[Congressional Record Volume 153, Number 189 (Tuesday, December 11, 2007)]
[House]
[Pages H15298-H15304]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                   A NEW VISION FOR OUR ENERGY FUTURE

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of 
January 18, 2007, the gentleman from Washington (Mr. Inslee) is 
recognized for 60 minutes.
  Mr. INSLEE. Mr. Speaker, I come to the floor this evening to talk 
about a great vision for America's clean energy future, and it's very 
timely that America adopts a new vision for our energy future because 
we know Americans have some challenges when it comes to energy right 
now.
  We're going to, tonight, talk about a vision for a way to 
revolutionize how we use and how we generate our energy that will solve 
some of the problems that Americans are experiencing tonight, and I 
think there shouldn't be any debate about what those challenges are.
  We are paying well over $3 a gallon for gasoline, with no relief in 
sight. We've seen it go from, I don't know, $30 or $40 a barrel during 
the start of the Bush administration to now approaching $100, $95, $100 
a barrel. Again, fossil fuel costs continue to go up.
  We're engaged in a security threat from the Middle East where we are 
sending about a half a million dollars a minute to the Middle East to 
the place, to the terrorists who come to attack us, and sending money 
to the Middle East and have them turn around and attack us as the 22 
generals who testified in front of our global warming committee told us 
is not a very prudent security policy.
  We're engaged in a war in the Middle East, the place that there is 
security concerns because that's where a significant part of the oil is 
in the world.
  So we know we have economic challenges because of rising gas prices. 
It's hitting us right in the pocketbook every time we go to the pump. 
We know we have security concerns because of our addiction to the 
Middle East, and now we know that global warming is an additional 
threat that we simply have to respond to.
  Now that Americans have seen 1 million square miles of the Arctic 
melt, the size of six Californias simply disappeared, melted in the 
Arctic this year, together with the melting of the tundra, the changing 
weather patterns. We've certainly seen it with our rainstorms we had in 
my State. I represent the State of Washington. We had 10 inches of rain 
in 24 hours, an unprecedented event. This type of heavy precipitation 
events are consistent with global warming. We know we have a global 
warming threat that we've got to deal with.
  So we know that we have some challenges when it comes to energy, and 
we know none of those challenges are going to get better unless we do 
something about it. This energy problem is not going to get solved by 
the tooth fairy or simply sort of pleasant wishes for the market to 
solve the problem. We know we have to act. We know we have to have a 
plan. We know we have to have a vision. And we know it has to rely on 
something that we're rich in in America.
  And there's one thing I've got some good news tonight we'll talk 
about at length. We are rich in intellectual talent in America. We are 
the best innovators, best tinkerers, the best inventors humans have 
ever seen. And there was a fellow back in May 25, 1961, who really 
understood that. He came to this Chamber on May 25, 1961, John F. 
Kennedy, and John F. Kennedy came and stood right behind me in here and 
said that America was going to accept the challenge of putting a man on 
the Moon in 10 years and bringing him back safely. Now, that was a 
President who understood the innate capability of the American people 
to invent their way to solve any challenge we set our mind to.
  And President Kennedy really, that was a gutsy thing to say again. He 
was ahead of the curve. He was ahead of the technology. That technology 
to get to the Moon was hardly even on the back of an envelope at that 
time. You know, at that moment, our missiles were blowing up on the 
launch pad. The Russians were way ahead of us in the space race. We'd 
only put Spam in a can up for 15 minutes. We hadn't even invented Tang 
yet.
  We didn't know how we were going to get to the Moon, but John F. 
Kennedy knew that we could invent our way to solve this technological 
challenge and we did it. And we're here tonight to say that Americans 
have the same level of can-do spirit, the same level of optimism, the 
same level of technological prowess that we had in the 1960s, and that 
we can do for clean energy what John F. Kennedy did for space, which is 
to create a whole new clean energy revolution for the economy of 
America and grow our economy at the same time.
  So I've introduced with some of my colleagues a bill called the New 
Apollo Energy Act. The New Apollo Energy Act basically uses the word 
``Apollo'' because it's the inspiration for what we know we can do, 
which is to invent our way to a new clean energy future just like 
Kennedy in the original Apollo project did for the Moon project.

                              {time}  2200

  Well, I have some really good news. The House of Representatives last 
Thursday, with 235 votes, with some bipartisan support, essentially 
committed ourselves and accomplished five steps towards this clean 
energy future, and we are shortly going to take a fifth large leap for 
mankind in clean energy. So stealing a little bit of the language from 
the original Apollo 11 project, we now have had five small steps for 
energy independence and clean energy, and we are now starting to work 
on one giant leap for America's clean energy revolution.
  And I wanted to talk tonight about those five steps that we have 
taken in the House, and the bill is now over the Senate, and one of the 
reasons we are here tonight is to encourage the Senate to follow the 
House's lead to the extent we can and move forward on these clean 
energy steps. And before I yield to my friend, Ron Klein, who has been 
a great leader in the freshmen class on these issues, I want to start 
with just the first step that we took last Thursday.
  Last Thursday the House of Representatives, in a history-making step 
forward, passed the first improvement in our fuel economy standards in 
30 years. For 30 years Americans' efficiency standards have been 
frozen, locked in stone and haven't made 1-mile-per-gallon improvement 
since 1983. In fact, and this blows my mind, the cars we drive get less 
mileage today than they did in 1983. We have mapped the human genome. 
We have invented the Internet. But the cars we drive get less mileage.
  Well, we're doing something about that. After 30 years of Congress 
being

