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“ENERGY” mentioning the U.S. Dept. of Energy was published in the Senate section on pages S4432-S4433 on May 20, 2008.
The publication is reproduced in full below:
ENERGY
Ms. KLOBUCHAR. Mr. President, a few weeks ago, I came here and said that each week I was going to give a talk on the floor about another piece of the puzzle of why it is so important to pass climate change legislation this year; about how we cannot wait as we see tremendous changes to our environment and our way of life. We need to act and we need to act now.
Last summer, I took a trip to Greenland with other members of the Environment and Public Works Committee to see firsthand the effects of global climate change. One of the scientists traveling with us described Greenland as a canary in the coal mine when it comes to global warming.
Greenland has lost an amount of ice in 1 year equal to two times all the ice on the Alps. People in Greenland are planting potatoes in places where they used to run sled dogs on the ice. What we saw on that trip only confirmed for us what the scientific community has now asserted in an overwhelming consensus. Average global temperatures are up 1 degree in the last century. Now, that does not sound like much, but to put it in perspective, they are only up 5 degrees since the height of the Ice Age.
The EPA forecasts an increase of 3 to 8 degrees for the next 100 years. It is up 1 degree in the last century, estimated 3 to 8 degrees in this 100 hundred years. Ice caps are melting, ocean levels are rising, and glaciers are shrinking.
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has concluded there is irrefutable evidence of climate change on every continent, with risks to several species and the danger of increasing violent weather events.
When I arrived in the Senate a little over a year ago, people were still debating whether climate change was real; was it actually happening? The debate is over, the facts are in, and now we are finally debating solutions.
I am proud to say it is science that has affected our actions and that this shift in our thinking is because there are people now in this Chamber who are willing to look at and talk about the science.
Last year in the Energy bill, we raised fuel economy standards for cars and trucks and other vehicles for the first time in years and years, for the first time in decades. The new standard will boost fuel efficiency by 40 percent and cut millions of tons in carbon emissions. And, most importantly, as we look at how much gas costs, it is going to save the average family, depending on how many children they have, something like $1,000 a year.
So this is not only about environmental issues, this is about economic pocketbook issues as well. In the farm bill agreement the conferees approved last week and this Senate passed, we have important incentives to move farmers toward the next generation of clean, renewable biofuels, using cellulosic crops that can be grown on marginal farmland with minimal chemical input.
This is the next generation of biofuels; using other parts of the corn, looking at switchgrass, prairie grass, things that actually are consistent with conservation and can be good for our environment and can help to wean us off our dependency on foreign oil. Instead of investing in the sultans of Saudi Arabia, we can be investing in the farmers and the workers of this country.
Now it is time for us to take the next crucial step in energy and conservation policy: enact strong, comprehensive climate change legislation, the Lieberman-Warner bill, that will come before the Senate in a few weeks.
I referred a moment ago to our trip to Greenland last summer. But today I wish to discuss a second trip I took recently, that is, around my State, visiting many small towns in the State of Minnesota.
I visited the campus of the University of Minnesota-Morris, where they are building a biomass gasification plant. It turns farm and forest byproducts into gas and produces electricity. Within a year or two, it will meet the heating, cooling, and electricity needs for the entire campus without burning any carbon-emitting fossil fuels. I visited southwestern Minnesota, where I have been many times, where there is a sprawling windmill farm on the rise of land called Buffalo Ridge. You can see towering turbines for miles, and they are now supplying a significant share of Minnesota's power needs--in fact, with the standard enacted on a bipartisan basis by our State legislature, 25 percent by 2025 for renewable energy of all kinds for the provision of electricity. In tiny Starbuck, MN, 10 people left their jobs to join a solar panel factory manufacturing solar panels to make electricity from the Sun. These projects are reducing our dependence on fossil fuels and cutting our emissions of greenhouse gases.
The point I wish to discuss today as part of this week's discussion is that they are creating good jobs. I mention these examples because when we discuss climate change and solutions, too many people think it has only to do with doing without, cutting back, and doing less. It is true conservation must play a central role in a comprehensive energy policy to clean up our planet and reduce our dependency on foreign oil. This isn't the days of Jimmy Carter putting on a sweater and going on TV and looking glum. People actually see this as an economic benefit, if they conserve, because they are going to save money. It is also true that by adopting a strong, sensible policy toward reducing greenhouse gas pollution, we can open the door to a world of opportunities, which means new jobs.
