[Congressional Record Volume 154, Number 32 (Wednesday, February 27, 2008)]
[House]
[Pages H1146-H1153]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                                 ENERGY

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Wilson of Ohio). Under the Speaker's 
announced policy of January 18, 2007, the gentleman from Florida (Mr. 
Klein) is recognized for 60 minutes.
  Mr. KLEIN of Florida. Mr. Speaker, it's a pleasure to be here. I'm 
going to be joined by a number of the members of the freshmen class, 
and I appreciate the Speaker being one of our Members from Ohio. We 
have a great group of Members from all over the United States who were 
elected a year ago on certainly a campaign of change and bringing some 
new ideas, new energy. And energy is going to be the subject tonight 
because a lot of us have a lot of it.
  I know Americans are looking for some new ideas on how to solve our 
problems with energy and how to move our country forward. And the 
reason it's important, particularly important today is because today 
this House Chamber took a bold, new step, and we passed the Renewable 
Energy and Energy Conservation Tax Act of 2008. And as I said, many 
freshmen, and many Members, Democrat and Republican, ran on a platform 
of change and new ideas. Energy is that idea. It's that platform.
  And if you're old enough, you'll remember the Manhattan Project. I 
know I'm speaking to people who are listening in this Chamber tonight 
that are familiar with that Manhattan Project. It was that great 
ingenuity that Americans came together and knew what they had to do in 
order to win World War II. It was done in secret, but it produced the 
results that were necessary to save lives at the end of the day.
  More recently, again a number of years but more recently, we had 
something called the Sputnik that Russia sent up, a little tin can that 
went up into space. And for those people who were alive at that time, 
they were frightened, rightfully so, that the Russians had gotten ahead 
of us and had put something in space that could potentially give the 
Russians the control, the Soviet Union control, of the space above our 
heads and maybe they would rain down on us weapons and have other kinds 
of threats against the United States.
  And President John F. Kennedy, at that moment in time when Americans 
looked up and saw that can, that little flash in the sky, and realized 
that it wasn't the United States that put that up there but a country 
that at that time was viewed as in competition and the Cold War was 
just developing, what happened at that moment was John F. Kennedy said 
we are going to take this moment, capitalize on the concern, and 
channel that into a new program, a space program that was going to put 
a man on the moon by the end of the decade. And, boy, that was 
something that was incredible. It was unheard of. Could we do it? I 
mean, the Moon is up there, and it would take a great amount of 
technology and science, and maybe it was a dream that our philosophers 
and other scientists years ago had, but to actually accomplish that in 
10 years?
  And lo and behold, in 1969, in July, I remember the moment. I was in 
a camp at that time, and I remember watching with my friends. In July 
of 1969, Americans put a man on the Moon and landed a man on the Moon. 
What an incredible accomplishment. And today we are still receiving the 
dividends from a space program that has just had so much impact not 
only on American ingenuity in terms of the space program and all the 
great things that have come out of that, but in consumer products, 
microwave ovens and a whole lot of other things that we take for 
granted today that came out of the science, and the math and the 
science and all the great things that went on in our schools to create 
the future leaders and the science program and the space program that 
has continued through today.
  This is that moment. This is that time when Americans need to seize 
this crisis that has been developing for quite some time, and we need 
to do something about it. And there are three groups of people in the 
United States that are all coming together behind renewable energy and 
making sure that America becomes energy self-sufficient over the next 
number of years.
  We have had many people in this country from the environmental 
community that for years have said that the pollution caused by various 
types of fossil fuels have clouded our air and damaged and polluted our 
waters, and it's not only in the United States but throughout the 
world. The environmental community has been very concerned about this 
and has tried to build bridges and coalitions, and they've really 
worked hard on that. And they are now joined by two other groups.
  All Americans join in the notion that as a matter of national 
security, and I certainly believe this and I know the Speaker does too, 
and many of the men and women in this room and most Americans 
understand this, that for too long we in America have made foreign 
policy decisions based on where the next drop of oil is coming from. 
And what a mistake. What a mistake. We've done it over and over and 
over again, whether it's dealing with Iran in our past history, dealing 
with Iraq presently, dealing with Venezuela, or any number of other 
countries in the Middle East, some of whom at best, at best, may not be 
our friends and, at worst, are our enemies. And yet every time you go 
to the pump, you're putting money not necessarily in an American 
company, but you are putting money that is eventually getting into the 
pockets of some of the owners of these oil wells in these countries 
that are damaging our interests and in many cases are funneling to the 
terrorists and the people around the world that are really putting our 
men and women at risk, whether it's in Iraq or anywhere around the 
world. This is a very dangerous prospect and it's unacceptable.
  The third group, of course, and I think this is one of the most 
exciting things, is the new economy that is developing out of this 
energy discussion. The job opportunities, the great innovators, the 
scientists, the American men and women at our universities, our 
business entrepreneurs that understand that not only is this good for 
America in terms of our environment and our national security but we 
could be very successful at it from a business point of view. We can 
create new technologies. We can do lots of things that create jobs, 
create revenue, create income, make our standard of living higher and 
greater. And we cannot only take that and build for America, this can 
be the next economic boom that exports our technology, our products, 
our sciences to other countries around the world. It's pretty exciting.
  And I really believe very strongly that the great notions that have 
come out of today's bill recognize the fact that a few years ago when 
President Bush was inaugurated as President, oil was at $26 a barrel. 
Think about that. That's $26 a barrel. Today it's hovering around $100 
a barrel. And I know that every American should say shame on all of us, 
not only as elected officials, but also as American consumers, shame on 
us for allowing that to happen. That's not just a political thing; 
that's literally our responsibility. We have our own responsibility to 
make a decision and make a difference here.
  So what we have done today, and I am joined by other members of our 
freshmen class and others and we are all going to talk about this for a 
few minutes, is pass a bill that does what we were talking about. It 
puts the emphasis, it puts the incentives, economic

