[Congressional Record Volume 154, Number 142 (Tuesday, September 9, 2008)]
[House]
[Page H7858]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                                 ENERGY

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Washington (Mr. Inslee) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. INSLEE. I've come to the floor this morning to talk about a great 
opportunity we have in the next 2 or 3 weeks here in Congress to really 
adopt a comprehensive energy bill that will move forward with the bold 
strokes that America needs, but I mention bold strokes rather than 
tiny, little baby steps, and we will not have accomplished our goal 
this fall if we just take tiny, little baby steps, and unfortunately, 
that still remains a possibility.
  Now, the tiny, little baby steps that I refer to are the efforts to 
go for a little thimble full of fuel off of our coastline, and this has 
really gotten the majority of the debate, but unfortunately, it's not 
where the tankers full of energy are. We know that if we drill off our 
coastlines it simply won't answer the problem that we have because 
there is just not enough oil there. We consume 25 percent of the 
world's oil, but we only have 3 percent of the world's oil supply even 
if we drill off our coastline or in Yellowstone National Park or on the 
south lawn of the White House. So, while we're having an honest debate 
about where to drill, there is one thing we know for sure: drilling is 
not enough. Even if we do expand the places where we drill--and my side 
of the aisle is supporting using the 68 million acres that are already 
leased, in fact, starting drilling on those areas that are already 
leased--we know we have to do so much more than just drill.
  The good news is that we will have on the floor in the next couple of 
weeks a proposal that will move forward broadly with the new 
technologies that really provide the vast, huge tankers full of energy 
that we need to replace our fossil fuel-based economy, but I learned 
this August at some companies that I visited and at some research labs 
that we are just on the cusp of a clean energy revolution that is now 
ready, if we can ask some of my fellows across the aisle to join us, 
for truly having a comprehensive plan.
  I want to just run through some of the companies I visited this 
August. I went to the National Renewable Energy Lab in Golden, 
Colorado, and I saw an incredible place where they had two plug-in 
electric cars. Right above them was a photovoltaic cell of about, 
maybe, 10 by 20 on a pedestal right above them. With that one solar 
photovoltaic panel, they were charging two plug-in electric cars that 
would go 30 to 40 miles, all electric. Then if you wanted to go more 
than 40 miles, you could run it on gasoline or potentially on ethanol, 
a plug-in electric car. You could see a vision where we have PV cells 
in our homes or at our businesses, powering our cars with plug-in 
electric technology, and it was right there in Golden, Colorado. It is 
not a pipe dream. It is on the roads today. The first commercially 
available plug-in electric car today was written about in the Seattle 
Post Intelligence in my hometown in Seattle. This is ready to go. Our 
bill will support that technology.
  I met a guy named Bob Nelson on Bainbridge Island in Washington who 
has a company called Sapphire Energy. Sapphire Energy has figured out a 
way to use algae and to convert algae to gasoline, pure American-bred 
gasoline from algae. Our technology will support the commercialization 
of that technology.
  I met a woman named Susan Petty, also in Seattle. She has a company 
called AltaRock. AltaRock is a company that drills down 3 to 5 
kilometers. It pumps down cold water. It fractures rock. It then pumps 
down water and brings it back up at 300 degrees temperature. It uses 
that hot water to create steam, and it generates electricity with zero 
CO2 emissions and with zero global warming gases. AltaRock 
Energy is going to be ready to commercialize this technology, we hope, 
in the next several years that could produce potentially half of our 
electrical needs in the United States if we can surmount a couple of 
technological challenges involving pumps. Here is a company that could 
be a total game changer, and it needs policies from Congress to move 
forward. Our proposal, the Democratic leadership will propose, will 
support that technology.
  Next, I go down the drive to Bellevue, Washington, and I visit a 
company called MagnaDrive that is producing an electrical system that 
can reduce the electrical needs of electrical motors by 60 to 70 
percent. They are manufacturing that product today and are shipping it 
to China. They're hiring people in Bellevue, Washington to produce 
these things to go to China, to start exporting products to China. This 
is the future of this country to build these clean energy technologies 
and to ship them to China. Our bill that we will propose will support 
that technology.
  Now what we need are for some of my Republican colleagues to drop 
this proposal of ``none of the above'' and to start joining us with a 
comprehensive approach. What America needs is a clean energy 
revolution.

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