[Congressional Record Volume 156, Number 57 (Wednesday, April 21, 2010)]
[House]
[Pages H2786-H2792]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                              {time}  1815
                       THE DYNAMICS OF EARTH DAY

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Lujan). Under the Speaker's announced 
policy of January 6, 2009, the gentleman from New York (Mr. Tonko) is 
recognized for 60 minutes as the designee of the majority leader.
  Mr. TONKO. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
  Well, this evening, we are going to be speaking about those 
advancements in public policy terms that allow us to go forward with a 
very meaningful agenda to continually respond as an American public to 
the dynamics of Earth Day.
  It is hard to imagine that it takes us back to 1970 when we first 
ushered in Earth Day, a time when Americans were working to focus on 
the stewardship that is our responsibility to grow a stronger 
environment and a better environmental response to enable us to improve 
outcomes out there, outcomes such as the air that we breathe. 
Obviously, as stewards of the environment, we have the responsibility, 
yes, to enhance the outcome in the present, but it also much more 
relevantly speaks to what we will do for future generations to make 
certain that our actions today will begin the process of a stronger 
outcome for generations to come.
  So efforts on improving the quality of air that we breathe and the 
efforts to improve the water that we drink are two of those driving 
forces that have ushered in this celebration annually of Earth Day 
where we recommit with each and every year to continue the efforts to 
grow the progressive agenda.
  Now, four decades later plus, we know that the climate crises that 
gripped this Nation and this globe are real. We know that the efforts 
to address our planet in peril are absolutely critical and that we have 
experienced now the challenges that behoove us to move forward as a 
nation and as a world to respond not only to those challenges but to 
see them also as opportunities that are waiting out there for all of us 
because, as we'll discuss in the ensuing hour, there are those benefits 
that come with embracing this clean-energy economy, this clean-energy 
thinking, the green-energy thinking, that will allow us to shape the 
job market of the future, and that requires us to prepare the skill 
sets that will be required in our workforce. It will enable us to 
establish jobs not yet appearing on the radar. It will enable us to 
move forward with this innovation economy, which will, I think, speak 
to energy security for us, as Americans, to energy independence and 
therefore to national security, which is a looming, looming dynamic out 
there that oftentimes is not discussed.
  So, Mr. Speaker, with your permission here this evening, we are going 
to talk about some of those things, those items, that really were 
embraced by the Democratic leadership, by the Democratic leadership in 
this House, on this Hill in Washington, and certainly now in the White 
House with this new administration's speaking to the empowerment that 
can come to this Nation, yes, with the results that can be achieved 
but, yes, also with the corresponding opportunities that will be 
packaged into the outcomes that we will enjoy.
  Our country has been moving in a new direction, I believe, in the 
last couple of years, understanding that there are a number of benefits 
that can come to all of us, to all sectors of this country, and 
certainly there are ways to speak to middle-income American families 
from coast to coast in a way that provides positive change for them at 
home. There are issues that will allow us to launch this clean-energy 
economy that will create millions of jobs associated with that sort of 
thinking. These are jobs, I will posit, which will not be outsourced. 
These will be jobs that will be stationed here in the United States 
which will enable us to again be the masters of our destiny, which will 
allow us to be the architects of new programmatic efforts of inducing 
all sorts of beneficial sorts of concepts and programs which will 
enable us to showcase the American pioneer spirit.
  You know, I represent a district in upstate New York that was the 
birthplace to the westward movement. My district houses the confluence 
of two historic water channels--the Mohawk River and the Hudson River--
and the confluence of those two rivers is the edge of that westward 
movement that created a port out of a town called New York City, which 
then gave birth to a necklace of communities which became the 
epicenters of invention and innovation, which then created the pathway 
to a westward movement that developed not only New York as a State but 
the entire country as a nation, which then impacted with its 
discoveries the quality of life of people around the world.
  That same pioneer spirit that drove the Industrial Revolution and 
that drove the first energy revolution can also now be that inspiration 
that allows us to move forward in a way that creates this green energy 
revolution that will respond to the absolute symbolism and spirit of 
Earth Day, which, as I said, started some four decades ago, over 40 
years ago, when the first celebration occurred.
  In embracing this sort of agenda, it also will enable us to lower 
energy costs for American businesses and certainly for American 
households. It is such an important factor as people have learned 
through these very difficult economic times that we need to be able to 
control those costs. We will talk a bit tonight, I imagine, about a 
smart grid, about smart meters, about smart thermostats, all of which 
put control and responsibility, but then also provide opportunities for 
America's energy consumers--large and small, businesses and 
households--with all of us prospering from that sort of activity.
  So, in lowering those energy costs, which sometimes can be a very 
significant price to pay, it can be a significant wedge of a business 
pie chart for

