[Congressional Record Volume 154, Number 70 (Wednesday, April 30, 2008)]
[Senate]
[Pages S3596-S3597]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

      By Mr. BROWN:
  S. 2940. A bill to promote green energy production, and for other 
purposes; to the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources.
  Mr. BROWN. Mr. President, energy independence is no longer an option 
for our Nation. It is an imperative. The clock is ticking. If we do not 
break the ties, our children and grandchildren will have to clean up 
our mess. It is not too late.
  Today I introduced legislation to help U.S. companies and U.S. 
workers chart a new course. This is an energy bill. It is a jobs bill. 
It is an environment bill. It will help companies turn green energy 
research into green energy products. It will help workers build careers 
around green energy development and production. It will help our Nation 
break free of foreign oil and grow our economy by growing green energy. 
It is an important step that, along with comprehensive climate change 
legislation, will put our country on a path to energy independence.
  While the first oil well in the United States was in the Presiding 
Officer's State of Pennsylvania, just a year later oil was being 
produced in Ohio. Before long, derricks dotted the landscape in every 
corner of our State. My bill begins to address what Ohio and 
Pennsylvania have known for years about energy.
  The history of my State is also rich in coal. Frontiersmen discovered 
large deposits of coal in Tuscarawas County in the mid-1700s, long 
before Ohio became a State. Today, coal power is more than 90 percent 
of Ohio's electricity production.
  Oil and coal powered this Nation through two World Wars. They helped

[[Page S3597]]

the United States win the Cold War. And they made America the world's 
largest economy. But today our economic future depends on our ability 
to move toward alternative energy development. Green energy just will 
not restore our energy independence, it will secure our global 
leadership.
  In my 15 months in the Senate, I have held nearly 100 roundtables 
across Ohio learning about Ohio's capabilities and potential in leading 
the way in the alternative energy industry. From Ralph Dahl's farm in 
northwest Montgomery County and the technology he has employed, to 
high-tech companies in Cleveland looking for financing but fearing the 
so-called valley of death, to eager entrepreneurs in Athens who are 
installing solar panels and wind turbines all over their part of the 
State, to the work of Stark State on fuel cells. But we haven't gone 
nearly far enough. It is only the beginning.
  The Germans have long supported the development of solar power, and 
today they lead the world in that technology. Just last week, China 
announced plans to set up trade protection laws, not to increase wind 
energy in China but to corner the market on wind-energy-related 
products.
  While we are debating whether to punch more holes in the ground to 
drill for oil, the rest of the world is about to pass us by. But it is 
not too late. American ingenuity and innovation can and will give our 
Nation an edge over the competition. My bill creates an investment 
corporation for that purpose lead by the best and brightest from the 
business, labor, and environmental worlds. It will be charged with 
supporting the development and commercialization of new energy 
products.
  Great ideas are being left on the drawing board these days or, worse 
yet, getting produced overseas. Investments will be aimed with this 
legislation at communities with high levels of unemployment, with 
excess manufacturing capacity, and with brownfield industrial cleanup 
sites--communities with enormous potential and significant needs. My 
State, as is Pennsylvania, is dotted with dozens of those communities.
  Our green energy manufacturing future should build on our great 
manufacturing past, revitalizing flagging industries, and reenergizing 
manufacturing hubs.
  This bill creates the Green Redevelopment Opportunity and Workforce 
Program that provides grants to companies a little further from 
commercialization than those that receive loans in the Green Markets 
Program.
  These companies have green energy ideas that are a few years away 
from the market. Without these grants, they would never make it into 
production.
  We cannot pick, and we should not pick, winners in the fight for the 
future of green energy, so we must explore as many ideas and inventions 
that get to the market as possible.
  My bill would also establish grant money for pilot programs for green 
energy communities, colleges, and National Guard bases even. These 
pilot programs will serve as important resources for business 
interested in commercializing green technologies, as well as models for 
other communities that are trying to transition their economies to 
green energy.
  The corporation will run a green energy internship and apprenticeship 
program that will help innovate green energy companies, hire new 
talent, and help students earn valuable industry experience in this new 
industry as it begins to take off.
  My bill establishes a Green Energy Efficiency Grant Program that is a 
dollar-for-dollar match for energy producers, including municipal power 
companies and rural electric co-ops.
  This provision helps by ending the conflict that energy producers 
often face with protecting the environment and growing their 
businesses. These energy producers try to encourage people to conserve, 
but at the same time they are saying don't buy our product, which 
obviously is not a good business decision. This provision in this 
legislation will help answer that.

  By meeting these companies halfway, by matching their investment in 
energy efficiency, the Government cannot do it all, but it can help 
these responsible companies do right by the consumers and the 
environment.
  Today, most of Ohio's oil wells are dry, coal production is literally 
only half what it was in 1970, and Ohio's manufacturing centers from 
Steubenville to Lima, from Ravenna to Springfield, from Xenia to 
Findlay, are struggling to remain competitive. Our Nation's green 
future is more than using green energy or living in green houses or 
putting in green light bulbs. All those things are good, but we must 
build the green energy and its components in the United States. We know 
green energy is inevitable, but importing green energy from China and 
Germany, like we do today with oil from Saudi Arabia and Venezuela, 
need not be inevitable, and it is not in our Nation's best interests. 
We need to end our foreign energy dependence, whether it is today, too 
much with Saudi Arabia, or in the future, too much with Germany.
  The next green energy company that can change the world is out there 
waiting to happen. It could be the National Composite Center in Dayton, 
could be the cutting-edge fuel cell research ongoing in Mount Vernon, 
OH.
  We can do this. If we do this right, if we wean ourselves from 
foreign oil, we can create good-paying jobs right here at home in the 
United States of America.
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