Statements On Introduced Bills And Joint Resolutions
Floor Speech
STATEMENTS ON INTRODUCED BILLS AND JOINT RESOLUTIONS -- (Senate - June 06, 2007)
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By Ms. COLLINS (for herself and Mr. LIEBERMAN):
S. 1554. A bill to comprehensively address challenges relating to energy independence, air pollution, and climate change facing the United States; to the Committee on Finance.
Ms. COLLINS. Mr. President, I rise today to introduce the Energy Independence, Clean Air, and Climate Security Act of 2007. This legislation takes an integrated approach that is much needed and long overdue if we are to address effectively three intertwined issues of crucial importance to our Nation's economy and security and to the health of our people and our planet. I am very pleased to be joined on this legislation by Senator Lieberman, a true leader on energy, climate change, and environmental issues.
The majority leader has announced the Senate may well take up a broad package of energy legislation next week. The bill I am introducing today lays out my own vision of how our Nation can best address its energy problems.
If Mark Twain were with us today, it is not hard to imagine he would rephrase his famous quip about the weather to something along the lines of: Everyone talks about climate change and energy independence, but nobody does anything about it.
Since the actions we take to reduce our dependence on foreign oil, to clean our air, and to reduce our contribution to climate change all affect each other, it is necessary we develop a comprehensive strategy for all three of these challenges.
Indeed, since the oil embargo of 1973, through 17 Congresses and 7 different Presidents, energy efficiency and energy independence have generated a lot of talk, some pretty good ideas, and a lot of promises but not enough concerted, determined, coordinated action. During these 34 years, our Nation's imports of foreign oil have soared from less than 35 percent to more than 60 percent, leaving us dangerously reliant on unstable regions of the world in order to fuel our Nation and our economy.
In addition to our increased reliance on foreign oil, we are also consuming more and more electricity. As demand puts increasing pressure on supply, electricity prices have soared. In the summer, when air-conditioners struggle to keep up with rising temperatures, we run the risk of blackouts, brownouts, and price spikes.
At the same time, our greenhouse gas emissions have soared, leading to virtually indisputable evidence that human activity is contributing to climate change. In the United States, emissions of the primary greenhouse gas, carbon dioxide, have risen more than 20 percent since 1990. Globally, carbon dioxide concentrations in the atmosphere now far exceed the natural range over the last 650,000 years. We know this from scientific analyses of ice cores and other evidence.
According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the increase in greenhouse gas emissions has already increased global temperatures and has likely contributed to more extreme weather events, such as droughts and floods. These emissions will continue to change the climate, causing warming in most regions and likely causing more floods, droughts, and an increase in the intensity of hurricanes.
Climate change is not the only environmental problem caused by fossil fuel use. The quality of our air also suffers. Although we have made some important strides in improving air quality since the 1970s, we have not done enough. Fossil fuel use is the primary cause of mercury pollution, smog, and acid rain that continue to plague our Nation. Indeed, air pollution causes thousands of asthma attacks and costs many lives annually.
The time has come to address our air quality, climate change, high energy prices, and dangerous reliance on foreign oil. The legislation I am introducing today is, I believe, the first Senate bill that would address all these problems in a single, integrated approach. There have been many bills introduced that address one of these problems. This is an attempt to have a comprehensive approach and to recognize that each of these problems affects the other.
My legislation focuses primarily on two sectors of the economy: electricity and transportation. Together, these two sectors account for 73 percent of carbon dioxide emissions. Electricity generation accounts for more than 40 percent of our carbon dioxide emissions. More than 80 percent of these emissions are attributable to coal-fired powerplants. Coal-fired powerplants are also the single largest source of mercury pollution, smog, and acid rain. Between 1990 and 2004, emissions from these sectors increased by 27 percent.
My legislation requires utilities to reduce carbon dioxide emissions to 1990 levels by the year 2020, while also addressing the emissions that cause smog, acid rain, and mercury pollution. It includes a renewable portfolio
standard which would help to diversify our electricity supplies and energy efficiency resource standards that the Alliance to Save Energy estimates would save consumers, over time, billions of dollars on their electricity bills.