[[Page H1147]]

and otherwise, into the science, the technology of renewable energy 
sources, whether it's wave power, wind power, any combination of coal, 
nuclear.
  And, yes, I hear from so many people that some of these have issues, 
technology issues, safety issues. And they may. And it's up to us to 
solve those. Let's think big. I'm not here to advocate for any one of 
these alternatives. I think all of them have possibilities, and we have 
to make sure that all of them have the necessary safety and necessary 
science that goes with them before we move in any direction. But this 
is the time for us to focus all of our energy, our attention, and our 
resources on making sure our country is energy independent. And today 
is the first step where we are going to do that. And I look forward to 
working with all of our colleagues in the Senate and hopefully get our 
President to go along with us because I know America is ready, willing, 
and able to accomplish this goal.
  I am joined by a good friend, Congressman Ellison. Congressman 
Ellison has been a very outspoken person on the importance of energy 
independence, and I'm going to yield to him to give his thoughts on 
today's action.

                              {time}  1845

  Mr. ELLISON. Representative Klein, thank you, and your introduction 
was excellent because it really does set the stage for this new energy 
future that America is walking into.
  Today, the House considered H.R. 5351 which would end unnecessary 
subsidies to big oil companies and invest in clean, renewable energy 
and energy efficiency. It is similar to the House bill passed, the 
Renewable Energy and Energy Conservation Tax Act passed as part of a 
bipartisan energy package in August 2007.
  And I just want Americans to know that when you sent this class, this 
110th Congress, this freshman class here to Washington, you expected 
that we would take a step in favor of our energy future. And I want you 
to know that we are doing that. We are stepping into that energy 
future, putting innovation, putting incentives into the hands of people 
who are going to make the difference, and we are putting the best 
interests of the American people forward.
  As I think about our energy future, I think about it every time I 
walk up to the pump, Representative Klein. Every time I go to the pump, 
I am reminded of why we need a new energy future. I remember back in 
2001 when I would be able to put that gas pump in the tank, and I think 
I was paying somewhere around $1.50 a gallon. Well, that is not so 
today. You and I both, whether you are in Florida or Minnesota, or 
whether you are in California or Arizona, you are probably paying 
somewhere north of $3, somewhere close to $3. And that is double what I 
remember paying. And that is wrong.
  And this is especially at a time when we are seeing energy prices go 
up and food prices go up, because it costs money to get food from one 
place to another, and we see family budgets being pinched. We are in 
the middle of this subprime mortgage crisis. And it is time that we get 
a handle on our energy future, get a handle on not only the issue of 
global climate change, not only on the issue of pollution, but on the 
issue of cost to the American consumer that we get our hands on top of 
this important issue.
  So as I hand it back to you, Representative Klein, let me just say 
that the big five oil companies recently reported record profits in 
2007. ExxonMobil earned $40.6 billion, the largest corporate profit in 
American history. These profits, well, I just want to say that the 
American taxpayer, we are paying a whole lot more, and it might be 
going pretty good for some folks, but a lot of the rest of us are 
hurting.
  So let me toss it back to you, Representative Klein, and thank you 
for leading the charge today on this new energy future.
  Mr. KLEIN of Florida. Thank you, Congressman, and I appreciate, I 
know you come from the Midwest and obviously dealing at this time of 
the year with the oil costs for people that have to heat their homes 
and to drive cars, this is a very serious issue.
  As we take a look at some of these charts that we have here, we 
already talked about the fact back in January of 2001, it cost $1.47 
for a tank of gas. Today, it is $3.13. Now the inflation rate hasn't 
gone at that pace. The inflation rate is starting to pick up now, but 
nothing like this. And I have to tell you something, where I live in 
south Florida, it is not $3.13. It is higher than that. It is $3.40.
  Mr. ELLISON. That is what it means at the pump. But what does it mean 
in terms of food prices and prices of other things, because you have to 
ship this stuff, right?
  Mr. KLEIN of Florida. Absolutely. And as a matter of fact, we had a 
discussion in our Financial Services Committee today. I am on the 
Financial Services Committee with you. And we heard Mr. Bernanke, who 
is the chairman of the Federal Reserve, who is really trying to do the 
best that he can under difficult circumstances, and he talked about 6 
months ago, we talked about the fact that we had a subprime mortgage 
crisis problem and a couple of other things, but that all the other 
indicators, inflation and cost of living were pretty okay. Well, guess 
what? Today, we see the things that really affect families. When we 
talk about families, we are not talking about Wall Street. We are 
talking about what it really costs to live day to day. Look through 
your checkbook, your monthly expenses. Your mortgage or your rent, the 
cost of utilities, all have gone up because oil prices have gone up. 
The cost of food, extraordinarily, inflation, big inflation costs of 
food, a gallon of milk, vegetables, fruits, cereals, all these kinds of 
things all have gone up. Gasoline now costs $50, $60 a tank, depending 
on what kind of car you have or how big the tank is. Do you know 
something? For people that are earning 20, 30, $40,000 a year, it is 
pretty hard to make ends meet. For people on minimum wage, it is even 
worse. So I think this is a real economic issue for people at this 
moment that we have to solve. And there will be short-term issues we 
put in this bill and some longer term issues we started out talking 
about today.
  Let me just talk for a second, Congressman, about the bill itself and 
talk about what it does. First of all, it extends the tax credit for 
solar energy and qualified fuel cells. We start talking about some of 
these renewable energy ideas. I happen to be from Florida, so I'm a big 
fan of solar. But do you know something? The State of Washington, with 
all the rain that Seattle gets actually does more solar than other 
States and Florida does. Nationwide there are opportunities to do 
solar. Solar power has been around a long time. Many countries depend 
on solar. The State of Israel, the Middle East, a big portion of their 
electric grid is supported by solar power. Technology just has to make 
some changes in the battery capacity and storage and things like that. 
But these are all solvable problems when we put our minds to it.
  Again, investment tax credits, using the Federal Government to 
stimulate market, which is exactly what we want to incentivize the 
science and business development.
  We are authorizing over $2 billion of new, clean renewable energy 
bonds for public power providers and electric cooperatives, again 
encouraging through market, through incentives, our utilities, to start 
to convert over to clean, renewable energy products and fuels.
  We create a new production tax credit for cellulitic alcohol produced 
for fuel in the United States. Now we all know about corn ethanol, 
corn-based ethanol. Brazil, the largest industrial country in South 
America, 190 million people, they are now energy independent. This is 
not an 8 million person country. This is a country that put its goal on 
the line about a generation ago and said we are going to do it, and a 
whole lot of different types, but they use sugar-based ethanol as one 
way of doing it. We extend the biodiesel production tax credit. We 
extend the tax credit for purchase of fuel-efficient plug-in hybrid 
vehicles. We extend the energy-efficient commercial buildings 
deduction. All these things are designed to create market. We don't 
have to have the Federal Government involved in all of this, other than 
to say create market. Federal buildings, let's make them energy 
independent. And by doing so, as taxpayers, we are getting a better 
cost for our utility, and we are also creating the products and

