American Recovery And Reinvestment Act Of 2009
Floor Speech
American Recovery And Reinvestment Act Of 2009
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Ms. CANTWELL. Madam President, I am on the floor to speak about the Cantwell-Hatch amendment. I would call it up, but I know there will be objection on the other side. I want to say that we will be asking for a vote on this amendment at some point in time. So for my colleagues to know, we will be demanding a vote on this issue.
I ask unanimous consent to add Senators Levin, Brown, Alexander, Carper, Menendez, and Udall of Colorado as cosponsors of amendment No. 274.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
Ms. CANTWELL. Madam President, we are here today to find ways to inject capital, confidence, and construction into our economy. That is why I have worked so hard collaborating with Senator Hatch and Senator Stabenow who is now on the floor now and I think Senator Hatch may come at some point later today--and with Senator Kerry and many stakeholders across the country to develop what is an economic recovery and reinvestment opportunity that leverages the incredible potential of plug-in electric vehicles.
I would like to thank my colleague from Utah for his willingness to work across the aisle on what we think is one of the biggest economic opportunities for our country in manufacturing.
If this stimulus bill is about figuring out ways to create tens of thousands of jobs and economic growth in the short term, and millions of sustainable jobs in the long term, then plug-ins are a big winner for the United States economy.
According to a recent report by McKinsey & Company, the opportunity for electric vehicles could be a very attractive U.S. investment. They note that the total market for electric vehicles in North America, Europe, and Asia could be as much as $120 billion by 2030.
I know President Obama recognizes this opportunity, that is not a surprise since he sat down with Senator Hatch and I in 2007 to actually write the original plug-in vehicle incentives bill.
The President understands that plug-in vehicles are a game-changing technology. They can change the way we consume energy for our transportation needs. Instead of paying the exorbitant prices we were paying for gasoline, over four dollars a gallon just last summer, plug-in vehicles will allow us to transform the electricity grid into a fuel source and be paying about a dollar a gallon for our fuel costs. That alone is probably the most effective way to help our Nation get off our overdependence on foreign oil.
That is why President Obama, in his goals for his administration, has said he wants to put 1 million plug-in electric cars on the road by 2015. This amendment helps make that a reality.
Within a 3-year stimulus window, our amendment would allow people manufacturing plug-ins or their component technologies, such as batteries, to expense that capital investment. What we are doing is allowing that taxpayer to cover its cost, not by depreciating it over a long period of time, but rather to make its investment work faster in a short period of time. In other words battery technology and components become a more attractive investment in the United States.
Our provision is very similar to what we are doing in the underlying bill with small business equipment and expensing. We are trying to say those investments will help create economic opportunity and stimulus right in the United States for small business. Well, here is a large-scale opportunity as it relates to battery technology and components and we need to grab it before our international competitors do.
As President Obama said of the stimulus bill:
That's why this is not just a short-term program to boost employment. It's one that will invest in our most important priorities like energy and education, health care and a new infrastructure that are necessary to keep us strong and competitive in the 21st century.
I could not agree with the President more, as I look at my State, the priorities of my constituents, to make sure we are creating stimulative activity, but we are also looking to those areas of our long-term future where our country can benefit the most.
Manufacturing battery technology and components is game-changing technology. If we can create that kind of opportunity here at home, it will create tens of thousands of construction jobs, engineering jobs, manufacturing jobs, and not only in the near term, but lead to millions of jobs in the future. This is the type of investment we need to be putting in a stimulus package.
Now, I know my colleague from Michigan is on the floor and that she is very interested in making sure the battery technology gets built in the United States.
Ford, for example, announced that the cells for the battery system in its first series of plug-in hybrid production vehicles are going to be manufactured in Nersac. Now, Nersac is not some upper Midwest town. It is a city in France. I think they being manufactured in Nersac highlights the fact that if we do not act, our competitors will. In fact, if we look at this issue, in the United States we are already pretty far behind. The United States does lead in the research and development of lithium-ion battery technology over countries such as China, Korea, and Japan, but they are the countries that are actually commercializing and producing the product using this technology.
In fact, China has over 120 companies involved in the production of lithium-ion battery technology, and their battery manufacturing industry supports over 250,000 jobs already in this area.
We, in the United States, have no comparable lithium-ion facility in our country--none. U.S. auto executives have taken a look at this situation and have said without homegrown suppliers here in the United States, the United States could become as dependent on Asian-made batteries as we currently are on Middle East oil. Now, if we are doing the R&D, why aren't we also advancing the opportunity to be a player in manufacturing?
