[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 155 (2009), Part 7]
[House]
[Pages 8758-8765]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                         A CLEAN ENERGY FUTURE

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of 
January 6, 2009, the gentleman from Washington (Mr. Inslee) is 
recognized for 60 minutes as the designee of the majority leader.
  Mr. INSLEE. Mr. Speaker, I've come to the House today to talk about a 
bold vision and an act of leadership by President Obama that was again 
noted last night by President Obama.
  In his news conference, he again stated his commitment to lead our 
country to the adoption of a clean energy future by means of a bill 
called a cap-and-trade bill, which we're going to talk about this 
evening, that he believes and I believe and many people believe will be 
a wellspring and mainspring of our economic transition to a clean 
energy future for this country.
  And I was very pleased to hear him say that last night, because he 
has not been timid about recognizing the need for economic growth in 
our country, for job creation growth in our country, for taking on new 
markets in this country so that we can really rebuild the economy of 
this country.
  And I heard him last night yet again recognizing that we're not going 
to get our economy back on our feet unless we actually take some 
action. It's not going to happen just by the tooth fairy.
  So last night what he proposed to do is for the Congress, in as 
bipartisan a way as we possibly can, to adopt a provision that will 
drive investment into the new companies that can create millions of 
jobs in our green-collar future in the next decade or two, and he did 
that by proposing something called a cap-and-trade bill which will 
essentially limit the amount of dirty pollution industries put in the 
air and drive investment into the new jobs of the future that can 
really give us the new, clean technologies and clean energy that can 
lead us to this new future.
  So I come tonight to talk about two things that are fundamental to 
our ability to realize this vision. The first is, I'd like to discuss 
tonight some of the companies that are actually realizing this vision.
  Now, President Obama wasn't just sort of daydreaming when he said 
that this is a vision that we Americans are capable of. Some of the 
companies I will note tonight are on the cusp of creating commercially 
viable technologies that can create literally millions of new jobs 
where we can create high-tech components and energy sources and ship 
them around the world.
  So the first thing I'd like to talk about tonight are some of those 
new technologies that we can build in America. The second thing I'd 
like to talk about is how we can build a cap-and-trade bill that will 
assuage some of the concerns.
  Now, President Obama knows that this is not an easy setting. When you 
propose something big, a big idea like this, people get nervous. They 
get concerned. They want to know the details. And there are concerns 
tonight about the cap-and-trade bill, and I want to address some of 
those about how we're going to build jointly a cap-and-trade bill that 
will work for all the country and all segments of the country. So let 
me, if I can, first talk about why I believe President Obama's vision 
is based on optimism but also a really sound sense of realism.
  I want to talk about some of the people I've come to know in America 
who are now engaged in building the jobs of the future. Go to Nevada, 
where there's a company called Ausra. Two years ago it just had eight 
people. Now, Ausra has several hundred people working for them.
  What the Ausra concentrated solar energy company does, they have 
figured out a way to use long mirrors to concentrate the sun's energy 
that heats up a pipe with a liquid in it, some type of oil usually, 
captures the sun's radiant energy, uses that oil to essentially heat 
water and turn a steam turbine and generate electricity. And now we 
have the first manufacturing plant in the United States to build these 
system of mirrors that can now be arrayed anywhere the sun shines to 
create energy and electricity with no carbon dioxide, no pollution 
whatsoever of global warming gases while you're producing that 
electricity.
  Why is this a big deal? It's a big deal because the world is 
desperate for electricity that we can generate at a commercially viable 
price that doesn't pollute. Ausra is now manufacturing a plant to do 
that. They're not the only one.
  The Bright Source company is another company that uses what's called 
concentrated solar energy. They do a similar technology, and they just 
signed contracts for I think over 2,000 megawatts of concentrated solar 
energy to provide our grid system.
  So here are two companies that are leaders that could potentially 
create massive new job creation, not only giving us electricity, but as 
importantly, developing technology that we can sell to the rest of the 
world.
  I met the environmental minister of India this afternoon, and they 
are desperate for clean energy. Now, President Obama has a vision that 
I think can come to reality. Ausra and Bright Source make this 
technology. We build it here, we design it here, and we sell it to 
India, and we sell it to China, and we sell these products to Korea. 
This is the vision of economic growth that he recognizes, and I think 
the country will come to recognize is our best way out of the economic 
morass we're in.
  Go to Boston. In Boston is a company called A123. A123 has developed 
a lithium ion battery that is capable of producing a plug-in electric 
car where we can run our cars for 40 miles on nothing but electricity, 
home-grown, American electricity. Imagine a future where you're 
generating electricity with solar power, and you're feeding it in at 
night, you plug your car in at home at night, you unplug it, and you 
drive to work. It goes 40 miles, which 60 percent of our trips are less 
than 40 miles a day, on all electricity. You get an infinite miles per 
gallon of gasoline because you don't use any, at least in your first 40 
miles.
  Now, A123 battery company is competing with a loan guarantee, again 
under President Obama's plan, to start the manufacture essentially of 
this type of component, and this is an extremely important realization 
by our new President. He realizes that we're going to have electrified 
cars, and we're going to need advanced batteries to run them, and we 
want those batteries made in America. We don't want us to be driving 
cars with electric batteries made in Korea or China. We want to drive 
cars with batteries made in the United States, and we want to sell 
those batteries to Chinese car buyers and Korean car buyers. That's a 
vision we need to pursue.
  So we need policies that will drive that investment into the United 
States, to build these new electric batteries here, not Korea, not 
China. And why is that important? Well, it's important because if we 
don't do this, we're going to trade our addiction to

[[Page 8759]]