[[Page H1148]]

encouraging the development of products that are going to save money.
  So these are the kinds of things that are in this bill. And there are 
a whole lot of other things we have already done. We have increased the 
CAFE standards, that is for fuel miles per gallon in automobiles, for 
the first time in 36 years. Imagine Congresses over the last 10, 20 
years that haven't touched that. Technology has grown, but no 
commitment. So I am really proud that we have worked together in a 
bipartisan way to do this.
  And President Bush has gone along. One thing President Bush has not 
gone along with, and I hope he does right now, is this notion of $15 
billion or so of tax rebates or incentives to oil companies for more 
oil drilling. God bless the oil companies. They are doing just fine. As 
a matter of fact, I think there is a chart that we have here on oil 
company profits. This is not a question of bashing oil companies. We 
are all entrepreneurs. We are all capitalists. We understand what that 
means. But at the same time, a little fairness here, this is a chart 
that shows the major oil companies in the United States. In 2002, $30 
billion of profit. In 2004, $109 billion of profit, 2 years later. In 
2007, $123 billion of profit. That is a lot of profit. That is more 
money than any other company in the history of the United States has 
ever made.
  Now I am not even going to knock that. But what I will say is the 
American taxpayer doesn't have to put $15 billion of additional 
taxpayer money on top of that. And when you hear our friends on the 
other side of the aisle say, oh, well, if you take away the incentives 
that the Federal Government is giving them, all you are going to do is 
raise the price at the pump. Excuse me? Lots of profit here to generate 
more oil wells and things like that, and they will do that because it 
makes good economic sense, and let them do it. That is good. I just 
don't think we have to put some frosting on the cake. I would rather 
take our taxpayer money and put it toward development of energy 
independence.

  Mr. ELLISON. Let me just lend my voice and agree with you. I do 
believe that the oil companies do not need any more help from the 
American taxpayer. It's time to repeal these tax breaks and credits, 
and I am glad that we have done so. I just want to say that the 110th 
Congress, this Congress that you and I came in as freshmen, as majority 
makers, really has been productive in the area of energy.
  I am so glad that within the first 100 hours, and I know Congressman 
Klein, you will remember the first 100 hours, that we passed a bill to 
repeal tax breaks to the big oil companies and to incentivize 
production of clean and renewable sources. And then, of course, it was 
just last year that we passed the bill for CAFE standards. So many 
Congresses, so many years passed where we had no CAFE standards to 
speak of, no increases in the CAFE standards. Now we are at 35 miles 
per gallon. I think we should look at this not as some great victory 
but as a start down the road of progress.
  And then again today we passed this I think historic bill and it 
signals change. It signals change. It signals that the United States 
Congress is serious about our renewable future. It signals a change 
that we can have a future where we can have air that we can breathe, 
where we can be at peace with our environment and not warm up the globe 
to the degree that no life can live on it, or that the changes in the 
world temperatures will be so drastically changing that we can't 
sustain life as it exists now.
  And I think that we can also live in a future where we can get around 
and have transportation that is affordable and make some sense and 
actually is something that we can all live with and all participate in. 
But I think that these changes that we have seen in the 110th Congress, 
the 100 hours, CAFE standards and then today, signal that we are going 
in the right direction.
  We need the American people to continue to fuel the movement that we 
are on. And one thing we are doing here tonight is trying to let you 
know what we have done and then ask for your continued participation. 
Because the American people are demanding change, and I think that the 
110th Congress is giving it to you.
  Let me just say that those statistics that were just shown about oil 
profits earned, I just think it is very important to bear in mind that 
as oil profits have been skyrocketing, the average person that we have 
seen increases in prices in everything from food to fuel, we have also 
seen inflationary tendencies, and we have also seen increase in 
unemployment. We are in a time where clean, renewable energy and a new 
path towards energy is something that everyone needs, and it is 
something that I think our entire society, our entire economy, oil 
companies included, need to take a part in and need to look at the 
tremendous bounty they have received from being able to be an American 
corporation and saying that, look, we are going to do something to 
participate.
  I would like to see our oil companies take some of their own profits 
and invest it into renewable energies. I would like to see them take 
some of the great bounty they have received and make a commitment to 
the American people to get into a green future. So again, what we see 
today is signaling change, sending us in the right direction, and I 
look forward to going much, much further.
  Mr. KLEIN of Florida. Thank you, Congressman, and I just want to 
touch on, if I can, because this freshman class of ours along with many 
others in the Congress were very frustrated, along with most Americans, 
about the way that Congress had been operating for the last number of 
years. The last 6 years before this past term, Congress was passing 
these bloated budgets, the President was signing them going deeper and 
deeper into deficit, and obviously there are a lot of very expensive 
things going on right now, but no lack of discipline in terms of 
control of our fiscal house. And I have kids, Congressman, you have 
kids, we all have children, grandchildren, parents whatever, why would 
we, as a country, want to continue to put ourselves farther and farther 
in debt? And that is the direction we have been going.
  I am very proud to say that this Congress in the first week, we 
passed something called PAYGO. It's a simple principle, pay as you go. 
It is no different from when I had a business, if I couldn't meet my 
payroll, I made cuts. You can't spend more than you have coming in. 
Maybe you can borrow a little bit. But you have to pay your debt 
service. You can't keep on borrowing, and in the case of government, 
printing money. The good news is that this Congress is showing fiscal 
discipline for the first time in a long time. I am committed to it, I 
am a fiscal discipline person, a hawk if you will, and I know you are, 
as well, Congressman, and as we go through this process, this bill is 
fully paid for. And the rule that we have, PAYGO, is that no bill can 
pass unless it is fully paid for. So that means no speculation that the 
budget is going to grow by 3 percent next year and we will have the 
money next year, and money is going to appear out of nowhere. The money 
has to be in the budget. We have to make cuts somewhere else or 
prioritize something. And that is exactly what budgeting is all about.
  I am proud not only as a Democrat but as an American, as a Member of 
this Congress, that is the direction we are going. It is going to take 
time to dig out of this hole, but it is a start. This particular piece 
of legislation is paid for. The way it has been paid for is in part 
taking the subsidy I mentioned a few minutes ago which is billions and 
billions of dollars and saying instead of just giving it to oil 
companies for more oil drilling, oil is always going to be a part 
of our national energy policy. But it can't be the only. And just to 
give more money and flush it in that way, let's bring it in. And so we 
have taken money from one source and put it in what I believe and I 
think many of us believe is a higher priority of renewable energy 
sources and moving in that direction.

