Creating Long-Term Energy Alternatives for the Nation Act of 2007
Floor Speech
CREATING LONG-TERM ENERGY ALTERNATIVES FOR THE NATION ACT OF 2007 -- (Senate - June 13, 2007)
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, I rise today in support of the renewable portfolio standard offered by Senator Jeff Bingaman of New Mexico. The phrase ``renewable portfolio standard'' is a question most of us would fail on the final exam. What does it mean? To try to put it in the most simple terms, what we are trying to achieve here is the generation of electricity through means which meet the needs of our families, our businesses, and our economy, but create fewer environmental problems. That is it--renewable fuel. By doing this, we are going to end up with an environment which is kinder and cleaner for future generations.
Let's be very honest about this. Some of the people who oppose this renewable portfolio standard do not believe we have an environmental problem. They do not believe global warming exists. They do not believe climate change is an issue. They do not believe pollution is a problem. They can't understand why we are trying to change the way we generate electricity. If that is your point of view, I can understand why you would oppose the amendment of Senator Bingaman, because it seems like much ado about nothing. Why would we be spending all this time, all this effort, all this debate, and all this force in changing the way we generate electricity if everything is fine the way it is?
I am not one of those persons. I believe we do face some serious environmental challenges in the world today which, if they go unresolved and unanswered, will change the Earth on which we live. In fact, I think the process is underway. I do not think it is positive. I think the evidence is abundant that as we become more industrial in the world we live in, we have generated more smoke, more pollution, more greenhouse gases, and it is changing the world in which we live.
Some people will say that is what we expect to hear from the environmentalists, those extremists, those tree huggers. They have been singing this song ever since Earth Day was first created. But you know what is happening? There are some hard-headed businessmen coming to the same conclusion. When I visit a major insurance company in my home State of Illinois which has announced it is no longer going to write property insurance on Gulf Coast States for fear of the violent storms that are causing damage, it tells me this has gone beyond the musings of some people in the green movement. It now has become an economic reality, that the world is changing and in some respects not for the better.
If we know that to be true, the obvious question is what will we do about it? Listen to the debate on the floor, Senator after Senator coming in saying this is too complicated. This is the big hand of Government. It sounds like more taxes. It is going to force some change, pick winners and losers, let's put this off to another day. Let's get back to this next year or the year after.
I have heard that song before, over and over again. I do not believe the American people sent us to Washington to put off addressing the problems which we face in this Nation and this world today. We have to tackle them. Some of them are controversial. Some of them may not be popular back home. But we are sent here to make a decision. Even if the decision is uncomfortable for some, we have to understand it is important.
This renewable portfolio standard--a mouthful, if you will--requires retail electric utilities to include 15 percent renewable energy in their generation portfolios by the year 2020. We give a lot of flexibility to the utilities about how to reach this goal. They can generate this renewable electricity themselves--build wind farms or solar facilities. Some people say maybe these wind farms won't work. I did not know much about wind farms myself. What I read suggested my home State of Illinois was just OK when it came to wind energy. But now as I move around my State, I see big changes. In the Bloomington-Normal area, central Illinois, the Twin Groves project, they are in the process of building 240 wind turbines, huge turbines.
Sadly, they are made in Europe. I hope the day comes soon when more are made in the United States. But they are coming here to generate, with the wind blowing across the cornfields, electricity. It is a $700 million investment. It will generate enough electricity from these wind turbines spread out among the cornfields to take care of the needs of 120,000 families in central Illinois. At the end of the day, there will not be pollution added to the atmosphere. It will be natural wind power turning the turbines, generating the electricity for the families and businesses in that area. That is renewable electricity.
When it comes to solar power, I guess some people think that is a vestige of some musings back in the 1950s and 1960s, but it is not. Solar energy today is growing in its usage. You see it all over the United States, little solar panels that are now collecting enough energy to do little jobs. Then you take a look at the world scene and look at a country such as Germany, not a country you might single out as being a leader when it comes to solar energy. As a country, I doubt it has much more sunshine than parts of the United States. But 20 years ago the Germans made a commitment to solar energy and now that commitment is paying off. By guaranteeing return on investment, more and more solar panels are being installed and they are generating more electrical power from the force and power of the Sun. We can do the same.
How do you reach that goal, for more solar panels? You create incentives. How do you create these incentives? The Bingaman amendment. The Bingaman amendment says if you are an electrical power generating company, we want 15 percent of the power you generate by the year 2020 to come from sources such as wind and solar panels.
What is that going to do? It is going to change the nature of the solar power industry. There will be more companies, there will be more compensation, there will be more research, there will be more efficiency. When it is done, we will end up with the electricity we need to lead the good lives we have without creating a mess in this atmosphere that changes the climate and creates pollution, creates problems such as asthma and lung disease. We will be moving in the right direction instead of the wrong direction.
There will always be voices opposing this kind of change. It is too much for some people. It is a vision of the world they cannot imagine. It is addressing a problem which many of them do not even acknowledge and that is why you run into resistance.
