Providing For Consideration Of H.R. 3246, Advanced Vehicle Technology Act Of 2009

Floor Speech

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Mr. POLIS. Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Madam Speaker, House Resolution 745 provides for a structured rule for consideration of H.R. 3246, the Advanced Vehicle Technology Act of 2009. This rule makes in order all three of the Republican amendments submitted to the Rules Committee for consideration as part of this bipartisan bill.

The Advanced Vehicle Technology Act of 2009 is an important part of this Congress' commitment to clean energy, job creation, and reducing our country's dependence on foreign oil. It recognizes what many of us know to be true: We need a significant boost in research and development of innovative vehicle technologies in order to become energy independent, to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions that threaten our planet, and to ensure that the American automobile industry remains viable. To that end, H.R. 3246 authorizes $2.85 billion over the next 5 years to strengthen and support advanced vehicle technology research at the Department of Energy.

While through other measures we have laid a foundation to increase the accessibility of public transportation--another critical component of reducing our emissions of global warming gases--and even in this bill we will invest in increasing the energy efficiency and reducing the costs of producing and operating these public transportation vehicles, in many parts of this country it is still necessary that the primary mode of transit is the automobile.

The expanse of rural America and suburban and exurban America simply require personal vehicles for work and for pleasure. The good news is that in this bill we will be able to capitalize on a movement that already exists. One need only look to the biodiesel co-ops of Iowa, where folks can buy clean, domestically produced fuel at costs frequently lower than the petroleum option, or companies such as Rocky Mountain Sustainable Enterprises founded and based in Boulder, Colorado, in my district. This company recycles waste vegetable oil, oil that would otherwise find its way to a landfill but instead has been used to power agricultural equipment and vehicles.

I am proud to say that this company will be opening a new facility in Fort Morgan, Colorado, in the district of my colleague and good friend, Representative Betsy Markey. This facility will enable this firm to produce enough fuel to continue providing to their agricultural clients while expanding to mass transit and passenger vehicle biodiesel.

All across the country, the biofuels industry is gearing up to provide the clean domestic fuel of America's future while providing good-paying jobs today. We need to help these companies grow, and we can do this by ensuring that vehicles made right here in America are prepared to use our domestically produced fuel.

America has had a long love affair with the automobile, and vehicles are continually becoming more efficient, more comfortable, easier to own and easier to maintain. This, by right, should continue. Through this legislation, we will make the investments required to ensure that the great tradition of the family summer road trip is available to future generations.

Madam Speaker, our domestic auto industry has had its difficulties these last few years. And I speak not only of the Big Three Detroit automakers, so iconic of the industry that grabbed many of the headlines, but also of the many companies, such as Delphi and many others, that create components for vehicles and employ hundreds of thousands of Americans. It is these smaller companies that have produced significant innovation. However, due to the economic crisis, rising operational costs, including health care for their employees, many of these companies have had to slow or shutter their research and development operations in order to afford to stay in business and keep their assembly lines running.

In order to navigate out of this recession back to manufacturing leadership, we need to have a compass of innovation. This bill before us today ensures that the best technologies, from electric drivetrains to clean diesel, are made available, and that vehicles driven in the United States are the cleanest and most efficient in the world.

We can further the technologies that are sponsored through this competitive process that will ensure that our dependence on foreign oil will be decreased and will increase demand for domestically produced renewable energy, creating jobs.

This bill is as good for the air and urban America as it is for the economy of rural America.

Madam Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

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Mr. POLIS. Madam Speaker, the question is how do we create and perfect the nonpetroleum technologies that the market wants, and the Advanced Vehicle Technology Act is part of the answer.

By jump-starting vehicle technology research, this bill puts American ingenuity to work in cleaning up our transportation sector and in protecting the planet. Electrifying vehicle systems, increasing engine durability, and developing waste-heat recovery systems are just a few of the many innovative technologies that this bill will support. At the same time, we know we need to take action today to fight global warming, to lessen our petroleum dependence, and to create jobs here in America. For that reason, this legislation before us emphasizes public-private partnerships that will help create jobs in private industry, not just in government offices.

There is a reason why this bill is supported by Ford Motor Company, Delphi, Caterpillar, GM, EcoMotors, the United Auto Workers, and the National Association of Manufacturers. H.R. 3246 means good jobs today developing and building the vehicle technologies of tomorrow.

When we can create jobs and cut our petroleum dependence at the same time, it's clear that we are making good policy, Madam Speaker. By this measure, the Advanced Vehicle Technology Act is the clearest and most straightforward kind of good policy. With this in mind, I urge my colleagues to support this very fair rule and the underlying legislation.

I would like to thank Representative Peters, Representative Biggert and Chairman Gordon, as well as my colleagues on the Rules Committee and the committee staff of the Science and Technology Committee, for crafting this legislation that will increase the efficiency of our Nation's vehicle fleet while reducing our dependence on foreign oil.

I yield back the balance of my time and move the previous question on the resolution.

The previous question was ordered.

The resolution was agreed to.

A motion to reconsider was laid on the table.

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