  I will just share this with you real quickly because I thought it was 
quite unique. A lot of this stuff that we pass out of Washington is 
viewed in a partisan way, but there are different groups that have 
different positions on it and different opinions. I am going to read, 
this is a very long list, I will read just a handful of the supporters, 
the organizations that are supporting this energy legislation because I 
think it speaks volumes coming from different points in the country and 
how important it is.

[[Page H1149]]

  We have the American Institute of Architects, American Society of 
Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers, the Audubon 
Society, DuPont, a big manufacturer; Friends of the Earth, an 
environmental group; Greenpeace, The Home Depot, Florida Power & Light, 
a big producer in my State of electricity; Macy's, Mitsubishi Electric 
and Electronics U.S.A., National Association of Home Builders, National 
Association of Industrial Office Properties, PG&E Corporation, Target 
Corporation, Wal-Mart, Yahoo. And I can go on. There are pages and 
pages of groups that are behind this, environmental all the way on one 
end or wherever you want to place them, to large industrial 
corporations, entrepreneurs, innovators, venture capitalists, 
scientists and universities on the other. That to me is the ideal 
position you want to be in. You want to have an ownership of an idea 
that we've taken into context all the various ideas and brought in a 
piece of legislation that is good for everyone.
  It is not perfect. We are going to continue to build on this. But it 
is an excellent first step, Congressman.
  Mr. ELLISON. Let me just say that I agree with you. You have to 
understand that when you borrow all this money to fund the government, 
you have to pay that back. And that payback accounts for a part of your 
budget which squeezes out other things you might really want to do. So 
pay as you go has a whole lot of merit, and I'm glad we are not adding 
already to the enormous debt. As you know, when this President came 
into office, he inherited a fairly significant budget surplus. But that 
is yesterday.
  One of the things I want to mention, Congressman Klein, about this 
important bill, is that provisions are critical to creating hundreds of 
thousands of good-paying, green collar American jobs. This issue of 
jobs, green collar jobs, is critical. Green collar jobs are jobs 
perhaps in the construction industry where people would help retrofit 
old buildings in order to make them more fuel efficient. For example, 
green roofs on buildings, more fuel efficiency in buildings, 
construction jobs, jobs that people can earn a good wage in.
  I think it is important to understand that part of the new energy 
future that we are talking about takes into consideration not just the 
scientists who are going to be working in labs and not just the folks 
who are going to be working on the policy issues, but actually 
hardworking Americans who work every single day to put food on the 
table for their families. The green collar job is something I think we 
have to pay close attention to. And as you may know, our farm bill 
actually included a provision about green collar jobs, which is very 
important. I was happy to be a part of that.
  The preservation of existing jobs relies on these green collar jobs 
as well. A recent study showed that allowing the renewable energy 
incentives to expire would lead to about 116,000 jobs being lost in the 
wind and solar industries through the end of 2009.
  Now this is a big deal, because if we incentivize the production of 
clean, renewable energy, of wind, of solar, of biomass, of 
cogeneration, of other forms of energy production, it has the effect of 
spinning off more and more employment. And, of course, as I led in 
before, the first part of creating a green future for America is in 
conservation. That which we save, we never have to use energy to fuel. 
And so in this area of conservation, as I mentioned before, all kinds 
of jobs in the area of construction, in the area of so many things that 
would allow people who can make a good honest living and at the same 
time preserve our energy future and make our economy cleaner and make 
our economy one in which everybody can even avoid the health risks 
associated with some of the burning of hydrocarbons.
  So, again, green collar jobs is a big part of what we did today, a 
big part of what we have been doing, and I am proud to be associated 
with that.

