[Congressional Record Volume 155, Number 10 (Friday, January 16, 2009)]
[Senate]
[Pages S641-S643]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                                 ENERGY

  Ms. CANTWELL. Mr. President, I join my colleagues in congratulating 
the new Member from Delaware just sworn in this morning and wish him 
well in his tenure here in the Senate. I look forward to working with 
him as we move forward on an important stimulus bill.
  Everyone knows our economy is in tough shape, and that includes the 
folks in my home State of Washington where we have seen too many 
housing foreclosures and too many jobs cuts. That is why it is very 
important, as we start the discussion on the stimulus next week, that 
we get our priorities right, that find a way to inject capital and 
confidence and construction back into our economy.
  Although we must act urgently, I believe we must also take care to 
get things right in the stimulus package and take the time necessary to 
make sure we are getting it right. Getting it right means maintaining a 
laser focus on job-creation activities in the short term and over the 
next few decades. This should be our top priority when putting together 
the stimulus package and making sure we are providing businesses with 
the certainty they need in the Tax Code to make investments now. That 
is why I believe now is the time to put all of the good ideas on the 
table. I was so happy to hear President-elect Obama stating a 
willingness to embrace any good ideas Members or America had for this 
critical stimulus package.
  Well, to me, there is no better idea or opportunity than ensuring 
this stimulus provides a bold and definitive step toward a clean energy 
future. Clean energy will create millions of family-supporting jobs 
that cannot be outsourced and can provide a secure foundation for a 
very prosperous future for the United States.
  Investing in clean energy also reduces a lot of risk that is in the 
marketplace right now. Whether it be the billions of dollars we spend 
overseas on foreign energy, or the fuel price volatility we saw last 
year, or the fear of supply shock that comes on a regular basis. And 
obviously there is uncertainty about global warming and the crisis it 
might lead to here and across the world.
  South Korea understands this. Last Tuesday, the country's Prime 
Minister announced that South Korea would invest $38 billion over the 
next 5 years on environmental projects to stimulate the economy and 
create nearly 1 million jobs. Now, $38 billion may not sound like a lot 
here in the United States given some of the numbers people have been 
throwing around lately, but $38 billion for a country with a GDP less 
than one-tenth of our size--that would be like the United States 
putting up $400 billion just to match the downpayment South Korea is 
investing in its clean energy future.
  South Korea understands that a nation that manages to win the 
international race to develop clean energy technologies and industries 
will have a leg up in determining the energy platform and all of the 
other solutions that will follow. South Korea knows this because it has 
already been a leader in lithium-ion battery technology made for cell 
phones and for laptops, and now they are utilizing that knowledge base 
to come up with lithium-ion battery solutions for cars.
  Early movers will have the edge in the largest new industry of the 
21st century--clean energy. The question is, Are we going to put up the 
resources to make sure the United States has that first-mover 
advantage? Well, I would say that the Government lately has spent or 
put at risk an incredible amount of tax dollars--or I should say future 
tax dollars. In the last 16 weeks or so, some people have estimated 
that number as high as $10 trillion. If you think about it, how do you 
add up $10 trillion? Well, about $2 trillion in FDIC assurances, about 
$1.75 trillion in Federal Reserve commercial paper purchases, about 
$900 billion in term auction facility lending, about $600 billion to 
insure money market funds, about $600 billion to cover Fannie Mae and 
Freddie Mac, about $550 billion for discount Federal Reserve loans, 
about $500 billion to insure FDIC deposits, about $300 billion for FHA 
mortgage relief, about $250 billion for CitiGroup debt, about $225 
billion for security loan facility lending, about $200 billion for 
continued debt, about $112 billion for AIG, and a few more items that 
are not only in the billions of dollars.
  So while I can quibble about how some of this money was spent, I do 
believe the Government should take bold action. I think there are many 
things agencies should be doing to help our economy. But my point is, 
in light of those obligations on future taxpayers and the amount of 
money we are spending, spending just $100 billion to make our Nation's 
energy system cleaner and

