 85 percent have fewer than 20 employees. So among 
the outsized effects, a corporate tax increase will directly 
cause utility costs to surge across the country and, as a 
result, millions of small businesses will face higher electric, 
gas, and water bills.
    The Biden administration has paired government spending 
with government regulations that further hinder America's small 
business recovery. The costs of regulatory compliance is 
disproportionately burdensome for small businesses who operate 
on thin margins with less staff and tight budgets. We should 
empower small businesses to innovate, not add the additional 
costs of regulatory compliance to their balance sheet.
    I believe we can return to the booming economy we had 
before the pandemic, but any efforts to increase regulations 
and impose additional requirements on small businesses will 
further hinder recovery and jeopardize the state of our 
nation's smallest firms.
    Small businesses have the flexibility, the agility, and the 
creativity to overcome anything. But, Congress, we need to 
allow them to do that by continuing to provide pro growth, pro 
business policies.
    So I look forward to hearing from our witnesses today and 
let's discuss on how we can support them and work across the 
nation.
    With that, Mr. Chairman, I yield back.
    Chairman CROW. Thank you, Mrs. Young Kim. The gentlewoman 
yields back.
    I would like to take a moment to explain how this hearing 
will proceed. Each witness will have 5 minutes to provide a 
statement, and each committee member will have 5 minutes for 
questions. Please ensure that your microphone is on when you 
begin speaking and that you return to mute when you are 
finished.
    With that, I would like to introduce our witnesses.
    Our first witness is Ms. Leticia Colon De Mejias--am I 
pronouncing that right, Ms. Mejias--the founder and CEO of 
Energy Efficiencies Solutions, a Connecticut based full service 
energy conservation company. EES provides comprehensive energy 
efficiency services, like home energy assessments and energy 
education.
    Ms. Mejias cofounded Green Echo Warriors, a nonprofit youth 
ecology and conservation group. She is also a longtime 
workforce development expert, having developed and coordinated 
ESL and adult-based education courses for the staff at Hartford 
Hospital and created the Your Education Success Foundation to 
support adult learners who desire to return to school.
    Welcome, Ms. Colon De Mejias. We look forward to your 
testimony.
    Our next witness is Mr. James Hasselbeck, the director of 
operations at ReVision Energy, a solar installation company in 
Portland, Maine. He has been involved in the development, 
engineering, and construction of public and private renewable 
energy projects since 2006.
    After joining ReVision Energy in 2012, he became director 
of operations for all three locations in Maine, Massachusetts, 
and New Hampshire. He is also board member of The amicus Solar 
Cooperative.
    Welcome, Mr. Hasselbeck.
    Our third witness is Mr. Sam Gilchrist, the western 
campaigns director for the National Resources Defense Council 
where he focuses on State and local policies to ensure a just 
transition for Colorado's energy workers. Before joining NRDC, 
he worked as the executive director of Colorado's AFL-CIO and 
now resides in my district in Colorado.
    Thank you--actually I will go back. I skipped a page.
    Welcome, Mr. Gilchrist.
    I will now yield to the Ranking Member, Mrs. Young Kim, to 
introduce our final witness.
    Mrs. YOUNG KIM. Thank you, Chairman.
    It is a pleasure to introduce our first witness, Mr. Tom 
Greer. He is an owner and proprietor of Hub City Brewing 
Company. He is here on behalf of the Consumer Energy Alliance. 
Mr. Greer currently resides in Belen, New Mexico.
    In 2013, Mr. Greer opened Hub City Brewing Company at the 
Belen Rail Runner Station in the heart of downtown to support 
local tourism and economic development. Many have referred to 
Hub City Brewing Company as Belen's Cheers. This is a community 
gathering place where everyone knows your name.
    Prior to Hub City Brewing Pub, Mr. Greer had an extensive 
career in television and marketing and held numerous leadership 
roles, including president of the board of directors of the 
Greater Belen Chamber of Commerce, also serving as Vice 
President of the Belen Main Street Partnership, and New Mexico 
State director of the Concerned Veterans for America.
    Mr. Greer is passionate about revitalizing the economy and 
ensuring prosperity for all communities, including rural areas. 
His entrepreneur background and dedication to economic 
development will be extremely beneficial to our hearing today.
    So thank you, Mr. Greer, for taking time to testify and 
share your experience with us today.
    Chairman, I yield back.
    Chairman CROW. Thank you very much. The gentlewoman yields 
back.
    Ms. Colon De Mejias, you are now recognized for 5 minutes.

STATEMENTS OF LETICIA COLON DE MEJIAS, CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER 
OF ENERGY EFFICIENCIES SOLUTIONS AND CO-CHAIR FOR THE BUILDING 
    PERFORMANCE ASSOCIATION, ENERGY EFFICIENCIES SOLUTIONS, 
WINDSOR, CT; JAMES HASSELBECK, DIRECTOR OF OPERATIONS, REVISION 
  ENERGY, INC., SOUTH PORTLAND, ME; SAMUEL GILCHRIST, WESTERN 
CAMPAIGNS DIRECTOR, NATURAL RESOURCES DEFENSE COUNCIL, DENVER, 
CO; AND TOM GREER, PROPRIETOR AND OWNER, HUB CITY BREWING CO., 
BELEN, NM, TESTIFYING ON BEHALF OF THE CONSUMER ENERGY ALLIANCE

              STATEMENT OF LETICIA COLON DE MEJIAS

    Ms. COLON DE MEJIAS. Thank you, Honorable Chairman Crow and 
Ranking Member for the opportunity to be here today with you. 
It is so important that small businesses be allowed a space at 
the table as you work to lift our nation, people, and our 
economy.
    I am Leticia Colon De Mejias. I am the owner of Energy 
Efficiencies Solutions, President of the Building Performance 
Association policy Co-Chair, and Chair of Equity and 
Opportunity for Latino Affairs in the State of Connecticut 
Commission on Equity and Opportunity, and board member for the 
initiative board. But, more importantly, I employ 27 people in 
energy efficiency careers. Twenty-three of them are minorities 
and people of color, ten are women in leadership roles, and all 
are earning between $32,000 and $75,000 annually, with the 
potential of an increased $100,000 a years with sales 
commission.
    I have helped four other people start companies just like 
my own that are now owned by minorities and women, and I left 
my career in healthcare and workforce for 16 years to start 
this business after seeing a film called ``Kilowatt Hours'' 
that informed me on the climate and energy crisis which is 
polluting the world we live in today. As a mother and 
grandmother, I felt compelled to leave the industry I work in 
and start this energy efficiency job to open opportunities for 
people in my community to find better sources of employment 
with higher rates of pay and more flexible schedules.
    I leveraged my good credit to purchase tools and get 
certified in the demand reduction field to both literally and 
figuratively close gaps in my community, estate, and our energy 
bills. My first year yielded about $150,000, which was more 
than I made at the hospital, and my second year I began to 
struggle to find qualified workers. That is the struggle that I 
am dealing with today. It is the thing that ails my industry 
overall because, despite these careers being viable and 
accessible and offering excellent pay in benefits, we are not 
finding Americans who want to work or have the skills needed to 
work in these careers.
    What we need is more Federal support directly to help small 
businesses afford the costs of training and reskilling our 
current employees because our technology has continued to 
change rapidly daily to meet the consumer market demands and 
Federal law changes. We need to have resources and take 
intentional steps to close the workforce disparities as they 
relate specifically to people of color, women, minorities, and 
underrepresented populations that have been historically left 
behind, for so many Americans are unaware there is growing 
opportunities in energy efficiency and the clean energy 
economy. And how can someone be prepared for something that 
they don't even know exists? Unfortunately, we have not put 
enough emphasis or resources behind science and public schools, 
and we have done very little to communicate broadly on the 
benefits of social skills and soft skills as they relate to 
critical workforce success.
    We also have not invested in simplifying our workforce 
programs to help career transitions or get Americans back to 
work in these careers which they are ready for Americans to be 
hired in today.
    As a person of action, EES has a motto, ``We are here to 
help.'' And when we see a gap or a crack, we seek to fill that 
gap aptly, and so we use our Ts, time, talent, tenacity, and 
teamwork to solve problems together, and we have served over 
14,000 households and over 10 million square feet of 
multifamily housing to draw down up to 30 percent of that 
building's energy demand, allowing them to use that money for 
their families, businesses, education, or healthcare, drawing 
down demands for energy and pollution at the same time and 
employing our communities as we go because if you have 
buildings with a B, we have careers for you.
    We can drive down the cost of energy and drive up the 
access to renewable resources, and we help our staff buy cars, 
homes, and live the American dream. And as I said, finding 
workers is the most difficult part. And I suggest that we push 
forward with robust investments in programs which offer direct 
supports to small businesses. An example of this is the Blue 
Collar to Green Collar Jobs Act which seeks to offer short-term 
training programs and equip Americans with the skills to fill 
the jobs and earn higher wages right now.