                              {time}  1900

  Mr. KLEIN of Florida. Well, I agree with you. And if you think about 
the bills that we passed, this one and the other one, the other bill we 
passed, in addition to increasing the fuel efficiency for automobiles, 
which I think is long overdue, also creates changes in specifications 
of light bulbs, dishwashers, refrigerators, freezers.
  These are products all of us have in our home. Many of them, they are 
inefficient. They may be older, or they may just not be efficient to 
start with. What we have done is, as the products are now going to come 
out of the market, they are going to have to have a greater efficiency 
standard for the amount of power that they use.
  That is a very important thing, because now what we are seeing is 
with light bulbs or any other thing that uses electricity out there, 
that over time we are going to be able to save massive amounts of 
power, and the amount of power that we save directly goes into the 
amount of fuel and pollution and hydrocarbons and all of the rest of 
those things that are produced.
  This is something that Americans are asking for. And as competition 
comes into play, more and more companies will be producing these, the 
prices will come down, the normal competitive forces work.
  So the fact that if you hear about one company right now that 
manufactures a refrigerator that uses 30 percent less power but it 
costs you $1,000 more, well, you are not going to buy it. Some people 
may, but it is not going to have wide market appeal. But it will when 
you have 10 companies producing it, and they are all in there trying to 
make it better than the other companies.
  This is just like any other product that comes to market. We know 
that happens with TVs, and even with the flat screen TVs. They are all 
coming down in price now, and DVDs and VCRs and all those kinds of 
things. It is the same concept. American people want products that are 
going to be efficient because they can save money in the long run. If 
you can pay for it over the next 3 years in savings, it is a wonderful 
thing.
  But I think it is very exciting, because we are in there to promote 
the general idea of renewable energy. There is not one answer for all 
of this, but there are so many different parts of this country where 
there is lots of great research going on.
  Right off the coast of Florida where I live is the Gulf Stream. You 
may be familiar with the Gulf Stream. It is a current that developed 
off the coast of the United States and goes all the way up north.
  I am told by the scientists who are working on this right now that 
the power of the Gulf Stream, if harnessed with various types of 
turbines and things like that, and these turbines have to be generated 
and have to be environmentally friendly and all the rest and all of 
this is under development, that over time they believe that power can 
generate enough electricity to power half of Florida's power needs. 
Wow. I don't know if that is going to happen, but I like the idea that 
people are thinking and creating and innovating.
  We have enough coal in the ground in the continental United States to 
power this country for decades to come, but there are problems with 
coal. Some of it is high sulfur and it creates pollution problems. But 
there may be technology that can be developed to scrub the coal. Again, 
there needs to be this emphasis to say, we are not just going to accept 
the fact that this is coal and that we are going to continue to 
pollute. We are going to be able to find a solution here. There are 
solutions to every problem.
  As I said before, it is not only the United States, because we can do 
all that we want to do in terms of leading the world in dealing with 
these environmental issues and energy solutions, but there are other 
countries, China and so many other countries, that are huge power users 
and huge fossil fuel users, that if we can create something that is 
cost-effective, environmentally friendly, will create a better life for 
everybody, we are going to have a huge market to sell those products 
to.
  So, I am just very excited, and you can probably hear it in my voice 
because I have been talking about this for many years, but I am so 
happy to be a part of Congress with our freshman class, Democrats and 
Republicans and Members who just have been hearing loud and clear from 
people back home, all over America, that they want change. And this is 
one of these areas that allows such opportunity for us to come together 
as a country, solve a

[[Page H1150]]

problem, create jobs, fix the environment, and do things that will 
increase our national security.
  As we go forward with this, we have so many members of our caucus who 
have been interested in this. We are joined by another member of our 
freshman class, I like to call them freshmen, we are still freshmen, it 
is Congressman Hall from New York. Congressman Hall has a long history 
before he got to Congress of having a tremendous amount of interest in 
energy, and he has some personal experiences in work in his own 
community on energy issues.
  I am glad you joined us for this discussion. We have been talking 
about the landmark bill that we passed today and what a great thing it 
is for America and how we are going to take many, many more steps 
forward. But please give us your thoughts, Congressman Hall.
  Mr. HALL of New York. Thank you, my colleagues. This is an important 
step we took today. Simply put, our success in ending our addiction to 
foreign oil and fossil fuels is going to determine whether or not 
America will continue to grow and prosper in the 21st century. There is 
perhaps no other issue that could have as much of a profound effect on 
our economy as our ability to meet this goal of producing our own 
energy and new breakthroughs in ways of developing that energy.
  We have seen the terrible toll that the economic downturn has taken 
on working families over the past few months. Skyrocketing energy costs 
have made the burden harder to bear, and, at the same time, wages have 
stagnated, growth is far from certain, oil is over $100 a barrel, 
translating into homes in my district that are literally burning up 
their savings every time they burn oil to heat their home.

  I would remind those of you who don't know that you can call up your 
local distributor of heating oil if you, as my wife and I do, burn 
heating oil to heat your homes, and ask for biodiesel. Ask for a 
biodiesel blend. You will be surprised at how many distributors have 
it. We are currently burning in New York State, in my home in Dover 
Plains, a 20 percent soy-biodiesel blend, and that is that many barrels 
of oil less that have to come into the country from unstable parts of 
the world.
  Failure to take swift aggressive action would simply result in more 
of the same. I think that the House has taken leadership, which I am 
proud of, and all of the government can join us in this leadership, 
toward clean energy technology.
  The Renewable Energy and Energy Conservation Tax Act which we passed 
today will provide the kind of market incentives and financial support 
needed to usher in a new era of clean energy technology and innovation 
that will create jobs here, enhance our security, retrieve our balance 
of payments deficit, protect our environment and create thousands of 
green jobs.
  I just want to point out too that some people might see this, might 
read this, especially with the connotations that have been attached to 
the word ``tax ,'' and think that this is something that it is not.
  Actually what this bill did was to take back a tax giveaway that was 
given by a previous Congress to the oil companies who are reporting, 
even week-to-week now we seem to hear about new record profits being 
set by companies which are breaking their own record from only a couple 
of years ago. And it is hard to juxtapose that and to balance that in 
my mind with the increased poverty rate, with the increased amount of 
personal indebtedness and national indebtedness and the balance of 
trade deficit that is being fed and exaggerated by our addiction to 
oil.
  I would prefer that we go in the direction of the bill we passed 
today, which will support new technologies to power our homes, business 
economies and vehicles, and the vital tax incentives to spur renewable 
energy generation, the production of biofuels of all kinds, innovative 
technologies like plug-in hybrid cars.
  I am driving an American made, union-made, Detroit hybrid four-by-
four, which I hope soon I will be able to convert into a plug-in 
hybrid. In fact, there is a company in Massachusetts that is already 
making a plug-in conversion kit to double the gas mileage of a car like 
mine, or a Prius or any hybrid. So we can help push these things 
forward.
  In my district, the 19th District of New York, we have had meetings 
all around the five counties I represent about renewable energy. We 
have a solar forum and wind forum and a geothermal forum. And one of 
the most popular things, the thing that got adults on their feet, was 
the students' presentation from Newburgh Free Academy, Newburgh, New 
York, of the solar racing team.
  They had a beta vehicle that ran on solar energy. It was a little bit 
larger than this oval table sitting here. It looked sort of like a 
flying saucer. It had a seat that a student could crouch in and just 
barely get behind the steering wheel. It is covered entirely with solar 
panels and has batteries to store the energy in it. And it won, or tied 
for first place, in a race from Houston, Texas, to Newburgh, New York, 
2,000 miles on the highway in a car powered by solar power and 
electricity generated therefrom, and built by the BOCES vocational 
track high school students who know how to put together machinery and 
weld and so on, and working with the advanced placement math and 
science kids, who know how to calculate how many square inches of solar 
panels you need to produce the sufficient amount of electricity. It was 
the kids who got the adults excited.