Saudi Arabian oil, which we're addicted to now, for an addiction to 
lithium ion batteries made in Korea or China.
  Now, if we don't start taking some action here in Congress, that's 
the type of fate that our economy would have. Fortunately, we have a 
President with a plan to, in fact, do this domestically.
  So now I will travel West to Michigan to see General Motors, who is 
getting ready to build the GM Volt, which is a plug-in electric car so 
that our car manufacturers can start to build this new generation of 
vehicle, leading the third generation to an all-electric vehicle.
  And just to show you that our car manufacturers, even if there's 
dislocation in the car manufacturing business, I'll tell you about 
another little company I heard about called Infinia. Infinia is a 
company in Tri-Cities, Washington. It's in southeast Washington.
  They have developed a concentrated solar energy machine. It is called 
a sterling engine, a sterling engine. It's very old, but they're now 
figuring out a way to make it commercially viable. Essentially, it uses 
a pressure differential created by solar thermal energy that drives a 
piston, and it creates electricity. And the beauty of the Infinia 
product is that people who have made cars, this is exactly the type of 
technology to now start making sterling engines because it's 
essentially automobile technology. It involves a cylinder, a 
transmission, and people in the auto industry can transition into this 
new industry.
  So here are five companies I've listed that if we adopt the Obama 
cap-and-trade system and energy plan, we've got a chance to really 
drive the economic development.
  So, I have a few others I thought I might share with you, but we're 
joined by Ron Kind from Wisconsin. He is the leader of the New 
Democratic Coalition that's invested in pushing ideas about how we 
really innovate, and I'm glad you've joined me. I wonder if you have 
some comments.
  Mr. KIND. Well, I appreciate my good friend from Washington for 
yielding a little bit of time, and I want to join you in this Special 
Order a little bit because there are a lot of exciting things happening 
right now in the area of alternative and renewable energy development, 
but especially to commend you for the leadership that you've given, not 
only to the Congress but the rest of the Nation, in trying to challenge 
our vision, where we're going to go as a country, as a people, to put 
us on a glide path toward energy independence, to break our addiction 
to foreign energy sources, and to be smarter consumers of energy at the 
end of the day.
  I was one of probably many in this Chamber that read my good friend's 
book on this subject, ``Apollo's Fire.'' That's not a shameless plug 
for royalty's sake, but it was a good read, because you did cite in the 
book many examples, a lot of the innovation and creativity that's 
happening throughout the country now in this field.

                              {time}  1730

  That's why I'm excited with the current Obama administration and the 
urgency that they see and the priority that they're making in a new 
energy future for our country.
  Just today, I had the owner of a company in Manitowoc, Wisconsin--I 
represent a district in Wisconsin--called Orion Energy, which has 
developed what is called the Apollo Light Tube. It doesn't use any 
electricity. It merely harvests the light of the day in order to focus 
it in the light-up manufacturing of floors, churches, schools--zero 
CO2 emission, obviously--and it's tapped into the electric 
grid of that building so that if it's a cloudy day, the regular energy 
source kicks in so you maintain a constant light ambient for work 
conditions or for customers in that building.
  But the payback is roughly 4 or 5 years on it. And this is the type 
of thinking that we need to keep spurring and keep encouraging in the 
country that's going to help us get out of the energy box that we're in 
right now.
  I think you've recognized for a long time that time is of the essence 
on it. President Obama understands that the recent reduction in energy 
prices are very temporary in nature and that once a recovery starts 
taking place both at home and abroad, we are in all likelihood going to 
see a rapid escalation of energy costs and then everyone looking at 
each other trying to figure out who to blame that we are back in this 
energy box again.
  So I would hope that, again, with your leadership and like minds in 
the Congress today, working with the current administration, who I 
think really does get it, that we have an opportunity to lay the 
foundation for a sustainable energy future in our country in 
anticipation of this cycle coming back again with increased energy 
costs.
  I think time is of the essence. We have got to work hard to get it 
right at home so we can share this with the rest of the world. If we're 
ever going to have any chance of averting the global catastrophe of 
global warming, a lot of that leadership and creativity is going to 
have to occur right here first at home, with the right incentives and 
with the right blueprint to accomplish it.
  I thank my friend from Washington State again for his leadership.
  Mr. INSLEE. I would like to yield to a tremendous leader in the clean 
air revolution, our Speaker, Nancy Pelosi, who is truly leading the 
House in the right direction.
  Madam Speaker.
  Ms. PELOSI. I thank the gentleman for yielding. I wish to also 
acknowledge his leadership and that of Mr. Kind on this important 
issue--the issue of global warming, of clean energy, of how we reduce 
our dependence on foreign oil, and how we do so as a national security 
issue, as an economic issue, as an environmental issue, and as a moral 
issue to preserve our beautiful planet, which is God's creation.
  I listened attentively to what you had to say and look forward to 
your weighing in as we write legislation to do just that.
  I rise to call attention to the serious challenges facing the people 
of North Dakota--the record crest of the Red River threatening the city 
of Fargo, the ice jam causing flooding on the Missouri River and 
forcing evacuations in Bismarck, and flood and other related impacts in 
other parts of the State.
  As you know, our colleague, Congressman Earl Pomeroy, has flown home 
already to get back into making sandbags, as he has done already this 
week. North Dakotans are no strangers to floods, Mr. Speaker. Grand 
Forks was devastated by the Red River flood in 1997, forcing the entire 
city to rebuild.
  North Dakotans are no stranger either to the ideal of neighbors 
helping neighbors. Through the weekend and early parts of this week, 
thousands of people--including high school and college students, 
National Guardsmen and women, and our own Congressman Earl Pomeroy, 
among many others, have stood shoulder-to-shoulder filling sandbags to 
protect Fargo and other cities from the dangers of rising waters. 
Others have come together to offer shelter to those forced to leave 
their homes.
  As of late last night, Fargo residents and out-of-town volunteers had 
filled over 1 million sandbags--over 1 million sandbags--and they 
aren't stopping. I salute the work of these Americans coming together 
in common purpose in this time of need.
  While there is and will be a significant Federal role assisting those 
impacted, the work of the community is the first line of defense. 
Congressman Pomeroy has briefed me about the seriousness of this 
situation, and I have assured him that this Congress will be following 
the situation closely and are prepared to respond as required.
  President Obama has swiftly acted, declaring North Dakota a Federal 
disaster area. Congress will act with no less speed to ensure that the 
people of North Dakota have everything they need as the flood waters 
recede.
  I know that the Governor is working with Mr. Pomeroy in a bipartisan 
way and I look forward to communicating with the Governor to see how we 
can be helpful.

