Clean Energy Economy For The Future

Floor Speech

Mr. TONKO. Madam Speaker, we're going to utilize our 60 minutes this evening on the floor so as to have Democrats speak to jobs as they relate to this energy rethinking so that we can address the energy reforms that are essential for the strengthening of this Nation, to embrace our intellectual capacity, and to provide opportunities in job growth by promoting a strong sense of energy security, enhancing our energy independence, and therefore addressing favorably, Madam Speaker, our national security. All of these fine dynamics are met as we think outside the barrel, if you will, on energy policy.

How do we create these jobs? Well, there is just a sampling in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act that, when passed in early February, spoke to the creation of a half million jobs. That will now be invested through the Department of Energy, other resources, other agencies on the Federal level of government to make certain that we grow these opportunities through research and development investment, through energy efficiency, through renewables that are available through wind, solar, and the Earth, through geothermal; making certain that we can go forward with a progressive agenda so as to speak to a cleaning up of the environment and the security strengthener for the American economy by growing less reliant on fossil-based fuels. That gluttonous dependency that this Nation has on those fossil-based fuels is driving down our economy, and we have the potential here to enter a clean energy race, a global energy race, and win that race.

I am joined this evening, Madam Speaker, by two of our colleagues who have asked to participate so as to insert their thinking and to share their enthusiasm with the American audience and those here in the House about the job potential as it relates to energy reforming and energy transformation. We're joined by Representative JAY INSLEE from the State of Washington, the First District of the State of Washington, and we're also joined by Representative BEN LUJAN from the Third District in the State of New Mexico. Both are outstanding Representatives as it comes to energy transformation but also outspoken voices about job creation, job retention as it relates to energy policy.

Representative Inslee, because we are all, the three of us, partners in this new developed SEEC, the coalition that is provided for a Sustainable Energy and Environment Coalition, a group that has brought together soundness of thinking and the advancement of progressive policy. You serve as a cochair of that panel on which both Representative Luján and I serve. And so this evening if you would just share your comments with us about job potential as it relates to energy as an arena.

Mr. INSLEE. Well, with 10 percent unemployment, we know this country needs to act and we need to act quickly, and we need to act quickly in the job front of jobs that just won't be temporary and just won't be make-work jobs but will be part of the transition of our Nation to a Nation that can lead the world in the clean energy economy of the future. And we know that we have to get in that race for those jobs right now. We have bills pending, as we have already passed in the House the energy bill, which is now pending in the other Chamber; the stimulus bill, which is still in the process of being implemented; and we may have another bill on the floor of this House within the next month. All three of those bills are ways that we can jump-start the job growth in this economy by putting people to work on the jobs that are going to be the long-term jobs.

I want to note something. Our President was in China yesterday. I believe he's still there today. I was there about 4 months ago meeting with Speaker Pelosi, the President, and the Premier of China, and I will tell you the risk our country really has is that there is a country across the Pacific who fully understands where the jobs of the future are going to be. And when we talked to the President and Premier of China, they made very clear that they were going to try to dominate these industries and dominate job creation in building electric cars, electric motors for electric cars, wind turbines, solar voltaic plants, solar thermal plants. The Chinese are spending about $12 million an hour on renewable energy job creation. They spent three times as much on their stimulus bill as we did on ours in job creation in clean energy. They want to dominate the job creation of the future. And we are determined in this Chamber to get in that race both in the energy bill we passed in August and in this job creation bill we hope to be considering in the next month on the floor to continue this job creation.

I just want to mention two things that I think we ought to do very quickly. Number one, we should be putting thousands of Americans to work in retrofitting our homes and our businesses and our public buildings and our schools to make them energy efficient.

We started down that road in the stimulus bill, but there's more we can do to put people to work putting insulation in our homes, putting new windows on our homes, putting more energy efficient heating and cooling systems in our homes, in our schools and our buildings; and we will be proposing to leadership in the House, actually, this afternoon of this Sustainable Energy and Environment Caucus four or five ways to promote that type of job creation.

Second, we hope to use the Tax Code to continue incentive for Americans to make these kind of investments. We have a tax credit for homeowners right now, but it's just a credit you could take at the end of the year. We want to make that an advance so homeowners possibly can get the cash to work with this right now to hire people to put people to work in retrofitting their homes. We want to use the Tax Code to extend a couple of the tax credits that we're now using to develop job creation, for instance, the bio-fuel industry, that is expiring this December if we don't extend it. So there's just two ideas. I know we'll have some time tonight, but I would suggest that we could at least start at those two ideas.

Mr. TONKO. Absolutely. Thank you, Representative Inslee.

You talk about energy efficiency. I think we need to regard energy efficiency as our fuel of choice. We should give it highest priority because, for too long, supply-side solutions were encouraged without any addressing of demand side. We have a gluttonous dependency on whatever fuel mix we have in this country. We have got to do it with more efficiency. And I think that the kilowatt hours saved represent those cheapest that we need address into the future. The plant you never have to build will be the outcome here that provides for the cheapest kilowatt addressed.