                              {time}  1915

  I ran into constituents of mine who were leaving there saying, why 
don't the big auto companies do this with the resources they have? Why 
can't government incentivize this sort of thing with the resources that 
government has? I am happy to say that we are taking a big step in that 
direction today, and I encourage our colleagues in the Senate to follow 
suit and to join us.
  Just this weekend on the front page of the New York Times, a major 
story about a wind boom in Texas, which is now the leading State for 
installed wind technology. None other than T. Boone Pickens, the oil 
tycoon, was quoted, if I could paraphrase him saying he is as excited 
now about wind power as he ever was about any oil field he ever 
discovered.
  That warms my heart to hear a guy like Mr. Pickens recognizing the 
financial value, which also translates into the jobs value and the 
boost to our economy that can come from wind and solar and geothermal 
and low-head hydroelectric power and all the other biofuels and all the 
other things that we are trying to incentivize and give tax credits for 
in this legislation.
  I am just thrilled to be here to talk with my colleagues about it and 
to be here today to vote on it, because I see it as moving from the 
lose-lose-lose energy policy of the past or, unfortunately, still the 
present, where we send billions of dollars a day to the oil potentates 
in the Middle East which, either by weaponry, some of that money goes 
to fund radical schools which result in young, mostly men but some 
women in those parts of the world being taught, among other things, to 
attack U.S. interests or Israeli interests or to be seen as, you know, 
as fighting against America.
  Then for the privilege of doing that, and also funding, as Tom 
Friedman likes to write in his columns, we pay for our troops to try to 
go and defend our interest, and at the same time we get to borrow the 
money from the Chinese for the whole endeavor, because we don't have 
it. So for all of this trouble and all of this expense of this lose-
lose-lose policy, we also have asthma and emphysema epidemics in our 
inner cities, acid rain, oil spills, et cetera.
  The win-win-win policy would put us back in control of our own 
foreign policy, put us back in control of our own economic policy, 
would make us, once again, leaders in the technologies that we should 
have been leading in all along, like hybrid technology or wind and thin 
film flexible solar technology and so on.
  I am glad to see us moving toward the win-win-win.
  Mr. KLEIN of Florida. Well, I hope that as we are all discussing this 
today, it's clear that the level of deep understanding of this issue 
from my colleagues here and many on the floor of the United States 
House of Representatives today really gives you the sense that we are 
moving in a direction that has been well thought out, it has been 
deliberated carefully.

[[Page H1151]]