[[Page S642]]

more diverse and more distributed is a no-brainer.
  In my opinion, stimulus, such as clean energy investment, should get 
a gold star. If we are looking for avenues to create jobs and secure 
our future, there is no better stimulus than clean energy. A recent 
study from the University of Massachusetts shows that a $100 billion 
investment in this area would create 2 million jobs in the next two 
years--2 million jobs. That rate of jobs generated per dollar 
investment is far higher than other types of infrastructure investment. 
That is to say, when you are looking at stimulative activity and return 
on investment, the clean energy infrastructure does better than most 
types of other infrastructure investment.
  So I come to the floor today to discuss four ideas that I believe are 
critically important for job creation and should be part of a stimulus 
package when we start to put pen to paper and actually see some of 
these ideas before our committees next week.
  First, many of my colleagues have talked about the incredible promise 
of plug-in electric vehicles. But substituting electricity for gasoline 
and diesel fuel, plug-ins can reduce political and economic exposure to 
oil markets and spur a broad range of economic activity. If this 
stimulus bill is about figuring out ways to create jobs and economic 
growth in both the short term and sustainable jobs in the long term, 
then plug-ins are a big winner.
  For consumers, charging up a plug-in hybrid at our current national 
average electricity rates would cost on average the equivalent of $1 
per gallon. Now, imagine that compared to what many people have been 
paying over the last year. Moreover, our current electricity grid could 
fuel about 70 percent of the passenger vehicles we are driving in 
America today. So fully utilizing the grid in this way could displace 
about 6.5 million barrels of oil, that is the equivalent of about 50 
percent of our imported oil. That translates into hundreds of billions 
of dollars staying right here at home, helping our economy instead of 
OPEC's.
  Now, how do we get there? Before we can take advantage of this 
opportunity, we need to seize the opportunity in the United States to 
build better batteries for cars. Battery technology is the principal 
factor limiting the potential of the electric plug-in vehicle to 
displace gasoline-powered vehicles. But for battery-powered vehicles to 
perform comparable to gasoline, batteries must become lighter, more 
energy dense, and recharge more quickly.
  While the United States continues to lead in the research and 
development of lithium-ion technology batteries, it is countries such 
as China and Korea and Japan that are the ones that are commercializing 
and producing this technology.
  China has over 120 companies involved in the production of lithium-
ion battery technology, and their battery manufacturing industry today 
supports over 250,000 jobs. We have no comparable lithium-ion battery 
facility in the United States.
  U.S. auto executives have warned that without home-grown suppliers, 
this country could become as dependent on Asian-made battery technology 
as it is today on Middle East oil. So I think now is not the time to be 
timid. If we do not push our Nation into making sure we lead this 
transformation into changing the world's transportation system, other 
nations will take the lead in that transition.
  It reminds me of a U.S. company, Intel, that led the development of 
the microprocessor chip. While it is a global company today, it 
continues to have its latest and greatest technology developed in the 
United States.
  About 2 years ago, Senator Hatch, President-elect Obama, and I sat 
down with automakers, battery manufacturers, and utilities to figure 
out how to jump-start this development in the domestic production of 
plug-in electric vehicles.
  The result was a multitiered tax incentive strategy designed to 
accelerate the domestic development, manufacturing, and sale of a full 
range of plug-in electric drive vehicles. The good news is our proposal 
received a 93-to-2 vote in the Senate and now consumers can access tax 
credits of up to $7,500 for the first 250,000 plug-in made and sold in 
the U.S. I do believe that incentive for consumers is a vital first 