    We need to give priority to companies who hire minorities, 
veterans, and women and help them transition people from the 
fossil fuel industry into clean energy careers by leveraging 
the skill sets they have already.
    And Congress can support robust efficiency rebates to help 
Americans lower their bills and demands all the while 
increasing local job opportunities because, frankly speaking, 
efficiency overlooked is just efficient.
    We must ensure that these activities support the workforce 
development that are accessible to small businesses and include 
flexibility and use of funds for on-the-job training programs 
because there is no Department of Labor code for energy 
efficiency, making it very difficult for us to access 
apprenticeship programs, particularly in the residential 
sector, and this is a major barrier to our work expansion or 
growth depth. The Department of Energy has an understanding of 
this industry, and there needs to be supports for residential 
business. It is usual. We need ensure more leaders and Federal 
staff and departments understand the value of efficiency as a 
drawdown to close gaps in bills and health in our climate 
crisis and to provide stability for our clean energy economy 
and success for all Americans.
    At Efficiency for All, we are currently conducting a 12-
week program to train individuals on all of the certified 
skills needed, as well as soft skills so they may get jobs 
immediately in the Energize Connecticut Program, and this 
program connects them directly to on-the-job training and a 6-
week training internship.
    In conclusion, it is time that we diversify our clean 
energy workforce. Most of my staff came from at-risk 
populations and they were underserved, but that did not hold us 
back. We have continued to grow, all the while supporting the 
communities we came from because we know our work helps 
everyone. And the sooner we educate our communities on how to 
draw down energy demands and ramp up clean energy resources, 
the better off we will all be.
    As a proud American and small business owner, I know that 
together we can create a responsible path forward to ensure 
inclusive transitions to clean, resilient, stable clean energy 
economy which could benefit all Americans regardless of 
economic or social standing.
    Thank you.
    Chairman CROW. Thank you, Ms. Colon De Mejias. And I will 
remind all witnesses to please stick with the 5-minute time 
limit. I appreciate your testimony.
    Mr. Hasselbeck, you are now recognized for 5 minutes.

                 STATEMENT OF JAMES HASSELBECK

    Mr. HASSELBECK. Chairman Crow, Ranking Member Young Kim, 
and members of this committee. My name is James Hasselbeck, and 
I am director of operations of ReVision Energy, a renewable 
contracting company in northern New England. I am grateful for 
this opportunity to provide testimony on behalf of my 300 
employee owners.
    My goal today is to illustrate how ReVision Energy is 
disrupting traditional business norms as we confront the 
rampant climate damage resulting from 8 billion people burning 
fossil fuels. At the same time, we are trying to alleviate the 
social injustices and inequities historically inflicted on our 
by bot communities.
    The shear scale of modernizing our national grid, 
electrifying transportation, and transitioning to beneficial 
electrification is reminiscent of the public works projects 
that revitalized America after the Great Recession. The private 
sector is recognizing the economic opportunity and is investing 
hundreds of billions of dollars in this effort. This influx of 
capital, often catalyzed by early State government R&D support, 
has resulted in wind and solar becoming the most cost-effective 
electricity generation sources available today.
    Lazard's most recent levelized cost of energy analysis 
objectively demonstrates solar and wind being the lowest cost 
source of power generation available. This analysis is proven 
by ongoing massive investments in renewables, with solar 
projects alone making up over 40 percent of power plants 
brought on line in 2020. This manufacturing capacity for 
batteries continues to expand and prices continue to fall. We 
are also seeing increased adoption of energy storage. This is 
evident in the rapid expansion of electric vehicles and 
associated low carbon transportation infrastructure.
    My construction teams are thrilled at the idea of charging 
their power pools and laptops on a remote job site using 
battery from their F-150 Lightening of lugging a heavy 
generator around.
    The technology works, the money is flowing, and the public 
and private interest and desire for renewables is expanding at 
a rapid base, so rapid that our collective barrier to increased 
adoption is increasingly less economic or technological but 
instead due to a lack of skilled labor. You cannot outsource 
clean energy project installations.
    Our workforce today includes over 230,000 Americans at 
10,000 small businesses in solar alone according to the Solar 
Energy Industries Association. This same workforce needs to 
expand to over 900,000 to achieve the ambitious but necessary 
clean electricity priorities President Biden has set for 2035.
    The women and men on ReVision Energy's installation team 
are electricians, plumbers, and apprentices. They are supported 
by engineers, system designers, project managers, procurement 
and warehouse staff, sales reps, financing pros, and legal 
experts. Together we self-perform millions of dollars of 
construction work in New England with our in-house teams and 
work closely with our subcontractor partners to build many more 
megawatts of clean power.
    This also creates millions of dollars in revenue and 
corresponding jobs for our many domestic suppliers and vendors, 
and as hard as we try, even with the support of our incredible 
allies, we cannot meet the demand for highly skilled 
tradeswomen and men.
    In response to this workforce challenge, in 2018, we 
created the ReVision Energy Training Center and Electrical 
Apprentice Program. In partnership with State regulatory 
agencies and the Federal Department of Labor, this 4-year 
program helps our team achieve the on-the-job and classroom 
electrical training to provide each individual a trade license 
and the skills to secure a high standard of living for the 
balance of their careers.
    Organized labor's focus on worker benefits, safety, and 
career training is an admirable and critically important part 
of any workforce development program. We highly value our 
historical partnership with the IBEW and especially our good 
friends at the local Ford plant who invited President Harris to 
their new facility in April. However, we want to be abundantly 
clear in highlighting that there are additional methods to 
facilitate workforce development, safety, and worker benefits 
outside of conventional organized labor structures.
    We think our 100 percent employee-owned certified B Corp. 
company structure shared by many of our Amicus Solar 
Cooperative partners provides an equally valuable platform for 
workers' rights and benefits. We encourage the committee to 
look for opportunities to provide funding and support to 
alternative workforce development initiatives, in addition to 
the important and well established union programs.
    In 2015, ReVision Energy became a certified B Corp. B 
corporations are companies that make explicit our commitment to 
multi stakeholder capitalism. The impacts on those multiple 
stakeholder groups are annually reviewed and certified by the 
objective third-party B Labs to assure compliance and 
continuous improvement.
    Our deep commitment to our workers, communities, and the 
planet earn ReVision Energy best for the world in the workers 
category recognition from B Labs this year.
    Building on that, in 2017, the cofounders of ReVision 
Energy decided to sell the company to our employees through an 
employee stock ownership plan or ESOP----
    Chairman CROW. Thank you, Mr. Hasselbeck. Unfortunately, 
your time has expired. We will have more opportunity during the 
Q&A for you to fully flesh that out.
    Mr. HASSELBECK. Thank you.
    Chairman CROW. Mr. Gilchrist, you are now recognized for 5 
minutes.

                 STATEMENT OF SAMUEL GILCHRIST

    Mr. GILCHRIST. Thank you, Chairman Crow, thank you, Ranking 
Member Young Kim, for inviting me to testify today, as well as 
thank you to the distinguished members of the House Committee 
on Small Business.
    My name is Sam Gilchrist, and I am the western campaigns 
director of the Natural Resources Defense Council. NRDC is an 
international nonprofit organization of scientists, lawyers, 
and environmental specialists dedicated to protecting public 
health and the environment.
    As Chairman Crow stated, prior to joining NRDC, I served as 
the executive director of the Colorado AFL-CIO. There we 
represented over 130,000 workers, many of whom worked within 
the broader energy sector, including the coal and fossil fuel 
industries. Together we now work to develop policy solutions to 
ensure these workers and their communities have a future in the 
clean energy economy.
    The climate crisis is affecting communities across this 
nation in terms of both our economic and physical health. The 
decline of coal is being accelerated by the urgent need for us 
to reorient our energy policies away from burning fossil fuels 
in favor of cleaner, cheaper renewable energy.
    Communities largely dependent on coal for high-paying jobs 
and local tax revenue are facing uncertainty as market forces 
make it less economical to produce energy from fossil fuels. 
The closure of coal mines and power plants can be economically 
catastrophic and socially disorienting. The trauma caused by 
shifting economics is long lasting and involves the entire 
community. We have seen this before in many places across the 
country, but we have not always been prepared to address the 
situation proactively. This leaves many communities behind as 
their industries shutter.
    The bottom line is that the clean energy transition is 
happening, and there are many opportunities to create good jobs 
in the clean energy future, and clean energy jobs are good 
jobs. According to the Environmental Entrepreneurs E2 Clean 
Energy Jobs America 2021 report, the clean energy sector now 
employs more than 3 million individuals nationwide. Median 
hourly wages are roughly 25 percent higher than the national 
average. More than 2/3 of clean energy jobs are in energy 
efficiency, while the remainder are in renewable energy, 
engineering, smart buildings, HVAC, electric vehicles, clean 
fuels, et cetera.
