[Congressional Record Volume 153, Number 101 (Thursday, June 21, 2007)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1376]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




 ENERGY AND WATER DEVELOPMENT AND RELATED AGENCIES APPROPRIATIONS ACT, 
                                  2008

                                 ______
                                 

                               speech of

                           HON. RUSH D. HOLT

                             of new jersey

                    in the house of representatives

                        Wednesday, June 20, 2007

       The House in Committee of the Whole House on the State of 
     the Union had under consideration the bill (H.R. 2641) making 
     appropriations for energy and water development and related 
     agencies for the fiscal year ending September 30, 2008, and 
     for other purposes:

  Mr. HOLT. Mr. Chairman, I rise today in strong support of H.R. 2641, 
the Energy and Water and Related Agencies Appropriations Bill for 
Fiscal Year 2008. I would like to thank Chairman Visclosky and the 
Energy and Water Subcommittee for drafting a bill that clearly defines 
what our Nation's priorities should be in promoting and developing 
sustainable energy sources as well as taking a firm approach to dealing 
with our Nation's nuclear weapons complex.
  This Energy and Water Appropriations bill is making two very 
important statements. The first relates to our Nation's energy path and 
climate change. I believe this bill starts to direct us to where we 
should be--which is on a sustainable energy course. By increasing the 
investment we are making to sustainable energy sources, we are making a 
commitment to developing an energy plan that promotes renewable energy, 
promotes efficiency and promotes conservation.
  Last year, I criticized the Energy and Water bill for continuing the 
status quo and for not putting us on a path for a sustainable energy 
future. Today, the bill we are considering is vastly different. We have 
increased by 52 percent over the President's budget for energy 
efficiency and renewable energy programs. This funding is used for 
energy efficiency programs such as technologies to make buildings more 
efficient and programs like EnergyStar. This bill also provides 
significant funding for alternative energy sources such as biomass, 
solar, and hydropower. These are the technologies of the near future 
and we must make the investment now.
  Equally important is the public policy statement that this bill makes 
about nuclear nonproliferation and how we as a Nation bring rationality 
to our own nuclear weapons complex. Last year Congress approved a 
nuclear cooperation agreement with India. That deal, I believe, created 
a more dangerous and unstable world. We spoke at great length about the 
details of this cooperative agreement. We spoke at great length about 
how good a friend India is to us. We talked about the so-called reality 
of an imperfect ability to control the militarization of nuclear 
reactions. I said last year during that debate, that if we really 
believe that nuclear proliferation and loose nukes are the greatest 
threat to world peace and security, as I do, then we should be holding 
on to every tool we can find to prevent that threat.
  That is why I am pleased that this bill sends a clear message about 
how we view our nuclear weapons complex. I believe that instead of 
wasting billions of additional dollars on a nuclear weapons program we 
don't need and that would only undermine our global nonproliferation 
efforts, our country should be dismantling its excess nuclear weapons 
and working to get other nuclear powers to join us in the effort to 
create a world free of nuclear weapons. Equally important, our country 
should be expanding its effort to secure loose or inadequately 
safeguarded nuclear materials in the former Soviet states. Securing 
these materials is our best insurance policy against terrorists getting 
their hands on such material and using it against us or our allies. For 
these reasons, I am pleased that the Energy and Water bill cuts the 
Department of Energy's portion of the RRW program. We must set a global 
example, and this is a start on moving us towards global 
nonproliferation.
  Also, by way of my background as a scientist and researcher at the 
Princeton Plasma Physics Lab, I understand how essential it is to fully 
invest in programs like the Fusion Energy Sciences Program. I applaud 
the $427.9 million investment in this program. Never has a national 
commitment to fusion energy research been more timely or important to 
our Nation's energy future than it is right now. Fusion energy is the 
power of the sun and the stars, and holds the promise to become an 
economical, safe and clean domestic energy source. Fusion is an energy 
source that has the potential to increase our national energy security, 
while also decreasing overall world carbon dioxide emissions. I am glad 
to see that the Committee has decided to honor our Nation's commitment 
to ITER, which is a seven nation fusion program being developed 
currently in Cadarache, France, by allocating $160 million in funding. 
The remaining $267.9 million will allow the United States to be 
competitive in the development and deployment of fusion energy and to 
train and retrain the next generation of young fusion researchers who 
will be expected to work on ITER and in the field of fusion energy 
research beyond ITER.
  This is a good start for an energy appropriations bill. I thank the 
Chairman for his cooperation and leadership on this bill and I urge my 
colleagues to support it.

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