[[Page H2787]]

costs of that particular business or for that particular industry. It 
also can be a very painful and growing wedge of the household pie chart 
for its finances, especially for some of our lower income strata 
families, working families, who, when impacted by these growing energy 
costs, are paying more and more of a percentage of their household 
incomes, disproportionately represented for their households, compared 
to other households that may be living in better energy environments 
and that may be living in situations which don't extract as much pain, 
require as much pain, due to those energy costs as they do for other 
families.
  Also, with this agenda of progress, with this progressive nature of 
policy reforms, I think it will allow us to reduce that growing 
gluttonous dependence on foreign imports, on fossil-based fuels that 
are still our heavy reliance. That dependence on foreign oil is 
oftentimes associated with unstable countries, yes, but more critically 
with unfriendly nations to America as a country. Certainly, leaders of 
our country have had difficult times with those unfriendly nations, and 
we continue to move forward with this gluttonous dependency on that 
foreign import of oil.
  Then, finally, there is the opportunity for us to speak in meaningful 
measure about reducing our carbon pollution that is now causing climate 
change, global warming. This increasing carbon footprint threatens not 
only the Nation's environment but the world's environment, the global 
environment. These efforts, these benefits, that can be realized simply 
through the investment of resources, through the development of public 
policy, through the resolve of taking on an agenda that can really grow 
a positive outcome and that can provide a more optimistic flavor for 
all of us here in this Nation are doable items, and they should be 
committed to with a strong sense of resolve as we celebrate Earth Day 
tomorrow on April 22 across this country.

  Americans cannot afford, Mr. Speaker, to return to some of the failed 
policies of the past where people have associated a partnership as a 
tradition with Big Oil. Big Oil has been demanding of us to continually 
send those billions of dollars, which I made mention of, overseas for 
foreign oil. It is putting dictators who, perhaps, tolerate terrorism 
or who, more dreadfully, engineer that terrorism in ways that put them 
in charge of our energy supplies. That should be a no-brainer. That 
should be a challenge to all of us to escape the woes of that sort of 
dependency to enable us again to be in charge of our energy decisions 
and in charge of our energy resources and supplies.
  Also, we are lavishing those subsidies on oil companies which have 
been earning continually--and especially in recent history--record 
profits, record profits that should behoove us to reformulate our 
thinking, enabling us to move forward in a way that doesn't have us 
furthering our dependence on foreign imports of oil but rather has us 
escaping the crippling impact that this expensive, dirty, and dangerous 
19th century thinking, as it relates to fuel sources, continues to bear 
on the outcomes for so many Americans.
  So I believe, on Earth Day, we should step back and recommit, as we 
move forward, to go forward with this green thinking, with this green 
Earth thinking of outcomes that can be very real in our lives here as 
Americans, a thinking that enables us to commit with a high degree of 
passion to R&D, to research and development, to basic research through 
our universities and through our private sector to enable us to 
continue to build upon those active qualities of growing shelf 
opportunities that can be reached in terms of energy efficiency issues 
and in terms of retrofits for homes and businesses, which will enable 
us to look at not just the supply side of the equation but will enable 
us to reach over to the other side of that equation, the demand 
outcome. That demand side of the equation is one that can find us 
prospering simply by addressing a reduction in the amount of energy 
supplies that we utilize, in energy supplies that are meaningful and in 
energy supplies that should be seen, accompanied by a strong 
commitment, a resolve, to address energy efficiencies as a fuel of 
choice.
  That energy efficiency outcome should be a very high priority of 
fuels to which we reach. It should be seen as that quantity out there, 
as that commodity that is mined and drilled, just as we actively mine 
for coal or drill for oil, and we should again do the mining and 
drilling operation with energy efficiency, our fuel of choice, to 
reduce that mountain of electrons that is required, that is depended 
upon. We can deal with that in very meaningful measure by moving 
forward with opportunities in research and development and certainly in 
the practical outlay of resources where we measure up by retrofitting 
our businesses, our communities, and our households with energy 
efficiency.
  Let me just speak to some practical measures that are very much akin 
to the 21st Congressional District, which I represent in upstate New 
York. While I served in the State legislature for many years, just shy 
of 25 years in the New York State Assembly, I served as energy chair 
for the last 15 years. We had put together some novel opportunities, 
experiments, that would provide for a greener thinking of energy 
policy.
  What we had done in our efforts was to, for example, work with 
threatened economies, with the ag economy. I happen to represent a 
number of agriculture-related industries and businesses within upstate 
New York. Chief amongst them was the dairy sector, a sector that, until 
this day, has always been threatened by an inappropriate response for 
the pricing mechanism that is required to enable our dairy farmers to 
be justly responded to for the hard work, 24/7, that they do at their 
businesses, oftentimes family business-related, that brings food to the 
table.
  In order to respond to that agenda where their costs of production 
were oftentimes not covered and were not met by the price of milk that 
was delivered to them for the produce, for the product they delivered 
to the market, we set upon a course, an agenda, to respond in favorable 
and in sensitive measure to our dairy farmers.
  Well, we put together a commitment with a partnership--with ESCOs, 
Energy Services Companies; with NYSERDA, the New York State Energy 
Research and Development Authority; with farm organizations; with local 
utilities; and with the State of New York, the assembly--working with 
some legislative resources that it would apply towards this experiment.