step to bringing this game-changing technology to the marketplace.
  But we also have to make sure the U.S. also maintains global market 
leadership in plug-in manufacturing components. To do that, we need to 
make sure we are incentivizing and creating a domestic manufacturing 
base for plug-in vehicles. That is why yesterday Senator Hatch and I 
introduced legislation to continue to promote this idea. Our 100-
percent expensing provision would allow private companies to build or 
retool factories that will put American-made plug-ins in showrooms 
across the United States. I would like to thank Senators Kerry, 
Alexander, Stabenow, and Bill Nelson for being original cosponsors of 
this legislation.
  Manufacturing these game-changing technologies in the United States 
will create jobs now, and it will sustain jobs for the long term. I am 
not just talking about in Michigan, but all over the country. It is an 
investment we need now more than ever.
  If what I have said so far does not sway my colleagues, I hope they 
will consider it will probably not be the GM Volt to be the first plug-
in in our marketplace. It will not even be a modified Toyota Prius. 
Last month, China's BYD Auto brought the first production lithium-ion, 
plug-in electric car to the market. So I hope my colleagues will renew 
their interest in this idea and review this bill and support including 
these manufacturing credits in a stimulus package.
  Second, I think we have a tremendous opportunity in stimulus by 
infusing more intelligence into America's electricity grid. A smarter 
grid will help ensure that those plug-ins become a stabilizing and 
efficient energy source rather than a burden on the grid. For example, 
with smart grid metering and control devices, you could allow drivers 
to ``fill up'' their vehicles automatically, in their garage overnight 
when the electricity loads and prices are lowest.
  Eventually, with a smart grid, plug-ins could also become their own 
``virtual mini powerplants,'' allowing consumers to link their vehicles 
with millions of others and sell stored battery power to the 
electricity grid during periods when their vehicles are not in use.
  But right now we are a long way from that promising future. Even 
though our Nation's electricity grid is vital to our economy and our 
way of life, it has been called one of the most complicated machines on 
Earth, it is outdated and one of the biggest roadblocks to fully 
incorporating all the renewable energy and energy efficiency that the 
21st-century commerce can deliver.
  Smart grid technology can change that and make our grid more 
efficient and reliable. A recent Department of Energy report found that 
a smart grid could improve the efficiency of power delivery by as much 
as 30 percent. And infusing intelligence into the grid enables real-
time electricity pricing. It allows efficiency. It makes distributed 
generation work, and it makes the grid more resilient and empowers 
homeowners and businesses to take advantage of all those savings.
  Now, in my home state, the Pacific Northwest National Lab did a 
demonstration project that found that consumers could save 10 percent 
on their current electricity bills basically by understanding how power 
was being used in their homes and then making decisions that were 
convenient for them to make.
  The study found there were no technical hurdles standing in the way 
of wide-scale adoption of grid-friendly technologies, and these 
technologies are projected to reduce the need to build about $70 
billion of new generation, transmission, and distribution systems over 
a 20-year period.
  I for one cannot think of another source of energy that could quickly 
come to the market that could provide us 10 percent more fuel, but that 
is what a smarter grid could do for us, provide us 10 percent more 
fuel.
  Now, how do we get there? Because many of these smart grid 
technologies are ready to go. According to a recently released report, 
if the Federal Government would invest $16 billion over the next 2 
years--if we would invest $16 billion over the next 2 years--we would 
drive a $64 billion investment in related projects by the private 
sector, resulting in 280,000 direct jobs