The transportation sector, which relies almost entirely on oil, is not only partly responsible for our dangerous reliance on foreign oil but also accounts for 33 percent of carbon dioxide emissions. My legislation would help to reduce emissions from this sector through a combination of provisions such as CAFE standards for automobiles and heavy-duty trucks, tax incentives for consumers to encourage them to purchase hybrid and alternative fueled vehicles, incentives for manufacturers to produce the next generation of energy-efficient vehicles, and a low carbon fuel standard that will help to replace some gasoline with biofuels. Taken together, these provisions will substantially reduce our reliance on foreign oil, while reducing greenhouse gas emissions by hundreds of millions of tons.
I wish to make clear the choice is not between hobbling our Nation's economy and protecting our environment. This legislation is based on the principle that research, development, and implementation of new approaches to energy independence and environmental stewardship will provide a powerful new stimulus for our economy. All too often, we are confronted with proposals to address one issue that only aggravate another problem. The integrated approach I am proposing will help us break through that impasse.
This legislation does not attempt to reinvent the wheel. In fact, it incorporates several good ideas from my colleagues that have been introduced as separate bills, many of which I have cosponsored, such as the Ten-in-Ten and other CAFE bills, the DRIVE Act, and the Clean Power Act. It includes provisions of legislation I have introduced to address abrupt climate change and to eliminate certain tax credits for the oil industry. It contains many of the excellent energy efficiency provisions in the Energy for Our Future Act introduced by Representative CHRIS SHAYS in the House.
My bill is also complementary with the McCain-Lieberman Climate Stewardship and Innovation Act. We need to pass that bill in order to establish a nationwide cap and trade program for addressing climate change. However, the regulations to implement that could take many years. The legislation I am proposing today will help us take some early action to help achieve the targets in the McCain-Lieberman bill.
I believe the first step toward energy independence is to make better, more efficient use of our current energy supplies. The first title of this bill tackles that issue on several fronts.
It would implement the ``Ten-in-Ten'' legislation I have co-sponsored with Senators Feinstein and Snowe to increase fuel economy standards to 35 miles per gallon by 2016. It would then go a step further and increase CAFE standards to 45 miles per gallon by 2025. This provision would save approximately 2.5 million barrels of oil per day.
It would help consumers buy more fuel-efficient cars by repealing the phase-out of the tax credit for hybrid vehicles, which is scheduled to sunset at the end of 2009. It would also require light trucks that use diesel fuel to meet more stringent EPA emission standards in order to qualify for the lean-burn credit.
Public transportation is one of the most effective ways we can get more passenger miles per gallon. This legislation would promote the development and use of public transportation by subsidizing fares, encouraging employers to assist their employees with fares, and authorizing funding to build energy-efficient and environmentally friendly modes of transport, such as clean buses and light rail.
It would direct the Department of Transportation to designate 20 Transit-Oriented Development Corridors in urban areas by 2015, and 50 by 2025. These TOD Corridors would be developed with the aid of grants to state and local governments to construct or improve facilities for motorized transit, bicycles, and pedestrians. These provisions would be funded by an authorization of $500 million per year from 2007 through 2016.
We must do more to encourage the development and manufacture of energy-efficient vehicles. This legislation would create a 20-percent investment tax credit for automobile manufacturers, and a fuel economy achievement credit for manufacturers that have a combined fleet fuel economy that exceeds that of their 2005 model year. This credit would begin at 5 percent next year and rise to 50 percent in 2015.
And we must do more to help existing vehicles be as energy efficient as possible. This legislation would direct the DOT to create a National Tire Fuel Efficiency Program that would include tire testing and labeling, energy-efficient tire promotions through incentives and information, and the creation of minimum fuel economy standards for tires. These standards would establish the maximum technically feasible and cost-effective fuel savings without adversely affecting tire safety or average tire life.
Heavy-duty vehicles move our economy. This legislation would keep them on the move while helping to reduce both fuel consumption and emissions.
It would require DOT to develop a testing and assessment program to determine what is feasible to improve the efficiency of heavy vehicles, and then to develop the appropriate fuel-economy standards. It also would provide a tax credit of up to $3,500 for the purchase of idling reduction technology for heavy vehicles.
In order for the Federal Government to lead by example, this legislation would require the Secretary of Energy to issue regulations for federal fleets covered by the Energy Policy Act of 1992 to reduce petroleum consumption by 30 percent from a 1999 baseline by 2016.
