The 21st Century's Global Clean Energy Race

Floor Speech

Mr. VAN HOLLEN. Madam Speaker, in April, the International Energy Agency concluded that despite some progress in deploying clean energy, that the average unit of energy produced in the world today is essentially polluting as it was 20 years ago.

As President Obama stated at Georgetown University last month, we cannot afford to slow-walk our transition to a lower carbon future. Climate change and its consequences are not waiting and neither can we.

The good news is the transition to a cleaner global economy presents a great economic opportunity for the United States. Bloomberg New Energy Finance estimates that private clean energy investment will more than triple by 2030. We should be fighting to attract that investment here in the United States, but we are at risk of missing out on that opportunity.

China and other countries have made firm national commitments to generate more electricity from clean energy sources, and that reality is reflected in their current levels of investment--a $65 billion investment in China compared to $35 billion in the United States.

Madam Speaker, we should not lose this competition, we should not jeopardize our future, and we should not jeopardize the climate. This is an opportunity for a win-win.

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