[[Page 8760]]

  The thoughts and prayers of this entire Congress and the American 
people are with the people of North Dakota and we will work with them 
to ensure that they have all they need in the days and weeks ahead.
  As we extend expressions of sadness to the people of North Dakota for 
what they are going through, I want to also associate myself with the 
remarks earlier of our distinguished Democratic Leader, Mr. Hoyer, in 
acknowledging the passing of a great lady, Christine Sarbanes. While 
you could say wife of Senator Paul Sarbanes, she is also the mother of 
John and her other children, of whom she was very proud--John, our 
colleague--and other children of whom she was very proud. But she was a 
star in her own right--in academia as a teacher, and a great lady, who 
will be sadly missed by all who knew her.
  Everyone who did know her had the highest respect for her and extend 
to her family our sympathy. I hope it is a comfort to them that so many 
people loved Christine Sarbanes, mourn their loss, and are praying for 
them at this sad time.
  With that, my colleagues, I thank you for yielding and for your 
leadership on the important subject of climate change and clean energy.
  Mr. INSLEE. Madam Speaker, before you go, just one comment. Our 
colleague Earl Pomeroy is a very good sandbagger and sandbag filler. I 
talked to him this morning about that effort. He's been working hard.
  He was on the floor this afternoon making sure that all of his 
colleagues knew about this problem and I saw him talking to several 
folks about some ideas to help his constituents. Thank you for caring 
about his great State.
  Ms. PELOSI. Well, he impressed us all when Fargo was flooded before--
and now Bismarck, which was really kind of a surprise. He told me that 
when he was sandbagging, he was standing next to I think a heart 
surgeon on one side and a prison inmate on another. And it really 
didn't matter. They were all there to help the community.
  But those of us who have experienced natural disasters in our 
communities know that this is a very fragile time for people because 
they have lost their personal resources--their home, their clothes, the 
rest--and it's hard to be a neighbor when you don't even have a home to 
go home to yourself. But the spirit that they have is something that 
will see them through.
  We have to do our part so that as soon as they have fought and met 
the emergency rescue needs and the rebuilding, that they have no doubt 
that the Federal Government and this Congress will be there for them.
  I join you in saluting Congressman Pomeroy and his work on behalf of 
the entire State--he has an entire State. A Member of Congress with the 
entire State of North Dakota.
  Mr. KIND. If the gentleman would yield on that point.
  Mr. INSLEE. Yes, sir.
  Mr. KIND. If there's anything worse than having to deal with rising 
waters, flood waters, it's having to deal with it in freezing 
temperatures. That's exactly what has hit North Dakotans right now. As 
a Member who I think has more miles along the Mississippi River than 
anyone else in this place, we've had our fair share of flooding in the 
upper Mississippi region. Even when the waters recede, it takes weeks 
and months for the cleanup to occur.
  I share in offering our best wishes and hopes and prayers for those 
going through this very difficult time and I'm confident that the 
United States Congress and the current administration will respond with 
the type of help and assistance that those communities are going to 
need in order to battle out of this mess right now.
  Of course, Representative Pomeroy is probably the most distinguished 
sandbagger in this place. It's an area of expertise you really don't 
want to claim. Unfortunately, he's had his fair share of experience. 
I'm sure those communities are going to fight through this again.
  Mr. INSLEE. Thank you, Madam Speaker.
  Ms. PELOSI. I thank the gentleman.
  Mr. INSLEE. We'll turn our attention now, again, to the issue of how 
we promote this job creation in this new energy world. I want to 
perhaps now talk about the second thing this evening we want to talk 
about, which is how a cap-and-trade bill will actually promote job 
creation.
  It's very important, obviously, for environmental reasons, why we 
want to prevent global warming. It is obvious why we want to get off of 
our addiction to Middle Eastern oil. It is obvious that we have 
national security concerns that promote the development of clean 
energy.
  What is not so obvious always is the fact that we can create jobs by 
making smart and commonsense policies. I want to briefly talk about six 
things in the bill President Obama is ultimately going to help us pass 
that will be very helpful.
  First off, in his cap-and-trade bill, he will pass and we will pass a 
cap on the amount of pollution that goes into the atmosphere, which our 
grandchildren deserve and we deserve and our homes deserve so that the 
climate does not change dramatically.
  We have a cap right now on many pollutants. We limit the amount of, 
for instance, sulfur dioxide and other pollutants that go into the air. 
But, unfortunately, polluting industries are still free to put 
unlimited amounts of one of the worst pollutants in the globe right 
now--carbon dioxide--which is responsible for changing the climate of 
the planet.
  So we need to essentially close the huge loophole in our laws right 
now and put a cap on the amount of pollution that's going in the 
atmosphere. Then we need to charge polluting industries for the right 
to put this into the atmosphere because obviously we don't want it to 
be allowed to go up there for free because it will be put in the air 
for free. And we can't do that as citizens.
  We can't go to the garbage dump and take our pickup load of all the 
junk in our basement that accumulates--I don't know how, but it ends up 
there. We can't go to the garbage dump and dump it for free. We've got 
to pay $25, $30. That should be true too, including industries who put 
pollution into the atmosphere, which has a limited carrying capacity 
before the climate changes.
  So President Obama has proposed we simply extend an American law we 
have for several other pollutants, including sulfur dioxide, to the gas 
of carbon dioxide.
  Now there are six things I want to address about that bill and then I 
will yield to Mr. Tonko. I'll just note a couple of them.
  The first thing in this bill is that the money that is generated when 
these permits are auctioned off to these polluting industries, the bulk 
of it is going to go right back to American citizens. It's going to go 
right back. It's going to be recycled so that American citizens have 
assistance with their energy bills.
  So that money is going to be paid into a pool by polluting 
industries. The vast bulk of it is going to be recycled right back to 
American households for help on their utility bills.
  We're going to have a way to get that job done. We are designing it 
now. We want to have bipartisan help, if we can do that. We would love 
Republicans to help us to do that because we hope that they'd want that 
to be the case, that a significant part of this go back to the American 
taxpayers.
  So for those who are concerned about the utility bills, the first 
thing to realize about a cap-and-trade bill is the most significant 
part of this money is going to go right back to citizens. And that's 
perhaps the first thing people should know about it.
  The second thing they should know about it is that some people are 
concerned from coal-producing States that if we pass this cap-and-trade 
bill, it will be too disruptive to their economies.
  Here's a very important point for those who are in regions of our 
country that use coal, which is tremendously abundant and has been a 
very effective energy source for us, but in fact has the problem now 
that if we continue to burn it, if we burn all the coal we have, we 
will cook the planet, unless we find a way to sequester carbon dioxide 
and