We set a record, an historic record, with the $70 billion worth of investment in energy transformation, in renewables and energy efficiency and R&D through ARPA-E. All of this is a record proportion in this country's history. If it were a stand-alone bill outside of the Recovery Act, that would be the case. And so we can take great pride. There are people who are advancing this agenda because we know it is the right thing to do. And as you indicated, competing nations out there are already deeply invested into the race. We do not have the luxury to sit by idly and lull in some sort of sense of complacency and believe that we can escape this race. We need to be in it as we were in the Space Race in the sixties.

Mr. INSLEE. And I may note, if I can, efficiency, some people think that means just turning off your lights when you're not in the room. Efficiency needs to be seen as a job creation engine because when you become efficient you do two things: one, you make investments in your infrastructure to make it more efficient. And when you make those investments, you hire sheet metal workers to do the duct work, you hire people in the construction trades to do the retrofitting, you hire people who are manufacturing energy efficient refrigerators and energy efficient air conditioners, and a whole slew of these new businesses. So efficiency is a job creator first.

Secondly, after the efficiency is installed, you free up money for other investments. A business that can save 20 percent on its energy costs, and many businesses can, there's a company called McKinstry in Seattle which is leading the world and putting thousands of people to work. They're freeing up that money for businesses to make other investments. This is a job creator. We've just got to use the Tax Code on something like the PACE bonds, another idea that we will be proposing to leadership, to allow municipalities to float bonds, use that money to give to homeowners, let the homeowners retrofit their home and pay back the municipality on their property taxes. It's a surefire winner for everyone to get money to homeowners fast so that they can hire people to fix up their homes and have security for municipalities of getting paid back.

Mr. TONKO. You're absolutely right. And I'm very proud to serve on Science and Tech as a committee assignment in this House with Representative Ben Luján. We see, firsthand by that committee assignment the innovation that is sparked, that the policy we're developing is investing in all of this intellect here in the States, in the United States where we can provide these opportunities; many are shelf-ready. We're not even utilizing those. So we need to advance those efforts. Science and Tech is a good way. The SEEC Coalition, the Sustainable Energy and Environment Coalition, is a great opportunity on which all three of us serve.

Representative Luján, I know you have great thoughts about where we can go with energy policy. You're an outspoken voice, to your credit. It's great to have you here this evening.

Mr. LUJÁN. Thank you, Mr. Tonko. It's an honor to be here with you tonight. I just want to say thank you for making sure we got this hour moving, and especially to be here with such a distinguished Member as Mr. Inslee to talk about these important projects that are moving forward.

If I could just pick up a little bit where Mr. Inslee left off there, when we talk about energy efficiency and the investments that are made in people's homes, let's walk through with everybody tuning in what that entails. So, at the most basic level, someone that owns a home or someone that has a place where they live, they walk down to the local hardware store, they purchase, whether it's caulking or some insulation that they can install on their own, maybe change out some light bulbs, some basic things that they can do on their own. So they go and they support the local store, make some investments there, help that local economy churn a little bit. They go back home, they make these installations, they're going to see that utility bill drop a little bit.

Now with the investments that we've put forward in both the Recovery Act and what we hope to see with the energy bill that we passed out of this House and out of this Chamber and what the Senate is working on right now, we're expanding those opportunities. All across the country and going on right back at home, we've been part of going into people's homes where they've had some weatherization projects recently, where it's a little more complex, where they're working with local contractors; local contractors that are going to the community college or going back to some of those apprenticeship programs and learning some new skills so that way they can further their business, take advantage of some of the investments that we've put forward when they're installing now more insulation in the roof tops, those shinglings that Mr. Inslee was referring to that sheet metal workers are now putting in businesses and homes, maybe changing out that furnace if it's been there for 20 or 30 years, maybe it's even that water heater which has been there for 50 years, doing something with that second refrigerator that's maybe taking up a lot of energy.

Now we're putting people to work. We're making investments in homes. We're adding value to the home, so now we're helping people in their communities, putting a little bit more money in their pockets. If we can do this in every home and people across the country are taking advantage of these programs and we're making these investments, how much less energy is needed? When we talk about that we go to rates, rates that they're going to see coming from utility companies as a whole. If we can prevent one more coal plant from being built or one more big facility from being built in an old conventional way and we're able to employ new technologies, so that way we're bringing in more job skills and more job creation, looking at the way we can take advantage of abundant resources we have here in the U.S., making sure we're building out transmission in a smart way, taking advantage of new materials, employing the scientists, the engineers, the researchers who are looking at these applied technologies, making sure that they're looking at modeling, employing and bringing in the expertise from our national laboratories into this now?