[[Page H15299]]

captured by forces against and in opposition of progress, we have 
increased by 40 percent the mileage standards by the year 2022 from 25 
miles a gallon to 35 miles a gallon. That is a square deal for 
Americans. It is common sense, and we have done it in a way that 
protects our domestic manufacturers so that they are not exposed to a 
flood of new imports from across the seas, and we do that by having 
what is called the two-fleet rule that has been preserved.
  Now, the reason this makes sense and the reason it's going to work is 
a combination of a couple of factors. First, it is a fact that we have 
got the best geniuses in the world right here in America when it comes 
to designing cars, and I know because they are designing some cars that 
are going to blow this record out of the way. By 2022 we are going to 
have cars that are way beyond 35 miles a gallon. I want to talk about 
one of those cars.
  One of them is the General Motors Volt. And I have here today a 
picture of the General Motors Volt, a car that General Motors hopes to 
have in production 5 years from now. This car exists. I saw it at the 
Anaheim Electric Car Association Convention last weekend in Anaheim, 
California. And this car is a miracle because it is what's called a 
plug-in hybrid car. This car uses new lithium-ion batteries designed by 
A123 Battery Company in Massachusetts. And this car you plug in. You go 
home at night and plug it into your garage outlet. You unplug it in the 
morning. You drive 40 miles with no gasoline at all, free of gasoline 
from the Mid East or anywhere else, for that matter; 40 miles, zero 
pollution for 1 to 2 cents a mile. Gasoline costs 9 to 12 cents a mile 
to run your car for 40 miles. After 40 miles if you want to drive 40 
miles, and 40 percent of Americans' average trips are over 40 miles a 
day, then you use hybrid technology to use a combination of gasoline 
and someday cellulosic ethanol and electricity like the hybrids now run 
to run your normal 250-, 300-mile range.
  Now, that is a tremendous deal for Americans who get low-priced fuel 
for 40 miles, zero CO2. Similar cars that are on the road 
today get 100 miles a gallon of gasoline today using this combination 
of electricity. And when we use cellulosic ethanol, we'll get 500 miles 
a gallon of gasoline using a combination of electricity, a hybrid. Now, 
this technology is going to blow that CAFE standard away. And after 
talking to the scientists at this electric car convention, I am very 
convinced that this is going to happen, and GM has certainly put big 
money behind this. So I'm very excited about the first step, which is 
to improve automobile efficiency, to talk about that tonight.
  With that I would like to yield to my friend Ron Klein from Florida, 
who has been a leader in the freshmen class. Thank goodness this 
freshmen class has shown up. That's one of the reasons we are making 
these strides tonight.
  Mr. KLEIN of Florida. I would like to thank my good friend from 
Washington, who has been working on these issues and talking and moving 
toward getting the Congress to act on behalf of the American people on 
energy issues for 10 years-plus.
  And as you and I have talked about this this year, I have learned a 
lot from you. I know that I personally have had 20 years of my own 
personal beliefs that Americans can accomplish anything. You've talked 
to me about the Manhattan Project. We all know about Sputnik. And these 
were callings of a generation ago to say when America wants to do 
something, we want to focus our scientists, our education, our 
entrepreneurs, all the elements that come together so that Americans 
can accomplish anything, we did it. And this is the moment in time in 
the national security side in making sure that we never have to make 
another foreign policy decision based on where the next drop of oil is 
coming from; the new economy side, and that's the job creation that you 
are talking about and many people are talking about, the entrepreneurs 
at home in our communities that are developing the GM Volt and the 
other car companies and all the entrepreneurs that are developing the 
alternative means of furnishing energy that are different from fossil 
fuels; and certainly the environmental side.