  As I said before, you have got a remarkable group of people from one 
end of our country to the other, the business community, the 
environmental community that have come to embrace this and break down 
this, it's either good for the environment and bad for the economy or, 
you know, bad for jobs and good for the environment. It's a fallacy. 
It's a false statement, it's a misstatement, and it's just the wrong 
way to approach it, but it has been that way for so many years. People 
seem to position it that way in the political environment.
  As you very clearly made the case today, it's a win-win-win, good for 
the environment, good for our economy and people's lives and really 
solves a national security problem that we should have never been in 
but has now come to the point where we have to listen to OPEC. We have 
to listen to these countries that are deciding our future.
  As I said previously in this Chamber, all it's going to take is one 
super tanker to go down the Strait of Hormuz in the Middle East and we 
will have a worldwide energy crisis. We can't allow that to happen. We 
cannot allow that to happen. We will not solve it overnight, we will 
have to take the necessary steps, but today through your efforts Mr. 
Hall and Mr. Ellison and so many people in the United States House of 
Representatives, so many Americans who came forward and said take these 
ideas and put them in legislation and collaborate together, work with 
Democrats and Republicans, people from all walks of life to come up 
with something that is innovative, exciting, forward thinking, 
progressive, this is what we have today.
  I thank the gentleman from New York for great insight and great 
thought, because you are truly one of the architects of the great piece 
of legislation today.
  Mr. Ellison, I know you were ready to add something to Mr. Hall's 
comments as well.
  Mr. ELLISON. That's right, and I do thank you. I will have to take my 
leave shortly after making my remarks, but I want to thank you for 
holding it down tonight. Mr. Klein, you are doing a good job as usual.
  But I just want to say as I hear Mr. Hall make comments about young 
people who are involved in innovation and creative use of their talents 
and skills, it reminds me of the fact that this bill that we passed 
today, plus the bill that we passed in the 100 hours, plus the farm 
bill and the energy bill we have already passed, is a policy that all 
Americans can get behind, whether you are a young person in high school 
trying to figure out how much of the surface of your solar vehicle 
needs to be paneled so that it can run efficiently, or whether you are 
a person working in a company or whether you are a person who is just 
trying to earn enough money for a family, this is a bill that meets the 
needs of many people, which is why it's good legislation.
  You ran off a list of supporters of the bill. I also just want to 
point out that whether you are a mom and a dad or whether you are Home 
Depot or even Dow Chemical or the Sierra Club, or the United 
Steelworkers or the National Farmers Union, this is good legislation. 
This is legislation America can get behind.
  I look forward to a more renewable, greener future that we all can 
participate in, and I just want to say, finally, to our oil companies 
that have made such monumental profits over the last numbers of years, 
I do hope that you all look within yourselves and take some of those 
profits that you have been able to get based on you being an American 
company and invest in America.
  Mr. KLEIN of Florida. Thank you, Congressman. Again, Minnesota is 
well served by great leadership there. You know, it's funny, as the 
gentleman was talking about our children, I look back and think when I 
was growing up, and you would drive down the road, and people would 
just, when they were done with a bag of food, they would just throw it 
out the window; a can of soda, throw it out the window; cigarettes, 
throw it out the window. On any side road, you just see garbage.
  It wasn't until our kids started saying what are you doing, why are 
you doing this? Then the whole notion of recycling and how that became 
built in. But it wasn't from parents that came forward or grandparents. 
It was children. Learning in school, learning about their environment, 
learning about how important it was to preserve and to protect and 
clean up and not add to pollution and things that caused environmental 
problems.
  Those are the things. Those are the changes. Seat belts, those are 
another example. Children were taught about it. We as adults, many 
people didn't do it. Obviously laws were passed later, but it was 
children. I remember my kids saying to my wife early on, you got in the 
car, where is your seat belt? Why don't you put your seat belt on? She 
obviously was not shamed into it but learned from our kids.
  I think our generation today is a generation, as I started today's 
conversation, this is the calling of this generation, a calling of our 
young people to call upon our adults, our grandparents, everyone in 
America to say this is something that is so important to the United 
States on so many levels as we have been discussing, that we are going 
to have to do it.
  It's the generation that's in school today, that's in college today 
that are young adults that are driving and realize that they have a 
lifetime to live. That lifetime needs to be on a planet that is clean, 
has fresh air, has fresh water and all the things that are important, 
and, at the same time, we can live in a country that produces high-
quality jobs and creates all sorts of products and services that can be 
done.
  Last week in West Palm Beach, I was in an office building that's a 
green building, a certified building. Now some people don't know what 
that is, and I am learning about this as we go, but this is a building 
that is designed from top to bottom. Its energy use, the whole 
construct of the building is such that it is really designed to save 
energy, to create a much more productive environment. So it's not just 
the energy side, but it's the whole environment, working and living and 
all those kinds of things.
  It was fascinating, because a lot of people say, well, I am not going 
to go there. It costs a lot more. If you build it from the ground up, 
it doesn't cost that much more. There are a lot of savings to be 
generated out of these types of savings, savings of water in the 
plumbing, savings of water in the energy, the lights, the electricity, 
the heating, the ventilating and the air conditioning, all very 
important, lots of opportunity.
  Market is being created. The support is there. These people are 
leasing up this building. Things are a little slower for it right now, 
but this gentleman who has speculated on this building, he is finding 
tenants because they are saying, you know something, it makes sense. 
It's good for my corporate image. It's good for my employees, my 
production. We're going to save money in the long run. Why not.
  There are lots of ways to retrofit buildings, too, that I know the 
gentleman is very familiar with. So these are the kinds of things that 
I know are very important to all of us that are created and encouraged 
in this bill and in other bills. Of course, as we move forward we are 
going to look for ideas from our constituents, our business people, our 
kids, our scientists and what other things we can do for our country, 
some through legislation, some just talking about it, moving it 
forward.

  These are the things, and now we are joined by another Member who is 
so active, and I know his campaign was heavily involved in 
environmental and energy issues, the gentleman from California, the 
Golden State, Mr. McNerney. If you would please join us and give us 
your thoughts on today's legislation and how you feel about the issue.
  Mr. McNERNEY. I have to say, I started my career developing wind 
energy technology. I got started when I was in college because of a few 
things that motivated me. We had the oil embargo of 1973. We had 
exciting technology that was being developed, computer simulations, 
actual hardware being placed in the field and then tremendous economic 
promise.
  What spurred that on was the tax incentives of the 1970s. They gave 
us the motivation to move forward and to develop these new 
technologies. I can tell you the first time we put a wind mill 
together, we brought the investors in, we turned on the machine, and 
the wind, the blades flew everywhere, we would have had to run for 
cover, but that was the very start.

[[Page H1152]]