[[Page 8761]]

put it where it can't get in the atmosphere.
  For those who are concerned about this, it's important to note that a 
significant part of this pool of money that will be generated is going 
to go to research to help the coal industry figure out a way to bury 
carbon dioxide so that it doesn't get into the atmosphere.
  For those who worry about this--of the continuation of the coal 
industry--they ought to support this approach because we're going to 
generate money to help the industry develop a way not to put carbon 
dioxide in the atmosphere. If we do that, coal could have a long-term 
future in our economy. If we don't, it does not. Because we have to 
find a way to reduce the amount of carbon dioxide going into the 
atmosphere.
  So here's two central points that those who are looking at a cap-and-
trade bill and are worried about it. I hope they will realize the first 
thing, the money is going back to the consumers; second, we're helping 
industries that might otherwise be in dire, dire trouble if we don't 
help them out.
  With that, I'd like to turn to a new Member of Congress, Paul Tonko, 
who has a tremendous energy background. I'd love your thoughts this 
evening.
  Mr. TONKO. Thank you, Congressman Inslee. I appreciate your 
leadership in regard to the environment and the energy and what that 
means to this Nation's economy and certainly to job growth.

                              {time}  1745

  I think to summarize where we can be with this innovation economy is 
to speak to American energy produced by American jobs. That, in and of 
itself, is a powerful statement, knowing that we can grow our energy 
security, we can spark an innovation economy driven by a greening up of 
our energy policy, and reduce our dependency on the foreign imports of 
oil and petroleum from some of the most troubled spots in the world. 
And I believe that, as we do that, not only do we address our energy 
security, but we address our national security. It becomes an issue 
that allows us to better deal with international relations and to avoid 
the sort of involvement that we have had in the Middle East. So I think 
it is an important issue well beyond energy and job creation; it is 
also an international affairs issue, as we grow our international 
security, our national security.
  The fact that American energy can produce American jobs that then 
provides a benefit in many ways to the American families from coast to 
coast is an important factor. Economists have estimated that well over 
one-half of the growth of our Nation's GDP was in relation to the 
development and adoption of new technologies, of emerging technologies. 
That was done on average with a 3 percent investment in R&D, 3 percent 
of our GDP. Think of what happens when we enhance that number, when we 
go well beyond the 3 percent investment in R&D. We should expect, 
rightfully, that then that produces a tremendous impact on our GDP, on 
the growth of our GDP.
  The President has said, I believe correctly, in a very visionally 
sense that this struggling economy that we are working to improve now, 
a struggling economy which he inherited as President, can be improved 
if we provide assistance and reforms to our health care arena and to 
our energy arena. That produces jobs, that produces a response to the 
needs of the American society in a way that is cutting edge, state-of- 
the-art. And as we grow that greening up of our energy supply, as we 
produce here locally in the USA rather than relying on foreign 
importation, we are then going to then strengthen the outcome because 
we are going to embrace the intellectual capacity of this Nation. We 
are going to take those R&D situations. Where there are success 
stories, we will deploy them to the commercial sector.
  We have today shelf-ready technology that can assist in so many ways 
that speak to energy efficiency, that speak to job production, that 
speak to a much better use of resources, that provides for a favorable 
response to reducing that carbon footprint.
  Mr. INSLEE. The good news is that President Obama is right on the 
beam of what you are suggesting; because in this cap-and-trade bill, he 
is not suggesting using the money that is generated by the polluting 
industries buying these permits for museums or nicknacks. He wants to 
put the money that doesn't go back to consumers, that is recycled right 
back to consumers, which will be the bulk of it, he wants to put it in 
a research and development, and he is proposing $15 billion--frankly, 
we think it may end up being higher than that--to develop these 
American industrial technologies so we can put Americans to work in 
green-collar jobs. And I think that is so important, because if you 
look at the energy research we have been doing, it is pretty pathetic 
until President Obama was President.
  I will give you what was an eye opener to me. The dog food industry 
of the United States spends more on research and development than the 
entire electrical utility industry of the United States. We have not 
done our knitting when it comes to research and development funds.
  Now, we started in this new bill we just passed, which put about $70 
billion into research, but we need the second, third, and fourth year 
out. And President Obama, in this cap-and-trade, we are going to 
dedicate these funds. They are not going to be used by Member of 
Congress for just some pet project; they are going to be dedicated for 
clean energy research and development.
  And when President Obama talks about that, what I am particularly 
impressed about is he is not focusing on one little silver bullet here 
like he has got some favorite technology, he is putting it in the whole 
vast array of new possibilities; solar photovoltaic energy, 
concentrated solar energy, engineered geothermal energy, advanced 
biofuels, lithium ion batteries, coal sequestration to find out if we 
can burn coal in a way that doesn't put CO2 in the 
atmosphere.
  So this is a mechanism he has proposed to do for energy what John F. 
Kennedy did for space.
  Mr. TONKO. Absolutely. And I think that that sort of vision that was 
shared with the public back in the early 1960s by President Kennedy is 
the sort of sequence here that we have with President Obama, where he 
is expressing to the Nation: We can do better than we are doing today. 
I believe that totally.
  I am optimistic about growing out of this energy situation in a very 
powerful way, in a very expressive way that allows us to put an 
American stamp on this.
  I represent Schenectady, New York. They are the city that lights and 
hauls the world. They earned that reputation because of the inventions 
and innovation that came out of that city through names like Edison and 
Steinmetz that determined our energy future over a century ago, and 
then manufacturing that took place in that city and in that Mohawk 
Valley region was all about invention and innovation. We saw what 
happened when they built the locomotives that hauls, again, the world. 
All of this is part of a spark of invention that drove an economy for 
decades.
  We are at that same juncture now. As we have hit rock bottom with 
this economy it challenges us. We are facing a crises, but out of that 
can come opportunity.
  Here is the opportunity. When you talk, Congressman, about the 
geothermal and solar and PV and all of those aspects, let me throw 
another one out there, kinetic hydropower.
  When I was at NYSERDA, which was my workplace before entering 
Congress, we were involved with a kinetic hydropower project on the 
East River along the island of Manhattan. We were in demonstration 
project addressing this situation, and it is forecasted that we can 
produce as much as 1,000 megawatts of power through kinetic hydro, 
which is similar to a wind turbine but beneath the turbulent waters of 
the East River.
  There are so many ways to deal with the environment in a benign way 
to produce energy. Over 8,300 megawatts in this country of wind power 
are existing today. We can do far better in the solar, wind, 
geothermal, kinetic hydro