  And being from Florida and your being from the other corner of our 
country, we have a great sensitivity to our environment. And I 
represent a coast of 75 miles at sea level; so we are particularly 
sensitive that we do everything we can to make sure that our 
environment is protected, that we don't do things to affect the global 
temperature, which may, in fact, change the level of the ocean and, of 
course, do a lot of other damage.
  These are very exciting times. And, again, as a member of the 
freshman class and with Democrats and Republicans in our class, we have 
all come to that same conclusion that you have come to along with many 
others and the leadership of this Congress to say this is not a choice 
of drilling more off the coast of Florida or in Alaska. Those are false 
choices. When you hear the discussion that we have to drill or we can't 
become energy independent, that's ridiculous. What we really need to be 
doing is focusing, as this bill does, on alternative renewable energy 
sources.
  And one of the things that I am very excited about also is the 
correcting of something that Congress did a year or so ago, and I know 
you were against this at the time, but it was passed by the leaders at 
that time in the Congress and the President signed it. The President 
correctly said a couple of years ago in his State of the Union we are 
addicted to oil.
  So what did Congress do over your objections and others? They 
basically gave some $15 billion or some number like that to the oil 
companies to subsidize them for more oil drilling. Now, we all believe 
in a capitalist system. We believe in for-profit and companies 
prospering. And the oil companies right now are making more money than 
any company in the history of the United States. So I find it 
particularly offensive as a taxpayer like everybody in the country to 
have to add frosting on the cake and give Federal tax subsidies to 
those oil companies over and above that. That's not right.
  And what this bill does, and I know you are going to talk about this, 
is it redirects that type of incentive, those tax incentives, to change 
consumer behavior, to incentivize our entrepreneurs and our scientists 
to come up with the kinds of products that will move us toward energy 
independence, because it is all about this next generation. And when I 
speak to kids in school, I know we charge them up and say this is your 
calling. This is something that we as adults and our children have to 
really work together to make sure that we do this together.
  So I'm very happy to be here in support of what you are doing 
tonight. And I look forward, when you are done with that, talking about 
a specific kind of energy alternative that is very exciting that I have 
been watching in my community. But I appreciate your bringing this up 
tonight.
  Mr. INSLEE. Yes. And I want to dovetail the second step. We've got 
five steps we're going to talk about tonight. The second step is on the 
taxes to really level the playing field for new technologies.
  I don't think our constituents are very happy about paying $3-plus 
for gasoline. They are less happy on top of that to then throw in some 
serious change, about $21 billion, with a ``b,'' of the money they send 
to Uncle Sam on April 15 that is now shelled out to the largest oil 
companies that are making more profits than any corporation in the 
history of this solar system. And there is nothing wrong with profits, 
but there is something wrong with taxing Americans to add to those 
profits to, frankly, a very mature industry. This is not like this is a 
new industry that we are helping to get going. They've been around 
since 1880 or 1890 from the fields of Pennsylvania. This is a very 
mature, very profitable industry.
  So what we have done in this bill is reel back in the misbegotten 
largesse that has been shelled out to the oil and gas industry to the 
tune of $21 billion. And what we are using that for is to help 
Americans adopt new clean energy technology. And it's going to be taken 
away from about five major oil companies, and it is going to be given 
to 300 million Americans that can use tax breaks when they buy a fuel-
efficient car like this plug-in hybrid car or when they weatherize 
their house and put in more insulation or when they want to buy energy-
efficient heating or cooling.

  This is like taking from the few, if you will, who never deserved it 
and giving to the many who need this help

[[Page H15300]]

now to adopt their old infrastructure, houses, cars, businesses, to the 
new clean energy. And it is going to do something for our business 
community too, and I want to talk about that. And this is Florida-
specific. Mr. Klein represents Florida. I want to talk about a 
technology that is a kind of technology that we should be assisting.
  This is a picture of technology called solar thermal technology. This 
is designed by the Ausra Company, A-u-s-r-a. The Ausra Company has 
developed a way to concentrate the Sun's radiant energy on a pipe. You 
can't see this very well, but this is a pipe of water that is 
essentially heated up by the reflected Sun rays. And they have 
discovered a way to make these mirrors very inexpensively and then heat 
this water and develop steam and drive a steam turbine and generate 
electricity. This company just signed a contract for 300 megawatts for 
a utility in Florida, enough for somewhere between 250,000 and 300,000 
homes that they are going to produce electricity for with zero carbon 
dioxide, zero greenhouse gas emissions in Florida, 177 megawatts in 
California. And they believe that, within about a decade, once you make 
enough mirrors so you bring down the cost per unit of mirror, they will 
be able to compete with coal-based electricity.
  Now, what makes sense, and what we have done, with a few Republicans' 
help, and it's not many but a few, we have reeled back in that $21 
billion from the oil and gas companies and we have redirected some of 
that assistance to a company like the Ausra Company so they can develop 
this new technology. Now, that is a proactive action, and I am very 
happy to report that second small step.
  Now, the gentleman wanted to talk about a specific technology. I 
would like to yield to him to talk about that.
  Mr. KLEIN of Florida. I would like to thank the gentleman for the 
recognition about solar. Being from Florida, we call ourselves the 
Sunshine State. It seems like one of the most appropriate places to be 
one of the founding areas of solar, and yet many other States, 
including the State of Washington, which has a fairly active solar 
program, have been developing this further. But I am very excited about 
this project that you have mentioned in Florida or anywhere in the 
United States. Of course, we all know about wind power. We have large 
utilities in the country. We have one in our area, Florida Power and 
Light, FPL, that is one of the largest wind generators in the country, 
in Texas and other places, California. There is no one solution here.
  The good news is there is a competitive economy out there. There are 
competitive scientists that are coming up with different ideas. I am 
going to mention another very interesting one.
  Part of what this bill does, as you correctly mentioned, is it 
provides grants and seed money and challenge grants to new industries 
and entrepreneurs that are developing new ideas. The Gulf Stream, we 
have all heard about the Gulf Stream, it is a current that runs along 
the eastern United States from the southern part all the way up to the 
eastern coast of the United States and Nova Scotia. It's a fast-moving 
current. Billions of gallons per minute pass off the coast of Florida, 
for example. We have a Centers of Excellence at Florida Atlantic 
University that has been developing, and there is a program out in 
Oregon that is doing something similar, where with turbines in the Gulf 
Stream itself, they can generate enough electricity, they believe, over 
time, to power one-third of the power needs of the whole State of 
Florida.
  Now, we have 18 million people that live in the State of Florida. 
Think about that opportunity. And there are other places along the 
eastern seaboard of the United States that if this technology can be 
captured and the electricity can be generated, again, as you point out, 
no greenhouse gas emissions. This is totally 100 percent clean, 
renewable. They are working through all the environmental issues right 
now. They believe there will not be any as they continue to develop 
this.