[[Page S643]]

across a variety of categories. So I believe the opportunity for 
stimulative activity by building an intelligent electricity grid should 
be one of the top priorities of our stimulus package.
  Mr. President, 150,000 of those jobs could be created by the end of 
this year. As we look at more companies announcing layoffs, it is 
important we prioritize within the stimulus package those types of jobs 
that will be created in the very near future. And out of those 150,000 
jobs, 140,000 would become permanent positions after smart grid 
deployment.
  In 2007 I was very happy to have the chance to write a section of the 
Energy bill dealing with getting into place smart grid language. I know 
and realize many of my colleagues now want to appropriate resources to 
that section of the bill. I hope we can, in this package, because the 
more we incent development of smart grid technology and smart meters, 
the faster we are going to reach that deployment and savings of 10 
percent to consumers and help in the creation of that 280,000 jobs.

  I also believe as we look at the grid, we need to build out our 
transmission lines. While there is language providing the Western Power 
Marketing Association with resources to expand the grid, I also support 
giving the Bonneville Power Administration $5 billion in new borrowing 
authority, which they pay back to the Treasury with interest, to allow 
4,700 megawatts of renewable energy to come on line in the Pacific 
Northwest for States such as Washington, Oregon, Idaho, and Montana. 
This additional access to capital, over the next 2 years, will create 
50,000 jobs. So we know immediately that more jobs can be created in 
the other Washington by making the right grid investment decisions here 
in Washington DC.
  The third area--besides plug-ins, besides a smarter grid--that I 
think can help us and provide a stimulating effect to our economy is to 
establish a 30-percent investment tax credit for construction or 
reequipping renewable energy or smart grid technology manufacturing 
facilities. So this incentive would go to anyone investing capital to 
produce the components of a clean energy economy, such as wind turbines 
and solar panels and grid technology. That will help us create jobs at 
home, and it will help us with new industries that can support entire 
communities and can help transform our energy system.
  The solar industry is a good case study of why we need this 
incentive. First Solar is a leading American photovoltaic module maker. 
They built their first pilot plant in 2005 in Ohio. But when they 
needed to scale up production, generous manufacturing incentives and 
market demand drove them to Germany and Malaysia, leading them away 
from the United States.
  If we can get a clean energy manufacturing incentive into the 
stimulus bill, it will launch a wave of new clean energy manufacturing 
facilities in the United States instead. Just the effect of this on the 
solar industry alone, it has been estimated, would create 315,000 jobs. 
So ensuring this kind of a manufacturing credit is critical.
  The stimulus should also address one of the clean energy industry's 
most urgent challenges how to get the renewable production investment 
tax credits to work, again, given what has happened to the capital 
markets.
  Vital investments in American infrastructure should not have to wait 
for Wall Street to get their house in order. There is something wrong 
when these companies that are key to our energy independence are unable 
to get financing because of the financial meltdown that has 
occurred. This situation is not only hurting our opportunities for 
clean energy, but it is hurting our opportunities for job creation.

  Florida Power and Light, the largest owner of wind power projects in 
the United States, announced a 25-percent reduction in capital 
expenditures on wind in 2009. LM Glasfiber, a global leader in wind 
blades, is laying off 150 workers in Arkansas. OptiSolar, a maker of 
cutting-edge, thin-film solar cells, announced last week they had to 
lay off 300 people--almost half of its employees--and they are going to 
delay construction of what was to be the largest PV manufacturing 
facility in North America.
  I know there are many people who are thinking about this now and how 
to put more flexibility into the Tax Code for these effected 
businesses, and I want my colleagues to understand that most of these 
proposals that I hope will make it into the stimulus bill have little 
or no cost to the U.S. Treasury. So I think this area is another 
opportunity to help fix the damage created by the financial markets, 
which has already hurt the hard work we did getting a clean energy 
incentive package that we passed last October.
  I also believe we should expand a very successful initiative called 
the Clean Renewable Energy Bonds program, which provides publicly-owned 
utilities and states and municipalities an alternative to the 
production or investment tax credit which they cannot use. An expansion 
to CREBs would allow 6,000 megawatts of shovel-ready renewable energy 
projects to proceed, translating to over $15 billion in economic 
activity.
  I also believe the last area we should focus on is making sure we 
have tax credit parity in our energy laws. One of the areas that has 
been an ongoing concern to many of my colleagues on both sides of the 
aisle has to do with the fact that many promising renewable energy 
technologies only receive half the production tax credit of mainstream 
technologies such as wind. It has inhibited a number of projects in my 
State, especially in biomass. This could be a great opportunity to 
correct this longstanding grievance and provide a lot more market 
predictability for other energies by giving everybody the same credit 
of about 2 cents a kilowatt hour. That way, we would be bringing all 
technology onto a level playing field and providing certainty about the 
kind of treatment those energy resources would get from the tax code.
  So I believe these areas I have just outlined are very positive 
energy stimulus. I know for me, and I think for many of my colleagues, 
clean energy has become post-partisan; that is to say, everyone 
appreciates it is a game-changing technology and it can help us 
environmentally, with our national security, and the economic changes 
that are facing our Nation. The question is, how do we make sure these 
crucial energy measures get into the stimulus package we will be voting 
on in the next few weeks?
  I plan to work with the President-elect and many of my colleagues 
both here in the Senate and in the House to make sure these energy 
provisions do become reality. We know as we face this financial crisis, 
we need to make the right decisions to put the few pillars in place 
that will be the strength we can lean on as our country faces these 
difficult times.
  I can think of nothing more simple and game-changing than a $100 
billion investment in clean energy to get us on the right track, and to 
make us the leaders in what is likely to be the largest industry of the 
21st-century, producing jobs long into the future.
  I thank the President, and I yield the floor.
  Mr. DORGAN. Mr. President, I make a point of order that a quorum is 
not present.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The clerk will call the roll.
  The legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. DORGAN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for 
the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Merkley). Without objection, it is so 
ordered.
  Mr. DORGAN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent to speak in 
morning business for as much time as I may consume.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.

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