    These jobs are hyper local, and they really aren't just 
concentrated in major metropolitan areas. Nearly 400,000 
workers, which is about 13 percent of the clean energy 
workforce, exists in rural regions. Most clean energy jobs are 
in small businesses. As was already mentioned, more than 60 
percent are employed by companies with fewer than 20 employees 
and about 90 percent of companies with fewer than 100. And I 
think it needs to be reiterated that these are jobs that cannot 
be exported or outsourced to our foreign competitors.
    To ensure a prosperous future for many small businesses and 
local economies, we must support these companies and 
incentivize them to create more clean energy jobs. In Colorado, 
we have created the Office of Just Transition to help determine 
this path forward. The office created an action plan that 
recognizes that to succeed in economic diversification, small 
business growth, tax revenue protection, and good jobs for 
workers, communities must design their own futures and have 
adequate lead time and resources to do so, and we are in the 
process currently of building that model.
    Colorado's Governor Polis has called on the Federal 
administration to do three things to help workers in their 
communities through the transition to clean energy accounts: 
First, develop a national strategy for impacted fossil fuel 
workers; two, address local budget shortfalls due to the loss 
of property tax and other revenues; and, three, finance long-
term State and local economic development resiliency and 
diversification.
    The Clean Jobs Report outlines further steps that the 
federal government can take to grow jobs and drive investments 
in States which are further detailed in my written testimony.
    Investing in clean energy is a win-win for our country. We 
can reduce emissions that impact our climate and negatively 
affect our health while also creating good jobs, jobs that are 
largely in small businesses. We need Federal action to ensure 
these investments benefit everyone.
    The bottom line is there is no better time to make these 
investments than now as we slowly recover from the ongoing 
pandemic. The clean energy transition is happening. It is going 
to affect workers and communities across the country, and we 
need to develop a national strategy. The strategy should focus 
on worker support and community-led solutions to create more 
diversified communities where small businesses can thrive.
    Once again, thank you very much for this opportunity to 
testify.
    Chairman CROW. Thank you, Mr. Gilchrist.
    Mr. Greer, you are now recognized for 5 minutes.

                     STATEMENT OF TOM GREER

    Mr. GREER. Thank you, and good morning.
    My name is Tom Greer, and I am the owner of Hub City 
Brewing Company in the small rural town of Belen, New Mexico, 
25 miles south of Albuquerque. I grew up in East Lansing, 
Michigan, and my family was typical in those times, 1950s 
through the 1970s of the American middle class, two kids, dad 
with a solid job, and a mom who was highly underrated as a 
homemaker.
    I attended Michigan State University, began my career as a 
professor at Lansing Community College as the media Department 
curriculum coordinator during the economic recession of 1974 
and 1975. I worked directly with hundreds of union blue collar 
auto workers, many of whom could only fall back on their 
veteran's education benefits and unemployment to keep their 
family afloat.
    I moved to New York City to be a professor at Long Island 
University's Brooklyn Campus. My students were predominantly 
African American, and I will never forget them regularly 
walking me to the subway station after my night classes to make 
sure I got to the train safely.
    I was recruited by J. Walter Thompson in 1980 at the time 
home shopping and new satellite delivered TV industry was 
launched and became vice president and director of new media 
development where my job was to introduce the JWT clients to 
new media opportunities. Since leaving JWT in 1982, I created 
and ran numerous television production and tourism-related 
businesses in New York, Colorado, Montana, and currently New 
Mexico.
    We moved to Belen, New Mexico, in 2005. Climate, proximity 
to a large city, airport, interstate highway access, and the 
southern terminus of the new Rail Runner commuter train 
presented an exciting challenge, and we thought we could make a 
difference.
    The Rail Cafe opened in 2007. Then housing collapse of 2008 
hit Belen very hard. The cafe closed in 2008, but we kept the 
building. A booming microbrewing industry in New Mexico led to 
our opening Hub City Brewing in 2016. Then came the pandemic in 
2019, 15 months of struggles with being open, closed, carry out 
only, outdoor seating at 25 percent during the height of the 
winter, on again off again. Despite that, we have made it 
through to today.
    So how do small businesses like mine continue to operate 
and thrive in this post-pandemic world? We are currently facing 
food and supply shortages, transportation issues, big spikes in 
the costs of supplies and services and, as a lot of the rest of 
you, difficulties in finding reliable employees.
    We need to make improvements and repairs, and the cost of 
building supplies are at an all-time high. The last thing we 
need are more Federal and State regulations, higher business 
taxes and higher energy costs. Profit margins in the restaurant 
and building industry are slim. We already face increased 
insurance costs, an unpredictable labor market, and a 
cumbersome regulatory environment.
    We use a lot of electricity in our food and brewing process 
and are blessed with an abundance and affordable clean energy 
source in natural gas here in New Mexico. Natural gas plays a 
role in the all-of-the-above smart plan, along with wind and 
solar that I strongly support here in Mexico. We have plenty of 
natural gas and petroleum domestically, so we don't want to be 
held hostage again by other producing countries, many of whom 
are not our friends. We have in the past seen what $4 plus gas 
prices do to the economy and particularly to our low wage 
earners as a larger percentage of their income.
    We need Federal regulations that are predictable so we can 
plan long term. We can't just change the rules in the middle of 
the game, which seems to happen too often.
    We can't afford higher Federal tax rates for businesses, 
particularly small ones like mine that are already struggling 
to stay open and serve their communities. Small family-owned 
businesses are the backbone of both our rural and minority 
owned intercity businesses.
    Refunding the SBA Restaurant Revitalization Grant program 
is essential. Eliminate the special class designation that got 
funding as it hurt many communities it was intended to help. 
While I am an old White guy, likely last in line and not 
funded, I serve a predominantly blue collar, rural Hispanic 
community.
    We have made a difference in this community. We have 
survived COVID, but it is sad so that so many businesses around 
our State have not. Many have failed, not because they didn't 
have a good idea, but rather the mandates of local State and 
federal governments were simply impossible to overcome.
    Thanks again for letting me share the Hub City Brewing 
story with you today.
    Chairman CROW. Thank you, Mr. Greer.
    I will begin by recognizing myself for 5 minutes.
    Starting with Mr. Gilchrist, I am wondering if you could 
just flesh out further for me the issues of kind of just 
transition as it relates to small businesses? What does that 
look like in Colorado in particular? What has been successful?
    What can we do better to make sure that as this transition, 
which is actually largely at this point market driven as we go 
to clean energy, renewable energy, that is a largely private 
market driven process since that energy is increasingly cheaper 
than fossil fuel energy, what can we do better to help those 
small businesses and communities during that process?
    Mr. GILCHRIST. Thank you, Chairman Crow. That is a great 
question.
    And I think one of the many things we need to focus on is 
community investment, you know, aligning State and Federal 
programs to assist local strategies, really community driven 
strategies that are ultimately led by many of the small 
business owners who are leaders in their communities.
    We need to target early successes in business startups, you 
know, expansions, retention, and attraction, empower 
communities with resources to drive their own economic 
transitions as I mentioned, coordinate infrastructure 
investments to support local and regional transition 
strategies, and identify and support State, regional, Federal, 
and local institutions to facilitate needed investments. A lot 
of this work can help drive, you know, and attract grants and 
investments to power that local economic growth.
    So ultimately, I think it starts with the community--
reaching out to the community, learning what that community 
needs, what those small business owners need, what sort of 
investments they need and allow them to drive those solutions 
locally.
    Chairman CROW. Thank you, Mr. Gilchrist.
    And I am going to--instead of using the rest of my time, I 
am going to yield early to Mrs. Young Kim who has a competing 
hearing right now, make sure she has an opportunity to get her 
questions in, and then I can loop back later.
    Mrs. YOUNG KIM. Oh, thank you so much for your 
consideration, Chairman.
    I also, before I ask my questions to the witnesses, I 
wanted to recognize the presence of our Ranking Member of the 
committee, Mr. Luetkemeyer. Thank you so much for joining us, 
and our vice Ranking Member, Roger Williams, thank you for 
joining us.
    You know, I want to pose a question to Mr. Greer. As I 
mentioned in my opening statement, corporate tax increases will 
directly cause utility costs to surge across the country and, 
as a result, small businesses will face higher electric, gas 
bills, like gas and water bills. So how would that impact your 
business, if you can be specific in terms of how, give me the 
numbers and how it will impact you?
    Mr. GREER. Well, the utility costs as part of our 
operations is one of the largest, particularly in brewing beer. 