We've got everyone from the person that's in the home that can pick up that hammer and could do a little bit of work themselves, to the contractor who can go into those homes and make sure that they're making those investments, the local hardware person making some investments, to physicists, engineers, researchers who are adding to this. Now, we don't see the possibility from a job creation perspective, and it's unfortunate that we still hear from some of those that are opposed to investing in America and in investing in energy, from creating these new jobs and making things happen, I don't know what more we need to do to convince them, because all across the country this is happening. That's why we need to continue making these strides forward and making these investments in America, because if we do things smarter and we do things better, we're going to get this economy turned around. And making sure that we're investing and taking advantage of a new way of investing in energy, investing in energy efficiency, investing in weatherization and investing in renewable generation, we can make all these wonderful things happen.

And even going a step further to what Mr. Inslee was talking about with the bio-fuel tax credit extension, so we're being less dependent on foreign sources of fuel, foreign sources of oil, and we're able to build that right here in America. What a great idea. It's just an honor to be a part of that.

Mr. TONKO. Thank you. It's also a way to clean the environment. You know, the ripple effects of this whole exercise are so great that they reach out over the spectrum of jobs in so many dimensions. There are the trades that Representative Inslee mentioned a while ago. There are those with a bachelor's degree or an associate's degree, a master's degree, a Ph.D., all are brought to the table because we need the strengths of every one of those sectors of the work force to respond to this energy innovation. And I saw from where I sat prior to my entry here in Congress, as President and CEO of NYSERDA, the New York State Energy, Research and Development Authority, where job creation was a big part of the outcome, whether we're retrofitting a factory to make it smarter.

Many are suggesting, well, we can't compete in a global marketplace because the workforce is paid so little in some other communities, in some other global communities. That may be true. But what we also can do is work smarter, and the working smarter is where you embrace the intellectual capacity of this country and put it to work for our manufacturing sector, put it to work for the businesses across this country, where we can reduce that cost of energy, reduce the cost of their products and then make them more viable on the global scene, where we sharpen that competitive edge, don't dull it with the exorbitantly high cost of energy, and where innovation and intellect are not embraced in a way that can really make a difference. We see it all the time.

Representative Inslee, I know you want to hop in here because you are that outspoken voice from the west coast, if we might add.

Mr. INSLEE. You made me think of something. You mentioned smart people and smart ideas.

I had a very smart person in my office today. His name is Mike Town. He's an environmental science teacher at Redmond High School, the Redmond High School Mustangs in Redmond, Washington. Mike is leading a national effort called Cool Schools. It's something he started at Redmond High School to try to see if his high school could figure out how to not waste so much energy and save the school district money. They now have saved something like, it's about $25,000 a year just for their high school by doing some commonsense efficiency things that they have done and in investments they've made at Redmond High School.

They now have a group called Cool Schools which are trying to get schools across the country to engage in this kind of a challenge to see how much energy you can save; and the brilliant ideas a lot of the kids are coming up with--kids meaning 15-, 16-, 17-, 18-year-olds--the ideas on how to green their schools that are making their schools a lot more cost effective so the taxpayer can save money, and a lot more green for the environment. And the kids learn a lot about science as well. I just mention it because the schools can be a factory of ideas, but it's a place to put some investment to save taxpayers money. When we make the public buildings more efficient, we save taxpayers money.

But here's the challenge, and here's where I think our last energy bill, and perhaps our next jobs bill which might be on this floor in December sometime can really do a service. The challenge has been for homeowners, how to get the up-front financing to pay the contractor to fix your house up. Everybody knows that you might spend a few thousand dollars fixing your home up, and you're going to save a lot more over the long run because it's going to reduce your energy bill. But the question is, how do you come up with the scratch to do the first contract?

Well, where we can help, and we're going to be proposing several ideas in this jobs bill that will essentially help the homeowner finance that, and there are several ways to do that: one, to give them an advance credit on the credit that now exists on your income taxes, to actually give an advance so you can pay the contractor to get it going.

Second, we want to make it easier for cities to do what some cities like Boulder, Colorado are doing. They have a program where basically the city gives the money to the homeowner, the homeowner hires the contractor, then the homeowner pays the city back on their property tax. And it's a lien on the house, so the city knows they're going to get their money back. The city then issues a bond to generate the capital to pay for this program. We want to help some cities by guaranteeing that bond, they can sell it on the bond market for less money then and generate more bang for their buck.

This is the kind of program that is just difficult really to see how it will fail, because almost any investment that people make to their homes seem to pay off in the long run in reduced energy bills. It's just getting that original capital to get going. So, as part of our jobs bill, we're going to be proposing a way to accelerate the ability of homeowners, small businesses, school districts, public utilities, can generate that capital to get the money investment done and then save money over the long run. And when we do that, everybody wins.

I mean, I know this seems likes a no-brainer. Why isn't it happening naturally? It's not happening naturally because people can't get the capital to make these worthwhile investments. And when we do this we're putting carpenters to work, we're putting plumbers to work, we're putting sheet metal workers to work, we're putting truck drivers to work, we're putting architects to work, we're putting designers to work. This is really a sweet spot for us, and I hope that we can accelerate this.

