[Congressional Record Volume 155, Number 85 (Tuesday, June 9, 2009)]
[House]
[Pages H6313-H6314]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                     THE CURRENT ECONOMIC RECESSION

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Virginia (Mr. Connolly) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. CONNOLLY of Virginia. Madam Speaker, as a Congressman from 
Virginia, also a coal-producing State, I wish to rise to address the 
current economic recession. We need to spur investment and create new 
jobs, and we need to act now. An essential part of that effort is the 
American Clean Energy and Security Act.
  This legislation, unlike some of the statistics we've been hearing 
lately, recently approved by the House Energy and Commerce Committee, 
would reduce greenhouse gas pollution and create lots of clean energy 
jobs, including in the coal sector, and make polluters pay for the 
greenhouse gas pollution they're emitting right now.
  Last week, the United States Climate Action Partnership, known as 
USCAP, hosted a congressional briefing to discuss the business reasons 
for passing legislation to reduce global warming pollution. The USCAP 
is a coalition of many American businesses who support the legislation, 
including especially in the energy sector. They include Alcoa, BP, 
ConocoPhillips, Dow, Duke Energy, DuPont, Exelon, General Electric, 
General Motors, Johnson & Johnson, NRG Energy, Shell, and Siemens. 
Environmental groups are also members.
  Many of these companies have built billion dollar companies through 
the extraction, processing, or sale of carbon-intensive fossil fuels. 
For example, most of BP, Shell and ConocoPhillips' business is in oil 
exploration and production. Duke Energy produces 75 percent of its 
electricity from coal. Manufacturers such as GE, Alcoa, and Dow consume 
a great deal of electricity and would be negatively affected by higher 
energy prices. They support this bill.
  These businesses worked for 2 years with environmentalists and 
Members of Congress to develop a blueprint for legislative action that 
laid out a plan to reduce greenhouse gas pollution, create jobs, and 
spur investment in renewable energy. This blueprint for legislative 
action formed a foundation for the American Clean Energy and Security 
Act, passed by the House Energy and Commerce Committee, on a bipartisan 
vote I might add.
  At its briefing, USCAP members emphasized the importance of the 
American Clean Energy and Security Act in spurring innovation and 
economic growth. Representatives of Dow, NRG Energy, and Shell said 
that without passage of this legislation to reduce greenhouse gas 
emissions, there simply will not be sufficient market incentive to 
invest in carbon capture and storage, something necessary, especially 
for the coal industry, Madam Speaker.
  Carbon capture and storage is a technology that holds tremendous 
promise; it is essential to more sustainable coal-generated electricity 
production. The minority party claims that the American Clean Energy 
and Security Act will hurt coal, as we just heard, but the business 
community, including companies that rely principally on coal for 
electrical generation, support this bill.
  The minority party claims that the American Clean Energy and Security 
Act will impair our ability to deploy American energy resources. Yet 
USCAP members, ConocoPhillips and Shell, for example, noted at the 
briefing that without this bill, they simply will not be able to 
develop the next generation of biofuels.
  Right now, we get most of our oil from overseas, Madam Speaker, from 
countries like Saudi Arabia. We must end our dependence on foreign oil. 
By spurring development of biofuels, the American Clean Energy and 
Security Act would help reach that objective while creating economic 
opportunities here at home.
  I think the business community said it best. At USCAP's recent 
briefing, a

[[Page H6314]]

member representative said, ``One of the reasons that many members of 
USCAP are enthusiastic is because we see that it is essential for our 
businesses to move to a low carbon economy.''
  Madam Speaker, let's unleash new investments in America. Let's 
produce more of our energy here at home. Let's wean ourselves off 
foreign oil dependency. Let us create new, clean energy jobs in 
America. We cannot delay economic recovery, and we cannot risk further 
destabilization of our climate.

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