Title II of my legislation focuses on increasing our energy independence and reducing our emissions from the transportation sector through the use of alternative fuels.
Renewable fuels offer great potential to help us achieve greater energy independence. This legislation would help us realize that potential by establishing a clean, renewable fuels performance standard. The performance standard would require fuel providers to increase the volume of clean, low-carbon, renewable fuels by up to 35 billion gallons by 2025, unless EPA finds that the increase is technically infeasible or is likely to result in adverse impacts.
This legislation would expand existing tax credits for ethanol to include cellulosic biomass. While there has been a great deal of focus on using corn-based ethanol in order to decrease our reliance upon foreign oil, there are other renewable, plant-based energy sources that are more environmentally friendly and have greater potential to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
Researchers at the University of Maine have been at the forefront of applying a research technique known as ``Life Cycle Analysis.'' Life Cycle Analysis is a unique interdisciplinary research tool that analyzes the energy requirements and environmental footprint involved with the manufacture, use, and disposal of a material. This technique is ideal for identifying fuels which have the lowest environmental impact and the greatest potential for reducing greenhouse gas emissions, while reducing our dependence on foreign oil.
My legislation would authorize $275 million over five years for research that would use Life Cycle Analysis in order to identify and develop new biotechnologies. These technologies will help move our petroleum-based economy toward a renewable, sustainable forest bio-economy.
Environmental stewardship must go beyond the tailpipes of our vehicles to the smokestacks of our power plants. Title III of my legislation builds upon the Clean Power Act that I introduced in the last Congress with Senators Jeffords and Lieberman. I have, however, modified this provision to provide assistance to small businesses struggling with high electricity costs. I have also included increased funding for important conservation programs such as Forest Legacy, in order to help wildlife adapt to the impacts of climate change.
This legislation would cut all four major power plant pollutants over the next six years. Sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides, which cause smog, acid rain, and asthma attacks, would be cut by 75 percent. Toxic mercury emissions would be cut by 90 percent from 1999 levels, and carbon dioxide, which forms the heat-trapping blanket that contributes to global warming, would be cut to 1990 levels.
These reductions would do more than provide long-term protection for our environment; they also would produce dramatic and immediate health gains for our people. According to the EPA, quick and decisive cuts in nitrogen and sulfur emissions from power plants would save 18,700 lives every year, avoid 366,000 asthma attacks, and prevent $100 billion in health care costs. In addition, these cuts would combat the acid rain that is spoiling some of our Nation's most treasured parks and wilderness areas.
The Centers for Disease Control has concluded that 4.9 million women of childbearing age have elevated levels of mercury, and that 322,000 newborns are at risk of neurological damage from mercury exposure. This provision preserves our national commitment to reduce toxic threats to pregnant women and to children by requiring meaningful reductions and by prohibiting trading.
The Clean Power Act incorporated into this legislation closes the grandfather loophole that exempts dirty, aging power plants from cleanup. Every power plant will be required to meet the most modern pollution control standards by either the plant's 40th year of operation or by the fifth year of the enactment of this legislation.
The Clean Power Act uses market mechanisms, such as buying and selling pollution allowances known as ``emissions trading.'' As I have already stated, under my bill, this trading will not be allowed for toxic mercury. Nor will it be allowed if it enables a power plant to pollute at a level that damages public health or the environment.
Power plants are the largest source of our Nation's contribution to global warming; as I stated earlier, they account for some 40 percent of our carbon dioxide emissions. This legislation would return carbon dioxide emissions to 1990 levels. By providing electricity producers with regulatory certainty now about future pollution-reduction requirements, this legislation would allow smarter investments and more cost-efficient planning.
As with existing motor vehicles, we must make more efficient use of the energy we now produce to heat our homes and power our lights. This legislation would double funding for the Department of Energy Weatherization Program, reaching $1.4 billion for 2008. It also would provide predictable funding for the valuable Energy Star Program, which helps consumers buy energy efficient appliances, and would extend the renewable electricity tax credit through 2011 and the residential investment tax credit for solar and energy efficient buildings through 2012.
