[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 147 (2001), Part 11]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages 16257-16258]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



              SECURING AMERICA'S FUTURE ENERGY ACT OF 2001

                                 ______
                                 

                               speech of

                          HON. BERNARD SANDERS

                               of vermont

                    in the house of representatives

                       Wednesday, August 1, 2001

       The House in Committee of the Whole House on the State of 
     the Union had under consideration the bill (H.R. 4) to 
     enhance energy conservation, research and development and to 
     provide for security and diversity in the energy supply for 
     the American people, and for other purposes.

  Mr. SANDERS. Mr. Chairman, I rise in strong opposition to this bill. 
At a time when this country is wasting a huge amount of fuel and 
electricity, this bill provides $34 billion dollars in subsidies and 
tax breaks for the big oil, coal, gas and nuclear companies to drill 
for more oil and gas and to produce more and more energy. These 
companies are making record breaking profits by gouging consumers, 
destroying our environment and threatening our health. Can anyone tell 
me why we need to give more corporate welfare to Exxon-Mobil, the most 
profitable company in the history of the world with a net income of 
$17.7 billion, while providing little more than lip service to energy 
efficiency and renewable energy and absolutely no relief to middle 
income Americans struggling to pay their energy bills? Mr. Chairman, 
this is outrageous. We simply cannot drill our way out of this mess.
  At a time when emissions from dirty coal-fired power plants produce 
acid rain and carbon dioxide that threatens our global climate and our 
health; at a time when scientists throughout the world believe that we 
have an enormous amount of work to do to combat the danger of global 
warming; at a time when wind energy is the world's fastest growing 
source of energy and when the price of solar energy has been coming 
down in recent years due to better technology, I find it outrageous 
that the best we can do is to study whether our country can get to 5 
percent renewable in the next 15 years.
  Mr. Chairman, we don't need a study on renewable energy, the studies 
have already

[[Page 16258]]

been done. The technology is already there. What we need is a firm 
commitment. I tried to offer an amendment to require that 20 percent of 
our nation's electricity come from renewable sources of energy such as 
wind, solar, and biomass by 2020. Unfortunately, the Rule Committee 
denied the opportunity for debate on this amendment.
  While renewable, non-polluting wind power has been the world's 
fastest growing energy source in recent years, wind energy contributes 
less than I percent of the national supply of electricity in the United 
States, and renewable energy only 1 percent. We can and must do better.
  The growing dependency on imported oil is dangerous not only to our 
economy but also to our national security. We must attack this problem 
by increasing our use of renewable sources of energy such as wind, 
solar and biomass, but his bill does not get this done.
  Mr. Chairman, the price gap between fossil fuels and renewable energy 
has narrowed. For example, the price of natural gas has more than 
doubled in the past year, while the cost of wind energy has dropped 
more than 80 percent in the past two decades.
  Mr. Chairman, they are doing it in Denmark, they are doing it in 
Northern Germany, and they are doing it in Northern Spain. 13 percent 
of Danish electricity consumption is covered by wind right now. In 
Northern Germany and in Northern Spain the figure is 20 percent.
  Danish companies have supplied more than half the wind turbines now 
in use worldwide, making it one of the country's largest exports and 
employing more than 12,000 people. Germany has 6,113 megawatts worth of 
wind turbine, which meets 2.5 percent of the country's total 
electricity demand. Spain, the fastest-growing market for the past 3 
years, now has almost as much wind capacity as the entire U.S.
  Right now we have the opportunity to set an energy course that saves 
money, restores our environmental health, and enhances both the 
competitiveness of our economy and our national security. There is no 
question that the U.S. has the technology and the resources to move us 
away from our reliance on fossil fuels and towards renewable, non-
polluting sources of energy. Unfortunately, this bill does not get the 
job done. I urge my colleagues to defeat H.R. 4.