[Congressional Record Volume 155, Number 68 (Tuesday, May 5, 2009)]
[House]
[Page H5100]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                       MOVING IN A NEW DIRECTION

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentlewoman from 
California (Ms. Richardson) for 5 minutes.
  Ms. RICHARDSON. Mr. Speaker, the 111th Congress is moving in a new 
direction, a new direction with our clean energy jobs plan. Americans 
all over this country, whether you are from my home State of California 
or all the way over in Ohio, whether you are an ironworker or a 
teacher, whether you are retired or temporarily unemployed, Americans 
all know that we are facing a crisis, a crisis in our economic plan, a 
crisis with energy and a crisis with our climate.
  The Democrats in this Congress have a solution that's a jobs 
generator and a money saver that will properly address each of these 
problems. The Democratic solution is our clean energy plan. The 
Democratic plan invests in clean energy jobs that can't be shipped 
overseas, in saving money for families and businesses through 
efficiency, and ending, finally, our addiction to foreign oil.
  Republican opponents simply refuse to acknowledge the cause and the 
magnitude of this problem, and Republicans fail to acknowledge the 
change required today for the opportunity of growing jobs in this new 
economy. The U.S. has lost and is currently losing clean energy jobs 
and market share to China, Germany and Korea.
  The U.S. consumers continue to spend $400 billion, that's billion 
with a B, a year in the Middle East and Venezuela every time we fill up 
our gas tanks. Fortunately, Democrats in this Congress are working to 
fix this decade-old problem.
  President Obama and the House Democrats have a plan that gets the 
economy moving again, retooling manufacturing plants, building wind 
turbine solar panels and clean cars and creating a smart grid, finally 
investing in energy-efficient jobs that can't be shipped overseas.
  The Democratic plan is simple. It makes polluters pay and helps clean 
companies prosper so that they can hire more workers and we all know 
that that's what we need. It's the same American solution we put in 
place to successfully fight the acid rain in 1990, after which time 
electricity rates fell 10 percent and the U.S. economy added 16 million 
new jobs.
  It's important to point out that the acid-rain solution was a 
bipartisan solution. My constituents in Los Angeles County don't want 
more rhetoric, they want solutions and specifics.
  Consider what the Democratic energy plan will accomplish for this 
economy: Clean energy jobs provisions will create nearly 300,000 new 
jobs. The efficiency savings measures will create 222,000 new jobs by 
2020. The clean energy jobs provisions will result in nearly $100 
billion in savings for consumers and businesses by 2030. The efficiency 
savings measures alone will result in nearly $170 billion in utility 
bill savings by 2020.

                              {time}  1045

  The Democratic plan in this Congress will impact every facet of the 
lives of Americans. We must take care and craft a bill that will 
promote new job growth around this Nation, a bill that will have energy 
infrastructure to keep these jobs and industries alive in the United 
States for generations to come--we have learned that--and a bill that 
will promote our national and economic security.
  The Democratic energy plan is a blueprint for legislation that the 
American people have called for, a change in a new direction. I look 
forward to working with my colleagues to moving America in that right 
direction and finally to true energy independence.

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