This legislation also includes an Energy Efficiency Performance Standard for utilities. This provision requires utilities to achieve energy efficiency improvements. This provision would help consumers save on their electricity bills. By way of example, in California, where a similar provision was employed, utilities achieved energy savings at a cost of around 2-4 cents per kilowatt hour. According to the Alliance to Save Energy, an Energy Efficiency Performance Standard could save consumers $64 billion in net savings, and avoid the need to build 400 power plants, preventing 320 million metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions.
In addition, my legislation includes a renewable portfolio standard which would require utilities to generate 20 percent of their electricity from environmentally sound renewable energy sources by the year 2020. For example, biomass electricity generated under this provision must be done using sustainable forest practices.
This legislation will help Americans save on utility bills, and make our tax code fairer, too. Title V would eliminate two major tax credits that benefit large oil and gas companies: tax credits for intangible drilling costs and for excess percentage over cost depletions. This would save the taxpayers billions of dollars over the next five years.
This legislation also would help us better understand and assess climate change. During the last three years, I have had the opportunity to meet in the field with some of the world's foremost climate scientists. I have traveled to Ny-Alesund, Norway, the northernmost community in the world, where I saw the dramatic loss of sea-ice cover and the retreating Arctic glaciers. I have seen the same alarming changes in Alaska. Just a year ago, I went to the other end of the world and met with researchers--including a team from the University of Maine's outstanding Climate Change Institute--in Antarctica. These regions are the canary in the coal mine, and the changes taking place provide a warning we cannot ignore.
Nor can we forestall taking action by arguing over the precise extent of climate change and the human contribution to it. The answer to scientific uncertainty is additional research. Title VI of my legislation would authorize $60 million for abrupt climate change research. Studies suggest that the climate can change dramatically within a very short period of time. An abrupt climate change triggered by the ongoing buildup of greenhouse gases could cause catastrophic droughts and floods.
Understanding and predicting climate change are enormous scientific challenges. A great deal more scientific research is necessary in order to better understand the potential risk of abrupt climate change, and this legislation would provide the resources that are so urgently required.
There are few issues of greater concern to my constituents in my home state of Maine than our nation's ongoing and escalating reliance on foreign oil, and the damage our vehicle and power plant emissions are doing to the environment. They bear the brunt of wildly fluctuating and steadily increasing energy prices. They know the harm this dependence causes to our national security, and they know the harm our current energy usage causes to the air they breathe. And although a bone-chilling, winter nor'easter may bring a new round of jokes about the possible benefits of global warming, they know that human-caused climate change is no laughing matter. They know we must be better stewards of our planet.
I believe that all Americans--whether they live in the sunny south or a winter wonderland--share these concerns. They have heard enough talk; they want us to act. Americans deserve to breathe clean air, pay reasonable gasoline and electricity prices, live in a world with a stable climate future, and have the peace of mind that comes with secure energy supplies. The Energy Independence, Clean Air, and Climate Security Act offers a comprehensive, integrated approach to these issues.
In conclusion, let me describe the six titles very briefly.
The first title of my bill would increase energy independence and reduce greenhouse gas emissions by improving the efficiency of our transportation sector. The second title would accomplish similar goals by replacing some gasoline with alternative fuels. The third title would reduce emissions of mercury, carbon dioxide, sulfur dioxide, and nitrogen oxides from powerplants. The fourth title would help to reduce heat and electricity bills and diversify our electricity supply through a combination of energy efficiency and renewable energy provisions. The fifth title would help save taxpayers money through the elimination of certain tax breaks for the oil industry. Finally, the sixth title would authorize $60 million for abrupt climate change research to help us better understand this phenomenon.
I am particularly excited about renewable fuels. I think there is a lot we could do to expand the tax break for ethanol to include cellulosic biomass. There is very exciting research being done at the University of Maine which has been in the forefront of applying a research technique known as ``Life Cycle Analysis,'' which is a tool that analyzes the energy requirements and environmental footprint involved in the manufacture, use, and disposal of a material. It is ideal for identifying fuels which have the lowest environmental impact and the greatest potential for reducing greenhouse gas emissions while reducing our dependence on foreign oil. This technology will help us move our petroleum-based economy toward a renewable, sustainable, forest bioeconomy.
This is a complex bill. I appreciate the indulgence of my colleagues.
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