[[Page 8762]]

areas, and many other ideas that can transform how we produce energy, 
and produce energy that creates American jobs.
  That is what this is about, American energy producing American jobs, 
speaking to the needs of American families and American business.
  Mr. INSLEE. By the way, there are people who might be listening to us 
talk about this tonight who might look askance at some of these new 
technologies. They might think it is people with funny hats on talking 
about some kind of crazy thing that is never going to come to pass. And 
some of these technologies will not become commercially viable. The 
nature of exploration is that you try things, and some of them don't 
work and some of them do work. And some of the things we are talking 
about tonight may not work. But I would just hearken back to a recent 
experience.
  Ten years ago, when we were arguing that we should try to develop 
wind power people thought those were just going to be little Dutch 
windmills that could never really generate electricity. Well, this year 
the United States of America became the largest producer of wind power, 
electricity generated by wind in the world. We are number one in the 
world of wind-power generation. And, more people today are working in 
the wind power industry than are working in the coal mining industry. 
That is not to diminish the importance of the coal mining industry. It 
is important. Those are good although very difficult jobs. But the 
point is, ten years ago people would have laughed at us if we would 
have said we are going to have more people working in the wind turbine 
industry than coal. And, in fact, that has come to pass, and wind is 
still going gang busters. We cannot put up wind turbines fast enough. 
We have to build the lines to get to them, and that is another part of 
President Obama's plan to build the lines to get to the wind turbines, 
and he has committed significant dollars to make sure we do that.
  I want to point out something about the fourth point of some people's 
concerns about this cap-and-trade bill. Some people have expressed 
concerns that it would only help the coastal regions, the Seattles of 
the world where I am from, the Bostons of the world, and leave out the 
heartland, and nothing could be more further from the truth. I just 
want to mention a couple reasons.
  Number one, one of the big winners in this new transition is the 
agricultural part of America, the heartland, for a couple reasons. 
Number one, it is where the wind is. And farmers today are getting 
$3,000 to $6,000 a year just in lease payments to leases a few hundred 
square feet to put a wind turbine on. And there are a lot of happy 
farmers in my State right now, and there are going to be a lot of happy 
farmers in the Midwest, in North Dakota and Wyoming and Iowa. There are 
going to be a lot of farmers sitting in that chair seeing those checks 
come in the mailbox from getting to rent these wind turbines.
  Second, there is a way in this cap-and-trade bill that farmers may be 
able to essentially get paid for using their topsoil to sequester 
carbon dioxide. If they can find ways, tillage practices and the like, 
they can sell the sequestration service, the service of their soil of 
taking carbon dioxide out of the air and burying it in the soil; and we 
think there is a way we might be able to design a system to do that.
  Third, biofuels. You know, we still have advanced biofuels. It is not 
just biodiesel and corn-based ethanol. That was sort of the first 
generation. Now we have got to move to the second generation of 
cellulosic ethanol and then the third generation of algae-based 
gasoline. By the way, there is a company called Sapphire Energy right 
now that just opened up their plant in New Mexico to do that.
  So we want to make the point that those who care about the 
agricultural communities, there is a tremendous upside to moving 
forward with this cap-and-trade system.
  Mr. TONKO. Congressman Inslee, you mentioned agriculture. I will tell 
you that the State of New York through its SUNY operation, the State 
University of New York, has a number of ag and tech campuses. I can 
name one that I represent, Cobleskill, that is going through a 
transformational project of creating energy. There is a SUNY campus 
that is dealing with hybrid types of soy that they are developing so 
that it could be used in the biofuels system. Others are looking at 
beet produce that can be created in a way that will allow for ag 
diversification.
  I represent many dairy farmers in my given area. We worked on a 
project when I was still in the New York State Assembly serving as 
energy chair, and we incorporated the services of NYSERDA, the New York 
State Energy Research and Development Authority, the local utility, 
Cornell University with its R&D efforts, and some ESCOs, energy 
services company, and the Farm Bureau. We worked together, and created 
energy efficiency programs that drove down energy demand at these dairy 
farms by anywhere from 30 to a 45 percent, and we started with two 
demonstrations and people were so favorably touched by that exercise, 
and then opened it up to 70 participants of different dairy farms that, 
again, realized a reduction in their bill, not by any change in the 
rate that was produced, but by the amount of energy they had consumed.
  And you are dealing with a perishable product, one that is highly 
regulated. You have pumping and cooling processes that need to be 
addressed. They did this in an energy significant relief mannerism that 
produced a far better outcome for an industry that is stressed. We hear 
today about these dairy prices. We somehow as a society pride ourselves 
on eating cheap. Dairy farmers work 24/7. They need a fair price for 
their milk. But what we could do at that State level was reduce their 
cost of business, and we had done that, which I thought was 
tremendously powerful. The opportunity to invest in wasted energy 
projects on our various farms, of all sectors in this country, to deal 
with digesters.
  You know, you talked about job creation and perhaps people seeing it 
as some sort of magic wand out there that is being waved. Let us just 
look over our shoulder at recent passed history just over the last 
century. What happened when we put our minds to work to R&D and 
innovation and invention? We went and produced an internal combustion 
engine, we went and developed electricity. That created unprecedented 
amounts of jobs in the manufacturing sector. And then, we put people to 
work on those manufacturing lines in the auto industry, and then put 
many people to work building dams, building power plants, and putting 
together our national grid system.
  So we know what these jobs can look like. We know that when we invest 
in R&D, when we provide for our own American generation of power 
through American jobs, we can create a tremendous amount of economic 
recovery.