I use a tremendous amount of electricity. So however we are 
funded and however this energy is generated plays a major role 
on my bottom line.
    Mrs. YOUNG KIM. Thank you.
    You know, I want to talk about--we are talking a lot about 
the energy and infrastructure, but I think the infrastructure 
is met with a lot of burdensome regulations and red tape, and 
you talked about in your testimony that we need Federal 
regulations that are predictable so we can plan long term. I 
couldn't agree with you more on that. And you also said we 
can't just change the rules in the middle of the game, which 
seems to happen too often.
    I also agree with you on that. I mean, it is really 
important that as Members of Congress, as policymakers, we need 
to set the policies that is predictable so our businesses can 
plan and, you know, succeed according to that.
    So as a small business owner, can you explain to our 
committee how costly regulatory compliance is for small 
businesses?
    Mr. GREER. Well, when you add together local, State, 
Federal regulations, just keeping up to date on the changes 
that are made in them is very burdensome for me because I am 
actually a--I make beer.
    I don't have--I am a sole proprietor, along with my wife. I 
don't have a large staff who can keep me attuned to all of the 
idiosyncrasies.
    We also, in the process of this, beyond running a small 
business and having the regulations of a lot of common 
businesses like ours, we manufacture alcohol, so we have a 
whole other level of insurance regulations at the local, State, 
and Federal level for that and, of course, increased insurance 
costs and increased liability because of the product that we 
manufacture, so it is very difficult as things change around.
    And one of the things that I have always been the most 
concerned about is as administrations change in Washington, we 
tend to have very quick steps taken in one direction or another 
that tend to influence what we are able to do, and we 
definitely need to have an opportunity to do a long-term plan 
and to be able to stick to that. And in a lot of respects with 
that, we are stuck in the middle.
    Mrs. YOUNG KIM. You know, as Members of Congress continue 
to examine small businesses' recovery after COVID-19, is there 
anything that you can tell us that we should be doing to focus 
our efforts going forward?
    Mr. GREER. Well, one of the things, the Restaurant 
Revitalization Grant Fund was very well written by the Small 
Business Administration, and I think it was very helpful to a 
lot of people. Its biggest problem was that it ran out of 
money, and I believe that there is some conversation going on 
in Washington about refunding some of that to be more useful to 
the rest of us. It is not large amounts of money, but as an 
example, for me I could double my capacity if I could spend 
$4,000 that I don't have and drop another utility pole in to 
service my food truck. Right now I can run the truck or the 
brewery or the dish machine or my portable kitchen, but I don't 
have enough utilities at my disposal to be able to run any of 
them simultaneously.
    And while that looks like a very small amount of money, my 
wife and I have been running this business as volunteers for 
the last 15 months just in order to be able to stay afloat. So 
that may seem like pocket change to some people, but that and 
demands for other things, food prices, transportation, the fuel 
costs of our truckers, you know, we are looking at $4 a gallon 
fuel again, it is very difficult with the regulatory 
environment that we live in to make beer and serve my local 
community well.
    Mrs. YOUNG KIM. Thank you so much.
    I know my time is up. I will yield back. Thanks.
    Chairman CROW. Thank you. The gentlewoman yields back.
    We are going to go back and use my remaining 3 minutes now.
    I want to start by just stating a few facts at the outset 
on the issue of taxes. I am obviously somebody, you know, that 
has a background in counseling small businesses and regulatory 
compliance and taxes. And a couple of just facts are that 95 
percent of small businesses operate as passthrough entities and 
are exempt from the corporate tax rate. That is fact number 
one.
    Fact number two is that there is a lot that goes into a 
business besides just the corporate tax structure, like skilled 
workforce, good education system that feeds that business and 
helps them grow, roads and bridges that can move their products 
to port, reliable energy, and an infrastructure grid, clean 
water to make beer and do other things with an increasingly 
degrading water system, all of which requires public 
investment. And if we don't have the revenue to invest those 
things, we can't have growing and thriving businesses.
    And I also say that, you know, the corporate tax rate was 
35 percent in 2017, and going up to 28 percent for that small 
segment of non passthrough small businesses that would be 
impacted would, you know, not be devastating for those 
businesses. That is what business owners uniformly have been 
telling me. In fact, those investments that it would make would 
actually help the larger ecosystem and help them grow their 
businesses.
    So I just wanted to set the record straight on that.
    Before I go back to the members, I also wanted to ask Ms. 
Colon De Mejias, I am a huge fan of apprenticeship programs, 
and I know I see Mr. Garbarino on here who similarly shares my 
passion for apprenticeship programs. But I would love to hear 
from you very briefly on the role that apprenticeship programs 
in particular would play for helping workforce development 
because so many of these businesses just can't find employees. 
People are transitioning, and apprenticeships are really one of 
the best ways to do that.
    Ms. Colon De Mejias.
    Ms. COLON DE MEJIAS. Thank you.
    We don't--in energy efficiency, we don't have a labor code 
so we don't have an apprenticeship program. We have kind of 
been working to advocate for a labor code so that we could 
start programs to have apprenticeships, so we kind of have to 
create our own training. I would be hopeful that there would be 
a tandem path to allow both to exist.
    I think it is important to have an apprenticeship program 
in relationship to informing people that a business opportunity 
exists. Oftentimes people graduate school and they want to 
start an apprenticeship program and be an electrician or an 
HVAC person, and they don't know there are other lines of 
careers in our industry.
    So I think it would be important to develop those labor 
codes and ensure that there was that opportunity for 
apprenticeship programs.
    But I also think there are other conduits besides 
apprenticeship programs, like on-the-job training through an 
actual business, that could be just as well served and are much 
faster to get up and going. So in Connecticut, we have a 
program just like that that is starting actually in a week from 
now that will train people for these jobs. It would be great if 
there was a way to register them for those opportunities.
    Thank you.
    Chairman CROW. Thank you. I appreciate that, Ms. Colon De 
Mejias.
    I will now go to the gentlewoman from Georgia, Ms. 
Bourdeaux, for 5 minutes.
    Ms. BOURDEAUX. Thank you so much. Thank you, Chairman Crow 
and Ranking Member Ms. Young Kim, and thank you to our 
witnesses today.
    Clean energy jobs are powering the economic recovery in 
Georgia and across the country. After an initial decline due to 
the pandemic, Georgia had one of the fastest growing clean 
energy sectors of any State, growing over 29 percent between 
June and December of 2020, the second highest rate in the 
nation.
    One thing I talk about with my business community is that 
we really have a chance to do well by doing good in Georgia, 
both tackling climate change and also building new opportunity 
for Georgia businesses.
    The United States and Georgia have an opportunity to lead 
the world in clean energy technology, but it will require 
investment on the part of our policymakers to make that a 
reality.
    I was very interested in hearing about the apprenticeship 
programs or the lack of those, and an issue also near and dear 
to my heart is workforce development, and I have recently 
visited some of the technical colleges in Georgia looking at 
some of the programs that they are putting in place.
    And I wanted to just circle back to that issue with--
actually, Mr. Gilchrist, I don't know if you have any insight 
on this, but at least since you sort of have a national view on 
it, you know, what do we need to be doing to build out the 
workforce for small businesses in this kind of clean energy 
technology space?
    Mr. GILCHRIST. Thank you, Representative Bourdeaux. That is 
a big question, and I do have a bit of experience in this area.
    The first thing is really investing in training programs 
and apprenticeships. You know, a lot of the union 
apprenticeships that we work alongside here in Colorado are 
already training their workers in clean energy. You know energy 
efficiency, as I mentioned before, is 2/3 of the workforce in 
clean energy. So, you know, those are jobs like insulators, you 
know, things that we don't necessarily think about in the 
trades. But the electrical workers especially are doing a lot 
of energy efficiency, the pipefitters (the United Association 
of Pipefitters and Plumbers) they are doing HVAC installations, 
which is a major energy efficiency upgrade. You know, the 
mechanical systems, updating and upgrading mechanical systems 
for buildings is extremely important, and that is a lot of work 
that can be done by highly skilled workers.
    So, I think we often categorize clean energy jobs with 
solar installers, installers, you know, wind technicians. And 
while they really are oftentimes good jobs, they aren't 
necessarily always the highest paid or the highest skilled. So 
you have to look at really the vast majority of where those 
workers are, which is in energy efficiency and, like I said 
before in my oral statement, that you know, it goes way beyond 
our typical understanding of clean energy jobs.
    But some things that we have done in Colorado, just this 
year we passed a bill helping to drive some innovation within 
training pathways for clean energy jobs. State Representative 
Dominique Jackson, who also resides in Congressman Crow's 
office, helped drive that bill which will work with the 
community college system, as well as a number of other 
stakeholders, to help create those pathways.
