[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 159 (2013), Part 8]
[House]
[Page 11633]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




              THE 21ST CENTURY'S GLOBAL CLEAN ENERGY RACE

  (Mr. VAN HOLLEN asked and was given permission to address the House 
for 1 minute.)
  Mr. VAN HOLLEN. Madam Speaker, in April, the International Energy 
Agency concluded that despite some progress in deploying clean energy, 
that the average unit of energy produced in the world today is 
essentially as polluting as it was 20 years ago.
  As President Obama stated at Georgetown University last month, we 
cannot afford to slow-walk our transition to a lower carbon future. 
Climate change and its consequences are not waiting and neither can we.
  The good news is the transition to a cleaner global economy presents 
a great economic opportunity for the United States. Bloomberg New 
Energy Finance estimates that private clean energy investment will more 
than triple by 2030. We should be fighting to attract that investment 
here in the United States, but we are at risk of missing out on that 
opportunity.
  China and other countries have made firm national commitments to 
generate more electricity from clean energy sources, and that reality 
is reflected in their current levels of investment--a $65 billion 
investment in China compared to $35 billion in the United States.
  Madam Speaker, we should not lose this competition, we should not 
jeopardize our future, and we should not jeopardize the climate. This 
is an opportunity for a win-win.

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