                              {time}  1800

  Mr. INSLEE. You mentioned the electrical grid. It is very important 
that we build an electrical grid that is up to these new technologies. 
And I will be introducing a bill in the next week or so to create a new 
Federal way of siting, planning and financing these new high-density, 
high-capacity grid systems to get that job done.
  Before I yield to Mr. Polis, I want to just mention one thing before 
I forget. There is a fifth concern about our cap-and-trade bill that 
the President has proposed. Some people have rightly been concerned 
about a market mechanism to allow companies to swap these permits. And 
given what we have gone through in the recent past, we all are 
rightfully skeptical of a new market system that could be manipulated 
by those who let greed overcome their common sense. So it is very 
important that when we design this system, we design a new regulatory 
system that is fully capable of being the most aggressive, most hard-
nosed, toughest, most ambitious, most foolproof regulatory system known 
on planet Earth. We intend to accomplish that. We do not intend to 
allow this market to be abused, as other markets have been, including 
by regulating derivatives that have

[[Page 8763]]

been the bane of some of these market disasters. So we hope to use this 
as a template on how to really do other markets so that we don't have 
that problem.
  I want to now yield to Mr. Polis from Colorado, who has been a great 
leader on these measures that have had tremendous success in the 
development of job creation in Colorado. We are envious of some of the 
things you're doing there.
  Mr. POLIS. Right in my district, which includes Boulder County and 
Adams County, green jobs, green energy jobs have really been the 
fastest growing job sector in the last several years. It has really 
been a huge boon to us. As my colleague from New York (Mr. Tonko) said, 
when we are talking about building a green energy economy, we are 
talking about creating jobs. And we are talking about creating good 
jobs.
  Some of this ties into the job preparation we need to do. I had the 
opportunity to join Representative Tonko earlier this week and learned 
about some of the projects that General Electric has training wind 
energy engineers in Upstate New York. It is a terrific program. Near my 
district, we have the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, and we have 
a wind turbine testing laboratory. These partnerships with community 
colleges and partnerships with workplace training are absolutely 
critical to make sure that people have the job skills of the future.
  These are areas that America will not only be competitive in but will 
be growth sectors for jobs. The truth is we are not going to have the 
same strong economy, the same opportunity to support the middle class 
lifestyle with the same kinds of jobs that America did in the 1950s. 
Some of these jobs will still be around. But those are not the growth 
sectors of the 21st century.
  One of those critical growth sectors, in addition to health care and 
others, is green energy jobs. And by having public policy that sets a 
framework nationally through a cap-and-trade, we are encouraging the 
creation of these very kinds of jobs that will help us emerge from this 
recession.
  One more thing that sometimes gets lost in talking about the benefits 
and some of the individual things we need to address like, of course, 
we need a way to get farmers on board. We need a way to broaden the 
appeal and make sure that the money goes back to those who deserve it. 
One thing that sometimes gets lost are the costs of doing nothing, the 
costs of not taking action on climate change. Earlier today I was on 
the floor, and I have a little vial of pine beetles here, Dendroctorus 
ponderosae. I used them when we were talking about the FLAME bill 
earlier today, and the rule passed. But these are in epidemic 
proportions across Colorado and other States. I know Washington and 
Florida have an infestation. As a result of a changing climate, we have 
not had a cold enough winter in over a decade to kill off the larvae of 
those pine beetles. Now, of course, in any one particular event, you 
can't determine causality and say it was absolutely this or absolutely 
that. But the truth of the matter is we have not had a cold enough 
winter to kill these off. It has killed, in Grand County, in one of my 
counties, 90 percent of the pine trees. It is sweeping through Summit 
and Clear Creek Counties. These are counties that our viewers tonight 
will know because they contain popular ski resorts, Vail, Copper 
Mountain, Beaver Creek, Winter Park. And, of course, not only is it 
changing the ecosystems in these areas, it is also creating a huge 
forest fire risk.
  This is just the tip of the envelope with regard to the vast, vast 
environmental changes that will affect our country with regards to 
climate change. And when we are talking about a farmer supporting 
himself, the cost of not taking action and having the weather dry up, 
having more sun where there is sun, less sun where there isn't sun, the 
cost of that needs to be taken into account. When you compare whatever 
we're talking about in terms of the costs here, with the cost of not 
taking action, it is not even close. And I think that is an important 
point to make as well.
  Mr. INSLEE. I appreciate that comment. I'm going to make a couple of 
closing comments and turn it over to my friends here. We have come 
tonight to try to assuage some concerns about this program. We know we 
have to move. Inaction is not an option. Failure is not an option here 
given what is going to happen to our country otherwise. But I just want 
to mention five things.
  Those who are concerned about the impact on consumers, we will be 
recycling the money generated from this, to a large extent, back to 
consumers, right back into their pockets, number one.
  Number two, for those who are concerned about the impact on coal-
dominated regions, this is the only plan out there to help the coal 
industry survive long term by doing research to find out if we can 
sequester carbon dioxide and allow coal to remain a viable option for 
this country.
  Number three, those who are concerned about the impact on 
agriculture, we know agriculture is going to suffer if global warming 
continues. Take a look at the drought and the almond farmers who are 
losing their orchards in California right now because of the drought. 
And farmers are going to be able to make money from this program in 
wind power, in sequestration and in advanced forms of biofuels.
  Number four, we will provide the American people what they deserve in 
market protection. We will have a regulatory program that will keep the 
rascals out of our till in these markets. And it will be a template of 
further markets.
  Number five, we will do for research and development what Kennedy did 
for space in the original Apollo project and finally get this country 
up to speed on generating these new technologies. So we hope people 
will take a good look at this.
  We are very appreciative of President Obama's inspirational 
leadership here, and we intend to do our part.
  Mr. POLIS. If the gentleman will yield for a moment before he 
departs, you hit all the objections. That is everything that we have 
heard on the other side. Anybody who objects, it falls into those 
categories. And you have a response. And there is a response for every 
one of those. All of these arguments fade away. There is not a single 
argument against taking bold action on cap-and-trade that we haven't 
addressed here today.
  Mr. INSLEE. If you find anyone objecting, give them those five 
points, and we hope they will see the light.
  With that, I ask unanimous consent that the gentleman from New York 
be redesignated the time.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The balance of the majority leader's hour is 
reallocated to the gentleman from New York (Mr. Tonko).
  Mr. TONKO. Thank you very much, Congressman Inslee, and thank you for 
your leadership.
  You are very right in acknowledging the role that our new President 
is playing and his sense of vision that has been shared with the 
American public. It is that sort of boldness to take a golden 
opportunity and turn it green that this President has really embraced. 
He and his administration, Secretary Chu from the Department of Energy, 
and others are anxiously looking forward to creating that new era of 
energy generation for this country. And certainly Speaker Pelosi in our 
House and all of the leadership here and the respective chairs are fast 
at work, and the membership at large, because we know this is a great 
way for us to address this economic recovery that is so necessary.
  Congressman Polis, you mentioned the hearing the other day chaired by 
Congressman Hinojosa who chairs the Subcommittee on Higher Education, 
looking at higher education and workforce opportunities. And you're 
right in that we create many jobs in that direct ripple that is caused 
by dropping the stone into the water here. That first ripple does speak 
to wind technicians and site operators, for instance, for wind turbine 
operations across the country. GE spoke to that at the hearing. But 
then it is all the other ancillary impacts that can be made in a way 
for our manufacturing sector, our agricultural sector and our service 
sector