    And, you know, frankly, we have been thinking about this 
for quite some time. Colorado has really been an innovator in 
creating non-traditional sector training partnerships, you 
know, through things like a group called Career Connect or 
through our Denver public schools and school systems around the 
State to help students understand the breadth of opportunities, 
including in clean energy down the road.
    So, you know, they like to think of it as sort of a way to 
marry the vocational system with the traditional college system 
so that students can get an understanding of what sort of other 
vocational jobs are out there that are earn while you learn, 
high-paying jobs that are really career oriented and especially 
those in the union building trades sector.
    Another thing that we have done this year, which is sort of 
interesting, is to further incentivize, since we can't always 
predict the future, training programs, especially at the IBEW, 
and the pipe trades, which often take, you know, 5 to 6 years. 
So you have to start training those folks early on, and you 
can't do that without some understanding of what will be coming 
in the future. And so creating those incentives to invest in 
that cleaner, cheaper technology is really important.
    And I understand we are running close on time, but I 
definitely have more to say about that, so----
    Ms. BOURDEAUX. Okay. Well, I hope some other folks will ask 
some questions about that because I think we need to flesh that 
out and see to what extent we just need to bring the community 
together to put those pieces in place or to what extent, you 
know, we need to make some Federal investments in getting that 
training pipeline set up.
    Thank you so much. And I yield back.
    Chairman CROW. Thank you. The gentlewoman yields back.
    I will now recognize the gentleman from Texas, the Vice 
Ranking Member of the committee, Mr. Williams, for 5 minutes.
    Mr. WILLIAMS. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
    In full disclosure, I am a small business owner, I have 
been for 51 years, and I am in the automobile business, and I 
am from Texas.
    So under President Trump's pro growth policies and the Tax 
Cuts and Jobs Act, small businesses were able to keep more of 
their hard-earned profits. They used this money to reinvest in 
their businesses, hire new employees, and increase purchase 
orders. Unfortunately, President Biden and my colleagues on the 
left are trying to undo this progress and increase taxes on 
corporations, passthrough entities, and capital gains in order 
to pay for their social and environmental agenda. These tax 
increases will put our small businesses at a disadvantage, 
there is no doubt, as they are they are still trying to recover 
from the COVID-19 pandemic.
    And I have heard today from some of our witnesses that it 
is hard to find people to work. Well, if we quit paying people 
not to work, we would have people to work.
    And I can also say this too, in due respect to our 
Chairman, I don't know a person in my district, not one, that 
wants to pay more taxes to the federal government with what we 
see how the federal government spends. So you cut taxes, it is 
more employees. You raise taxes, you have less employees.
    So, with that in mind, Mr. Greer, can you elaborate how 
these tax hikes will affect your brewery and any pauses you 
have had to put on business investments due to this looming 
increase in taxes that the Democrats propose?
    Mr. GREER. Well, one of the things, to be clear, is that 
the taxes on me individually as a small business are a struggle 
for us at the best because our margins are so small. The thing 
that is most critical to me are Federal, State, and regional 
taxes on all of my suppliers across the country that 
continually drive the price of the goods and services that I 
purchase from them up and continue to increase our costs in 
transportation and supply in our brewery work, kind of the end 
producer of this.
    So taxes directly on me, the first year we were in 
business, when we added insurance, taxes, regulations, fees and 
all of the things together, 51 percent of my gross income in my 
first year went toward those expenses. So that will give you 
kind of an idea of the expenses at a small, small level. Every 
time we turn around, we find another fee or another tax or 
even, more importantly, changes in the taxes or the codes that 
we haven't been able to plan for or haven't been predictable.
    Mr. WILLIAMS. Well, and certainly don't talk about making 
things retroactive. I would suggest you move to Texas. We don't 
have a lot of those fees. You might think about that.
    Mr. GREER. I have been told that before.
    Mr. WILLIAMS. The private sector is going to be the ones 
who bring the emission reducing or carbon capture technology to 
market which will ultimately help the environment and not 
increase government mandates which don't help the environment. 
Many companies are already investing their own capital and 
putting resources to achieving this objective without the 
government telling them what to do, but if companies are forced 
to pay more taxes or hire additional compliance officers to 
deal with the burdensome new mandates, they will have less 
money in their business to bring forward these new initiatives 
to find a solution for the climate change.
    So, Mr. Hasselbeck, how can--in short, I am running out of 
time. How can the federal government better utilize resources 
to assist small businesses like yours to encourage investment 
and move innovative technology towards commercialization?
    Mr. HASSELBECK. Thank you for the question.
    And I think there is three fairly simple ways we can do it: 
A national training and incentive program to help us develop 
and coach 600,000 highly paid licensed electricians and clean 
energy technicians in a 15-year time frame; collaboration with 
the fossil fuel industry to map out an orderly transition to 
clean renewable energy, one that does right by the thousands of 
fossil fuel workers who have devoted their lives to powering 
our economy.
    And then a national focus on elementary and high school 
programs which teach the benefits of a career in the trades. 
These must be supported by investments in trade schools and 
community college programs specifically geared towards the 
clean tech workforce while also avoiding massive levels of 
student debt.
    Mr. WILLIAMS. Okay. Thank you.
    Mr. Greer, since President Biden took office, main street 
America is facing a new threat of inflation, whether it is 
higher gas prices, increased cost of raw materials, or higher 
utility bills, small businesses are among those hit hardest 
again by these spikes. To effect the rising operational 
expenses, business owners have often had to shift the burden on 
to the consumer and raise prices for goods and services, which 
you cannot do that much. You can't just raise prices.
    Mr. Greer, how have these cost increases affected your 
brewery and what kind of adjustments are you making to make 
sure you can stay ahead of this inflation that has been 
created?
    Mr. GREER. At this current time, the adjustment we have 
been forced to make is that my wife and I have been volunteers 
running our business for the past 15 months. The costs are not 
real controllable for us, and I live in a small rural, one of 
the poorest counties in the State of New Mexico, and we don't 
see any practical way that we could raise our prices.
    Chairman CROW. The gentleman's time expired. We can loop 
back around for a second round.
    Mr. WILLIAMS. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I yield back.
    Chairman CROW. I am going to recognize the gentlewoman from 
Illinois, Ms. Newman, for 5 minutes.
    Ms. NEWMAN. Well, good morning. Thank you, Chairman. Thank 
you, Ranking Member Young Kim. This has been a great discussion 
this morning.
    I want to start by lifting up some leaders from my home 
State of Illinois. In light of today's hearing, I ask that the 
committee--offer unanimous consent to submit a statement from 
Clear Flame Engine Technologies into the record. Clear Flame--
--
    Chairman CROW. Without objection.
    Ms. NEWMAN. Thank you.
    Clear Flame Engine Technologies is a Black and women 
founded small business dedicated to decarbonizing technologies 
in the energy sector. Their statement can serve as a blueprint 
for small businesses in the energy sector, so so entered.
    A couple of other comments, if I may, Chair.
    So I would like to associate myself with Chair Crow's 
comments. Just to reiterate 95 percent of all small businesses 
will not be affected in any way by any tax increase and, again, 
it would be to 28 percent not to 35 percent, to be clear.
    But I do have a couple of questions, and I think our 
witnesses today have offered great ideas. So my first set of 
questions would be to Mr. Hasselbeck, if I may. I love the 
notion of a national work training program. Do you envision 
this being a partnership of public and private and unions?
    Mr. HASSELBECK. I do. I think, you know, the need for 
skilled workforce development is so great and so urgent, we 
need to explore any and all viable opportunities. And as I 
mentioned before, we've gotten a lot of advice and support from 
our local IBEW partners here, but there are other alternative 
passes as well like our own apprenticeship program which, you 
know, meets the same technical requirements, job site training, 
getting paid while learning, but it is a 4- and a 5-year 
program. So, as I think Mr. Gilchrist had mentioned, these take 
some foresight in investment to make sure that we are setting 
folks up for success right from the beginning.
    A really common piece of feedback we get from our new 
employees is, man, I wish I knew that there was this 
opportunity when I was going to college or when I was starting 
out in my careers. And this is often a second career as they 
get into the trades. So I think where the public and private 
partnership can come together is really that education at the 
early stage, and helping kind of really support these high 
school starting trade-based educational programs is a real 
career opportunity for long-term wealth creation.
    Ms. NEWMAN. Thank you for that. And if you have any other 
materials on what you have done locally there, we would love to 
see that on the committee level. So please share if you can.
    Mr. HASSELBECK. Yeah. We would be thrilled to.
    Ms. NEWMAN. And then, Mr. Gilchrist, I am very excited 
about Just Transition. I started BlueGreen Alliance and Just 
Transition council in my district. So we will be reading your 
materials in earnest. But a couple of questions for you around 
how has played out in Colorado. Have you worked primarily with 
small businesses on this? Or who all participates, and who is 
seeing the most success and benefit right now?