                              {time}  2215

  It is still at midstage testing, but the opportunity is there.
  And again, what's exciting now is we're capturing this excitement. 
The American people understand this is a necessity that we have to do 
these kinds of things. This is one particular program I'm interested in 
because I've already seen the potential that it may accomplish.
  But along with solar, along with some of the other things that we're 
going to talk about, there are great opportunities for the United 
States to become energy independent in a relatively short period of 
time, no different than Brazil, no different than other countries 
around the world that have found their own natural resources that can 
be used, Iceland and other places, that can be used to generate the 
power needs for growth, for success, for a clean environment. And 
again, it's just very exciting.
  I'm glad to be here to support this bill and encourage not only the 
Senate, but the President, too, when this bill gets to him, because I'm 
confident that Congress is going to pass a bill that's going to include 
most of these items that we're talking about today. When it does pass, 
we are going to really get the American people behind this. So, Mr. 
President, I hope that as we get this to you, that you join us in 
really taking this mission that we have to the American people and our 
next generation.
  Mr. INSLEE. Well, I hope that that occurs.
  And I'm really excited about power off our coastline as well. We have 
a little coastline off the Pacific coast which actually has the 
potential to generate power from waves. Mr. Klein talked about power 
from currents, where you can have turbines that turn, like a windmill 
or rotary moving mechanisms, but we also have huge power from waves 
that simply go up and down that are generated by the wind. And off our 
coast right now, we have some buoys going into the water, and as they 
bob up and down, they compress water, and that generates compression 
that turns the turbine that generates electricity. And this is a 
technology that is in its infancy, but there is enormous power in our 
wave power. In a 10x10 mile stretch off the Pacific coast, there is 
enough electricity for all the electrical needs of California, for 
instance. So, here's another technology.
  I want to compare this technology to wind power. I've got a picture 
here of the largest wind farm in the western hemisphere, it's in 
southeastern Washington, in my State. These are, I think, almost three-
quarters to one megawatt. That's enough for 1,000 homes, each one of 
these turbines. They are somewhere between 250 and 300 feet high. And 
what that power represents now is absolutely clean power, which today 
is the least expensive power that we can buy in the Pacific Northwest. 
If you want to get the cheapest power you can buy right now, this is 
the cheapest power essentially that you can buy, cheaper compared to 
even coal fire, or as cheap as a coal fire plant. That's why there is 
huge demand for these turbines. Actually, the pricing has gone up 
because there is so much demand for them, people want to buy them.
  The reason I mention wind in conjunction with wave power and tidal 
power is a lot of people think that wave power and tidal power is sort 
of where the wind industry was about 20 to 25 years ago, in its 
infancy. When this started, people laughed at it. They thought it was 
like a big tinker toy with a bunch of folks living in a teepee that 
were dreaming up. And for a long time it was ahead of its time. Now it 
is commercially viable, it is supporting thousands of jobs. The 
Speaker's State of Pennsylvania has a company called Gamesa that is 
manufacturing these turbines. In Iowa, the Clipper Turbine Company is 
manufacturing. We want to make these and put them out to the world.
  That's why the third step, we've talked about the first two, the auto 
efficiency standards, the tax fairness provisions, and now the third 
step we've taken is what we call the renewable electricity standard, 
which requires 15 percent of our electricity to come from a combination 
of renewable energy, clean energy sources, wind, solar, wave, enhanced 
geothermal, and efficiency. And we believe if we simply create those 
demands for these technologies, if you demand it, they will come. And 
these technologies will take off once we have these demands.
  So, this is an important part of the package. Some of our colleagues 
across

[[Page H15301]]