Mr. TONKO. I think the point you make is a very important one. There are so many strategies that we can utilize, so many approaches to network with consumers out there, be they residential, business, commercial, industrial, we can reach them because there are ways with these quick payback periods that come with much of this retrofitting or with the energy or conservation measures that we can utilize the efficiency efforts.

We can show people where they can recapture that money that was invested simply through savings in their energy bill. And I think what happens also is that as it catches on in a way that inspires one another, neighborhoods, communities and States start getting into programs, and it spreads; the good news spreads.

We did, when I was at NYSERDA, a dairy program that invested in energy efficiency at dairy farms. Now they were not getting what they believed was a fair enough price, and I agree with them, for their product. We couldn't control that at a State level, but we could reduce their costs of production. And we did it by reducing, through energy efficiency, their energy bill. And they would take pumping and cooling processes at the farm, they would take all of the elements that needed to be put into the process, the business plan of that dairy farmer, and reduced, in a very clever way, by working with Cornell University, working with the local utility, working with NYSERDA, and working with the Farm Bureau, we came up with a program that really saved a lot of farms.

Today that program is very popular in a couple of counties in the State of New York where the demonstration was begun. And it is something that could be stretched through time over a larger bit of geography for many farmers to utilize such a program.

When Representative Inslee talked about the school system and saving the schools money so that they could then, with that fungible notion of that budget, transfer some of those savings over to investment in the classroom, that's great. But I also think we teach by example.

Our students watch what we are doing. I spoke at a high school graduation this summer at North Colonie School System at Shaker High, about 500 or so graduates, and incorporated all of the talk about energy transitioning, innovation economy and the need to protect the environment and strengthen the environment. I have to tell you, throughout the course of the summer, so many students from that high school reached out to me. They would see me and in casual conversation they would support the statements that you offered, the ideas that you were sharing at their graduation. They are going to push us. They are going to push these generations that are today making decisions to move forward with a progressive plan, with an idea that really saves our Earth and allows this economy to jump-start.

I think of that idealism, and I take myself back 40 years. what a great opportunity to shake the hands of the Apollo 11 team a couple months ago in July when everyone was in town celebrating the 40th anniversary of having won that space race. The U.S. landed a person on the Moon, and look at the technology improvements that came from that race. And we won it.

We need that same passionate resolve to enter into this race. We don't have the luxury to say we won't enter this clean energy global race. We know there are other partners already out there. And in my heart, I totally believe that we can win this race. But we can't afford to sit by because China, India, Japan and Germany--Germany is investing in solar PV hot water systems where they are training a niche of plumbers to retrofit homes where they are using the sun to power the hot water needs that they need. It's available.

All these opportunities are there. We simply need to move forward.

Representative Inslee, you wanted to jump in.

Mr. INSLEE. I just want to make one comment before I leave. There is some really good news out here for America on the job front in clean energy. Two weeks ago on the Microsoft campus out in Washington State, I drove a Ford Focus, which will probably be the first American, mass-produced all-electric vehicle. And this car is the bomb. When Americans get in an all-electric car and understand how much torque an all-electric car can generate, this is the fastest car I've been in since I was in my buddy's Chevy 404 in 1968. When you hit the pedal, it's not a gas pedal, I guess we will call it the accelerator, they will still call it the gas pedal anyway, even though it's all-electric, unbelievable power is generated because an electric engine gives you immediate torque. In an internal combustion engine, you have the pistons and you have to get the momentum up. Electricity is immediate torque.

Now everybody has been talking about electric cars because they are so efficient. They can wean us off of our Middle Eastern oil addiction, which is so dangerous to us. They can reduce global warming. But what Americans will really love is how fast they are and the acceleration you get from them. That will be the fun thing about them.

The good news is we now have an opportunity to get thousands of Americans to work building electric cars, building plug-in hybrid cars. And General Motors has the Volt, which will be coming out. You plug it in, and it goes 40 miles on all electric, and then it has an internal combustion motor so you can go another 200, 250 miles without having to get another charge.

They have taken a little different approach. Americans will have a choice of how to move forward in electric cars. The Tesla is already on the street, which is all-electric, which is the sportiest, fastest and most amazing-looking car you've ever seen. They're a little expensive right now, but they're working very well.

The point I want to make, though, is we have got to jump-start this progress because the Chinese want to dominate this industry. And once they get a foot in the door internationally, you don't want to be the second place coming out of the chute in the provision for the electric car. And what we did in our energy bill and our stimulus bill has given very significant investment capability in the industry to produce these cars.

We also did it for the batteries. We had $2 billion in the stimulus bill to try to jump-start a domestic lithium ion battery system to run these cars. Now there are some other things we can do perhaps even to move further to get jobs in these industries.

