Solar Technology Roadmap Act

Floor Speech

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I thank the ranking member. Let me thank the author of the bill, Ms. Giffords, for her great leadership on what I consider to be one of the most important issues. That's energy independence.

Mr. Chairman, I am proud to rise in support of this bill. I was proud to be a cosponsor of this bill.

One thing is certain: the sun always rises, and it is important for us as a Nation to harness that energy. This is landmark legislation that, in my view, will make the United States a true leader in solar technology and in energy independence.

What I particularly like about the bill is the collaboration between the academic, the environment, the universities, the Department of Education, and the private sector. I, personally, like the fact that the private sector is involved in this rather than just some bureaucrat behind closed doors in Washington, D.C., who is making those decisions.

I recently met with the Stanford Research Institute, and I looked at their photovoltaic technology. The University of Texas at Austin, in my district, is also involved with the manufacturing of these photovoltaics, along with countless high-tech companies, like Applied Materials and many others.

There is a lot of support for this bill in my district, and I think it's important to note that this bill has the support of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the National Association of Manufacturers, IBM, BP, Intel, and National Semiconductor. The Chamber recently urged us to vote for this, and said that the increased research, development and demonstration of solar technology is crucial to America's energy security needs.

We talk a lot about energy independence around here, but today, we really have something tangible that we can do about it, and that is to support this legislation.

As a former counterterrorism prosecutor, it disturbs me that we export $700 billion from this country to countries overseas which don't have our best interests at heart. We need to change our energy policy, and this is a critical piece to that. This is a great step forward for this Nation towards achieving that goal of energy independence.

My district really represents the broad spectrum of the differences--on the one hand, the Houston suburbs with oil and gas and, on the other hand, Austin, Texas, which is a green technology center. It's my view that we need all of this energy. We need to make more of this energy here in the United States, which will, in turn, create more energy for Americans and which will create more American jobs. In my view, we can have a hybrid energy policy, if you will. We can go green, and at the same time, we can drill.

So, again, I think this bill is an important step forward towards that path to energy independence. Solar energy, in my view, is one of the best potentials for alternative energies out there, and it can be placed on rooftops, and transmission is not as much of an issue. We are on the cutting edge with a huge breakthrough in this country where we can harness the sun's energy and can provide the energy that this country desperately needs.

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