[Congressional Record Volume 147, Number 76 (Tuesday, June 5, 2001)]
[House]
[Page H2864]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                  THE NATURE AND IMPORTANCE OF ENERGY

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Michigan (Mr. Ehlers) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. EHLERS. Madam Speaker, I would like to say a few words about the 
energy issues that face this country. I believe that energy is one of 
the most misunderstood topics in this Nation, and I believe that is 
largely because energy is so hard to describe and define.
  Most of us do not know what it is. We cannot see it, we cannot feel 
it, we cannot touch it, we cannot weigh it. When you were a little kid, 
your mother never sent you to the store for a bottle of energy. You 
cannot buy energy that way. Yet, somehow we know what it is, because we 
talk about it when we get up in the morning, saying ``Oh, we do not 
have much energy;'' or, ``Oh, we really have a lot of energy today;'' 
we are raring to go. And that is a pretty good perception of what 
energy actually is.
  I happen to be a physicist, and energy in physics is defined as the 
ability to do work. So that fits our everyday conception of energy, the 
ability to do work.
  Now, in today's society, we depend a lot on energy to do our work. We 
use energy constantly in transportation, in the workplace, in so many 
different ways, and it is extremely important. So often we forget the 
importance of energy, because we are so used to it.
  But if you look at the major historical revolutions, the nonmilitary 
revolutions, you will find that the first major revolution, the 
agriculture revolution, occurred when people, for the first time began 
using labor other than their own, namely the labor of animals. The 
agriculture revolution did not succeed until people began using animals 
for plowing, for milling, and for other works of labor.
  The second major revolution, the industrial revolution, took place 
when, for the first time, we began using non-human energy and non-
animal energy, but instead used mechanical energy and heat energy, and 
that has led to the world we enjoy today, with its many different 
sources of energy, used for many, many different purposes.
  But we tend to take energy for granted and do not realize its 
importance until there is a shortage, particularly when prices go up, 
because when the prices go up, it affects the economy. Energy is so 
vital to our economy that whenever we have a shortage of energy and 
prices go up, the economy is affected dramatically. It is no 
coincidence that the last three major recessions we have had in this 
country have followed on the heels of energy shortages.
  Now, what is energy? I said you cannot feel it, touch it, handle it. 
As a physicist, I understand what energy is, but it is hard to explain 
it to a lay person, and for that reason sometimes I wish that energy 
were purple.
  If it were purple, we could see it, we could understand it. If we 
could drive up to our homes and see purple energy leaking out from 
around the windows during the winter and we would see purple oozing 
through the walls, we would recognize we are wasting money, because we 
have not insulated the house well enough or sealed the windows well 
enough.
  Or suppose we are driving down the highway: if we see a little car 
going by with just a little bit of purple around it, and then see an 
SUV going by with just clouds of purple around it, we would immediately 
recognize that one uses far less energy than another. That is the type 
of awareness we have to build in the people of this country.
  Let me relate that to one specific State. We all know that California 
is having tremendous energy problems. There are many reasons for it and 
many possible solutions, but I can tell you that the fastest, cheapest 
solution of all is energy conservation and energy efficiency. That can 
be implemented quickly. It can be used to solve the crisis, it can be 
used to reduce demand and drive the prices down in California, and 
certainly put the State on a better keel. I hope that California 
pursues it, and I hope that our Federal government helps them pursue 
that alternative.
  Now, there is so much more I could say about this, and I plan to do a 
1 hour speech on this later on. But I wanted to give this introductory 
speech at this point, outlining some of the characteristics of energy, 
how important it is to our Nation and our economy, and how totally 
dependent we are on it.
  It is an issue that we must deal with. We must deal with it 
intelligently, using every possible means; not just energy conservation 
and energy efficiency, although I think they are extremely important, 
but also looking at alternative sources of energy and more wisely using 
the resources we have now.
  The answer is not simply drilling holes in the ground, the answer is 
not simply insulating houses, but looking at every aspect of our use of 
energy and saying how can we use it better, how can we use it more 
efficiently, how can we really accomplish something worthwhile in our 
energy use, without depleting our natural resources.
  One last comment about energy. There are two very important aspects 
you must remember about energy. First, energy is our most basic natural 
resource, because without energy, we cannot use any of our other basic 
resources. We cannot use iron, steel, copper and so forth, without 
digging it out of the ground and forming it and fabricating it. All of 
this requires energy.
  The second important point about energy is that it is the only non-
renewable resource. Once you use it, it is gone. We can renew all our 
other resources; that one we cannot. So let us be certain to use energy 
right and not waste it.

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