The point I want to make is we can't sit around for 10 years and maybe do this 10 years from now. We have to do it right now for two reasons: one, we've got a 10 percent unemployment rate, and people are desperate out there. We know how trying and the anxiety that unemployment creates. It is one of the most difficult things for people who want to be productive, who want to take care of their families. This is very difficult for thousands of our fellow Americans right now.

But, two, this is the opportunity of the lifetime or maybe several generations that we can't lose to these other countries. And so that is why it's important that the other Chamber pass this energy bill. That's why it is important in our upcoming jobs bill to investigate other ways.

Here is one idea I hope will be considered in the jobs bill: we need to provide charging stations for people. If we are going to have electric cars, we need charging stations. And helping municipalities build these charging station networks is something we might be able to do to get electrical workers, IBEW members, machinists, electrical engineers employed, working with the infrastructure to create charging stations around the Nation. Now we don't need as many as you might think because 60 percent of all our trips are under 40 miles anyway, and these cars are going to have at least a 100-mile range. So most of our trips don't require a car that has 300 mileage. But we still need some in case you want to go a long distance.

So I hope in our jobs bill we will consider ways to jump-start the building out of these electrical systems to get that job done. I want to thank you for letting me participate tonight. I look forward to our next discussion.

Mr. TONKO. Thank you, Representative Inslee, and thank you not only for your dedication to the efforts of reforming energy policy, but your determination to keep fighting to that finish line. And it's that kind of advocacy that will get it done. We thank you for joining us this evening.

Representative Luján, we hear about the messaging that is so important about creating jobs. We have an environment out there that needs to be strengthened, cleaned and protected. We have energy crises of various types that need to be resolved. And all of this can respond to a job crisis in this Nation and in this world.

There are hurting economies. There's a recession that went deeper and longer than many projected. There was a deficit inherited by this administration that was developed over the course of 8 years that really puts this economy into a hurting situation.

And so now it's our task, the Obama administration's challenge, to take that deficit inherited that really destroyed an economy, and now we have the opportunity to rebuild that economy but, at the same time, to respond in a way to the dynamics out there of energy reform, of environment, of strengthening the environment response, and at the same time, developing jobs of all types, from the trades on over to the Ph.D.s.

I know that you're in the middle of that battle. I know from your statements made in the Science and Technology Committee and from your statements made on the floor that no one can second guess where your heart is and where your thinking is on this issue.

Mr. LUJÁN. Mr. Tonko, we have an opportunity to work on these issues together, to move legislation and work with our colleagues to talk about what tomorrow will look like and not wait for a few years to come before we get a lot of this policy in place to create these jobs, to be smart about the way we do things, to invest in this technology and to really embrace this opportunity that we have now.

As I travel around the district, I remind people how, not too long ago, we had $4.50 gasoline. If you were using diesel and you were out on the farm in some of the rural parts of the country, we had $5 diesel fuel, and how a lot of those people that were making the profits off of that, where this money was going overseas, they weren't really our friends. And they still aren't. We see where that money is going. We have an opportunity now to change that as a way that we look at energy in the country, in the United States of America, in this beautiful place that we call home.

Now, as we talk about the tax incentives necessary for homeowners and businesses to be able to invest in their homes, I think Mr. Inslee is right on track there. As we talk about what we can do, in looking at being smarter about the way that we look at policy, adopting better ways of doing things, encouraging people to invest in their homes in a way that's going to save them money in the long run, that's going to add value to their home in the long run is brilliant, I hope that we have something like that in the new jobs bill.

Now, Mr. Tonko, you were talking about how you were able to work with schools in your community, with Cornell, with leading institutions and universities, to work with the local public schools or with the dairies to create more efficiency so that way they could put more money back into their pockets, have a more competitive cost structure with their products as well.

When we invest in our schools, we create living classrooms. We create classrooms where we are teaching our students these jobs skills of tomorrow by encouraging them to go learn a trade or go to college to become that electrical engineer, the mechanical engineer, to become the entrepreneur to start a business so that way they can go and make these investments in our community.

What better way to get more young people encouraged and to really get that ingenuity moving, to get the creativity alive and well again in our country? This is the way to get it done. There is no reason that we can't be working more closely with our students, teaching them in the classroom, leaning on our universities, our national laboratories, to be able to partner up with our businesses and show them how to do things better, how to use less energy, how to take these products to market better and how to build them right here in the good old U.S. of A.

We talked a little about vehicles. Now as we transition and we are investing in these technologies where we have hybrids and plug-ins, we need to look to see how we can do better here in this country as well. And that's something where I'm encouraged where a little more people are talking about how even natural gas can be used in our vehicles, which burns a lot less carbon, but is abundant in different parts of our country that can go into our vehicles.

Now it's being smarter about the way we do things, and it's using technology a little differently; and it allows us to be able to not have to depend on foreign sources of oil while we're getting there. And those investments will be used in electric vehicles and hybrids and making sure we are making these technologies available to everyone. And it is just so exciting because as I go home and I talk to our national laboratories and I talk to businesses. I have seen an opportunity now where we can maybe build and retrofit a refinery back in New Mexico to have a biofuel refinery.