    Mr. GILCHRIST. Thank you, Representative Newman. That is 
also a good question. Also as you know, by being a lawmaker 
yourself, a robust stakeholder process is extremely important.
    Ms. NEWMAN. Yeah.
    Mr. GILCHRIST. And we work alongside a number of groups 
that bring small business voices to the policy discussions, you 
know, environmental entrepreneurs to--there is also the 
Colorado Outdoor Business Alliance, Good Jobs for Colorado, and 
many of our rural roundtables that, you know, all of those 
groups are convening across the State.
    I think what has been fairly unique about this year, as you 
know, we are testifying virtually here, is that there has 
really been a great opportunity to bring in those voices from 
other parts of the State, those small business owners from 
places like Mesa County, from Pueblo County, which are, you 
know, are a lot further away from Denver than, you know, than 
we usually see.
    You know, one of the things that has been really useful for 
them in developing this transition process, which, by the way, 
was created by the first in the nation legislation creating the 
office in 2019, and the action plan, which actually focused on 
community engagement, community listening sessions around the 
State, hearing from a lot of those voices, has led to some of 
these policy solutions we are seeing today.
    So, we try to bring in, as you know, myself, you know, the 
work we do at NRDC, as well as all the legislators we work with 
trying to bring in those voices from across the State.
    Ms. NEWMAN. Thank you. And more, please. And I yield back.
    Mr. CROW. The gentlewoman yields back. I now recognize the 
gentleman from New York, Mr. Garbarino, for 5 minutes.
    Mr. GARBARINO. Thank you, Chairman. Thank you for holding 
this hearing. And thank you to the witnesses for coming today. 
My first question to Mr. Greer, businesses on Long Island where 
I represent have suffered during, and in the aftermath of the 
COVID-19, especially our restaurants and taverns. Since being 
sworn into Congress, I have attempted to help many small 
businesses. In fact, one of my first acts as a member of this 
committee was offering an amendment to increase the funding 
available for the Restaurant Revitalization Fund. And the 
American Rescue Plan, unfortunately, was defeated.
    Now, I am proud co-sponsor of the Entree Act, which is 
being offered by the Ranking Member, which would utilize 
unspent funds from the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 to 
assist American restaurant owners who are working tirelessly to 
serve their employees and communities.
    Mr. Greer, you touched upon this a little bit in your 
testimony. How would the Entree Act and a properly funded 
restaurant revitalization fund program support you and your 
employees in the recovery, in addition to what you had already 
stated?
    Mr. GREER. Well, I am not familiar with the new plan you 
were talking about, but the SBA revitalization----
    Mr. GARBARINO. It would fund that bill up to almost about 
$70 billion from where it is now.
    Mr. GREER. Well, anything--you know, one of the concerns I 
have is I am seeing a lot of people who have taken advantage of 
loan programs over the last past year, and have not been able 
to grow their businesses coming out of this who are now in a 
position where they are having trouble about thinking about how 
to pay that back.
    So small grant programs are, obviously, useful. One of the 
things that I--and we can use all the help that we can get. The 
restaurant industry was one of the hardest hit, along with 
tourism. The--I wanted to make a comment in here because a 
couple of times I have heard that small businesses like mine 
won't be affected by the changes in the tax rate, which may 
very well be true, except that all of my suppliers fall into 
that category of those who will be taxed, and that will 
increase my costs because there is certainly going to pass 
those on.
    All the help we can get in getting this industry and the 
tourism industry out of this pandemic is useful.
    Mr. GARBARINO. Right. I appreciate that, but the money that 
would come directly from the restaurant revitalization fund, if 
you would--did you apply for that, sir? Did you apply for a 
grant? Or did you not because you didn't know if you were going 
to get money?
    Mr. GREER. No, we did apply. We qualified for a small 
amount of money, but it would have been enough to do the one 
task that I had of increasing our ability to power more of our 
building simultaneously. We did, and we were not--we were not 
picked. They said they ran out of money before they got to us.
    Mr. GARBARINO. Okay. So you need more money to go into that 
program. Okay. Thank you.
    Mr. GREER. Yes. Thank you.
    Mr. GARBARINO. And this is just a general question. We are 
talking about--so far if anybody who wants to answer. We are 
talking renewables, renewable energy. I have spoken to small 
businesses in New York. I don't know if you know this, but by 
2030, 70 percent of the energy that we produce has to be 
renewable energy, as well as 3,000 megawatts have to be 
produced by energy storage. I have spoken to small businesses, 
union shops that are going to be--they are very excited to work 
on the wind turbines and other projects that are going out 
there. But my question is a two-part question. Should nuclear 
energy be considered part of clean energy, and will that help 
with jobs?
    And for the battery storage, something that I am running 
into, or our companies are running into that want to do it, are 
local municipalities and zoning laws, they are not being 
treated as public utilities, at least not in New York right 
now, so they have to come up with specific zoning laws, or 
comply with zoning laws. And a lot of people don't--a lot of 
NIMBYers, they don't want it in their area. So is that a 
problem--are you seeing--one, should nuclear be included in 
clean energy? And, two, the battery storage, are we seeing that 
kind of problem with local municipalities and zoning? So 
whoever wants to jump in. Mr. Hasselbeck, I see your hand up.
    Mr. HASSELBECK. I would like to start with the battery 
storage question. ReVision Energy operates in four different 
States. And in those four different States, we have four 
different sets of jurisdictions and codes and standards. And it 
is certainly a significant challenge to have a single product 
offering, and insulation program that meets varying code 
standards, especially for new technologies.
    We, too, like Mr. Greer, are often in a very rural area, 
and our local authorities having jurisdiction often struggle to 
apply codes and standards for technologies they don't have 
legacy experience with. So we spend a lot of our time and 
energy educating our local AHJs.
    So additional support from the Federal level to streamline 
the permitting process for energy storage installations, and 
other technologies for that matter, is really helpful. Just 
last week----
    Mr. CROW. Unfortunately, the gentleman's time has expired. 
I will now recognize the gentleman from Minnesota, Mr. Phillips 
for 5 minutes.
    Mr. PHILLIPS. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I do appreciate it. 
And, Mr. Hasselbeck, I want to congratulate you on your recent 
B Corps designation. And I hope you could just elaborate for 
this committee why you decided to take that step to become a B 
Corps and an ESOP, as I consider that to be perhaps one of the 
most compelling possibilities for this committee to inspire for 
businesses across the country. If you could share a little 
about that journey in your decisions, we would appreciate it.
    Mr. HASSELBECK. Well, absolutely, and thank you for asking. 
We think that additional Federal support for companies or 
organizations would prioritize both social and worker benefits 
as highly as profit margins is really important. So whether it 
is ESOPs, cooperatives, B Corps, those are all different 
strategies to achieve that goal.
    Something that is particularly neat about ESOPs in general, 
is that not only the ESOP companies have, on average, a higher 
level of wages for all of their staff, they also perform better 
financially just as individual businesses. So we think that 
that is at real catalyst to growth.
    Since 2017, when ReVision Energy became an ESOP company, we 
have seen our ESOP share values increase roughly 3,000 percent. 
And that benefits every single co-owner of my company, 
regardless of their job title, role, or responsibility level. 
So, we think that that is a really key long-term aspect of 
wealth creation. It is not just wages, it is wealth creation in 
the event of ESOP values. And making sure that the people doing 
the actual work, climbing up around on the roofs or out in the 
muddy fields, they need to share the financial benefits of 
their company's success, and we think ESOPs are great.
    We think the B Corps opportunity is great way to provide 
third-party objective certification to our different 
approaches. And that is really important for us. I am a 
construction guy, so I would appreciate metrics and goals and 
standards. And what we think is great from the B Corps, it is a 
very specific and a very detailed set of qualifications. And 
you are either doing this stuff or not, and it allow uses to be 
objectively measured and allows our consumer bases to take that 
objective measurement to say, You don't have to listen just to 
me, in my opinion. You can look at this third-party 
certification process that shows that, not only are we doing 
good for our employees and the workforce, but also our local 
social justice initiative. So it really just helps us kind of 
crystallize our individual company mission.
    Mr. PHILLIPS. I love it. And as someone who believes deeply 
that businesses can and should be positive forces for good, 
Representative Chrissy Houlahan, my friend and colleague and I 
just started a caucus called the Stakeholder Capitalism Caucus, 
trying to encourage fellow Members of Congress to participate 
in encouraging such things.
    So share with us, from a policy perspective, what can and 
should we be considering to inspire more ESOPs, more B Corps, 
and, frankly, more sharing from those enterprises that generate 
success with the people that help make it possible?