the Chamber and in the Senate are balking at this. If we don't get this 
through now, we will next time. We will make some adjustments to it and 
get it through, because once people find out about these technologies, 
they're ready to rock and roll.
  I yield to Mr. Klein.
  Mr. KLEIN of Florida. If I can just add something to the gentleman's 
thoughts about that.
  Part of what we're doing here is creating market. That is the 
exciting part. Obviously entrepreneurs are going to invest and make the 
capital investments if they know that they can sell the product. As you 
said with the windmills, the turbines, a market has been created. It 
has now justified itself to the point where the price is actually going 
up because the demand is there, which is great. That's great news. And 
some of these technologies that are being developed are at different 
stages. But the whole notion of creating an obligation to have 15 
percent of the electricity we generate, instead of from fossil fuels, 
coming from these renewable energy sources will, again, move in a way 
which are your public utilities will come together and find ways to 
enhance and encourage companies to come forward and provide these 
products.
  We are behind the curve in Europe. Europe is way ahead of us on this. 
Most European countries already generate a much larger percentage of 
their energy from renewable energy sources. And they have recognized 
and they've taken it upon themselves to do this, by law, voluntarily, 
or otherwise.
  The whole notion of the environmental impacts of global warming and 
things like that, these are not limited to anybody's border. They're 
not limited to the United States' borders. They're not limited to any 
State. They're not limited to China. It's a worldwide issue. But 
Europe, in fact, has shown some good leadership here. And I think that 
the United States, and I know that Americans, as I said before, are 
very innovative people who respect their environment, that we can all 
work together. And this notion in this bill of making the 15 percent 
obligation is good because it not only makes the statement, but it 
creates the market which will in turn create the jobs and the new 
economy that will sustain and build these types of products, which is 
very exciting.
  Mr. INSLEE. And what we have found, the genius of this, like you 
said, once the demand is created for these renewable energy prices, 
there is a very, very tried and tested rule that kicks in, which is, 
they become cheaper over time. And people say, well, gee, some of these 
things cost more than coal right now or oil and gas. Well, that's true 
right now, but look at what the experience has been over the last two 
decades. These are graphs from the National Renewable Energy Laboratory 
of the renewable energy cost trends over the last 25, 27 years, and 
there is remarkable consistency.
  Wind energy started out in 1980 about 30 cents, 32 cents a kilowatt 
hour. It came down dramatically, until now it's down to in the range of 
6 to 8 cents in this graph, that actually might be a little optimistic, 
in the year 2000. Look at this enormous reduction over the last 20 
years because of improvements in technology, and the fact that once you 
have scales of economy, you manufacture more of these, they cost less.

  Same thing with solar thermal technology, that type of technology I 
showed earlier with the mirrors, heating up the water, started out at 
60 cents a kilowatt hour in 1990, gone down to about 8 cents a kilowatt 
hour now in the year 2000. Again, these are, frankly, a little 
optimistic. These charts are a little less than the numbers I've heard 
quoted, but you get the general trend that it's incredibly down.
  Photovoltaic solar energy, that's the kind most of us are familiar 
with, which you have a silicone panel, and it just takes the sun's 
energy and spins off an electron and creates an electrical current, 
started at 100 cents a kilowatt hour, now it's down to 22, 24 cents a 
kilowatt hour.
  And what we find in these charts, in almost all these technologies 
there is almost this kind of law, I don't know if it's got a name yet, 
when you increase by a factor of 10 the number of units of these 
renewable sources, the price comes down 20 cents. Now, what does that 
tell us? We know two things for sure; the cost of fossil fuels is going 
up, and it isn't coming down. China is coming on like gang busters. 
They're demanding. They want to start buying the oil for their cars, 
too. And as their economy grows, that demand is going up. And we know 
we're not producing, we're not keeping up with the pace of demand for 
the increase in our oil production, so fossil fuel is going up over 
time.
  We know these renewable sources are coming down over time, including 
geothermal, which is coming down dramatically again, from 1 dollar in 
1980 down to about 26, 28 cents now. So, we know these are coming down. 
These lines are going to cross. And if we're going to hitch our 
economic star to some technology, let's hitch our star to the 
technologies that are getting cheaper, not the ones that are getting 
more expensive over time. And that's what this bill has done.
  I yield to Mr. Klein.
  Mr. KLEIN of Florida. And to further your point, the supply is 
indefinite. It's infinite. It's perpetual. It's forever. Oil is not. 
And it's not a question of whether there is going to be enough oil on 
the ground for the next generation; it's the question of the people 
that are supplying the oil are not reliable sources, they're not 
necessarily friends of the United States. We're at their whim. We've 
seen the statistic, when President Bush was sworn into office in 2000, 
oil was at $28 a barrel. It is now $90 to $100 a barrel, depending on 
what day is going on here. OPEC, we have no control over that. This is 
a cartel of people that are not acting in our best interests at best, 
and at worst, in some cases, some of these organizations, these 
countries are financing people who are out to harm the United States. 
So, we are totally off in the wrong direction in terms of oil, and that 
has obviously been a mainstay.
  Now, oil will continue to be part of our source, and that's fine. But 
in terms of our future, as you correctly said, where do we want to put 
our efforts, our resources, our energy? It should be in these renewable 
resources because they are coming to the point where there is going to 
be a crossover, and the sooner we have total control over our energy 
destiny, the better off we're going to be from a national security 
point, from an economic growth point, and everything else.
  Mr. INSLEE. I would now like to turn to the fourth small step that 
we've taken, and the fourth step that we've taken is to embrace what we 
call the first fuel of clean energy. And the first fuel of clean energy 
is not wasting it. What we have found, and I've done a lot of research 
in this field, almost always the cheapest energy and the most effective 
energy you can get is the energy you don't waste. The efficient use of 
energy is the first place we've got to look.
  Our bill in many ways demanded more efficiency for Americans. It 
demands that our lighting industry produce lighting that is 40 to 60 
percent more energy efficient. It demands that our air conditioning 
units become much more efficient, that our buildings become much more 
efficient. There is a provision in there that we want to create model 
building codes, that when we build our buildings they won't waste as 
much energy as they do.
  Many people believe that probably 30 to 40 percent of the road we 
have to travel we will get there simply by not wasting energy. And I 
want to go to exhibits A and B on that, show you a picture of a couple 
of folks in Redmond, Washington, Mike and Meg Town. They're standing in 
their doorway here. Mike is a science teacher at Redmond High School. 
It's a rainy environment out northeast of Seattle. And a few years ago 
when he was teaching his kids about clean energy, one of his kids said, 
Hey, Mr. Town, if you think this is so hot, why don't you build a house 
like this? And he said, I think I'll do just that.
  So he basically set out to build a zero electrical net usage home by 
using efficiency, conservation, and a little bit of photovoltaic, and 
he did it. And here is a picture of his home. It didn't cost much of 
anything more than a normal home of this site. I think you'll agree 
it's a nice-looking place. It's in a rainy environment, but he managed 
to make it zero net electrical usage by doing some commonsense things. 
He used a little additional insulation. He used energy-efficient 
windows. He designed a home that uses a little bit of what's

