Growing An Innovation Economy
Floor Speech
Mr. TONKO. Mr. Speaker, this evening we have an opportunity as members of the freshman class, Democratic members, to speak during an hour designated for our class members. Tonight is the second time our class has spoken as a group, and as you recognize, we are a diverse group of members who come from all sections and regions of the country and do share some common fabric but also would identify differences. But one thing very certainly in common that we share is the need to move forward with a positive direction on energy policy that will spark an innovation economy, Mr. Speaker.
And so this evening during this opportunity we will hear from my colleagues in our freshman class that will speak to their concerns and the optimism we share about growing an innovation economy based on energy policy that can transform just how we deal with those resources, how we create our generated power that we require, how we transmit that power, and certainly how we can effectuate conservation and efficiency programs that will strengthen our outcome.
As you know, I have spent much of my life with energy policy. My professional life found me working in the State Assembly in New York chairing the Energy Committee for some 15 years, and then I moved on to become president and CEO of NYSERTA, the New York State Energy, Research and Development Authority.
It was there that I recognized that through the program implementation we had encouraged through public policy formation that we were able to effectuate tremendously strong impacts, positive impacts on the business community and on the residential community, making certain that as we embraced efficiency efforts we could address that demand side of the equation, which has been, from a Federal perspective, not really addressed effectively at all.
And so now we find ourselves with leadership in the White House and certainly here in the House that wants to move forward and make certain that we advance sound energy policy. It is important for us to do that in a way that maintains an open mind to developing the sort of policy that needs to be crafted, policy that will speak to those innovative ideas, and projects that will find us investing in research, in development, in deployment, in engineering, in developing a green-collar workforce, all of which will create an array of jobs that are not yet on that radar screen, that will allow us to produce outcomes that are favorable to this country's economy.
And certainly as we do that, we will need to update and upgrade our transmission grid, our delivery system, which was designed for regulatory response rather than free-wheeling electrons from different regions and sections of the country, or to even imports from our neighbor to the north in Canada with hydropower that has been done in some situations. We need to make certain that we address both supply-side and demand-side solutions. For far too long, we're increasing supply but not looking at that opportunity to create here in America those needs that are addressed by American-produced power that obviously would strengthen our economy and our job situation.
It allows us to also move forward to create a more clean and more sustainable environment which needs to be a goal that is embraced by the policy that we'll formulate.
You know, Mr. Speaker, it has been said often that a crisis is a terrible thing to waste. Well, there are multiple crises that this President inherited, he and his administration. Certainly the House, as a leadership, is addressing those crises that have been passed on here to not only legislators and policymakers and executives but to the American public where we struggle with situations that for far too long have gone unaddressed.
You know, I liken this to the space race that we had decades ago, where this country came behind its leadership, where President Kennedy indicated that we could place a person on the Moon, where he boldly expressed that vision, and we were able to go forward and invest in science and technology. Sputnik was mentioned in every classroom. There was a race going on, and it was important for us to win that race.
The same can be said today with the global race that exists out there for some Nation to emerge as that go-to Nation that will export the energy intellect and the energy innovation and ideas that will transform not only our economy but the worldwide use and the worldwide response to energy needs and energy solutions. We can win that race but we need to invest. We need to open up with new policy, and we need to commit to resources that are essential.
We are doing that today as we talk about the transformation to an innovation economy, and as we look
at some of the situations that we have with the power that is addressed by foreign oil imports, noting that nearly 67 percent of our oil is imported from foreign supplies, from foreign countries, that is finding we're spending some $475 billion that is shipped overseas. People will talk about different economic impacts or concerns or fears that they try to forecast and project, when in fact we need only to look at history to see what's been happening with the hundreds of billions that are invested in foreign economies and an overwhelming, near two-thirds, of our supply for oil being imported from foreign countries.
This should tell us something. It should tell us that there are opportunities to create jobs to go forward and produce American-based power and to address jobs through energy efficiency and conservation efforts, through research and development, to develop those prototypes to make certain they're deployed into the manufacturing sector and that we can grow this richness of economy and also export these ideas and this invention to other world economies across the globe.
My colleague and friend from our freshman class--and I've grown to respect each and every one of my freshmen colleagues, but one who has expressed a very strong concern about jobs, job creation, job retention is Mark Schauer from the State of Michigan, from the seventh, I believe, district in Michigan. Representative Schauer is very concerned about jobs, and I believe Mark sees this as a way to address that job situation.