                              {time}  1830

  We were able to reach out to the farming community. We got two 
volunteer farms to enter into a demonstration project. And here they 
are dealing with milk as a commodity. That is a very perishable product 
that is highly regulated, that deals with the pumping and cooling 
process, that deals with many energy issues that are unique. They can't 
go off peak. Mother Nature calls. Their milking process is one that is 
governed by nature, not by human decision to go off peak or on peak.
  So with the uniqueness, we addressed their concerns. We came forward 
with an energy efficiency retrofit for these dairy farms that 
introduced double-digit percentage reduction in the amount of energy 
supplies that were required at that farm, without even addressing the 
tariff rate that they were charged. Simply by reducing the mountains of 
electrons required at those two dairy farm operations, we were able to 
reduce their cost of production significantly simply through energy 
terms.
  Now, that is one small example in one sector of one important 
industry in upstate New York, throughout New York State, and a very 
meaningful, meaningful industry because they are dealing with 
nutritional needs. They are placing those nutrition needs onto the 
table, the dinner tables of families across this country. That is one 
example of how we are able to relate energy efficiency to a struggling 
industry, to one that needed greater respect in public policy measure. 
That is inspiration to all of us. And certainly for just the dairy 
sector, it was inspiration to then reach out and do a much larger 
program with time where we dealt with about 70 farms that were equally 
surprised with their outcomes, that came with energy efficiency 
operations, that enabled us to have a much stronger outcome. The 
response of that, the result of all of that was that people are now 
looking and expanding through the Public Service Commission some

[[Page H2788]]

greater opportunities that would perhaps allow for statewide programs 
to take hold.
  The point of mentioning this, Mr. Speaker, is that we have it within 
our grasp--we certainly have it within our intellect--to make these 
sorts of success stories more and more relevant, more and more visible, 
and more and more numerous across the industry types and business types 
of our State and our country. I think it's important for us to see that 
as an investment that is very sound, no matter what the supply mix, no 
matter where the power and how the power is generated, and hopefully we 
move toward an American self-sufficiency, growing self-sufficiency. No 
matter what that mix, we need to be less gluttonous in the usage. And I 
think we can. I think we will. And it takes that resolve to move 
forward and provide the incentives, provide the focus, provide the 
terms of legislation that will take us to that new era of innovation 
within the energy cycle.
  In 2009, this very House was a leader as it passed clean energy jobs 
legislation that reduced at the same time carbon emissions in this 
country, the carbon emissions that would be reduced by some 17 percent 
by the year 2020. A significant amount of improvement there, keeping 
America number one in terms of making our country a world leader in new 
energy technologies, a new leader in making certain that we preserve 
our American manufacturing base, while protecting consumers. And I 
think some of the multi-faceted qualities of the outcomes of the 
driving forces to do a number of these formats for reform sometimes are 
underestimated and not clearly communicated to the consuming public, to 
those around this country who are looking for job creation.
  Especially as we recover from this very long and deep and painful 
recession, it is important for us to be the masters of this comeback of 
the American economy. The way we do it and do it best is to make 
certain that we advance the notions of progressive reforms that will 
enable us to create jobs not yet, as I made mention, on the radar and 
put together a responsiveness to the energy needs of people of this 
country.
  Through the Recovery Act of 2009, much talked about, oftentimes much 
focused on and perhaps misinforming what really happened, our Nation 
made in that Recovery Act an historic investment in job creation, 
investments that would lead to a clean, more vibrant energy future. And 
it's estimated that we can create with those dollars more than 700,000 
jobs, nearly doubling our renewable efforts here in this country for 
electricity and saving consumers on an ongoing annual basis; making 
certain that operating costs at home, operating costs at businesses and 
industries are reduced simply by putting together a solid mix of energy 
opportunities within that Recovery Act of 2009. Again, if we are moving 
with smart grids, smart meters, smart thermostats, a better controlled 
destiny, and more architected opportunity to be creative in our usage, 
to look off peak and to move to issues like advanced battery 
manufacturing, which is the linchpin to taking us to a new era in 
energy, we can do it. It takes leadership. It takes focus. It takes 
incentives that take us down this new pathway that is greener than the 
past and in a way that looks in a new direction, that really embraces 
what still happens in this country.
  We are robust in our patent development. We are strong in our higher 
ed investments. We are strong in our incubator programs, in our R&D 
opportunities. We need simply to then deploy those success stories that 
have been prototyped and tested and then advance somehow an agenda that 
partners with the Angel Network and with the venture capital community 
the success stories that can then be translated through deployment into 
the commercialization networks, the business creation that is essential 
that then translates to the outpouring of jobs that are then available 
to Americans as we securitize that effort, as we grow our energy 
independence and grow our security as not only consumers but generators 
of the energy supplies that we require.
  In 2009, this House also passed the clean energy jobs legislation 
that reduced those carbon emissions, as I said, by some 17 percent. But 
also in 2007, before my time here because I entered in this past term 
as a freshman, Congress enacted a landmark energy law that would 
increase vehicle fuel efficiency for the first time in more than three 
decades so that the outcome would be 35 miles per gallon, a much more 
efficient outcome for the industry in this country, and that threshold 
year of 2020 would be the benchmark, so that by 2020 we would be 
achieving 35 miles per gallon, a very much increased and improved-upon 
measurement for fuel efficiency in our auto fleets in this country. 
These are actions that respond to and underscore the historic 
commitment to a clean homegrown American agenda. And I think that those 
biofuels that we've embraced through renewables, with wind and solar, 
the efforts for geothermal as energy supplies and advanced vehicle 
technology are just the beginning of progress, the exploration of new 
frontiers, new pioneer efforts to take us to this new realm of energy 
creation and energy responsiveness.
  I think that with this ACES legislation, the American Clean Energy 
and Security Act of 2009, it was a landmark opportunity for us to now 
debate in this House the merits of moving forward with an investment in 
greener thinking. The historic legislation to launch a new and clean 
energy economy holds great potential. These, again, are jobs that will 
not be offshored. They will not be outsourced. We will be working to 
create 1.7 million American jobs with this measure and would help to 
reduce, again, the dangerous dependence on foreign supplies, so much so 
that we reduce that dangerous dependence on foreign oil by some 5 
million barrels per day, keeping energy costs low for Americans and 
protecting American consumers from the ravages of costs and price 
controls that have gone beyond their pocketbook. The impact of all of 
this is done without any increase to the deficit, which I believe is a 
very strong outcome for all of us.