  We kept going, the motivation was there, the economics were there. We 
kept improving year by year. We improved the aerodynamics, we improved 
the control system, we improved the mechanical system, the gears. Every 
bit of that technology and knowledge was improved over a 20-year period 
until today. We have one of the most economic forms of new energy 
technology in the world. It's growing by leaps and bounds all over the 
world, and I think there is a very big parallel to what's happening 
today.
  Right now, we have a national security issue. We have very exciting 
technology taking place all over this great country. There is economic 
security at stake and now we also have a new element. It's global 
warming. So the motivation is there.
  The problem is that the companies can't move forward without long-
term planning. Part of that long-term planning is knowing what your 
rate of return is going to be, and if we don't move forward with 
production tax credits and investment tax credits, then the investors 
don't know what to expect, so they are not going to get into the game.
  This has happened to our country repeatedly over the last 20 years, 
whereas Europe has kept a very steady plan, a very steady investment 
incentive, and they are way ahead of us in terms of renewable energy 
technology in terms of production, in terms of employment.
  Now it's our turn to catch up. A 5-year extension is just exactly 
what we need, and I am so happy that the House, I am so proud of the 
House for coming together and moving forward with this legislation.
  It's going to keep us competitive, it's going to create jobs 
throughout our great country in rural areas that have been depressed. 
It's going to create jobs in cities, in manufacturing, so this is the 
kind of legislation that I was sent here to produce. This is the kind 
of legislation that my colleagues all agree with me that is so 
important to our country, and I think the House did a wonderful job 
today.
  It's going to help our country long, long into the future, and it's 
going to also benefit our national security, as I mentioned before, 
because we are importing about 11 million barrels of oil per day into 
this country. That's a tremendous amount of money going overseas. 
That's a tremendous amount of carbon dioxide going into the air.
  So we are motivated by national security. We are motivated by 
economic security, and we are going to fight global warming, and we are 
going to adapt and we are going to move forward with the new 
technology, creating the kind of country that we want for our children 
to live in.
  My good friend from New York, you look like you are ready to talk.
  Mr. HALL of New York. I am always ready to talk, my friend. I was 
thinking, as you were speaking, about how institutions starting with 
the United States Government and State and county and local governments 
can all do their part, and we have done our part by voting today for 
this legislation, by voting, actually, earlier in this session, last 
year, in the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, we voted out 
legislation to put solar panels on the south-facing wall on the 
Department of Energy building, which would be a symbolic step forward, 
as well as a practical one, because the south-facing wall was designed 
in the 1970s when the Department of Energy was first created to be at 
the proper angle for photovoltaic cells to generate the best and most 
power from the sun.

                              {time}  1930

  It is that kind of investment that government can make. It is that 
kind of investment that States can make.
  I met today for probably the third time with representatives of New 
York State's Energy Research and Development Authority about ideas like 
putting infrastructure on the New York State thruway service stations, 
the whole route that goes from Buffalo across to Albany and down to New 
York City of interstate highways, which would include biofuels and 
which would include at least a blend of biodiesel, and hopefully some 
E85. We have hundreds of thousands of vehicles, at least, of vehicles 
that have been sold as flex-fuel vehicles to American citizens by TV 
commercials saying you are doing something green when you buy them.
  But in New York State, the 19th Congressional District of New York 
State that I represent, we got a call in our district office from a 
lady saying, ``I just bought a flex-fuel vehicle. Where can I get some 
fuel?'' And our staffer had to say there is one pump in Albany and 
another one in Westchester somewhere.
  Congressman Markey told me that in Massachusetts, he said there is 
one pump for the whole State for E85 and 140,000 flex-fuel vehicles on 
the roads. So we have to start pulling the string through the tube, the 
string of demand through the tube, and make sure there is more supply 
created by creating the demand.
  I would hope that the Arlington High School Action Club which I just 
met with last week, which is in the middle of a project right now of 
putting solar panels on the roof of their school, a new wing of their 
school, and I suggested to them that their next project, after they do 
their solar panels, they should switch their school bus fleet for that 
school district to biodiesel or to a biodiesel blend. It is made to 
order for school bus fleets, for post office trucks, for town and 
county highway trucks, any entity of government or private enterprise 
like FedEx or UPS, or trucking companies that use a lot of diesel fuel, 
can just as well burn. If I can burn 20 percent biodiesel at home, they 
can burn it in their diesel trucks.
  Some of my musician friends, Willie Nelson and Bonnie Raitt, have 
been driving for years tour buses and trucks all over this country on 
biodiesel. It definitely can be done, and I think each of us as 
Americans should look at this as an opportunity to lead and to do our 
part to push this revolution forward and to push this new policy into 
being.
  Government can't do everything. It certainly can't do everything all 
at the same time. But together, businesses, government, and individuals 
can make the decisions on a day-to-day basis to vote with our dollars 
for those new forms of energy, where available, whether it is by 
flipping our electric bill over and voting for wind. In New York State, 
we are allowed to do that. We are allowed to choose whether it is wind 
or hydro or whatever form of electrical generation we choose, whether 
it is by asking for biofuels whenever we can get them, by driving the 
most fuel-efficient car, in the most fuel-efficient way, I might add.
  At any rate, there is nowhere to go but up. And in the process, we 
will regain our sovereignty and somewhere down the road we will not 
have to worry about speaking honestly to Saudis or other nondemocratic 
governments about human rights, just as we won't have to worry about 
speaking honestly to the Chinese about lead-tainted toys because we are 
afraid we won't get the oil from one or get the debt floated by the 
other.
  So it is getting ourselves back on our feet economically and 
diplomatically and energywise.
  Mr. KLEIN of Florida. I thank the gentleman from New York for the 
encouragement to help move this in the right direction.
  And to close, I yield to the gentleman from California.
  Mr. McNERNEY. We have just seen the gentleman from New York showing 
his excitement about the future of energy technology in his own 
district.
  I have seen this with Representatives from New York, from Alaska. 
Well, a new Representative we are going to have in 2009 from Alaska, 
from California where I live, from all over the country. From the Great 
Plains, even from the South where they don't have wind, they are always 
cloudy there, but they have biomass. So everybody can get excited, 
everybody can take part. Our whole country can move together, forward 
together in such a way that benefits all of us and enhances our 
national security.
  So I am looking forward to opening up a whole new economy. The 
naysayers are saying we can't afford what is going to happen with 
global warming. I can tell you we can more than afford it. We can't 
afford not to. It is going to create jobs and it is going to create 
security. It is going to create a great future for our country.
  Mr. KLEIN of Florida. I thank the gentleman from California.
  I certainly call on those in the other body, the Senate, to also 
think boldly about energy independence and help us pass this bill as 
fast as possible.

[[Page H1153]]

  When the Senate passes the energy bill, we as Americans urge the 
President of the United States to sign it quickly and to join together 
with all of us. This is the calling of our generation, and the time is 
now. I thank the gentlemen and all of our Members of the House of 
Representatives, those who supported the bill today, and encourage 
others to join us on the ride.

                          ____________________