[Congressional Record Volume 155, Number 73 (Wednesday, May 13, 2009)]
[House]
[Pages H5575-H5576]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                  THE GREENING OF OUR ENERGY THINKING

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of 
January 6, 2009, the gentleman from New York (Mr. Tonko) is recognized 
for 10 minutes.
  Mr. TONKO. Mr. Speaker, we are at the threshold of energy policy that 
can transform not only our energy thinking but respond to the economic 
crises that are gripping this Nation. With the leadership of a new 
administration, with a President who has expressed the boldness of a 
vision for energy generation, energy transmission and energy storage, 
an innovation economy sparked by that source of greening up of our 
energy thinking can be just what the doctor ordered in curing our 
economic ills and allowing us to go forward with a stronger sense of 
security, security that is expressed by our energy security, our job 
security, our economic security and certainly for those measures, our 
national security.
  It is no wonder that our gluttonous dependency on a fossil-based 
economy has caused us to rely on importing, from some of the most 
troubled spots in the world, our energy supplies. These are countries 
that have unstable governments that have ruled the day for our economy.
  And certainly when we look at the failed measures of the previous 
administration, the average household has been paying, or the average 
citizen has been paying $1,100 more in energy costs because of the 
failure of that energy policy during the Bush-Cheney administration. So 
it is a challenge to us and a dictate to the American public to go 
forward with a new vision, a boldness of greening up our energy 
thinking so as to spark this innovation economy.
  When we look at what can happen in this country, there are many 
promising statistics. We can understand that some 5 million jobs can be 
created in the clean energy economy if we were to enhance by 25 percent 
our renewable energies. And just for the electricity supplies we 
require and the transportation needs that we have, if we advance a 25 
percent improvement by the year 2025, we could realize those 5 million 
additional jobs in the economy. And dollar for dollar, it is calculated 
that four times the job growth is realized in the clean energy economy 
than is realized in the dependency and the continuation of the oil and 
petroleum economy.
  So those statistics speak nobly to the challenge that befalls us, 
that we need to move forward with a new order of thinking, that we can, 
as we enhance our energy security, grow American jobs that produce 
American power for America's energy needs.
  Now that is a strengthening of our economy in a way that will put new 
jobs, job opportunities, on to the grid that have not previously been 
there. It allows us to cover the array of job opportunities from the 
trades that are involved on over to the engineering, the inventor, the 
innovator types that can produce the prototypes and then pulling them 
into the manufacturing and commercial sectors of emerging technologies 
that will allow us to very cleverly encourage new generation formats, 
new storage formats and new transmission opportunities in the realm of 
energy.

                              {time}  2130

  The transitioning will allow us to impact industries from 
manufacturing to engineering to all sorts of lab opportunities for our 
given communities.
  When we look at situations in New York State alone, we are looking at 
some 132,000 or so jobs that could be created in a clean energy 
opportunity in New York State. Obviously with an unemployment rate that 
is above 8 percent in New York State, that would be a welcomed bit of 
opportunity.
  We need to simply look at the practicality of some of the experiences 
out there that have enabled us to move forward, to move forward in a 
way that allows us to utilize the strength of our intellect as a Nation 
and use that brain trust and invest in our future.
  Recently when we were visiting with a former energy minister for the 
country of Denmark, he had visited with the SEEC caucus that has been 
formed here in Congress of which I serve as Chair, the Sustainable 
Energy and Environment Caucus has entertained guests who will share 
with us their ideas and their success stories.
  Denmark has done well by changing its format of energy design. It was 
important to note that they have very boldly stepped forward and 
invested with some ideas that actually came from the United States and 
perhaps even patents that originated here. So it behooves us to move 
forward and utilize this American think tank and put it to work here in 
our country to meet our energy needs. While I was at NYSERDA where I 
served as president and CEO of the New York State Energy Research and 
Development Authority, we were able to advance several new ideas: 
kinetic hydro that allowed us to utilize the turbulence of the East 
River along the Manhattan shoreline, and just utilizing that turbulence 
allowed us to do subwater surface energy creation, energy generation 
simply by the motion of the water.
  We have several opportunities with the many bodies of water in New 
York State, and with turbulent bodies as such, to perhaps achieve as 
much as 1,000 to 1,100 megawatts worth of power.
  The demonstration project, funded through the assistance of NYSERDA, 
made modifications possible through Denver, through the Department of 
Energy labs, and we have reformulated the design of the energy turbine 
blades. We have recalculated the assembly, the core assembly of such a 
turbine, and we are able to go through with these improvements that now 
offer great hope for the kinetic opportunities.
  That is just one sampling of cutting-edge technology, emerging 
technologies that can strengthen our American economy and our energy 
consumers' future here in this country.
  I think also of the geothermal applications that we have made with 
campuses like the Culinary Institute of America where the geothermal 
applications are used now to heat and cool six

[[Page H5576]]

new dormitory areas, lodges as they are referred to, at the CIA. This 
is another practical application that allows us to create a sustainable 
future, one that is working in a benign fashion with the environment 
and utilizing the resources of our air, our water, and our soil to 
respond to our energy needs.
  This is the boldness of vision that has been imparted by President 
Obama and his administration. It is the boldness of vision embraced by 
Speaker Pelosi in the House, and other leaders; our Energy and Commerce 
Chair, Henry Waxman; and Barton Gordon of Science and Technology, to 
name just a few. But as we go forward, we will continue to advance this 
progressive order of policies and the resources required to advance the 
development that we require.
  I think it is important for us as a society to invest well beyond the 
prototype. The prototype is the idea that comes to life in the research 
labs across the country, but that is not where we should end with the 
story. We need to deploy that magic into the manufacturing and 
commercial sectors so we can take full advantage of the earlier 
investments into prototypes.
  Just this week I was able, Mr. Speaker, to travel to the GE Research 
and Development Center in my district. They announced their plans for 
new battery technology, battery technology that will enable us to add 
to the diversity of battery types of the future. There are efforts 
within the stimulus package advanced by the White House and approved by 
the House and the Senate on the Hill that was recently signed into law 
as the Recovery Act for America that will invest billions of dollars 
into cutting-edge thinking in battery application. It was at GE that 
they announced this formulation of a sodium chloride and nickel mix 
that allows for us to deal with heavy-duty equipment, the more 
stressful vehicular applications. It also holds promise for energy 
generation and energy storage, very key and critical to the 
intermittent nature of several of our renewable sources.
  So with all of that being said, there are samplings out there that 
today are speaking to the progress that can be made. And it is that 
source of job creation that is inspired by the efforts made by 
researchers and engineers and inventors and innovators that then allow 
for trade application in the practical applications as we retrofit our 
schools, our businesses, and our homes in a way that allows us to meet 
our energy needs.
  So with all of that, I call upon this House to continue to move 
forward and advance the agenda of green energy policy that will 
transform our economy, strengthen our job market, and allow for us to 
have a stronger sense of energy security and national security.
  I thank you, Mr. Speaker, for the opportunity to share my thoughts.

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