  We talk about the advancements. We talk about scientists. We talk 
about technology and engineering. It is important for all of us to 
understand that there is great potential here in growing the jobs as we 
address the progressive agenda, and there are those who have led the 
discussion, led the debate because of their experience as scientists, 
those who have been there. They understand the value added of these 
technical-related fields and professions. They know the potential. They 
know the commitment. They know the passion that these professionals 
embrace to change our thinking, to bring us to a newer, higher realm of 
outcome that is within our grasp. We have seen it through the decades. 
We have seen it in a way that has inspired progress for the entire 
world well beyond the boundaries of this country. We need to bring back 
that sort of commitment, that sort of encouragement that enables all of 
us to work together as a society.
  One of those outspoken voices, the informed voices speaking with a 
fullness, with a depth, comes from scientists like Rush Holt. 
Representative Holt represents a congressional district in New Jersey, 
and it has been his passion, it has been his advocacy, as we dealt with 
policy like ACES, the American Clean Energy and Security Act, issues 
like the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, which, again, 
historically made large down payments to take us to this new thinking--
it has been people like Representative Rush Holt that have delivered 
and have brought us to this discussion and have forged a positive 
outcome.
  Tonight we are pleased to be joined by Representative Holt as he adds 
his voice to tonight's discussion, celebrating Earth Day tomorrow in a 
way that takes us to this green energy economy, this innovation 
economy.
  Representative Holt, it's great to have you join us.
  Mr. HOLT. I thank my friend from New York. If he would yield, I would 
be pleased to contribute to this discussion.
  Mr. TONKO. I would be happy to yield.
  Mr. HOLT. Remembering 40 years ago, you and I are old enough to 
remember when tens of millions of Americans joined together in what was 
at the time a very visionary day, Earth Day, where Wisconsin Senator 
Gaylord Nelson, drawing from Wisconsin's own

[[Page H2789]]

Aldo Leopold, who had developed an ethic of the land, and he said, 
``Earth Day is a dramatic evidence of a broad new national concern that 
cuts across generations and ideologies. Our goal is not just an 
environment of clean air and water and scenic beauty. The object is an 
environment of decency, quality, and mutual respect for other human 
beings and living creatures.''
  It was really very visionary. But what resulted from that were 
specific bills, solid legislation, these bills that have moved the 
country along. So it is not just soft-headed, warm-hearted embracing of 
the wilderness. It was scientific engineering expertise brought to 
cleaning up the land and the water. And since Earth Day in 1970, laws 
have been passed such as the National Environmental Protection Act, the 
Clean Air Act, the Endangered Species Act, to mention a few. And Earth 
Day is no longer just a day. This ethic has been taken to heart, and we 
continue to move along with the solid science-based efforts to preserve 
our environment.