These are exciting things that we can do to put people to work, to bring people back to work and to even show this technology off to the rest of the world.

It's happening right here at home. And it's only going to continue, though, if we make these investments and we get more people on board and the people around us, people all across America realize that this is something that we can do. It's a job starter. It's a job creator. And it's really where we need to go as a country to get back in front of everything.

Mr. TONKO. Well, Representative Luján, what I believe you're expressing here is the greatness of America. And that is driven by a belief, a set of values, a skill set, an investment in education that says we have succeeded in the past, we can continue to succeed, and we will succeed because the success that is driven oftentimes is determined by a tone that is established. This administration has said, enough with these deficits that were created that we inherited and now we have to resolve. We have to move forward with an investment that carries us through these dark times that were developed.

And how do we do that? Well, you and I, both working through the Sustainable Energy and the Environment Coalition--SEEC, as is commonly referenced--heard from the former minister of energy from Denmark. He talked about transitioning that economy of Denmark, transitioning their energy thinking. Afterward, I talked to him and said, Just how did you do it? Some of the ideas were driven by the American think tank. They took patents from this country and they deployed that thinking into their economy and they invested in their economy. Well, now that's sharp thinking. That's the sort of efficiency that we all should strive for in government.

Now, in this process we need to invest, yes, in the R&D, but we need to then transition those discoveries in the lab, those whiz-kid ideas. We need to take those and deploy them to manufacturing, we need to deploy them to the commercialization sector, so as to realize the discovery here in a way that provides for improvements in society and new responses to energy crises.

Well, just recently the President traveled to my district, to the capital region of New York, to Hudson Valley Community College. We have been talking about the wonderful economy, regional economy, that has been a foundation, a fertile ground for fostering the thinking of nanoscience and semiconductor as an industry. There is that fertile investment that now is anxious to couple with Federal thinking, with Federal resources.

And so the President showcased this wonderful thinking in the region, through the community college, developing curricula for green-collar workforce development; dealing with construction majors who will know state-of-the-art solar or PV installation; working with all those budding scientists and skill sets from the trade sector that are going to be there to transition us.

So he talked about the investment in human terms, in capital terms, in ways that will allow us to now transition. This is how we grow out of this deficit situation, which we inherited from no sense of vision and from poor management of resources. Now we're going to work together to develop energy plans, to work on a situation that grows jobs.

This is all about growing jobs. We hear it all across America. People are looking for jobs. This is a good way to develop those jobs--R&D jobs, manufacturing jobs. Once you invest in that so-called ``valley of death'' where there isn't that network of Federal resources to be matched with the angel network and the venture capitalists that take the idea from the lab, from the investment, from both the private sector, academia, or maybe even government, taking that and transitioning it over into the commercial sector, into the manufacturing sector--that is the resource we need.

And when the President traveled to the district, he heard how we needed to connect those dynamics so that the confluence of those ideas and those resources spell success, spell new ideas. The American intellect is so very capable of making that happen. That is the greatness of America. And we can underscore that greatness by investing and inserting the sort of policy that makes the total difference here.

Again, we don't have the luxury to wait. We cannot sit by in some sort of idle complacency that finds us comfortable with where we're at today without stretching, without transforming, without moving forward in a way that we did 40 years ago with the space race. And we were proud when we won that.

When I was a kid, we heard Sputnik all the time--in school, at home, at church, wherever you traveled in the community. People were passionate about making that happen. We were going to move forward, we were going to invest. We shared a vision. We fine-tuned that vision as an American people and then won that prize by landing that person on the moon. That influenced all sorts of technology growth and inspiration.

We have that same golden opportunity here. What a mistake if we're to let it go by. We will fail generations to come if we do not seize this moment and make it work in policy terms, in investment terms, in resource terms, in a way that spells a new day for energy generation, energy efficiency, and energy investment through R&D.

Representative Luján, I know that working on these several projects, we can make a difference.

Mr. LUJÁN. Mr. Tonko, well said. As we talk about what this has to offer the country, where we can go from here and how we can learn from some of the mistakes that were made in the past, you know, this notion of the over $4 a gallon gasoline and up to $4.50 and $5 that we saw recently, not too long ago--we saw what was happening and how we're creeping, yet the investments weren't made.

Now, those that are critical of the President and of this Congress for making investments that are going to make a difference tomorrow so that we're solving these problems, we don't have the dependence on these foreign sources of oil; we're going to take the latest and greatest, the scientists, the smartest people, the individuals that are starting their own businesses, those contractors, the tradespeople, the builders, and bring everyone together to do it better, to do it smarter. I don't understand it, why there are still those that don't think these are good ideas.