[[Page H15302]]

called passive solar heating, so the solar rays, when we get them in 
Seattle, which is twice a year, I think, on August 12th and 13th, heats 
the inside of the home. And he did some photovoltaic array. He put on 
himself these darker panels up here on the roof that he actually put 
on.
  And now Mike says one of the great joys is, first off, he uses about 
half as much energy as a normal home. And when he does use it, he's 
producing it largely with his PV system. And when he's generating more 
than he uses, his meter runs backwards. And he says there is nothing 
more fun than going out and watching your meter run backwards as you're 
feeding electricity back into the grid.
  So, Meg and Mike Town are sort of walking examples of what our bill 
is going to do, which is to help Americans weatherize their homes, make 
sure their businesses are using energy-efficient appliances, and when 
we do that, we're going to use this first fuel. That's kind of a 
commonsense thing to do.
  So, I want to move to the fifth step now. And the fifth step that we 
took is we adopted what's called a renewable fuel standard. In a 
renewable fuel standard, we guaranteed that we will have 32 billion 
gallons of biofuels that will be homegrown in the United States in the 
next 20 years. And the reason we said that is we think it makes more 
sense to get our energy from middle western farmers rather than Middle 
Eastern sheiks. And it doesn't make a lot of sense to take our 
subsidized agricultural products, export them, take the money from the 
international buyers, and then just ship it to Saudi Arabia. It's just 
kind of a shell game with money. Let's cut out the middle man and grow 
our own.
  For those who doubt we can do that, I want to refer them to a little 
company in Grays Harbor, Washington, and I like to tell a little story 
about this company.