                              {time}  1845

  Now certainly the number one insult to planet Earth is the way we 
produce and use energy. My friend from New York has been talking about 
not only the costs, the costs facing us, which are in dollars and 
lives, if we do not confront the problems created by the way we produce 
and use energy. It's not just an average rise in temperature where 
spring might come a little bit earlier; it is not just that sea level 
might be up a few inches or a few feet. It is that tropical diseases 
will appear where they haven't appeared before. We see that happening 
now. It is not just that we lose the scenery of glaciers in the 
mountains, we actually lose groundwater; we lose habitat for those 
things that we depend on for our well-being. So we need comprehensive 
energy reform to stop using dirty fuels.
  It is fortunate that the efforts to deal with the dirty fuels could 
also relieve our trade imbalance, could also contribute to our national 
security by making us less dependent on foreign sources of fossil 
fuels, and in fact it could not only save us money; it could make us 
money.
  Mr. TONKO. Representative Holt, if you'll suffer a disruption, if you 
will yield, you triggered a thought.
  Just recently my district hosted the only stop in New York State, 
actually in Schenectady, of the Operation Free Tour. As you know, it's 
a bus tour being conducted by veterans for American power and they are 
doing a coast-to-coast tour, hitting all of the States. It was so 
impressive. We invited veterans from all vintages, from World War II, 
from the Korean War, from the Vietnam conflict and up to the present 
day, more present-day veterans that have committed in uniform and have 
fought on foreign soils in defense of this nation. Very impressive, 
very impressive visits by these folks.
  They, at our stop in Schenectady, New York, had three spokespersons: 
one veteran from the State of Arkansas, who has done two tours of duty 
as a marine in Iraq, spoke to the crowd, spoke to those assembled. We 
had a visitor, a veteran from the State of Wisconsin. She drove a 
truck, I believe, with the Army in Iraq. And then finally a veteran 
from the State of New Hampshire who as an Army officer did a tour of 
duty in Iraq and a tour of duty in Afghanistan. He is now at Yale Law 
School.
  To a person, each of these veterans spoke of the wisdom, the no-
brainer, as we might call it, of moving to energy independence for 
Americans; energy security. They witnessed the outright destruction of 
troops, the threat to the troops, the supreme sacrifice oftentimes made 
simply by forces of Taliban that they believed are fed by the 
treasuries of these unfriendly nations to which we feed over $400 
billion a year; unstable but, more importantly, unfriendly governments 
to the U.S., using those dollars from their treasury to work against 
our operations for freedom-loving people around the world.
  They also spoke to--and it's what your comments triggered in me--the 
concerns for global warming, for climate change. They said, this is an 
issue of national security. Beyond our domestic programming for energy 
security and energy independence, it's a national security issue. 
Because what they believe is happening is that with drought, with 
floods, with famine, you're creating the perfect storm that finds 
people weakened by famine and a much more robust competition for 
available land around the world. It's a breeding ground for terrorist 
activity. The veterans who were there, many of whom had fought in the 
Second World War, walked away from that saying, what an interesting way 
to approach the issue. They were impacted by the thought process that 
was inspired by each of these three veterans, recent veterans, to the 
honor roll of American history, but to a person these two men and one 
woman spoke in very relevant terms about what our energy policy can 
mean to our troops and to the goals of our military into the future.
  It just makes so much sense, from a national security, energy 
independence, energy security concept and perspective if we move 
forward with clean energy thinking and an innovation economy that can 
be inspired by that thinking. I think that their comments are very 
relevant to today's eve of celebration of Earth Day.
  Mr. HOLT. As my friend points out, the way we are producing and using 
energy not only costs lives and dollars through the climate change but 
it exacerbates our security problems. And by addressing the energy 
problems, we will indeed increase our national security, saving lives. 
And if we really make a commitment to investing in reliable energy 
solutions for the United States, the United States, the historic leader 
in innovation in the world, the country whose economy has been built on 
invention and innovation, can lead the world and benefit economically 
big time through addressing these energy problems, through new clean, 
sustainable energy, starting first with the low-hanging fruit of 
efficiency, of wind and geothermal and other readily available sources; 
moving on to things, some of which are not yet developed but with the 
American powers of innovation, we can master these things and sell them 
to the rest of the world.
  So the advantages in addressing the energy problem are not just in 
avoiding catastrophe, it is really to have a positive economic and 
social future. Waste is never good economics and the United States' 
attitude toward energy is really profligate. So there is a lot of low-
hanging fruit to be gained and money to be saved that way, and then a 
lot of money to be earned through innovative solutions to the problems.
  Mr. TONKO. I certainly think that this move to innovation, which can 
be a job growth factor, if that's being denied simply because of an 
association, a kinship, a partnership with Big Oil, with industries out 
there as an industry, with big oil companies, then that is a 
detrimental outcome, one that really needs to be exposed for what it 
is. To continue with tradition, to continue with that comfortable, cozy 
relationship, to be able to do the subsidies, to be able to reach out, 
to empower those traditional sources in a way that has been advocated 
because there are friendships out there, people enjoy that partnership 
continuing, that needs to be refocused. It needs to be brought to the 
attention of the American public, to the consuming public.
  And I think that the innovation that can be inspired here, and it's 
part of the value added that I believe you bring to this House, 
Representative Holt. I have been with you in many discussions and I 
enjoy your passionate plea to really invest in research and 
development, basic research. You are absolutely right. When we do that, 
we need to see R&D investments equal to economic development, to job 
growth. They're not just investments made with no jobs growing from 
them but we're developing very sound jobs, very good-paying outcomes.
  You talked about the innovation. One of the impacts out there of the 
American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, one of the stalwart efforts of 
the ACES with R&D investment is to look at the battery as the linchpin, 
that's that linkage that takes us to this new era of energy thinking. 
We have seen many of these opportunities, investments made over the 
last couple of months through the Recovery Act into lithium ion as an 
advanced battery production out there and the concept of some of the 
sodium-based. For me in my area with GE and the sodium-based outcome, 
these are the cornerstone, the building block to the future. If we 
develop that mastery of innovation in

