Renewable Energy and Energy Conservation Tax Act of 2007

Floor Speech

RENEWABLE ENERGY AND ENERGY CONSERVATION TAX ACT OF 2007 -- (House of Representatives - August 04, 2007)

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Mr. DOGGETT. Mr. Speaker, with the passage of the energy bill just approved and the passage of this energy bill today, we move America in a historic direction, a new direction on energy, not just away from our overdependence on fossil fuels, but away from our overdependence on fossilized ideas like those that have dominated this House for the last 12 years.

One of those fossilized ideas is that it is okay to keep borrowing from our grandchildren. So today the reason that we hear talk about higher taxes on a bill that is basically revenue neutral, that doesn't borrow from our grandchildren and doesn't raise significant new revenues, but rather restricts and evaluates our tax credits to determine how they can be most effective, is that they don't understand this new kind of thinking.

Just as they favored foreign corporations over farmers last week, today they favor fossilized energy over new energy and energy independence.

You know, going green is not just about securing a healthy planet to raise our children. It is creating opportunities for jobs and economic development in biodiesel and in renewable energy like solar and geothermal power. New technologies bring new opportunities. A new class of jobs are being created, neither blue collar nor white collar but green collar jobs of many types from green energy.

It is a matter of recognizing that some boondoggles come along, like where a oil company decides it will drop a little dab of grease in its petroleum byproducts in order to claim a renewable biodiesel tax credit and destroy a new emerging industry like our biodiesel companies and our biofuels companies that are helping us become energy independent.

So this is a bill about jobs and about evaluating the oversubsidization of a fossil fuel industry and moving to new energies, biodiesel, recognizing the power of solar power, plug-in hybrids, recognizing that we can become the leaders in the world in green jobs, green collar jobs. This bill offers us a chance to lead on green energy, not become green with envy as other countries leap over us

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Mr. DOGGETT. Mr. Speaker, we know, first of all, what is not in this motion to recommit. What is not in this motion to recommit is anything about the exciting new opportunity with plug-in hybrids. This has been deleted from the bill with this motion to recommit.

We know, as the gentleman from Washington is just saying, that what those who have worked so hard in solar power have requested, an 8-year extension so we can get the investment. We heard from investment bankers saying you need that kind of dependability in order to get the money that solar power needs to expand particularly throughout the South and Southwest. That will not be available under this Republican proposal.

But what is in this proposal? Well, after all of the very strange comments that have been made about denying mom an opportunity to drive an SUV, the same tax on Hummers that is in our proposal is in their motion to recommit. Look at the bill. Look at the scoring from the Joint Committee on Taxation for the motion to recommit at page 2, line 7, and you will see exactly that same matter.

In fact, after all the talk about how we don't want taxes on the petroleum industry, when I look at their proposal, I find almost $1 billion in taxes on gasoline that they are proposing in their motion to recommit.

When I look at the line just above that in the same scoring document, I find almost $1 billion that is proposed by them in a tax on coal.

Now, there may be a need to do that at some point as we build our energy future here.

But everyone who votes for their motion to recommit, they need to understand today that they are voting for about $1 billion in gasoline taxes and almost $1 billion in taxes on coal, all at the same time they are denying our renewable industries what they need in wind and solar. They are denying them the dependability necessary to attract private investment to let those industries grow.

You know, we have so much fossilized thinking that we must overcome if we are to combat the real threat of climate change that endangers our country, that is perhaps our greatest long-term national security challenge. It's certainly a challenge to our health and our future.

And we also have to address the need for a new energy future that does not leave us dependent on foreign sources of energy. We have ample solar power here, we have great potential in this country, if we are willing to make the hard decisions to not be bound by the ideas of the past and move to the future.

You can do that today by rejecting this motion to recommit. When you reject the motion to recommit, you will also be rejecting about $1 billion in taxes on gasoline, about $1 billion in taxes on coal.

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