[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 154 (2008), Part 12]
[House]
[Pages 16451-16452]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                        THE FIGHT FOR OUR FUTURE

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from California (Mr. Schiff) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. SCHIFF. Mr. Speaker, in the days after the 9/11 attacks, 
politicians, journalists and assorted experts rushed to claim that 
America and the world had entered a new era and that the battle with al 
Qaeda would define the first decades of the 21st century.
  As the fight against al Qaeda has continued and intensified, we have 
come to see the impact of that fight on a key national security 
paradigm of the post Cold War era: the quest for energy security in an 
industrializing and ever-flattering world.
  The United States has long recognized that our global leadership and

[[Page 16452]]

economic strength depended on cheap, abundant energy from the Middle 
East. Disruptions to that supply as a result of the 1973 oil embargo, 
the Iranian revolution of 1979 and the 1990 Iraqi invasion of Kuwait 
had demonstrated our vulnerability to events halfway around the world. 
Rather than taking the steps necessary to wean ourselves from Middle 
East oil, we sought to create stability in the region by aligning 
ourselves with pro-Western autocrats whose powerful internal security 
forces kept restive populations in check.
  Capacity and price, the first high and the second low, stayed our 
hand. Cheap and plentiful oil powered the American economy to 
preeminence while solar, wind and biomass energy were expensive. 
Environmental concerns, including increasing evidence that the burning 
of fossil fuels was altering the Earth's climate, were relegated to 
secondary status.
  All of that has now changed. The 9/11 attacks and the Iraq war have 
highlighted the seething political instability in the Middle East. The 
rise of China and India have increased competition for oil even as the 
global supply has remained stable. Finally, the Earth's climate is 
changing more rapidly and more profoundly than many scientists had 
forecasted, leading to a global consensus that humanity must take 
immediate steps to curtail the emission of carbon dioxide and other 
greenhouse gasses.
  This confluence of political, economic and environmental factors is 
one of the greatest challenges that this Nation has faced in its 
history, but just as we have risen to meet other challenges--from the 
Revolution to the Civil War to the Great Depression and the 
totalitarian dictatorships of the 20th century--I am confident that we 
will emerge from this crisis stronger and better positioned than our 
economic rivals to prosper in this new world.
  As for the other problems that we have faced, finding a solution will 
require us to put our faith in American ingenuity and in our enormous 
capacity to fund and focus research and development efforts. In the 
last 2 years, we have dramatically increased funding for research into 
renewable energy, but we must do even more by declaring a new Apollo 
Project for energy independence.
  Even as we provide incentives to accelerate scientific research into 
reducing the cost of renewable energy, we must also act now to reduce 
our fossil fuel imports. The cheapest and quickest way to accomplish 
this is to reduce energy and fuel use through fuel efficiency, energy 
efficiency, conservation, and green development. We can also reduce our 
dependence on fossil fuels and foreign oil in the short term by a 
responsible increase in domestic production, but this must be viewed 
for what it is--a short-term expedient and a bridge to a future based 
on renewable energy.
  We cannot convert our economy from one dependent on fossil fuels to 
one that is based on renewable energy overnight, but we must take the 
position that our continued use of oil and gas will be largely phased 
out in the coming decades and that renewed, environmentally responsible 
exploration is intended to ease the conversion to a post-fossil fuel 
economy.
  As a threshold matter, we must improve the fuel efficiency of our 
cars and trucks, as Congress mandated last December, and develop plug-
in hybrid vehicles to drive further efficiency. Doing this will not 
only break our addiction to oil, it will also reduce greenhouse gas 
emissions by 30 percent.
  This effort should be undertaken in conjunction with the national 
effort to improve our public transportation system, which still 
receives just a fraction of the investment that we put into roads. 
Congress has acted to increase public transit, but more needs to be 
done both at a local level and, more importantly, at State and regional 
levels.
  We must also make our homes more energy efficient by installing 
rooftop solar panels, switching to energy-efficient appliances and 
enabling consumers and businesses to pay lower prices for electricity 
at night so that we can reduce the daytime spike in electricity usage 
that requires utilities to keep high-price power generation on call.
  Companies have invested and workers have trained themselves in 
industries that were supported by our past Tax Code and its provisions. 
Climate change legislation will change those incentives, and while many 
high-tech American industries will prosper, some industries will 
suffer. For example, in my home State of California, solar and 
geothermal are growing by leaps and bounds. There are start-ups 
throughout the State building solar energy plants and installing solar 
energy systems. The silicon shortage that has slowed solar development 
in the last 3 years is fading as new factories come online.
  But this new development is still dependent on the tax incentives 
that Congress has still not extended past the end of the year. We must 
not let these tax incentives expire and, instead, extend them for 
several years so that this expanding industry can become a driver in 
the economy.
  Mr. Speaker, my constituents are telling me they want Congress to 
take the steps necessary to transition our Nation to clean, renewable 
energy. I urge us to do exactly that.
  They have told me that the energy crisis has imposed enormous 
hardship on them and on millions of other Americans. But, as in crises 
past, they also believe that our ingenuity, our can-do spirit and 
optimism will enable us to bequeath to our children and grandchildren a 
world that is cleaner and more prosperous. I share their hopes and 
their determination.

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