[[Page H2790]]

the battery concepts, we then unleash untold stories of success in the 
energy-related areas.

  Mr. HOLT. The lithium ion battery is a good example. In the ARRA, the 
bill that many in America know as the stimulus bill, there is a 
significant investment in development and manufacturing for lithium ion 
batteries and we are well on our way to capturing maybe a third or more 
of the world market in producing these lithium batteries; where 
previously we had a small, tiny percent of the production. So it shows 
that with the commitment, we really can move ahead, we really can 
seize, earn, a large part of the world market. That's just one example.
  We can do the same thing in building technologies. We can do the same 
thing in other transportation technologies. We can do the same thing in 
electricity generation; and on and on and on. In fact, we have led the 
world in technologies for electricity generation, whether it be nuclear 
or combined cycle turbines, but that is now based on an unsustainable 
fossil fuel model, the way we had developed electricity generation in 
the United States.
  Mr. TONKO. And I think there's such a coupling here. I think if we 
can speak to the focus, the vision, that the Democratic majority in the 
House embraces, it's pushing efforts the way of small business. So many 
of these entrepreneurial efforts, the innovation that is driven by 
these whiz-kid ideas, are substantiated by investments in their 
prototyping, their testing; and then we need to further commit to 
deploying these to the commercial networks.
  While I was at NYSERDA, the New York State Energy Research and 
Development Authority, we were involved with a demonstration project on 
kinetic hydro, utilizing the turbulence of the East River along the 
edge of the island of Manhattan to create energy simply through the 
movement of water with a turbine sub the surface of that water and 
relying on the turbulence. We disassembled that demo, sent it to the 
labs in Colorado for DOE, found out the improvements that were required 
for the blade design, the fin design, the assembly itself of the 
gearbox, made those improvements, and now there is expectation that 
perhaps 1100 megawatts worth of power can be realized in one State like 
New York alone simply through the motion of water.
  These are things that should be invested in. These are the 
opportunities that are growing jobs out there and that can respond in 
much more environmentally friendly outcomes for our energy needs and 
energy needs around the world. That pioneer spirit should not be denied 
and that breaking of, the departure here, our thinking is far removed 
from that partnership that was, I think, hurtful to us where we're 
relying on those oil industries, this majority has said, ``Look, let's 
make that break, let's go into a new energy arena.''
  And now you look at the accounts in Newsweek, in Business Week of 
late, they're talking about the wonderful growth that is coming to the 
economy because of the Recovery Act, because of that stimulus bill that 
you talked of. That is providing a lot of impetus for reform, for 
growth, for change, for recovery. At the same time we're responding to 
the needs of our energy and our environment, and that needs to be 
recognized on this eve of Earth Day. I think we can take a great bit of 
enthusiasm and encouragement from that latest bit of news.
  But as a scientist that you are and as one who's an engineer here in 
the arena, I think that we can continue to push the emphasis on 
technology that's so important as we just made mention with batteries. 
I'll talk about that. I think you want to share something here.
  Mr. HOLT. I would like to talk about another aspect of Earth Day, 
where over the years now, the same level of hardheaded analysis that we 
are beginning to bring to the energy problem has been brought to 
ecology, the relationship between life forms and the environment.

