Energy

Floor Speech

Mr. McNERNEY. I have to say, I started my career developing wind energy technology. I got started when I was in college because of a few things that motivated me. We had the oil embargo of 1973. We had exciting technology that was being developed, computer simulations, actual hardware being placed in the field and then tremendous economic promise.

What spurred that on was the tax incentives of the 1970s. They gave us the motivation to move forward and to develop these new technologies. I can tell you the first time we put a wind mill together, we brought the investors in, we turned on the machine, and the wind, the blades flew everywhere, we would have had to run for cover, but that was the very start.

We kept going, the motivation was there, the economics were there. We kept improving year by year. We improved the aerodynamics, we improved the control system, we improved the mechanical system, the gears. Every bit of that technology and knowledge was improved over a 20-year period until today. We have one of the most economic forms of new energy technology in the world. It's growing by leaps and bounds all over the world, and I think there is a very big parallel to what's happening today.

Right now, we have a national security issue. We have very exciting technology taking place all over this great country. There is economic security at stake and now we also have a new element. It's global warming. So the motivation is there.

The problem is that the companies can't move forward without long-term planning. Part of that long-term planning is knowing what your rate of return is going to be, and if we don't move forward with production tax credits and investment tax credits, then the investors don't know what to expect, so they are not going to get into the game.

This has happened to our country repeatedly over the last 20 years, whereas Europe has kept a very steady plan, a very steady investment incentive, and they are way ahead of us in terms of renewable energy technology in terms of production, in terms of employment.

Now it's our turn to catch up. A 5-year extension is just exactly what we need, and I am so happy that the House, I am so proud of the House for coming together and moving forward with this legislation.

It's going to keep us competitive, it's going to create jobs throughout our great country in rural areas that have been depressed. It's going to create jobs in cities, in manufacturing, so this is the kind of legislation that I was sent here to produce. This is the kind of legislation that my colleagues all agree with me that is so important to our country, and I think the House did a wonderful job today.

It's going to help our country long, long into the future, and it's going to also benefit our national security, as I mentioned before, because we are importing about 11 million barrels of oil per day into this country. That's a tremendous amount of money going overseas. That's a tremendous amount of carbon dioxide going into the air.

So we are motivated by national security. We are motivated by economic security, and we are going to fight global warming, and we are going to adapt and we are going to move forward with the new technology, creating the kind of country that we want for our children to live in.

My good friend from New York, you look like you are ready to talk.

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Mr. McNERNEY. We have just seen the gentleman from New York showing his excitement about the future of energy technology in his own district.

I have seen this with Representatives from New York, from Alaska. Well, a new Representative we are going to have in 2009 from Alaska, from California where I live, from all over the country. From the Great Plains, even from the South where they don't have wind, they are always cloudy there, but they have biomass. So everybody can get excited, everybody can take part. Our whole country can move together, forward together in such a way that benefits all of us and enhances our national security.

So I am looking forward to opening up a whole new economy. The naysayers are saying we can't afford what is going to happen with global warming. I can tell you we can more than afford it. We can't afford not to. It is going to create jobs and it is going to create security. It is going to create a great future for our country.

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