[[Page 8764]]

as we apply these funds to energy efficiency retrofits, as we work with 
various States to provide the resources that allows our manufacturing 
to be as smart and energy innovative as possible. Then when they are 
competing in that global marketplace, they will be winning the race 
because of doing it in a smarter and more energy-efficient way.
  I think that is an important part here because there are many, many 
winners across the board as we move forward with these technologies. 
Looking at the inspiration that comes from the labs where we are 
developing some of these projects, it is important to indicate the 
success that has been driven by engineers, inventors and innovators. 
But this is also about reaching to the trades, making certain that our 
trades people are allowed to participate in this green-collar job 
growth so that as the white- and blue-collar traditional jobs now get 
in some ways transformed in certain sectors to green-collar job 
opportunities, we will have room for everyone from the skill set of the 
trades people over to the 2-year, 4-year graduate levels of the 
workforce that can really inspire this sort of innovation economy that 
holds great promise for an economic recovery.
  Mr. POLIS. I think that is an excellent point because sometimes when 
people talk about the jobs that are being created, I think that our 
viewers might envision, oh, well, you need a Ph.D. for that, or you 
need to be a researcher. No. The vast majority of the jobs that are 
created are jobs that are good-paying jobs for working families, where 
we can do a good job in our high schools running vocational programs to 
prepare kids into these jobs. In community colleges, again, you talked 
about the testimony, most of the jobs created require associate 
degrees, 2-year degrees, we are not even talking 4 years, we are 
talking a 2-year degree to do a lot of these great green economy jobs.
  This goes across the entire spectrum. Of course, there are some jobs 
for Ph.D.s and for college graduates. Across the board, this is going 
to be a critical growth sector and a growth sector in an area that 
makes America stronger. This is a patriotic sector. This is something 
that fundamentally helps the national security needs of our Nation, 
helps put America back to work and helps address the biggest global 
issue that we are facing, which is global climate change due to carbon 
emissions.
  Mr. TONKO. It is interesting, because as we heard from a 
representative from a community college dealing with the greening up of 
jobs from Hudson County Community College in the capital region of New 
York, it is interesting to note that across this Nation, we are gifted 
with several campuses that are community colleges. And that has become 
in New York State the campus of choice. Because of the economics of the 
times, I believe a lot of people, if they have been displaced, are 
looking to train or retrain for other opportunities. And now with the 
growth of community colleges and the strengthening that they have been 
part of, they offer hands-on experience. So to watch some of the 
construction majors at Hudson Valley Community College being taught the 
state-of-the-art application of photovoltaic on solar array systems for 
rooftop application is a wonderful outcome. To witness that and know 
that there will be those individuals who can maintain, install and 
repair these systems and be part of that solution, because we need the 
human infrastructure to be developed so as to move into this energy 
revolution, as we look at our campuses, they hold great promise for 
this. In the State of New York, Hudson Valley has been working with 
NYSERDA, New York State Energy Research and Development Authority, 
through resources, through a plan, through a sense of vision that is 
shared and then incorporated into the work that they do. They reach out 
and deal with some seven or eight different community college campuses. 
They then train those people that will be the trainers in their given 
campus community.
  Just recently I had met with Fulton-Montgomery Community College, 
again in the congressional district that I represent. And they are 
talking about the nano sciences, the nanotechnology growth in the 
capital region of New York. They are going to train people to work in 
clean rooms. They are going to make certain that they have that gift to 
be able to be there in all sorts of capacities, at all levels, to make 
this work so that as people look to growing incubator opportunity, they 
are going to need a workforce, as people not only deal with startups 
but grow those given businesses that are there today that are energy 
and technology related, they will require the workforce that is 
specifically trained and ready to go.
  This is a package that comes together nicely with the vision that is 
shared by this President, with the leadership that he has executed and 
with the outstanding leadership here with Speaker Pelosi and our many 
chairs and our leadership of the House.
  Mr. POLIS. In addition to the energy production side, there are also 
good jobs in the energy conservation side, when we are talking about 
weatherization, when we are talking about reducing our energy 
consumption. There are two parts of the equation for carbon emission 
reduction and they are both equally as valid. There are a lot of great 
jobs in that area, too. So when we are talking about cap-and-trade, the 
