[Congressional Record Volume 154, Number 21 (Friday, February 8, 2008)]
[Senate]
[Pages S817-S819]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
STATEMENTS ON INTRODUCED BILLS AND JOINT RESOLUTIONS
By Mr. SALAZAR:
S. 2613. A bill to amend title 10, United States Code, to require the
Secretary of the Treasury to transfer certain amounts to the State of
Colorado, and for other purposes; to the Committee on Armed Services.
Mr. SALAZAR. Mr. President, I rise today to introduce legislation--a
companion bill will be introduced in the House by my colleague
Representative Salazar--to ensure that the communities in northwestern
Colorado most affected by the enormous recent increase in oil and gas
drilling activities, especially those in Garfield and Rio Blanco
Counties, immediately receive their fair share of the surplus funds
from the Anvil Points cleanup fund. Our legislation will direct
Colorado's share of those surplus funds to land, water and wildlife
protection and conservation efforts, and for repair, maintenance and
construction of roads and other infrastructure affected by oil and gas
development in those counties.
Under the Transfer Act, Public Law 105-85, Colorado has not and will
not receive any of the leasing revenues from oil and gas production on
former Naval Oil Shale Reserve land until cleanup of the Anvil Points
Superfund Site is complete. Normally these substantial revenues would
be shared 50-50 between the State and Federal government under the
Mineral Leasing Act. Today the trust fund set aside for the cleanup of
Anvil Points is in surplus, and that surplus currently amounts to
approximately $66.5 million. The Salazar-Salazar legislation amends the
Transfer Act to immediately release Colorado's share of the surplus
funds to Western Slope communities to mitigate development impacts in
and around the former Naval Oil Shale Reserve in Garfield and Rio
Blanco Counties.
The Anvil Points trust fund currently accrues approximately $1.5
million per month.
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Under this legislation half of those incoming funds will go to
Garfield and Rio Blanco Counties and half will go to the Federal
Government. After the cleanup of the Anvil Points site is complete and
the Secretary of the Interior certifies that the Federal Government has
collected enough money to pay for the cleanup, the Anvil Points trust
fund will cease to exist and oil and gas leasing revenues from the area
will be divided 50-50 between the State of Colorado and the Federal
Government.
The oil and gas industry provides Colorado with much-needed revenue
that enables our State to flourish. We must ensure that some of those
revenues go back to the communities from which they originated. Our
bill will ensure that the oil and gas industry does not leave the
counties of Garfield and Rio Blanco looking like a spoiled moonscape
but instead allows the watersheds and wildlife there to prosper and
continue to be a haven for sportsmen and recreationists from across
Colorado.
Yesterday, I along with Congressmen Mark Udall and John Salazar also
introduced legislation that repeals the eleventh-hour money grab by the
Federal Government in last year's omnibus appropriations bill that
would reduce from 50 percent to 48 percent the share of total royalties
paid to Colorado and other States. The core underlying principle of the
Mineral Leasing Act--that our Nation and our States share equal claim
of our precious mineral resources--should be maintained. Our bill
restores each State's share to its full, coequal 50 percent of mineral
leasing revenues.
Together these bills restore Colorado's share of oil and gas leasing
revenue to its full 50 percent. With respect to the excess funds now
held by the Federal Government for the cleanup of Anvil Points, our
legislation will direct Colorado's share of those surplus dollars to
land and water conservation, wildlife protection, and roads and other
infrastructure affected by oil and gas development in the local
communities most affected by these activities.
______
By Mr. BARRASSO:
S. 2614. A bill to facilitate the development, demonstration, and
implementation of technology for the use in removing carbon dioxide and
other greenhouse gases from the atmosphere; to the Committee on
Environment and Public Works.
Mr. BARRASSO. Mr. President, I rise today to speak on legislation I
am introducing to address climate change.
Today, I am introducing legislation to address a major technological
challenge that faces all of us. It is the challenge of how to solve the
problem of the warming of our planet. This bill is called the
Greenhouse Gas Emission Atmospheric Removal Act, or the GEAR Act.
Members of this body have discussed various proposals to regulate the
output of greenhouse gases. Some advocate doing it through a cap and
trade approach. Others have advocated a tax on carbon.
Such proposals are aimed at limiting future carbon output into the
atmosphere. Many proposals have been introduced and debated using this
approach of dealing with our carbon output. Overlooked in the debate
are the greenhouse gases that are currently in the atmosphere.
