[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 153 (2007), Part 4]
[House]
[Page 6084]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




       SELECT COMMITTEE ON GLOBAL WARMING AND ENERGY INDEPENDENCE

  Mr. BLUMENAUER. Madam Speaker, House Speaker  Nancy Pelosi is to be 
commended for her creation of the special Select Committee on Global 
Warming and Energy Independence. I am honored to be chosen by her to 
join a strong field of my Democratic colleagues chaired by Congressman 
Ed Markey, a long-time advocate for realistic policies on energy and 
climate change. He will be joined by Members with special areas of 
expertise and dedicated commitment to the environment.
  Hilda Solis, a renowned environmentalist not just in Congress, but 
dating back to her days as a California legislator. Emanuel Cleaver, 
with important municipal experience as Mayor of Kansas City, and one 
who has been working with the community of faith, particularly 
evangelical Christians who are worried about our stewardship of God's 
handiwork.
  My Northwest colleague, Jay Inslee, is strong, an environmentalist 
with keen interest and expertise and energy. Stephanie Herseth, who has 
been a leader particularly in reducing the carbon footprint in the all-
important agricultural sector. Even our two Members newly elected to 
Congress; John Hall may be famous as a musician, but for years he has 
been involved with advocacy and leadership in the energy arena. And 
Jerry McNerney is a successful alternative energy businessman and 
engineer who probably has more technical knowledge than anybody else in 
Congress.
  I was perplexed somewhat by the Republican appointments, not so much 
about who is there, but who isn't. There are a few people in the 
Republican Caucus who have been outspoken about their concerns of 
climate change, global warming, their understanding of the science, 
people who are not in denial, but they were passed over for membership. 
There are some Republican Members who have been outspoken critics, for 
example, of the Kyoto treaty. Well, you know, this whole effort has 
moved beyond Kyoto. The world has moved on.
  While for 12 years Republican leadership in Congress refused to move 
forward, there are 320 cities who have gone ahead with their own post-
Kyoto initiatives. There are hundreds of counties and universities. 
Last month, 10 major companies here in Washington, D.C. announced that 
they would meet or exceed the standards. They can't afford to wait for 
the Federal Government. The people who are still hung up over Kyoto 
have never produced a viable alternative and are being left behind by 
people who do understand and who do care.
  It is not that we don't know what to do; cut carbon emissions and 
increase energy efficiency. Girl Scouts, neighborhood associations and 
campus conservation teams can tell this administration and Congress 
what to do. Why, the Bush Administration could just approve the higher 
energy efficiency standards for appliances. There are 34 of them that 
have been stalled, they could stop dithering and start acting.
  And it is not that we can't afford to do this; we cannot afford to 
act. Those energy efficiency standards will actually save consumers 
money while they encourage new product development.
  We are on a very dangerous trend line. Ask people in Alaska, where 
roads are buckling from melting perma-frost and coastal villages are 
eroding. Ask ski operators about the impact of global warming. Look at 
impact of extreme weather events on our disaster budgets. We will face 
far higher costs in the future if we don't act now, take action like 
private companies, cities across America, and governments around the 
world.
  There are opportunities for field hearings and parliament exchanges 
for this new committee. I would hope that we could entice them to visit 
the Pacific Northwest. With Congressman Jay Inslee and my colleague 
Greg Walden from Oregon, we can demonstrate that the Northwest in the 
last quarter century has saved 3,000 average megawatts equivalent to 
building eight giant coal power plants, but at only half the cost. We 
can bring them to Portland, Oregon, where as a member of the City 
Council in 1990 we adopted energy efficiency standards to achieve at 
least $1 million savings within 10 years. We reached that goal in 5 
years ahead of schedule, and we continue to increase the efficiency and 
get the benefit, $2.5 million last year, 20 percent saving in energy 
cost.
  There is land-use planning, broad transportation choices, people 
living closer to where they work. All these are among the reasons that 
Portland's greenhouse gas emissions since 1990 on a per capita basis 
have fallen by 12.5 percent, unlike probably any other American city.
  So my congratulations to the Speaker. My thanks for having a chance 
to play a role as we use this select committee for the Federal 
Government to help catch up with the rest of the world.

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