    Mr. HASSELBECK. Sure. I think it is education. I was 
looking at the Committee for Employee Stock Ownership Programs, 
and I think there is somewhere around 6,700 ESOPs in the United 
States today, covering about 15 million workers. That is a tiny 
drop in the bucket. I think we have several million 
individualized small businesses throughout our country right 
now, and a lot of folks are just unaware.
    I talked to industry peers and other businesses all the 
time who are very interested and curious about our ESOP 
transition process. And it is great story, but they just are 
not aware of the financial. There is really compelling tax 
benefits as well to becoming an ESOP, which helps us put our 
profits directly back into our people and our mission.
    So I think education, and then of the opportunities out 
there--and it is still--it is--it is a regulatory challenging 
process to become an ESOP. It took us about 18 months. We had 
to reach a certain scale before we as a company had the capital 
to apply to the ESOP transition.
    So, perhaps, some additional support for smaller businesses 
who want to become an employee ownership, who want to cover the 
employee ownership model, but don't yet have those excess 
dollars in their budget to dedicate to the time.
    Mr. PHILLIPS. Terrific. Well, we would love to work with 
you towards that end, and encourage my colleagues to join us in 
this important mission. Sharing success is the most beautiful 
outcome of capitalism. With that, Mr. Chair, I see my time is 
drawing to a close, I yield back.
    Mr. CROW. Thank you. The gentleman yields back. I will now 
recognize the gentlewoman from New York, Ms. Tenney for 5 
minutes.
    Ms. TENNEY. Thank you, Chairman Crow and Ranking Member 
Young Kim for holding this important hearing. And thank you to 
the witnesses for your time and expertise and insight into this 
important issue. Obviously, as a small business owner, the 
middle class is essential to this country. But my big concern, 
coming from a State like New York, is that supporters of the 
Green New Deal too often actually ignore the science of energy, 
and push economics that end up hurting our energy sector and 
our independence, and raise prices on consumers all the way 
through the line. Unfortunately, this administration has taken 
some of the Green New Deal priorities to heart, destroying our 
energy sector, making us more dependent again on OPEC, causing 
the gas prices to go up, and devastating families, and having 
among the highest energy costs in the nation.
    In New York State, it has not helped our small business 
community, along with high taxes and over regulation. And on 
top of that, there seems to be very little effort on sourcing 
some of the essential materials we need for batteries, such as 
for solar panels. Our energy supply chain is more reliant on 
countries like China for our rare earth elements and those 
types of things. That is why I just--I would like to just ask a 
couple of questions.
    As a small business owner that relies on a municipal power 
source to keep us going in New York, thankfully for that, but 
we have sort of a Green New Deal, actually, in New York State. 
But I would like to pose my first question to Mr. Gilchrist. In 
your testimony, you said how clean energy transition in 
Colorado has been a win-win for the State. However, Xcel 
Energy, Colorado's largest utility, has announced it is seeking 
a rate increase of nearly 13 percent next year.
    So politicians keep hyping up the power grid that is 
completely reliant on solar and wind is cheaper than fossil 
fuels, nuclear and hydro, and some of those other resources, 
but those savings haven't seemed to pan out. What do you think 
has gone out with Colorado's clean energy transition? And how 
can we keep prices down and affordable for small business 
owners?
    Mr. GILCHRIST. Well, I thank you, Representative Tenney. 
You know, I am not sure I can comment too much on Xcel's rate 
increases, but I can comment on what will help save small 
businesses money. And one of the things that I think Mr. 
Hasselbeck was getting at is another policy solution is 
creating a national building standard. You know, 13 percent of 
building--13 percent of overall emissions in the country come 
from commercial and residential buildings. So, if you create a 
national standard rather than a patchwork approach, then you 
can allow businesses to plan for that.
    In addition, creating clean energy incentives, also on a 
national scale, where more folks across the country can take 
advantage of that, is literally putting money into the pocket 
of small business owners.
    So that is where I think we have the most opportunity to 
really drive that investment. You know, as I mentioned before, 
clean energy businesses are small businesses. So, you are 
directly helping them create the micro capitalism where small 
businesses are literally helping other small businesses thrive.
    Ms. TENNEY. I would like to reclaim my time. I come from a 
State, New York State is an original colony. We have buildings 
that some are 100 years old or even more. Our small business 
community is already overtaxed, overwhelmed with regulation. I 
am not sure how we would be able to invest in new building. We 
have a sea of buildings for sale, actually, in upstate New 
York, that people are looking to sell or to use that space, as 
a commercial property owner as well. So I am not sure that 
imposing another standard on building is actually going to be 
helpful for small businesses.
    But another issue, I just want to address this to Mr. 
Hasselbeck as well. In your testimony, you advocate on behalf 
of wind and solar stating that in some circumstances, it is the 
lower cost source of domestic power generation than nuclear, 
coal, and natural gas--you know, nuclear being completely 
emission free. However, the manufacturing of solar panels and 
batteries are heavily reliant on rare earth minerals often 
sourced in China.
    Would you also advocate for updated Federal regulations to 
make it easier to source those raw materials for batteries and 
solar that we need for those indications?
    Mr. HASSELBECK. I would. We would advocate for that, 
because we think having a strong domestic supply of all 
materials within the supply chain is a critical part to create 
additional jobs, as well as to allow the United States to 
manage our costs. You know, similar to Mr. Greer's supply chain 
challenges, this is the most challenging year to be a 
construction company that certainly we can remember with 
rapidly increasing costs as well as increasingly delayed 
fabrication timelines.
    Some of that, not all of that, some of that manufacturing 
is domestic. We buy a lot of U.S. steel. And that stuff is 
great, but I think some of these rare earth minerals would help 
us continue to reduce the costs and control our own supply 
chain.
    Ms. TENNEY. Thank you. I think my time has expired. But I 
do know that most of these rare earth minerals are actually 
mined in the United States, sent to China to be processed and 
sent back. It would be great if our small business community 
could actually do the type of work on these rare earth minerals 
and keep it here and keep our jobs here. But thank you very 
much to the witnesses. I appreciate your testimony. I yield 
back.
    Mr. CROW. Thank you. The gentlewoman yields back. I will 
now recognize the Ranking Member, Mr. Luetkemeyer, the 
gentleman from Missouri for 5 minutes.
    Mr. LUETKEMEYER. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, a good hearing 
today. And I just want to comment on a couple of a comments 
that you made earlier with regards to, yeah, 95 percent of the 
businesses out there, S Corps passthroughs of some kind. But 
out of the C Corps, 1 million of those are small businesses. 
They are concerned about increasing taxes. And a statement 
where increasing taxes is helpful smacks to me of changing 
economics when you think taking money from people and 
redistributing it is a good deal. Changing economics has never 
worked in the history of this country or this world. Increasing 
people's taxes, in my mind, is not helpful.
    Mr. Greer, would increasing your taxes be helpful to you?
    Mr. GREER. No.
    Mr. LUETKEMEYER. I understand your comment about being a 
volunteer. I appreciate that very much. Being a small business 
owner myself, I understand that you are the one that gets the 
last paycheck on the stack. And if you run out of money, that 
doesn't get to cover your check, so you don't get paid.
    Mr. GREER. We are still here because we took a big cut of 
working as volunteers. We are lucky that we could do that. I am 
unlucky in that the paid staff still isn't working.
    Mr. LUETKEMEYER. Yeah, it is interesting, you know, the 
studies show that these tax increases, for instance, for sure 
on C Corps are passed on to the customers, employees, as well 
as the owners. So tax increases are devastating.
    Just a curious question here for you, Mr. Greer. I know 
that you talk about inflation. I will get to that in a second 
here. But there is a lot of other hidden costs that you have to 
pay, the things that have gone up. Has your unemployment 
insurance taxes gone up? Has your workman's comp gone up? Has 
your liability insurance gone up? Because I know because of the 
COVID pandemic, there is a lot of States that have raised their 
unemployment insurance rates to make up for the losses to the 
unemployment fund. Have you seen that in your State?
    Mr. GREER. We have seen it in the State, a lot of it, 
because I have virtually no staff. And my staff that works for 
us are all owners in the business.
    Mr. LUETKEMEYER. Okay.
    Mr. GREER. But one of the things that is difficult for us 
is we have so many multiple tiers, particularly in liability, 
serving alcohol that it appears that the consumer of the 
alcohol is the last one being held responsible for any of the 
liability.
    We just approved recreational marijuana. I know there is a 
conversation among the workman's comp insurance companies about 
whether, in anticipation of that, it might be a great 
opportunity for them to raise people's workman's comp, just in 
anticipation that there could be a problem. And I know that 
that has a lot of building trades really wondering about what 
is going to happen to them in the future.