The best science tells us that the greenhouse gases already in the
atmosphere are the gases that are causing the warming of our planet. To
what extent, we are not certain. So let us resolve to find a way to
remove the excess greenhouse gases that are already in the atmosphere.
Remove them, and permanently sequester them.
To accomplish this goal, we are, as a Nation, going to need to make a
significant investment to develop the technology. The approach my
legislation takes to address this is through a series of financial
prizes where we set the technological goals and also define the
outcomes we demand.
The first researchers to meet the criteria would receive not only
Federal funds, but also international acclaim. The prizes would be
determined by a Federal commission under the Department of Energy. The
commission would be composed of climate scientists, physicists,
chemists, engineers, business managers, and economists. The commission
would be appointed by the President with the advice and consent of the
Senate.
The awards would go to those, both public and private, who would
achieve milestones in developing and applying technology. Technology
that could significantly help to slow or reverse the accumulation of
greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. The greenhouse gases would have to
be permanently sequestered. Sequestered in a manner that would be
without significant harmful effects.
This is how it would work. There would be four different levels of
prizes. The first level award would go to the public or private entity
that could first demonstrate a design for a successful technology that
could remove and permanently sequester greenhouse gases. Second, there
would be a prize for a lab scale demonstration project of the
technology that accomplishes the same thing. Third, there would be an
award for demonstrating the technology to remove and permanently
sequester greenhouse gases that is operational at a larger, working
model scale. Finally, there would be an award for whoever could
demonstrate the technology to remove and permanently sequester
greenhouse gases on a commercially viable scale.
There you have it--four different levels of development. First for
designing the technology, then for a lab scale demonstration of the
technology, then for a larger working model, and then finally, the
proven use of the technology on a commercially viable scale. Once the
technology is developed, the United States would share intellectual
property rights to the technology with whoever invented it. This bill,
as drafted, does not include a specific dollar amount for each prize.
Instead, it authorizes such sums as may be necessary.
The commission will be directed to report to Congress 1 year after
enactment of the law. The commission will recommend the levels of
funding that would be necessary to achieve the goals of this act.
I believe prizes can be a unique tool in creating technological
development. It only seems natural that if we get all the best
scientific minds thinking about the same problem, we significantly
enhance our chances of solving it.
Historically, prizes have been used to spur all types of
technological development to solve big problems. In 1714, the British
government offered the first prize of this type for a device capable of
accurately measuring longitude. John Harrison, a clock maker, was
awarded 20,000 pounds for designing an accurate and durable chronometer
59 years later. This transformed our ability to sail the seas.
In 1775, the French offered a 100,000-franc prize resulting in an
artificial form of alkali being produced. In 1810, the first vacuum
sealed food was produced by Nicolas Appert, after 15 years of
experimentation, driven by a 12,000-franc prize offered by Napoleon.
Today, vacuum sealing is still used throughout the world.
In 1909 the first flight across the English Channel was spurred by a
prize offered by a newspaper. Charles Lindbergh was competing for the
Orteig prize offered by the wealthy hotel owner Raymond Orteig, when he
flew in the Spirit of St. Louis nonstop from New York to Paris in 1927.
The achievement spawned a $300 billion aviation industry.
The British Spitfire, the fighter plane that won the Battle of
Britain, was developed as a result of the Schneider trophy, a series of
prizes for technological development.
More recent examples include the creation of the X Prize Foundation,
which gives multimillion dollar awards to the first team to achieve
specific goals. The X Prize Foundation began a revolution in private
space flight with the $10 million Ansari X Prize.
On October 4, 2004, the Mojave Aerospace Ventures team, led by famed
aircraft designer Bert Rutan and financed by Microsoft cofounder Paul
Allen, captured the Ansari X prize for the historic space flight of
Space Ship One to space and back, twice within 2 weeks. Space Ship One
is now hanging in the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum.
The U.S. Government also offers prizes through NASA's Centennial
Challenges program. According to NASA, the awards are made based on
actual achievements, not just proposals. The Centennial Challenges seek
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novel solutions to NASA's mission challenges from non-traditional
sources of innovation in our universities, in industry, and from the
public.
Most recently, Sir Richard Branson and former Vice President Al Gore
announced the Virgin Earth Challenge, a $25 million global science and
technology prize. The prize was established to encourage a viable
technology, which will result in the removal of at least 1 billion tons
of atmospheric carbon dioxide per year for 10 years.
It is my hope and my goal that this legislation will foster the kind
of solutions we need to address the concerns about climate change. What
I am proposing is that we take a new look at climate change. With that
new look, our solution will be based on removing excess greenhouse
gases that are already in the atmosphere.