We talked a lot about the space program. Now let's put this into perspective. When we won the space race here in the United States and we developed the technologies that enabled us to win that space race, solar panels were part of that. And where are we now, Mr. Tonko? With the rest the world, falling behind when it comes to solar technology, to using it and integrating it into everyday use. Now this is a technology that we developed here that enabled us to win the space race and generate the power needed to keep the men that were in space safe and get them back home. We can use it to power our homes. We can use it to diversify the way that we generate power for the country. We can use it to create jobs. We can use it to develop more and more exciting, innovative ways of looking at the way we do things. And, as you so eloquently put it, talking about nanotechnology; building things smaller and smaller, where we have been able to do this with the way that we use computers now, where they use less energy; the phones that we use.

All the technology that has come out of what we achieved with the space race, and how we in the country have fallen behind now--that's what we're talking about here. It's investing in America. It's staying ahead of the curve here. It's making sure that we provide the best education for our kids, that we're making this commitment in science and technology and engineering and math, and that we're keeping it here to build the things here, to build these components, to create these jobs back here at home. That's what we're talking about here. And I just hope that more and more of our colleagues, Democrats, Republicans, independents, that we can come together to make this investment in America, because we can't afford not to.

We have always been leaders when it comes to innovation. Now let's take that leap, let's take that step, and let's make that commitment to invest in America, invest in ingenuity, create these jobs, and do things better and smarter for tomorrow.

Mr. TONKO. Representative Luján, I couldn't agree more. And I really do believe that many of us were sparked--our interest was sparked by just the vision that we shared and by the news that we would hear on a daily basis. We'd come home from school and hear it on the night news. That sparked so many people to look at math, at science, at engineering, because we had leaders that really saw that we had this greatness of potential within us.

So everyone marched along in this chorus of belief that we could make the world a better place. There was a sense of global community. There was a commitment of this Nation to really lead in a way that provided for great outcomes.

That sort of leadership is coming back here. I think that this administration, the leadership here with Speaker Pelosi and the leaders of so many committees in this House see it, they get it. They know we can solve this job crisis by bringing in the nuances of energy reform, of health care reform, of providing for a jobs agenda.

You know, when you look at some of these issues where you take nanoscience within my district, where they're really developing this precision testing--the mass production of the past Industrial Revolution was about a great idea, perhaps started in your garage and then developed into a factory-size space because you had to meet demand. Well, today it's about precision. As you pointed out, something as thin as a strand of hair will be what they're working on.

And so the prototyping, the testing, the evaluating, are all elements of success. Very pricey. And so there's a role here for the Federal Government to insert itself, to say, Look, you're an entrepreneur; you're a budding scientist; you're an emerging technology that's being driven by your intellect. Let us partner with you, let us partner with the angel network, with the investor communities, so that we can take this idea and make it real and put it on the shelf. That's what it's all about.

Other countries are using our ideas--and our ideas are still those that are driven by an investment in education, in higher education. So this is a full set of circumstances by which we will govern ourselves, our thinking, in a way that transitions this economy. That's what it's about, the innovation economy. And yes, there's a jobs crisis. But yes, we saw what the deficit that had been going far too long did to our employment issue. Did this happen overnight? Did this just happen 3 months ago? Did we just start to lose jobs just weeks ago? I don't think so. But now the transitioning into an innovation economy is driven by heart and the mind--the thinking here that we can do better and we will do better. And that's what it's all about. It's taking the stand and making certain that we invest our way through some very difficult times.

Mr. LUJÁN. Mr. Tonko, I'm glad that you're reminding everyone watching today that these job losses and what's happening with the economy and the deficit, that this just didn't happen 3 weeks ago or 3 months ago or even 6 months ago. That this is something that was developing and building.

We're going to hear those that say we can't invest in the country when it comes to clean energy, we can't do this, we can't do that. Well, I say to them: We can't afford not to. We're going to continue to hear how others want to scare the American people and don't want to see this President succeed or this Congress succeed in investing in America. We need to do things better here. And I know, Mr. Tonko, we're both new to Congress. But when it comes to putting the American people first and remembering why we came here and continuing to invest in this great Nation of ours to make it stronger and better and providing an environment where we can let people that want to start a business, start a business; where we invest in that science and that ingenuity and that creativity which allows them to do it, that's what we can do.

Mr. TONKO. Absolutely. And it's responding to the needs of middle-income America, working families across this country, who are part of the solution. They are part of the solution. We need simply to bring everybody together into a working semblance that then allows us to move forward.

You know, I think of the wind energy efficiency bill that I got passed in this House that started in the Science and Tech Committee, taking a step back to look at how we can improve not only the placement but the wind forecasting. But also the manufacturing, the materials that are utilized. The gear assembly. How do we do this? Well, you couple that with the nanoscience sector and you can take that nanoscience growth, that intellect that's being developed, that's being fostered in the various centers of nanotechnology, and couple them with perhaps agriculture or pharmaceutical as an industry, or the health care industry, certainly the energy industry, and produce stronger materials, lighter materials, more durable materials, working on situations that provide for the greatest efficient outcome with the resources that we invest.