As we prepare to discuss action on climate change, here is what we must remember. There is a possibility, a strong possibility, an opportunity that we can get more out of this. This means manufacturing a new generation of refrigerators, air-conditioners, and other household appliances that meet the needs of consumers while consuming less electricity. It means designing buildings with ``smart glass'' and rooftop gardens that conserve energy and water. Some people think these rooftop gardens are some kind of landscaper's lark, but they aren't. They keep buildings warmer in the winter and cooler in the summer and capture airborne pollutants that otherwise would enter the air we breathe. JPMorgan, a huge investment bank, recently redesigned its Manhattan headquarters with a rooftop garden and estimates it will save 30 percent on its utility bills.
Since cars and trucks are a major source of our greenhouse gas emissions, this next generation of looking at the world differently means exploiting the full potential of hybrid automotive technology. Hybrid cars and trucks, however, have already shown themselves to be a great success story, on the sales lot and in the engineering laboratory. The old version required you to plug in the car and carry around extra batteries. Because we invested in research and provided some limited Federal incentives, we are not only seeing a better product; we are also seeing an explosion in consumer demand that would have been unthinkable a few years ago.
Now Chevrolet has developed another breakthrough, the Chevy Volt, a battery-powered car which could be on the market in less than 2 years. You will be able to plug the Volt into an ordinary household outlet and then drive up to 40 miles without using a drop of gasoline. Your car isn't going to stop when it finishes up 40 miles. It converts over to fuels and biofuels. The waiting list for hybrid vehicles shows consumers welcome efficient designs and are buying vehicles that will create good jobs for autoworkers and other people in manufacturing.
Taken together, this sort of technology has the potential to create thousands, perhaps millions, of good jobs and spur millions of dollars in productive new investment.
Consider the potential of biomass, burning dedicated crops to produce electricity. The U.S. Department of Energy estimates that a concerted effort to develop dedicated energy crops for biomass powerplants could generate 120,000 new jobs over the next 15 years. Consider the potential of wind energy. Each large utility-scale wind turbine that goes on line generates over $1.5 million in economic activity. Each turbine provides up to $5,000 in lease payments per year for 20 years or more to farmers, ranchers or other landowners.
When we start putting all the pieces of this puzzle together, a whole new vista for the economy opens. The Union of Concerned Scientists estimated last year that merely adopting a strong national renewable energy standard, one important step toward reducing greenhouse gas pollution, would create 185,000 jobs in industries such as wind and solar by the year 2020.
Daniel Kammen, who runs the Renewable and Appropriate Energy Laboratory in California, points out that $1 invested in renewable energy creates three to five more jobs than $1 invested in fossil fuels, as we can see here. That is because renewables create jobs in engineering and manufacturing and because that money is invested here at home, instead of being shipped overseas for foreign oil producers.
This institute estimates that if our country met 20 percent of its electricity needs from wind power, solar, biomass, and other renewables, those industries would employ more than 250,000 people every year, compared to fewer than 100,000 jobs if we continue to get all our electricity from fossil fuels.
This week, the U.S. Department of Energy estimated that by the year 2030, it would be feasible for wind power to supply 20 percent of our country's electricity needs, matching the output of nuclear powerplants.
Finally, the Apollo Alliance estimates that if we made a full-bore national commitment to climate change through energy-conserving technology, building design, more efficient vehicles, and renewable fuels, we could create 3 million new jobs and an additional $1 trillion of economic output in the next decade. This is our opportunity. But it is only that. It is only an opportunity unless we seize it because our country will not mobilize the automobile engineers, the landscape architects, the building designers, the appliance manufacturers, the power companies, unless we send the right signal to the economy as a whole, the signal that our country is committed to technologies that will help us battle climate change.
Consider this: Despite the wind farms and solar energy companies cropping up here and there across the country, the United States is no longer a leader in these clean energy technologies. We rank third in wind power, third in photovoltaic power installed. Ironically, our country has been surpassed by countries that took the technology developed in the United States, and it has allowed foreign competition to leapfrog over American businesses.
Here is my answer: We need leaders. We need American leaders, not followers. The private sector has read the evidence and is waiting for us to show leadership. Last winter, the Environment Committee heard from the chief executives of 10 major corporations, including General Electric, DuPont and Duke Energy. They have formed the United States Climate Action Partnership. They seek a mandatory, market-driven approach to reducing greenhouse gas emissions, an approach they believe will drive development of new greener technology and become an engine for new economic growth and job creation. They are waiting for leadership from Washington. In a few weeks, we will have the opportunity to demonstrate that leadership. My colleagues, Senators Lieberman and Warner, have written climate change legislation that is bold but practical, forward thinking but pragmatic. They recognize that the time for study is over, the time for hesitation has passed. The time for action is upon us.
I yield the floor.
The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The Senator from Pennsylvania.
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