                              {time}  2230

  This is a picture of the Imperium Biofuels biodiesel plant in Grays 
Harbor, Washington. It is on the coast of Washington State. Imperium 
Biofuels is the largest biodiesel plant in the world, and it is in 
Washington State. It produces 100 million gallons of biodiesel, 
principally using canola oil, some additional oils that they are using, 
soybean and a couple of others. This company started from a guy in 
Seattle, Washington, who was a pilot, who got tired of flying 
airplanes, he got bored of flying airplanes and decided he would start 
an energy company. He started brewing up biodiesel in his garage. And 
the part of this story I like is he went to the Rainier Brewing Company 
and he got two old brewing vats from the Rainier Brewing Company, and 
he started brewing up biodiesel. What a great can-do story. He went out 
and raised some capital and now built the largest biodiesel plant in 
the world, and plans on building 10 or 20 more of these.
  Now, with the capacity of biodiesel and with advanced forms of 
ethanol, and I am talking about advanced forms of ethanol, we have the 
capacity to provide 25 to 30 percent of all our transportation fuels 
from homegrown United States crops without jeopardizing our food chain, 
without jeopardizing the production of our domestic food supplies. And 
the reason for this is, and if you talk to John Plaza he will tell you 
about this, we have the capability of using whole new types of 
biofuels. We know we use corn ethanol now. But we only use the seed of 
the corn. We only use the kernel. We are now going to have cellulosic 
ethanol which uses the whole plant, all of the carbohydrates, from the 
stalk, the stem, what they call the corn stover, from wheat chaff that 
is now left on the ground. There is a company called Iogen in Idaho 
that is planning to bale it up and make that into cellulosic ethanol. 
When we do this, we will be able to produce a significant part of our 
transportation fuel.
  So this is our fifth step. It is common sense. It is home grown. And 
for those who have heard a lot of controversy about corn ethanol, I 
have been talking to the scientists on this. You will be blown away by 
what is coming. There are crops now in development, one called 
miscanthus by a company called Mendel Biotechnology in Hayward, 
California. It is a crop they have developed that is four to five times 
more productive than corn per acre of ethanol. Now when farmers can 
start selling four to five times more ethanol per acre than they are 
today, we will decrease the pressure on our land. This crop uses less 
fertilizer and less water than corn today. So we look at corn ethanol 
as sort of the DC-3 of biofuels. It is a start. We are going to move 
forward to the Boeing 787, which is cellulosic ethanol.
  Mr. KLEIN of Florida. I am going to add another form of ethanol out 
there that I think people around the world are familiar with in Brazil, 
which is a very large country, it is a fully industrialized country. 
They decided a generation ago to move towards energy independence for 
the same reasons we are having these discussions here today in this 
country. And they have oil. They have lots of other things, but they 
use sugar-based ethanol, a different type of ethanol based on a sugar 
product, and it is cellulosic based.
  I have heard and some of the research that has been done, well, it is 
not as efficient, and there are food-chain issues and everything else. 
As far as I am concerned, and I know that many Members of Congress and 
most Americans believe, where there's a will there is a way. If there 
are any technological limitations to anything we have talked about 
tonight, they can be overcome. I think this entire conversation needs 
to be about how can we move forward in all these areas. If there is a 
limitation, let's figure out how to overcome that.
  Again, sugar-based ethanol in Brazil, their ethanol that is a big 
part of their production. The cost is slightly different from here, 
but, again, let's figure it out. It could be a question of production; 
it could be a question of greater efficiency of production of sugar 
cane, where in Florida we have a very large production of sugar cane, 
and obviously most of it is used for production of food. In other parts 
of the country, sugar beet and other things are used to produce sugar.
  But the point of all this, and I think the part that is so 
interesting, is that various types of alternative or renewable energy 
sources are already in production as you have in Washington in 
different stages. And we are allowing every one of these to compete. 
That is the greatest thing about our economy. It is a system where the 
great ideas, the great science will move forward and whatever is most 
efficient over time, it could be any combination of ways that we are 
going to achieve energy independence in this next generation, we will 
do it. So when I hear people, the naysayers, the people who say, oh, we 
can't do this, there is this problem, there is that problem, we can do 
it. We are going to do it. We will do it. It is going to require 
everybody to partner together, consumers to drive this, industry to 
drive it, education and scientists to drive it, government partnering 
with the private sector to drive it. It is going to happen.
  Again, I am so proud to be part of a Congress that recognizes this 
and is moving this notion forward, and I'm proud the American people 
are finally coming together and saying, hey, this is something that is 
all about who we are, how we define ourselves, we being the great 
leaders in the world; and science and other things are going to use our 
scientists and our technology to achieve these great goals. It is 
exciting to see a plant like that with all the silos and all the great 
things going on there. They are already the largest in the world. That 
is pretty exciting.
  Mr. INSLEE. What is neat about this is a lot of these things are 
happening in areas that have previously been quite depressed. This is 
an area that has really been hurt when the timber industry has had some 
tough times. And now we have got this, and there are two other very 
green industries that have developed in Grays Harbor, Washington.
  You look around the Midwest where the ethanol plants have gone up, 
these communities have really revitalized. A lot of them have been 
using co-ops. This is not all money from Wall Street. These are co-ops 
where people have banded together and built their own industry. It is a 
very unifying experience when these communities do this.
  We see this happening in the inner city where we are developing green 
collar jobs, where we are improving the efficiency of older buildings. 
When you have a green collar job to rebuild a building to make it 
energy efficient, that job doesn't get shipped to China.

[[Page H15303]]

It is right here. It is a local green collar job. That is why we are 
excited about that.
  We talked about the five steps we took last Thursday: number one, 
auto efficiency, which we are calling for; number two, commonsense tax 
fairness to move some of these things away from oil and gas to these 
new businesses and consumers to help them; number three, the renewable 
energy standards so we can have clean energy electricity; number four, 
the efficiency standards that Mike and Meg Town used to such effect to 
allow your home to be efficient; and, number five, the renewable fuels 
standard where we are calling for advanced fuels.
  And by the way, our renewable fuels standard requires these advanced 
biofuels. It requires about two-thirds of this to be from these 
advanced forms, not just corn ethanol, but advanced forms of ethanol in 
the future. So those are five significant steps.