    Mr. LUETKEMEYER. That is a very huge issue, depending on 
industry. And thank you for your comments. With regard to the 
restaurant program, this is something that we are looking at in 
trying to fix, quite frankly. You are one of the victims of the 
prioritization that was in the bill. In the bill, there was 
three separate groups that were prioritized over others. 
Unfortunately, you were not one of folks who were in the three 
initial priorities. And the bill has been viewed as 
unconstitutional by Texas and by Tennessee courts.
    So that is hung up. Half the money has not gone out. Half 
the money has gone out. And all of the money is committed to 
all of those folks in those three first groups. We would like 
to fix that. There is a bill to do that. We want to try and 
find some sources of funds to be able to fund that at a level 
that you would be included in that, sir. So hang with us. We 
are going to--we haven't forgot about you. We are going to work 
with you here to try and continue to help you along the way to 
keep your business going.
    With regards to inflation, small businesses are getting 
creamed with inflation right now. And it started with, you 
know, restricting the pipeline up north and restricting 
permits. And as you saw, immediately, there was an increase in 
gas prices. That is a rippling effect to the entire economy. I 
think you mentioned it a couple of times already, the increased 
inflationary prices of energy that you faced with putting in 
your--the parts of your product that you need to make it work.
    Mr. GREER. Well, the--I am heavily reliant on outside 
suppliers for raw materials. I am not a big business, but I 
still which, in itself, is difficult because I can't take 
advantage of some of the economies of scale that the larger 
brewers can. The transportation costs are also impacting this 
fuel. One of the things we have with the workforce is we don't 
have enough truckers out there running as well. It has been a 
very difficult supply chain thing for us because we truly are 
the end of the line.
    Mr. LUETKEMEYER. The ripple effect of increased energy 
prices is across the board, across all of your increased costs 
that you have for your inputs in your product as well, then you 
have to pass it along on the end game for the price that you 
charge for your product.
    Mr. GREER. Energy is one of my biggest expenses.
    Mr. LUETKEMEYER. Thank you. I yield back.
    Mr. CROW. Thank you. The gentleman yields back. I believe 
we are out of additional members for questioning. So we will 
start to wrap the hearing.
    So with that, you know, I always appreciate this 
committee's robust discussion on how to create jobs, how to 
grow businesses. The bottom line is, these are challenging 
issues. There is no doubt about it. Building a business, 
creating jobs, and spurring growth is not an easy thing to do. 
And I always appreciate that. The legislative process that this 
committee goes through to actually find the best way to do 
that. And part of that is just, you know, just the facts. And 
one thing that I will say in closing here is, I love facts 
because they just happen to be true. And a couple of those are 
that 95 percent of small businesses operate as passthrough 
entities and will be exempt from the corporate tax rate. 
Another one is that the administration's proposal, corporate 
tax rate structure proposal is that, number one, we actually 
spend--we actually pay for what we spend. We know that we have 
to make investments in infrastructure in this country. We know 
we have to do that. But there are--infrastructure is falling 
apart, and we cannot be a 21st century competitive economy and 
compete against China and others without strong infrastructure.
    This proposal would actually pay for those investments. You 
know, unlike the record deficit spending that we saw under the 
Trump administration, we believe in fiscal prudence, we believe 
in being able to pay for what you spend.
    The second thing this proposal really does is novelly that 
treats everyone equally under the law. We believe that if you 
are a huge corporation, that you should pay for some taxes. 
That you should actually pay for the roads and the bridges and 
the things that you use as a major corporation, and not be 
exempt, because, frankly, it is the small businesses that end 
up paying those taxes and pay for that. And it is the large 
businesses they could exempt. So we believe in enforcement. We 
believe in making sure that everyone pays their fair share. And 
I think it is really extremely important component of this 
proposal.
    The next one is when President Biden took office 6 months 
ago, the economy was just fluttering along, adding only 60,000 
jobs per month. Today, we are creating over 600,000 jobs per 
month. The fastest growth at any point in any administration's 
history. Just dwell on that one for a moment. The unemployment 
rate is down to 5.9 percent after one of the worst employment 
crises in this country's history. What an accomplishment that 
is.
    And then on the issue of inflation, almost unanimously, 
most economists say this is a natural blip post-recession, 
right? You always see, after recessions, an increase, because 
demand is outpacing supply. The supply chains are ramping back 
up, manufacturing is ramping back up, the supply chains are 
reaccommodating that, and that costs--that causes the increase 
in costs. And you always see that leveling out after those 
changes. Those are just facts, folks. That is what is 
happening. That is the assessment. I think it is extremely 
important that we talk facts so we can make good policy, and we 
can legislate appropriately. So with that, I look forward to 
continuing the work with----
    Mr. LUETKEMEYER. Mr. Chairman, Mr. Chairman, I would like 
to reclaim some time in opposition to make a rebuttal statement 
in closing.
    Mr. CROW. No, we are going to close out, Mr. Luetkemeyer.
    Mr. LUETKEMEYER. We are always offered the opportunity. As 
you were able to articulate here for several minutes, we have 
the opportunity to also have our own voices heard in a closing.
    Mr. CROW. Are you going to do the closing for Ms. Young 
Kim, the Ranking Member?
    Mr. LUETKEMEYER. Yes, I will do the closing.
    Mr. CROW. Okay. When I am done, I will do that. One moment.
    Mr. LUETKEMEYER. Okay.
    Mr. CROW. The gentleman is recognized for 5 minutes.
    Mr. LUETKEMEYER. Thank you. Well, I appreciate the 
Chairman's reiteration and emphasis on facts. It certainly is 
important. As I have stated earlier, you know, increasing taxes 
is not helpful. Those taxes are passed on to customers, 
employees, and the less dollars are returned to the owners of 
companies.
    When you talk about the jobs that are being created, we are 
still hundreds of thousands of jobs short from where the 
projections were by the administration, because we are not 
growing the economy as fast as it needs to be, and could be 
growing if we were to fix this $300 check that is out there 
that doesn't allow people, or incentivizes people to stay home 
rather than go to work.
    Again, the comments made about the supply chains. Yeah, 
supply chains are a problem, but they are broken because the 
people are not going back to work, and as a result, there is a 
shortage of parts, and there is a shortage of people, 
everything from truck drivers to manufacturing employees, to 
people serving folks at restaurants because they are 
incentivized to stay home.
    1.8 million people decided not to take the job they were 
offered as by the Morning Consult Poll just last week. Forty 
percent of the people can make more money staying home than 
they can going to work. Twenty-six States so far got rid of 
that $300 check, and you have seen an increase in the 
employment in those States. That is why the numbers you see are 
going in the right direction from the standpoint of 
unemployment going down. That being said, we still have a huge 
problem with the labor participation rate in this country. It 
continues to go down because people do not go to work because 
they are incentivized to stay home.
    So the programs and policies of this administration are not 
working. We are limping along. And being successful in spite of 
them, not because of them. I think that is the point we need to 
make.
    Also, with regards to the tax bill and the infrastructure 
as you were talking about, it is interesting that--you know, I 
have talked to multiple electrical utility companies, an 
electrical generation company, executives who are talking about 
if we went to all electric vehicles, we don't have enough 
electrical capacity to provide the amount of electricity it is 
going to need to make this work. We don't have the power grid 
built up to make it work. And for us to then spend--and our 
numbers I have seen, anywhere from 120 to $170 billion for 
electrical charging stations. That is like about building a 
bridge to nowhere because only 2 percent of the cars are 
electric right now. It would be much better spent if you wanted 
to spend 120-, $170 billion to put in the roads and bridges, 
which improve the maintenance and ability of cars to run 
efficiently on those roads and over those bridges, or make 
energy efficient gas pumps. Why not make more energy efficient 
gas pumps instead of electrical charging stations that is 
costing $150, $200,000 apiece, and nobody is going to use them.
    Mr. Chairman, this is the folly of this administration. 
This is the fallacy of the policies that are out there with. 
The American people are seeing this nonsense. And Mr. Greer on 
here today had some very salient observations about some of the 
problems, and he, as a small business owner, is directly 
affected because he has to wait for his paycheck until we 
finally make some money and get this economy going. With that, 
I yield back.
    Mr. CROW. Thank you. The gentleman yields back. I always 
appreciate a robust debate and discussion. So I appreciate the 
comments and look forward to working with all of the members to 
figure out how we do what we all want to do and that is create 
jobs, grow our economy, and address the climate crisis at the 
same time.
    So with that, I would ask unanimous consent that members 
have 5 legislative days to submit statements and supporting 
materials for the record. And, without objection, so ordered. 
And if there is no further business to come before the 
committee, we are adjourned. Thank you.
    [Whereupon, at 11:34 a.m., the subcommittee was adjourned.]
                           
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