[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 155 (2009), Part 12]
[House]
[Pages 15932-15933]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                  CAP AND TRADE ALL OUR JOBS TO CHINA

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Indiana (Mr. Souder) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. SOUDER. Madam Speaker, I come tonight a little stunned. Quite 
frankly, I didn't think the energy bill, the cap-and-trade bill, would 
actually ever reach a point where it would come before the House and 
for that matter the Senate. When we are in the unemployment state that 
we are in right now in America, it seems rather ridiculous to be 
bringing bills that would put so many hardworking people out of work.
  The cap-and-trade bill, or as many of us call it, the cap-and-tax 
bill, are what a manufacturing district like mine would call a ``cap 
and trade our jobs to China bill.'' We are just reeling right now. 
Honestly, to talk about my district for a second, I have eight 
counties. The mean of unemployment in those counties is 15 percent. Two 
of the counties, Elkhart and LaGrange, are at 19 percent. Let me tell 
you about my best county. My best county, Allen County, my home, 
anchored by Fort Wayne with a little under 300,000 people, has an 
unemployment rate of approaching 11 percent. We have one of the biggest 
pick-up plants in the world that produces the Silverado and the Sierra. 
So I have been fighting hard to make sure that they are not knocked out 
of business. Our largest property tax payer, the GM plant is the second 
largest, is a mall that is part General Growth Properties. That is in 
chapter 11.
  One of our large employers is a financial company that has 1,900 
jobs, and they have applied for TARP funds. We are struggling with auto 
parts. The Fort Wayne Foundry, over 100 years in business, has just 
closed three plants because they are a major GM and Chrysler supplier 
and couldn't make it through the shut-downs after 100 years.
  Now we are being asked to tax them through their energy. Now let me 
talk a little bit about how we get our energy in Indiana. We are 85 
percent coal. We are 15 percent nuclear. The Heritage study showing 
impact by congressional district says that my congressional district is 
the number one damaged district.
  The new figures from the National Association of Manufacturers this 
week show that my district is the number one manufacturing district. It 
is unusual. If you came to northeast Indiana, and I represent basically 
Fort Wayne up to South Bend going along the Michigan line and the Ohio 
line, if you came to my district, you would drive through an area where 
you would see lots of water, rivers, 100 lakes in Koskiusko County, 100 
lakes in Steuben County. And in between that water is beautiful, green 
farmland. We aren't dry and parched like much of America. We have a 
very green area that gives us water, which is essential to most 
manufacturing. You can't build major manufacturing facilities where 
there isn't adequate water. And people still farm. We don't have the 
great big corporate farms. We have many small farms. Because one person 
from each family, sometimes even multi-families on a small farm, will 
be working at different auto parts plants, plastic parts plants and RV 
plants scattered throughout my district, thousands and thousands and 
thousands. They are at a direct threat.
  Let me talk a little bit more about our energy. I have been to the 
alternative energy labs in Colorado, at Sandia Labs in New Mexico, and 
at the major places where we look at alternative energy. Indiana cannot 
get wind power. We don't have a way to get to 20 percent or such high 
figures in the traditional alternative energy. Some of my friends I 
have known for many years are putting in one of the biggest wind farms. 
It is the second most windy area in the State of Indiana. It is going 
to be miles and miles. We will be lucky to get to four percent if we 
build every windmill you can build in the State of Indiana. In solar, 
we don't get as much sun as Arizona and Nevada. We are pushing solar 
energy as hard as we can. One of my good friends has a new solar 
company working with the Germans that can get better solar power at 
homes.
  But let's get this straight. I have two Steel Dynamics plants, the 
most efficient steel process in the United States, five Nucor plants 
and Valbruna

[[Page 15933]]

Steel. SDI, in one of their plants, takes as much energy as the City of 
Fort Wayne with nearly 250,000 to 300,000 people in it and everything 
therein. You cannot power a steel plant with solar panels or windmills. 
If we are going to make things in America, if we aren't going to ship 
everything in our country to China, we have to have reasonable, 
workable energy strategies.
  I have been working on alternative energy since I came to Washington. 
There is a company in Fort Wayne that has been highlighted in the New 
York Times and all the other publications on geothermal called ``Water 
Furnace.'' California alone could save seven power plants by using 
geothermal. We need to push in every appropriations bill in every 
different way geothermal. I have an amendment proposed in the armed 
services bill to have many of our military facilities use geothermal.
  I am working with Parker-Hannifin and Regal Boloit to improve air 
conditioning. Regal Boloit has a green energy process that saves 15 
percent of energy in air conditioning. Parker-Hannifin, through an 
earmark and their own funds, has been working and they think they can 
get 20 percent more power out of wind turbines. Guardian makes 
windshields. It is converting part of one of their plants and working 
with Spain and other places to make windshields and to make solar 
panels that don't crack and are more efficient.
  We are looking at major breakthroughs. But we cannot destroy the 
manufacturing base of America.

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