We must think anew, and we must act anew. That sentence, ``we must
think anew and we must act anew,'' is engraved on a scenic overlook
along Interstate 80 between Cheyenne and Laramie, WY. It is engraved on
the pedestal that holds a large-size bust of Abraham Lincoln. Lincoln
was the one to have the vision for the Transcontinental Railroad. It is
now time for us, as Americans, to think anew and act anew about the
issue of climate change and controlling greenhouse gases.
Americans have always looked within ourselves for solutions. We have
always had confidence in American ingenuity and American creativity to
deal with the challenges of the future. Yes, we want to protect our
environment, and yes, we want a strong economy. The way to have both is
by thinking anew and acting anew.
It is time to use our untapped human potential and American spirit to
develop the technological solutions we need. It is now time for the
U.S. Senate and for Congress to find a solution to global climate
change, not through limits but through imagination, innovation, and
invention.
I look forward to working with each and every one of you on achieving
this goal.
______
By Mr. REID:
S. 2615. A bill to extend the Protect America Act of 2007 for 15
days; read the first time.
Mr. REID. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the text of the
bill be printed in the Record.
There being no objection, the text of the bill was ordered to be
placed in the Record, as follows:
S. 2615
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of
the United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. 15-DAY EXTENSION OF THE PROTECT AMERICA ACT OF
2007.
Section 6(c) of the Protect America Act of 2007 (Public Law
110-55; 121 Stat. 557; 50 U.S.C. 1803 note) is amended by
striking ``195 days'' and inserting ``210 days''.
______
By Mr. AKAKA (for himself, Mr. Burr, Mr. Rockefeller, Mrs.
Murray, Mr. Obama, Mr. Sanders, Mr. Brown, Mr. Webb, Mr.
Tester, Mr. Craig, and Mr. Isakson):
S. 2617. A bill to increase, effective as of December 1, 2008, the
rates of compensation for veterans with service-connected disabilities
and the rates of dependency and indemnity compensation for the
survivors of certain disabled veterans; to the Committee on Veterans'
Affairs.
Mr. AKAKA. Mr. President today, as Chairman of the Senate Committee
on Veterans' Affairs, I introduce the Veterans' Compensation Cost-of-
Living Adjustment Act of 2008. This measure would direct the Secretary
of Veterans Affairs to increase, effective December 1, 2008, the rates
of veterans' compensation to keep pace with the rising cost-of-living
in this country. The rate adjustment is equal to that provided on an
annual basis to Social Security recipients and is based on the Consumer
Price Index.
Several of my colleagues on the Committee on Veterans' Affairs,
including Ranking Member Burr, and Senators Rockefeller, Murray, Obama,
Sanders, Brown, Webb, Tester, Craig, and Isakson join me in introducing
this important legislation. I appreciate their continued support of our
Nation's veterans.
Congress regularly enacts an annual cost-of-living adjustment for
veterans' compensation in order to ensure that inflation does not erode
the purchasing power of the veterans and their families who depend upon
this income to meet their daily needs. This past year Congress passed,
and the President signed into law, Public Law 110-111, which resulted
in a COLA increase of 2.3 percent for 2008. The 2009 projected COLA
increase is 2.5 percent.
The COLA affects, among other benefits, veterans' disability
compensation and dependency and indemnity compensation for surviving
spouses and children. Many of the more than 3 million recipients of
those benefits depend upon these tax-free payments not only to provide
for their own basic needs, but those of their spouses and children as
well. Without an annual COLA increase, these veterans and their
families would see the value of their hard-earned benefits slowly
diminish, and we, as a Congress, would be neglecting our duty to ensure
that those who sacrificed so much for this country receive the benefits
and services to which they are entitled.
It is important that we view veterans' compensation, including the
annual COLA, and indeed all benefits earned by veterans, as a
continuing cost of war. It is clear that the ongoing conflicts in Iraq
and Afghanistan will continue to result in injuries and disabilities
that will yield an increase in claims for compensation. Currently,
there are more than 2.8 million veterans in receipt of VA disability
compensation.
Disbursement of disability compensation to our Nation's veterans
constitutes one of the central missions of the Department of Veterans
Affairs. It is a necessary measure of appreciation afforded to those
veterans whose lives were forever altered by their service to this
country.
I urge our colleagues to support passage of this COLA increase. I
also ask our colleagues for their continued support for our Nation's
veterans.
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