                              {time}  1900

  Earth Day is not only about protecting the planet's atmosphere. One 
of the lessons of the last 40 or 50 years now is that we are a seamless 
web and that protection of wildlife is not just for aesthetics or 
humane reasons. Really, protecting the whole environment is important 
for human quality of life as well.
  And I wanted to talk a little bit about wildlife because today I 
introduced legislation with my colleague and fellow Sustainable Energy 
Coalition member Jared Polis. This is legislation that will create a 
program to protect and preserve wildlife corridors. Wildlife corridors 
are connected strips of land in which a wide range of animals can 
migrate, can propagate. One professor has called these ``sidewalks for 
animals.''
  They are really necessary in every State. And as we have paved 
America, as we have bisected it and trisected it and cut it up with 
roads, we have found that we have moved wildlife into smaller and 
smaller spaces, where it is now unsustainable. So these corridors will 
help support the economy of hunting and wildlife watching, but it also 
will keep the web of life intact.
  Our bill, the Wildlife Corridors Conservation Act, would establish a 
Wildlife Corridor Stewardship and Protection Fund to provide grants to 
Federal agencies, State and local governments, nonprofits, and 
corporations for creating these essential wildlife corridors. And the 
Department of Agriculture, the Department of the Interior, the 
Department of Transportation are all part of this; and dozens and 
dozens of organizations that study and that advocate for environmental 
protection have endorsed this. I commend it to my colleagues, and I 
hope we can move along with that so that it will be law by next Earth 
Day.
  Mr. TONKO. I think it is interesting, as you pointed out, this whole 
Earth Day celebration covers a multitude of needs, but a multitude of 
opportunities that transcends a number, just travels over so many 
dynamics out there, from agriculture, to wildlife, to the ecosystem, to 
water supplies, water usage, air quality, environment, energy 
requirements and needs. And all of that brought into a compilation of a 
bigger picture, a thoughtfulness, a planning that enables us to have 
these strong and measurably improved programs, all while creating job 
opportunities and developing a strategy that places the environment in 
the hands of the next generations in a much better outcome than we 
inherited.
  That is acting with responsibility. It is acting with tremendous 
engagement in an issue area and issues that are so correlated and so 
important to the outcomes here not just in these United States but 
around the world.
  And as a leader in the world, I think it is important for us to show 
by example and to teach by this sort of flavor and provide the 
inspiration that will lead to progress around the world.
  You know, you talk about the impacts that are made with the wildlife 
and with the ecosystem that you just described, with perhaps a 
threatening situation out there with lesser area of space available. 
The same is true in our ag economy when we look at opportunities that 
need to respond to agscape around the country. We need to be able to 
partner with our friends in agriculture in a way that enables them to 
deal with their concerns in a way that is transitioned into an 
opportunity.
  Just recently we announced, in the last several months, the 
opportunity for yet another grant that is going to SUNY Cobleskill that 
I represent, part of the State University of New York system. And they 
are an ag and tech campus. They are working on a biowaste to bioenergy 
project that will enable them to create a fuel source and enable us to 
keep our water streams cleaner, reduce our dependency on landfills, and 
enable us to go forward and respond to an energy supply in terms of a 
newly formulated gas that is now part and parcel of this.
  And they start talking about what this demo means to the outcome and 
where you can overlay this opportunity on several municipalities out 
there. And there is absolutely opportunity for our troops. When you 
look at how you are developing this fuel supply, you can avoid 
transportation through war zones that is very, very dangerous. I mean, 
in talking to this veteran who was part of Operation Free who traveled 
to my district to speak on behalf of Veterans for American Power, she 
spoke of the danger zone when she drove trucks through some of these 
enemy territories that are responded to by situations like this with 
new developments that come our way.
  So there are ample needs that are addressed simply in very academic 
terms

[[Page H2791]]

that are science and tech applications. I serve on the Science and 
Technology Committee. It is a wonderful assignment to be able to 
witness day in and day out what is happening to the auspices of that 
committee in a way that builds progress based on the investment and 
research. And that R&D opportunity for this country, a willingness for 
us to produce those investments that then translate into success 
stories that then further translate into business opportunities and job 
growth are what it's all about.
  And it is a recommitment to that agenda on this eve of Earth Day that 
I think is so essential and so much a framework of what's driving this 
majority in the House of Representatives to build that new day, that 
new outcome, and working with the new administration to take what was 
placed on the back burner. When you think of that Recovery Act, when 
you think of what was taken from that back burner in terms of smart 
grids, smart thermostats, smart meters, investment in renewables and 
R&D, in battery development, in energy-efficiency opportunities, along 
with broadband for our communities and wiring for a new day for our 
neighborhoods that are perhaps distressed, and for areas that are very 
remote or very rural, these are ample opportunities that should have 
been embraced a long time ago. But we are breaking away from some of 
that dependency on those big industries that were the tail wagging the 
dog.
  Mr. HOLT. And we call these green because they are sustainable.
  Mr. TONKO. Exactly.
  Mr. HOLT. Stripping the environment without replenishment is not 
sustainable. Ultimately, we will fail; we will perish if that's the way 
we are going to approach our globe. We must do it differently if we are 
going to prevail. With Earth Day 30 years ago, now 40 years ago----
  Mr. TONKO. 1970, yes. It goes by quickly.
  Mr. HOLT. We had that vision, we had that vision of a sustainable 
Earth. And a number of things have followed. Now it's time to really 
regenerate that vision. And in all of these areas of energy, of 
agriculture, of transportation, of wildlife management, of 
oceanography, we need to bring the hard science to bear in ways to make 
our use and our place on the planet sustainable. That's part of the 
name of this caucus we have here, the Sustainable Energy and 
Environmental Caucus, because, as I said before, waste is never good 
economics. And stripping things without replenishment will only leave 
us with a bare Earth.
  Mr. TONKO. I think both you and I see the merit that is brought forth 
by working through SEEC as a coalition to provide that green 
outspokenness and to work with our partners in government to make sure 
we respond to their, perhaps, district concerns or some of the efforts 
of folks to hold you back, to walk through that, talk through it, and 
policy through it.