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Mr. TONKO. Thank you, Representative Schauer. You're absolutely right on with the need for job creation. The facts are there that really speak to us so forcefully because, as you indicated, we can better control our destiny simply by focusing on job creation that is American based. That we can better control our destiny with the environment by moving to cleaner outcomes, by having automobiles that burn more effectively, more efficiently, and cleaner.
Now, it's said that if we produce 25 percent of our electricity and our motor fuels by renewables--by moving to renewables to that 25 percent level by 2025, we can create 5 million jobs here in this country. So it really behooves us to move forward and advance a situation that will find us investing in jobs in manufacturing, in engineering, certainly in transportation, as we can move forward and really effectuate the source of investments and changes that will really produce a strong economic outcome for us here in this Nation. And it's not whether or not we have the luxury to make that decision. As we speak, China invests $12.6 million per hour in greening up their economy.
Going back to the space race of decades ago inspired by JFK and others, we have President Obama, Speaker Pelosi, leadership in the House, the conference, the caucus, the membership here, the majority in this House advancing an effort to really produce jobs to clean up the environment and create a situation that not only address a stronger sense of energy security and energy independence, but also a national security factor that is thereby strengthened simply by growing our energy independence and our energy security because our reliance on some of the most troubled spots in the world finds us in the middle of conflicts, as we see today.
One of our other freshman class members who is equally passionate about change and reform, who was also a student of history, checks into these situations of cleaning up our environment and producing jobs, Representative Connolly from the great Commonwealth of Virginia, from the Congressional District 11 in that State, is with us this evening also.
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Mr. TONKO. Thank you, Representative Connolly. You know, it's just so good to revisit recent past history as we look at just what the results of some of that progressive policy formation was about. And it did have a positive effect on our environment and it did create jobs and it did address in sound economic terms a stronger future.
So we seem to be at a threshold, again, that needs to be inspired. We need to be inspired by that history that perhaps was expressed and touted in some measures of fear when in fact science and technology led us through some very difficult challenges and we responded by creating jobs and responding favorably to the environment that we share and maintain for coming generations.
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Mr. TONKO. Well, with carbon capture and reducing the carbon impact into our environment by having a comprehensive energy plan, by putting together a cap-and-invest program, we're able to address greenhouse gas pollution in a way that can be addressed from both sides of the energy equation, and from all sectors, including transportation. And the energy generation, more efficient transmission, where we can use superconductive cable, where there's less line lost, making it more efficient and a conservative thing to do.
To be able to move forward with diversifying our energy mix with kinetic hydropower and what it has to offer; with geothermal and what it has to offer; with the inclusion of renewables--using our wind, our Sun, our Earth to respond to our energy needs. And then, on the flip side, on the demand side, conservation and energy efficiency, where we use shelf-ready products to retrofit systems, make manufacturing more productive and efficient, saving them money in the line of producing their products.
All of this is saving jobs and creating jobs. Taking those white- and blue-collar traditional jobs, implementing the newly created green collar jobs, of which we need to speak, and really producing, I believe, that innovation economy that pulls us into a new order of thinking for energy's sake and really stakes a claim here in a Nation that has invested for a long time in R&D.
But we need now to go beyond those prototypes. We need to deploy into manufacturing and deploy into commercial sector use these great ideas that are, by the way, being picked up by emerging nations and they're using American know-how.
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Mr. TONKO. I believe those huge costs are there, that inaction that came through the prior administration found the American households, American families on average spending $1,100 more because of their dependence on gas, oil, electricity and what have you.
Just looking at this chart, which is portraying a rise in the importation of crude oil, finds us peaking in the last several years where we're now near 3.7 trillion barrels of crude oil that are running our economy, degrading our environment and finding us without any sort of clever progressive agenda that really is within our grasp. Again, it translates into the concerns that you expressed here this evening, Representative Connolly and Representative Schauer. And we're going to hear from another of our freshman colleagues who has been on this mantra of energy transformation that equates to job growth, job retention and innovation that we can reach to with the American know-how, the brain trust, the intellectual capacity that we have as a Nation.
Our colleague from New Mexico's Third Congressional District is Representative Luján. Representative Luján, you also have great knowledge and experience. You add to that array of diversity within the freshman class, in the Democratic Caucus that sees it from a regulatory perspective, but you also are there talking about the need for jobs, jobs in your State, in your district, in our American economy.