I look at kinetic hydropower that was used as a demonstration project at NYSERDA, where I used to serve as president and CEO. We used the turbulence of the East River along the island of Manhattan, and we utilized that water movement to turn the turbines sub water to create power needs for Roosevelt Island. Well, that's just a snippet of the imagination that can be tapped into.

Today, after improvements through the DOE lab in Colorado, we're now looking at the potential of 1,100 megawatts of power produced by kinetic hydro. That's just a sampling of what can happen. We see geothermal and its potential. I was there for a ribbon-cutting for a project at the Culinary Institute of America utilizing geothermal to help run the campus activities.

All of this has immense potential, immeasurable at times, and all we have to do is unleash the talent. A leading Nation such as ours cannot, again, be complacent. And we need to continually energize our thinking and our behavior. No lead nation can allow itself to slip backward. Unless we encourage our workforce and our students out there, our youth, to desire, to invent, and discover and explore, we will not maintain a leadership status.

So I agree with you, for those who are agents of no, for those who wanted to settle for the status quo, those who are perhaps using partisan approaches to deny progress with this administration, need not put the burdens and the hurdles before us.

We need to march forward in progress, sharing a boldness of vision, created by a situation here that has really triggered the need for the American ingenuity, the American intellect, and the American resolve to move us forward.

Representative Luján, it's great to have you here this evening.

Mr. LUJÁN. Well, it's great to be with you, Mr. Tonko. I'm not sure if there is anything to add after that.

When you talk about the piece of legislation that you brought to the floor and we were able to get passed that would make new investments in wind energy, back home in a little community by the name of Tucumcari, New Mexico, we have the North American Wind Research and Training Center at Mesalands Community College where they're training young people how to maintain these wind turbines across New Mexico, across Texas, up to Colorado, and across the country. I will tell you, job creation, investments in new energy, investments in clean energy, they're all connected. That's one example of a piece of legislation that's allowing us to achieve this and make it happen.

It's just great to be on the floor with you this evening, Mr. Tonko, as we're able to talk to the American people and those that want to see this happen, those that are hungry for this investment, those that are hungry to see their kids have these opportunities for years to come, that they want more generations behind them to have as well. I'll tell you, we're almost there, Mr. Tonko, and we're going to make this happen, and it's going to be the American people to help push us over the top.

Mr. TONKO. Well, I agree. And thank you for leadership like that that you have provided, because it's that advocacy, that voice of can-do that will make the difference. I think of the opportunity that we have to make solar a legacy piece.

Representative Giffords introduced her solar efficiency roadmap legislation, and allowing for us to look again at the efficiencies that we can drive into the solar discussion, the solar outcome, we should create a legacy piece of that. We need to look at thin film and R&D that can put us into a situation where we discover the materials that can shave the priciness of some of these renewable opportunities that then make them all the more competitive, make them all the more connected to consumer behavior out there.

You know, if we can utilize the sun, and if we can utilize water, and if we can utilize the wind, and if we can utilize the soil to provide for our needs in a benign way, then what a tremendous legacy, what a tremendous bit of progress to leave that next generation as they will continue to grow upon our success stories. But what a tragedy if we're to look back and say that we thought status quo was fine, that 40 years ago we won a space race and we were content to sit still. Nothing could be more un-American than that thinking.

So in this House, in this loftiness, we require lofty thinking, and that's what it's about. I'm so proud of this majority in that they do speak in lofty terms, Madam Speaker. I think this is the way we get things done, and I am just impressed with what I see here being brought forward not only in resolve for an energy problem or problems or with environmental concerns, but in job creation, where we're allowing as a down payment a half million jobs with the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, but then looking at the millions of jobs that come forward through a program like ACES, the American Clean Energy and Security Act, that allows us to, again, think outside that barrel and say, That's not good enough for us.

Fossil-based fuels, you know, the dependency to send hundreds of billions of dollars to foreign economies where there are unfriendly governments that are utilizing those monies in their Treasury that are poured in from the American pockets and then fight us as terrorist regimes or what have you, we have got to step back and say, There is a better way. And there is a better way, and we're promoting it. We're advancing it here, and it's all in the name of job creation, job retention, which I believe is a benefit that is immeasurable in its kind.

Madam Speaker, we thank you for the opportunity this evening to share sentiments on behalf of Democrats in the House who are advancing the notion of progressive energy policy, of resources that will enable us to think in new capacity as we speak to the energy needs of this Nation all while advancing the notion of jobs. We thank you for that opportunity.

Representative Luján, any closing comments?

Mr. LUJÁN. Madam Speaker, we just appreciate the time this evening to remind the American people what we can do, the jobs that can be created when we can come together and make investments in this great Nation of ours. Investing in energy and being smart about the way we do things, it's all part of the mix. It's just great to know that this Congress and this President are serious about getting something done to be able to put the American people first.

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