  And we are visited today also by one of the co-chairs of that awesome 
coalition, Jay Inslee from the State of Washington, who is yet another 
outspoken voice for green thinking here in the House of 
Representatives.
  Welcome, Representative Inslee, to sort of bring us to a close on our 
hour of discussion about Earth Day tomorrow.
  Mr. INSLEE. Well, I appreciate the opportunity. Thanks for carrying 
the load here. I just want to, in closing, note tomorrow the actress 
Sigourney Weaver will be hosting a movie, a documentary called ``Acid 
Test.'' And it's a very interesting movie with some very disturbing 
news about our oceans, and that is that our oceans are becoming more 
acidic. And what this movie discloses is that our oceans are actually 
30 percent more acidic than they were before we started to burn coal 
and oil in the industrial age.
  And the way this works, the way this movie that Ms. Weaver narrates, 
carbon goes up out of our smokestacks, out of our tailpipes, goes into 
the atmosphere, then falls into the ocean, goes into solution in the 
ocean, and creates acidic conditions. And I don't think probably many 
people know that our oceans are becoming actually more acidic.
  And the concern of course is that when you change the acidity level 
of the ocean what it does to life forms. And we had Jane Lubchenco, who 
is Dr. Jane Lubchenco, who heads NOAA, our National Oceanographic and 
Atmospheric Administration, the other day she showed us some time-lapse 
photography of what happens when you put a shell, like a clam shell, in 
ocean water that will be as acidic as our oceans will be by the end of 
the century. And it essentially melts.
  What we are finding is the oceans are becoming so acidic that if this 
trend continues, it will actually dissolve little creatures that form 
calcium carbonate shells. Shells are made out of calcium carbonate. 
They take the calcium that precipitates out of a solution and they make 
a shell. And this isn't just crabs or clams or oysters or coral; it's 
the little pteropods, the very small creatures that form 40 percent of 
the bottom of the food chain in the oceans. Of course it's the bottom. 
And the evidence is showing this may prevent these creatures from 
having a healthy ability to precipitate calcium to make their body 
form.
  So the long and the short of it is that the actor who gave us 
``Alien,'' which was pretty scary, tomorrow will be showing in Congress 
a movie that I think is maybe at least equally as scary as ``Alien'' 
because this acidification of the oceans that is caused by carbon 
pollution has already possibly disrupted some life forms.
  In the State of Washington we haven't been able to grow a baby oyster 
for 2 years in our oyster industry. And we are not sure yet whether 
that's because of an infection process or because of acidification or 
both. But it's an example of the kind of thing that can happen if we 
don't stop ocean acidification.
  So the point I want to make tonight is the U.S. Senate is now 
considering a bill to deal with carbon pollution that will also jump-
start the economy by creating thousands of green collar jobs. But to 
succeed in both those things, they need some limitation on the amount 
of carbon pollution that's going into the atmosphere. And they need 
that because that's the only way we are going to compete with China to 
drive investment in these green collar jobs, but also because it's the 
only way we are going to keep our oceans from becoming fatally acidic 
for large parts of the biosphere.
  We get a lot of our human protein from the oceans. I think it is 10 
or 20 percent of the human protein comes out of the oceans. So I am 
hopeful they will do this. And I hope they will know, too, they need 
some limitation on carbon pollution, because we have a way to do that 
right now through the Environmental Protection Agency that is going to 
do it. They have been ordered by the courts to do this. And we are 
going to either have a good carbon pollution protection system in this 
bill or we are going to have the EPA do it. We think it's better if 
Congress designs it.
  Mr. TONKO. Absolutely.
  Mr. INSLEE. But if Congress does not design it, the EPA is going to 
do that. And we are not going to vote for bills that do not solve this 
problem that would strip the EPA of their authority to solve this 
problem. So we need the Senate to step up to the plate, have some 
system to reduce carbon pollution so that we can move forward.
  I want to thank Mr. Tonko for his leadership here tonight.
  Mr. TONKO. Thank you, Chairman Inslee, and thank you for your 
leadership with SEEC, the Sustainable Energy and Environmental 
Coalition.
  I think as we reference our comments this evening to Earth Day as a 
celebration tomorrow, we think back to 1970. And it was about the 
commitment to a better outcome, to addressing business that needed to 
be accomplished. Tonight we resolved that it's about unfinished 
business, but yet about untold opportunity. And we can accomplish both 
by continuing our commitments to a much stronger development and 
responsiveness to our environment which comes through all sorts of 
policy, including energy.
  So, Mr. Speaker, we thank you this evening for the opportunity to 
share the thoughts of the majority here. And it is onward with 
progressive policy to be sensitive to those next generations that will 
inherit from us the outstanding work we can do if we commit.

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