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Mr. TONKO. Representative Luján, well said. Whoever, whichever country emerges from this race for energy innovation will become that go-to nation. And what a chance we have out there to really create a new era of job creation and to strengthen our economy nationally and to export talent in a way that will strengthen every region of this country. It's about that job growth. It's about job retention and, more importantly, job creation, embracing that investment that we have made through academia, that we have made through the private sector R&D components.
Just recently I was with the GE leadership as they announced the plans to build an advanced battery manufacturing center in Upstate New York, and they're doing that with a commitment to a battery type that can be used for heavy vehicles, that can be used for energy generation and for intermittent energy storage. That then takes us to a whole new area of opportunity, a key that unlocks the doors to vast potential that then can transition this whole way that we respond to our energy needs and create jobs at the same time.
Let me yield to Representative Schauer because I know, again, his real passion here for his State of Michigan, his home State, is to talk about those jobs that we can create.
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Mr. TONKO. It was a pleasure.
Representative Schauer, you said it well. It is the transitioning, that we need to transform that economy into ways that can assume some of those gaps that have not been addressed. I know, coming from a State that I will talk about in a while, about the investments we've made in our region. It was without that sort of broader comprehensive plan coming from the Federal level. I think while we are a diverse freshman class, and we cover the map of the U.S. rather well as a new class, even amongst our diversity, there is that common thread that we understand, that the American public stated clearly through the election. We want change. We want reform. We want production. We want productivity, and we want things to happen. And these are the things that can happen to the very good.
To the freshman Member, Representative Connolly, you are coming from a State that, obviously, is a large State, that hears the issues that are expressed out there. And you've been a very strong and forceful voice on behalf of reform and change. Your perspective again on job growth?
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Mr. TONKO. Most assuredly, Representative Connolly. And you speak of the impact that Germany is making with perhaps lesser solar hours available to their situation. While at NYSERDA, at the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority, at I believe our third conference on green collar workforce development, we were visited by representatives from 33 States and four nations, including Germany. They talked about the particular niche they were creating for plumbers in Germany to do hot water solar arrays where you could address those hot water needs through solar panels.
We know also, through the stimulus package, the opportunity to shave that priceyness from solar activity PV by thin film advancements along with the intermittent battery storage issues. So there is great potential out there that is yet untapped, or undertapped, that should motivate us, should challenge us to really move forward with a comprehensive plan that is well structured, that deals with carbon capture, that mentions both the supply and demand side of the equation, and to go forward in a way that structures and implements the policy that then shows sound leadership. That is what we are looking at here. We have a President who gets it, a President who talks about innovation, who talks in a way that will allow us to be creative and put the academic notions of this society to work. That, to me, is tremendously strong. The expression of innovative ideas can really inspire our Nation.
The Speaker, the leadership of this House and the membership of this House is there ready to move forward to progressive outcomes. And that, I think, speaks to sounder environmental outcomes, sounder economic outcomes and a stronger energy policy, crises that are addressed in one fell swoop of activity with public policy.
Representative Luján, you have joined us this evening, for which we are most grateful. You have a regulatory aspect that you have borne before your involvement here in Congress, which is always helpful. But you also seem to have that tremendous passion for thinking outside the barrel, if you will, in a way that will reduce that gluttonous dependency of this society and this economy on foreign imported oil.
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Mr. TONKO. Mr. Connolly, this chart says it all, what you're raising as a very strong concern. Somehow there is a willingness to spend, export $475 billion out of the U.S.
When you think about the impact that has on our economy, the jobs that could be created if we relied on American-produced power, if we put American brain trusts to work, what couldn't happen? Might we not see this as a tax, a situation that finds us dealing with a dreadful blow to our economy and impacting in strong negative measure our environment which we borrow and need to send on to the next generation in even cleaner format?
So when I look at the small microcosm of the country expressed by the 21st Congressional District in New York, I see so many opportunities that require that overlay of energy policy and energy resources from a Federal perspective. And that is why the President and the leadership in the House, the Speaker and our Chairs and our rank-and-file Members are to be encouraged, I believe, to move forward on this matter.
We have, within the 21st New York Congressional District, semiconductor investments, nanoscience investments, emerging technologies all on a green campus, R&D investment centers through General Electric's emerging wind institute that will also embrace other renewables with their ecomagination situation and private and public sector campuses that are investing in R&D. We have superpower which is breaking its own record in superconducted cable development that can be used to transmit far more electrons over similarly sized traditional cable.
So all of this is there as an undercurrent, an underpinning of support that can then blossom into its fullest potential if we allow for policy to take hold. And that is what the moment is about and leadership expressed in the greatest, boldest green upturns.
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