American people should hear win-win. The American people should hear 
this is the solution to global climate change. The American people 
should hear, this is a solution to a whole host of national security 
issues and our reliance on foreign oil that weakens our country, and 
this is the solution to getting our economy going again and creating 
good jobs.
  When Representative Inslee was here, he addressed all of the 
objections that I heard. Have you heard any other objections, 
Representative Tonko?
  Mr. TONKO. No. Not at all.
  Mr. POLIS. They are valid points, where people say our farmers need 
to be part of it, absolutely. Representative Inslee is right. Our 
farmers need to have a stake in reducing carbon emissions. It makes 
economic sense for them. Our farmers have the most to lose. Those who 
derive their living from the weather, from the grace of God, the sun 
and the rain, have the most to lose with regard to global climate 
change. I rank our farmers high in that category. And absolutely, they 
should have an incentive to be part of that solution. The money should 
stay within the system. We should address the market protection and 
make sure this isn't just a giveaway to big business or any kind of 
business.
  All of those concerns have been looked at. And what we have before 
us, and what we are talking about, and, of course, we are still in the 
process of formulating it, is going to be a huge win for our country. 
This is probably going to be one of the most important bills that we 
can pass.
  It is not just this bill. As Representative Tonko also mentioned, 
this goes across all different areas. Representative Tonko and I both 
happen to be on the Education and Labor Committee. When we are talking 
about job training for adults, when we are talking about vocational 
programs in our schools for kids, that is part of it, too. There is a 
tax component. There is a subsidy component. There is an international 
component to this because, of course, we need to use diplomacy to get 
other countries to be a part of our reducing our carbon emissions. 
America has been a global laggard this last decade, hasn't it, 
Representative Tonko?

                              {time}  1815

  Mr. TONKO. Absolutely.
  Mr. POLIS. And we have the opportunity to be a leader.
  Mr. TONKO. Absolutely. And Representative Polis is right. We have 
reached over all of the sectors, from agriculture to service, to small 
business to larger business and manufacturing and then industry, all of 
these areas are benefited, as are our homes, because housing in this 
country is a big part of the looming issue out there of carbon 
footprint, of energy consumption, and certainly it's a great 
opportunity for us to reduce demand.
  But let's also look at that transportation sector. In this effort to 
grow

[[Page 8765]]

new opportunities, we are going to look at that transportation sector 
and provide for advanced battery manufacturing, taking, again, R&D 
experiences that are working today, and put them to use, not only in 
the transportation area, but in energy generation and energy storage. 
Some of our intermittent power, whether it be solar or wind, needs to 
be bolstered by the fact that we can store that power so that when we 
are at peak situations, it is then most useful, and we can create that 
battery storage issue.
  I am convinced. We heard again about various efforts to improve 
battery operations out there. And the fact that $2 billion, as part of 
the Recovery Act and certainly, additional involvement in the Federal 
budget will allow us to, then, move forward with the batteries of the 
future, be they Lithium batteries, Lithium ion battery or others that 
are being developed that will now allow us to really transform the 
transportation sector.
  You know, when gas prices were hitting the $4 and beyond mark, 
everyone was exploding with the need for us to do something about it. 
Well, this takes a plan, and it's not going to happen overnight. We 
were warned in the '70s to begin to do your greening up of energy 
policy. That didn't happen. So we need to move forward and make certain 
that this innovation comes in the boldness that it requires and 
deserves and certainly that the American public deserves.
  So Representative Polis, I think our time is coming to a near end, so 
I will use that as my final statement, and then allow you to offer some 
comments.
  Mr. POLIS. Well, thank you, Representative Tonko. And Representative 
Inslee had some tremendous comments. I just want to address one more 
misconception that's out there. Representative Tonko, when he mentioned 
storage and batteries, got me thinking. I hear the naysayers say oh, 
the carbon footprint of creating these batteries is more than the 
carbon that's saved by using them. Well, through a cap-and-trade 
system, all of that is taken into account. If you're using carbon to 
create the batteries, then you don't have any net carbon savings, and 
that's reflected in the pricing. This creates a market mechanism that 
takes that into account.
  They're looking at compressed air. They're looking at elevation, 
they're looking at a variety of techniques for energy conservation and 
together we can make it happen.
  Mr. TONKO. Mr. Speaker, we thank you for the time allotted here this 
evening, and we most appreciate your courtesy.

                          ____________________