  Just to note how significant they are, there has been an independent 
group that evaluates energy policy that has evaluated a very similar 
plan to this and concluded that when this plan is implemented, it will 
save more carbon dioxide from going into the atmosphere, the principal 
global warming gas, than all of our cars and trucks are putting into 
the atmosphere today. This is a big, big deal. We know we have to 
reduce our carbon dioxide by probably 80 percent by the year 2050 to 
prevent carbon dioxide from going over twice preindustrial levels. This 
is about maybe 35 or more percent of the way we need to go. So it is a 
very significant first five steps on that path.
  For those who are interested in this subject, I want to congratulate 
Vice President Al Gore for winning the Nobel Peace Prize. I read his 
acceptance speech, which anyone who is interested in the subject I 
would recommend it to them. It is available on some Web site somewhere. 
It is a brilliant statement of the planetary emergency we now have, and 
I would encourage people to take a look at it because it will give you 
a sense of urgency that we have.
  Mr. KLEIN of Florida. I am going to give you a plug because not only 
did Al Gore obviously earn the Nobel Prize for what he did, but Mr. 
Inslee you have also taken upon yourself not only to work in this 
Congress, but you also have independently written about this subject 
and you have brought forward a publication called ``Apollo's Fire.'' I 
don't know if you talked about it in the very beginning. I am going to 
give you a little plug because I have had a chance to take a look at 
it. It is an inspirational book that talks about what we have talked 
about tonight and where the country is going.
  I will read one quote which I thought was very self-descriptive, and 
this is a quote out of your book. It says: ``A new Apollo Project for 
energy is really a mission to rebuild our economy. Smart energy policy 
is, in fact, good economic policy. The two are inextricably 
intertwined. Done right, solving our crisis of climate change and oil 
dependence can create tremendous opportunity for America and the world, 
not only by avoiding the severe economic harm of climate disruption, 
but also by driving new investment into local and metropolitan 
economies, increasing social justice and reducing economic disparity by 
creating new career ladders and skilled domestic jobs across the 
economic spectrum.''
  And I think in that quote you have captured a lot of what America is 
interested in: the environmental issues, the impact on our whole 
society and the job opportunities that go on. It doesn't touch the 
national security issues because I think people clearly already know it 
is a bad deal for us to depend on other countries. But the internal 
things that operate inside the United States, our economy, our daily 
lives, our jobs, the fact you are spending $60 for a tank of gas on 
something that is creating problems in the economy, in the environment, 
and instead we can go in a totally different direction. The book you 
have entitled ``Apollo's Fire'' I think lays it out very nicely. And I 
just wanted to mention that because I commend you and I recommend the 
Members of this body to take a look at that because I think it lays it 
out very clearly in a very simple fashion so that Americans can take 
that charge and move forward with it.
  Mr. INSLEE. Well, this is why this is something that can unify us, 
because it is an economic growth plan, it is something that can unify 
us, red State, blue State, urban, rural, all of us can get behind 
economic development. And we have seen instances of that tonight when 
we have talked about that. I think the bill that we have promoted ought 
to be able to promote that economic development in rural and urban 
areas, red and blue States. I really think it is a unifying message.
  We mentioned these five steps, but there is a giant leap for mankind 
that will be on our plate when we return in January, that is, we have 
to find a way to limit the amount of carbon dioxide that is going into 
the atmosphere. And the ultimate way to do that is what we call a cap-
and-trade system, which we hope to embrace and pass in this House next 
year.
  A cap-and-trade system does two things. First, it caps the amount of 
total carbon that goes into the atmosphere, the total amount of 
pollution, the total amounts of carbon dioxide and methane that 
contribute to global climate change. And we have done this in a variety 
of pollutants, particularly sulfur dioxide, which we have a cap on. 
Previous Congresses have put a cap on sulfur dioxide. But we have a 
giant loophole in that there is no cap today for carbon dioxide and 
some of these other global warming gases.
  So next year, we will be working on a plan to cap the total amount of 
these global warming gases that go into the atmosphere and give the 
Americans the confidence and the security to know that their grandkids 
aren't going to be exposed to runaway climate change associated with 
global warming. And then we are going to insist that polluting 
industries that put that pollution in the air have to pay for that. 
They can't do it for free any more.
  Essentially, they have been using the atmosphere like a private 
garbage dump, like they back their truck full of junk and dump it into 
your county park. We don't let them do that, dump their junk in our 
county park, and we are not going to let them dump their CO2 
in the atmosphere any more with zero cost.
  So there will be a charge associated with that and that will be 
tradable amongst industries to make it efficient. So when we adopt this 
cap-and-trade system, we will truly have the ultimate incentive for the 
geniuses of America to create these technologies, and we will be 
looking for people's input on this. We hope to have a bipartisan bill 
to do this, because there is no Republican or Democrat, or shouldn't be 
in this debate. We want to have something that all our kids can have a 
future on and we hope to do that. So, Mr. Klein, I wonder if you have 
any final comments.
  Mr. KLEIN of Florida. I thank the gentleman for bringing this issue 
forward and allowing us to discuss this in the Congress. I certainly am 
going to recommend to our colleagues here in the Congress, the House 
and the Senate, while we go home and have a chance to have some working 
days at home during the holidays, to speak to our business 
entrepreneurs in our local communities, speak to our universities, 
speak to the scientists, speak to consumers.
  I think, number one, that people are excited about these ideas; but 
as you are suggesting, this is just the first step. Whatever law we 
pass ultimately you can pass all the laws you want and it is up to 
Americans to say, this is our priority. This is something we are going 
to embrace. And this is something we are going to follow through. The 
private sector ultimately is going to drive this. We encourage our 
businesses. We encourage our academics to work together and come up 
with new ideas, express those ideas to the extent that government can 
partner, if there are things we can do to eliminate regulation or 
change policy to make things easier to move it in a direction where 
businesses and homeowners can do things to create more environmentally 
friendly pieces of property improvements, things like that and 
industry. It is good for all of us.
  So I look forward to working with you and the rest of the Members of 
Congress and moving our country forward on this very important topic.

                              {time}  2245

  Mr. INSLEE. Well, we have a ways to go, but we have made five maybe 
not-

[[Page H15304]]

so-small steps for a few people here in Congress and in America. We 
have one giant leap for mankind to come. But we have got a great start, 
and this is going to help Americans, both their environment, their 
security and their economy, and that is three bold steps.
  Thanks for your participation, Mr. Klein.

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