Energy and Water Development and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2017
Floor Speech
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Mr. PERRY. Mr. Chair, the current bill cuts hydropower by $15 million, and this amendment seeks to restore it. It offsets it with Department of Energy, or DOE, administrative costs. Actually, the amendment reduces outlays by $8 million because, Mr. Chair, water power programs are vitally important to reducing our dependence on foreign energy sources.
Hydropower is available in every region of the country, every single region. Literally, 2,200 hydropower plants provide America's most abundant source of clean, renewable energy and account for 67 percent of domestic renewable generation, for a total of 7 percent of the total generation across the country.
This amendment stands to create 1.4 million new jobs by 2025, Mr. Chair, and this would be harnessing a truly renewable and green source of energy.
Let me just talk about some of the advantages of hydro as opposed to wind and solar.
Hydro has a predictable, year-round output. Solar and wind require, often, a battery backup or an alternative power source if they are going to be viable. Even routine maintenance on a windmill way up there is problematic and expensive, where hydro is right down on the ground where we are. It is easy to maintain.
Hydropower facilities are quiet and often unobtrusive. Most of the neighbors don't even know they are there. Oftentimes, we hear complaints about wind generation and the noise it also generates along with the power.
Hydropower--I think this is the most important--is baseload. It is a baseload source of energy. It occurs 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. It is actually what backs up the other intermittent sources of alternative energy. So, it is really important in that context.
Now, hydropower faces a comprehensive regulatory approval process, and some folks don't like that. But the important part about that is everybody is involved: FERC, Federal and State resource agencies, local governments, tribes, NGOs, and the public. Everybody gets buy-in before a hydro plant goes on line. Sixty thousand megawatts of preliminary permits and projects await final approval and are pending currently before the Commission in 45 States.
Mr. Chair, this is not parochial.
There are 80,000 nonpowered dams across the U.S. right now that could accept hydropower. There are 600 that have an immediate capability to produce energy right now. That is 80,000 and 600 across the country right now. Pennsylvania, itself, has 678 megawatts of untapped power in the form of hydro.
Mr. Chair, I thank the chairman for the opportunity to offer the amendment. I understand the $15 million concerns some Members, and I, too, am concerned about spending. So this one is bipartisan, but I am hopeful others will follow.
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Mr. PERRY. Mr. Chair, I seek the time in opposition, though I am not opposed to the amendment.
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Mr. PERRY. Mr. Chairman, I want to congratulate my good friend and colleague from Oregon. She has been a champion on this before. She fully understands, as I do, that resources across the country are strained. We don't have a lot of extra money to go around. And for all the reasons that I pointed out and the reasons that she pointed out and the Northwest agreeing with the Northeast, let's work together on what works.
We know this works. It is one of the oldest sources of electric energy in the world. Why are we wasting our time and collective energy in the form of funds and time on these other things that might be nice and they might be great years after the development, but this works right now and doesn't break the bank?
This is a good amendment, and I urge all my colleagues on both sides to support it.
Mr. Chair, I yield back the balance of my time.
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