It is not only batteries. Asia has the engineers and manufacturing expertise and capacity to make many of these component parts. In fact, South Korea is a great example of seizing on this opportunity. A few weeks ago, their Prime Minister announced that South Korea will invest $38 billion over the next 4 years on environmental projects related to energy and the economy to create a million jobs.
Now, we think of $38 billion compared to the package we have on the floor today. But $38 billion--for a country whose GDP is one-tenth the size of ours--that would be like the United States putting $400 billion to match South Korea's downpayment on a clean energy future.
Ms. STABENOW. Madam President, will my friend be willing to yield for a question?
Ms. CANTWELL. Yes, I will.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Michigan is recognized.
Ms. STABENOW. Thank you.
Madam President, I want to ask a question of the Senator from Washington State. But I first want to thank her for her vision. She has been the person who has understood this is more than just about research and development, that this is about actually putting assets in America, in jobs here in America through manufacturing. I thank her for her vision. It has been my honor and pleasure to work with you on this issue.
But I am wondering if the Senator is aware, in fact, of other countries such as South Korea which certainly has been investing in this. But Germany, last summer, developed what they call the Great Battery Alliance. Japan created the first batteries. Ford Motor Company, in doing their first Ford Escape Hybrid, their first Escape HUV, while we are proud that was done in America, in fact, the battery came from Japan. So China, Japan, South Korea, Germany--India now has announced a manufacturing strategy.
So I ask, as you look at this, if she has looked at those other countries as well?
Ms. CANTWELL. Madam President, I thank the Senator from Michigan, and I thank her for her leadership on this issue as well, because she has been vocal in saying the United States needs to create manufacturing incentives in the plug-in area and to lead the future of the automobile industry here in the United States. So I thank her for her question. She is absolutely right.
The United States has fallen behind. We have no battery production facilities in the United States. So we can pat ourselves on the back all we want about how we are leading in R&D in battery technology, but that is not translating into manufacturing leadership and homegrown jobs. The time has come when Americans and people around the globe believe we have to get off of fossil fuel and that the electricity grid holds great promise. The advent of these new battery technologies is allowing consumers to go an average of 100 miles per gallon. As my colleague mentioned, Europeans are already boost to their economies by promoting that kind of manufacturing. And I want to emphasize that our amendment does not say which companies would produce this battery technology. We are simply saying we should have some of this manufacturing in the United States.
Ms. STABENOW. Madam President, I wonder if my colleague will yield for one more question.
Ms. CANTWELL. Yes.
Ms. STABENOW. I just came from a very large conference called the Blue Green Conference with about 2,500 people who are in town from environmental groups, labor organizations, business organizations, focused on exactly what the Senator is talking about. I wonder if the Senator is aware we have had people on the Hill actually supporting this wonderful amendment and arguing that, in fact, there are jobs, good-paying jobs, available from doing exactly what she is talking about? I wonder if my colleague is aware of the extent to which there is such a broad coalition of people across this country now supporting exactly what she is talking about?
Ms. CANTWELL. I think the electrification of automobiles as an energy source is gaining a lot of attention. There is a growing understanding that building a smart grid and allowing plug-ins to fill up when electricity prices are cheapest and when there is a lot of unused electricity capacity, turning our cars into additional storage capacity makes a lot of sense. People believe we could create hundreds of thousands of jobs in the near future and that we would be able to benefit from that as a basis of an infrastructure.
I look at China and think of the 250,000 jobs they have already created just in battery manufacturing. And that 120 companies are focusing just on manufacturing lithium-ion batteries. They have already created an economic opportunity, an edge for Asia in this marketplace that will continue to sustain them for the future in the automobile manufacturing industry.
We are at a totally new day, where we should pause and reassess all new opportunities to strengthen our country, and yet we are not capitalizing on the economic opportunity that is going to fundamentally reshape automobile transportation for the better.
I thank my colleague from Michigan for pointing those facts out and raising those questions because, again, she has been steadfast in this and understands this is about a manufacturing opportunity for the future of the United States as a manufacturing base. Whether those are foreign competitors, whether those are new domestic companies that have never been on the radar screen, whether they are the domestic manufacturers that are working hard to make the transition to this new opportunity, this amendment would address all of those.
In conclusion, today the United States is home to about 35,000 less factories than in the year 2000. In that short period of time we have lost around 4 million manufacturing jobs. Clean energy technologies, and particularly electric vehicle manufacturing, is a keystone strategic opportunity that could help change that around. That is why I am offering this amendment with my colleague, Senator Hatch, and others, because it can be effective stimulus today, but pay long-term dividends for the future of the U.S. economy.
I thank the Presiding Officer and yield the floor.
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