Some say it is a great idea, but America is not up to this challenge; we can't generate the technology to meet this challenge. Come on. I disagree. There has not been a time in our history when this Nation has been challenged to achieve anything, from a man on the Moon to taming the atom, that we have not risen to the challenge. We can do it here and we must do it here. I believe in the creative genius of this American system of government and this economy.
If you believe in it, a 15-percent renewable portfolio standard is not a leap of faith. Of course, if the electric utilities do not have their own generating capacity through solar panels or wind power or other sources, they have an option under this to purchase credits from other utilities that do.
This is a market-based mechanism that Senator Bingaman's amendment addresses. It will drive competition into the renewable market without picking winners. It is basically going to say: We have some goals we have to meet; now who can do those best? Using the Energy Information Administration's data, a national 15-percent renewable portfolio standard would save American consumers $16 billion on their electric and natural gas bills by the year 2030; commercial customers would save $8 billion; industrial, $5 billion; residential, $3.3 billion.
A renewable portfolio standard will create jobs and income in rural areas. I know this for a fact; that is where I come from. I come from downstate Illinois, I have seen these wind farms, and they work. Each large-scale wind turbine that goes on line generates $1.5 million in economic activity and provides about $5,000 in lease payments per year for 20 years or more to a farmer, rancher, or landowner.
If you drive south of Rockford, IL, and go through a little town called Paw Paw, IL, that really was kind of disappearing on us, with a little cafe or two and a little gas station, all of a sudden people are paying attention. Why? Because they have about 20 wind turbines right next to Paw Paw, IL.
I stopped my car and went over to the farmer who lives in the shadow of these wind turbines. This man had a smile from ear to ear. He is getting a monthly lease payment for them to put the wind turbines on his property, and he has planted corn right next to these wind turbines. He is getting the best of both worlds--the lease payment and the production from his own land. He couldn't be prouder.
How did they end up putting those wind turbines in that tiny town? I can tell you why they put them there. Because the mayor of the city of Chicago, about 50 to 60 miles away, said to the utility company, the electric company supplying electricity to the city government, that they required--the city contract required a percentage of renewable sources of electricity. So this electric power company decided they needed to build some wind turbines. They built them, put them in Paw Paw, IL. They are now feeding electricity into the grid instead of burning coal or some other pollutant. They are trying to find a way to generate electricity and not make the environmental situation worse. It works. It is in smalltown America. It is in rural America, and it pays off.
We have over 100 megawatts of wind energy in Illinois already. A conservative estimate shows these turbines generate enough electricity currently to power 22,500 homes; another 300 megawatts under construction, and that would generate another 1,200 megawatts of electricity. If all of those projects are completed, Illinois will be generating enough electricity to power over 370,000 homes from this wind energy.
Now, with a 15-percent renewable portfolio standard, America would increase its total homegrown, clean, renewable power capacity 4 1/2 times the present level. Senator Bingaman's amendment gives us 13 years to reach that goal. It is not unrealistic. In fact, I think one might argue we can do better. I hope we will.
Some States have already adopted standards far higher than what Senator Bingaman is suggesting as a national standard. With the abundance of renewable energy resources--the sun, the wind, the Earth itself--the technical potential of major renewable technologies could actually provide more than five times the electricity America needs.
There are limits of how much this potential can be used because of competing land uses and costs, but there is more than enough to supply 15 percent, maybe even 20 percent.
Twenty-one States and the District of Colombia have already established a renewable electricity standard. Illinois, for instance, has a goal of 8 percent by 2013; New York, 24 percent by 2013; Colorado, 16 percent by 2020.
By diversifying and decentralizing our energy infrastructure, increased reliance on renewables provides environmental, fuel diversity, national security, and economic development benefits for everybody. Increasing renewable energy will reduce the risks to the economy posed by an overreliance on a single source of new power supply.
Additionally, the 15-percent national standard will reduce carbon dioxide emissions by nearly 200 million metric tons per year by 2020--a reduction of 7 percent below the business-as-usual level. That is the equivalent--the Bingaman amendment is the equivalent of taking 32 million cars off the road.
Furthermore, the Energy Information Administration study found that a 20-percent renewable energy standard would reduce the cost to consumers of meeting four pollutant reductions from powerplants by $4.5 billion in 2010 and $31 billion in 2020, compared to meeting the emission reductions without a renewable standard.
I support this amendment. I believe that diversifying our electricity portfolio and encouraging the development of clean, renewable resources provides economic and environmental benefits to our country.
I would say to those who are engaged in this debate: Do not bemoan global warming, do not cry about climate change, do not say you really are concerned about pollution if you cannot accept the challenge of the Bingaman amendment. In the next 13 years, we can meet this goal. It is a challenge to America which we can meet and exceed. I am confident we will. In the process, we will find cleaner ways to generate electricity. We will create less pollution for the people who live in this country. We will end up with new technologies, new business opportunities that demonstrate the strength of this great country in which we live. We can meet this goal. We should not shrink away from it.
I thank the Senator from New Mexico for his leadership in bringing this amendment.
I yield the floor.
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