The Congressional Record is a unique source of public documentation. It started in 1873, documenting nearly all the major and minor policies being discussed and debated.
“THE DYNAMICS OF EARTH DAY” mentioning the Department of Interior was published in the House of Representatives section on pages H2786-H2792 on April 21, 2010.
The publication is reproduced in full below:
{time} 1815
THE DYNAMICS OF EARTH DAY
The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Lujan). Under the Speaker's announced policy of January 6, 2009, the gentleman from New York (Mr. Tonko) is recognized for 60 minutes as the designee of the majority leader.
Mr. TONKO. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Well, this evening, we are going to be speaking about those advancements in public policy terms that allow us to go forward with a very meaningful agenda to continually respond as an American public to the dynamics of Earth Day.
It is hard to imagine that it takes us back to 1970 when we first ushered in Earth Day, a time when Americans were working to focus on the stewardship that is our responsibility to grow a stronger environment and a better environmental response to enable us to improve outcomes out there, outcomes such as the air that we breathe. Obviously, as stewards of the environment, we have the responsibility, yes, to enhance the outcome in the present, but it also much more relevantly speaks to what we will do for future generations to make certain that our actions today will begin the process of a stronger outcome for generations to come.
So efforts on improving the quality of air that we breathe and the efforts to improve the water that we drink are two of those driving forces that have ushered in this celebration annually of Earth Day where we recommit with each and every year to continue the efforts to grow the progressive agenda.
Now, four decades later plus, we know that the climate crises that gripped this Nation and this globe are real. We know that the efforts to address our planet in peril are absolutely critical and that we have experienced now the challenges that behoove us to move forward as a nation and as a world to respond not only to those challenges but to see them also as opportunities that are waiting out there for all of us because, as we'll discuss in the ensuing hour, there are those benefits that come with embracing this clean-energy economy, this clean-energy thinking, the green-energy thinking, that will allow us to shape the job market of the future, and that requires us to prepare the skill sets that will be required in our workforce. It will enable us to establish jobs not yet appearing on the radar. It will enable us to move forward with this innovation economy, which will, I think, speak to energy security for us, as Americans, to energy independence and therefore to national security, which is a looming, looming dynamic out there that oftentimes is not discussed.
So, Mr. Speaker, with your permission here this evening, we are going to talk about some of those things, those items, that really were embraced by the Democratic leadership, by the Democratic leadership in this House, on this Hill in Washington, and certainly now in the White House with this new administration's speaking to the empowerment that can come to this Nation, yes, with the results that can be achieved but, yes, also with the corresponding opportunities that will be packaged into the outcomes that we will enjoy.
Our country has been moving in a new direction, I believe, in the last couple of years, understanding that there are a number of benefits that can come to all of us, to all sectors of this country, and certainly there are ways to speak to middle-income American families from coast to coast in a way that provides positive change for them at home. There are issues that will allow us to launch this clean-energy economy that will create millions of jobs associated with that sort of thinking. These are jobs, I will posit, which will not be outsourced. These will be jobs that will be stationed here in the United States which will enable us to again be the masters of our destiny, which will allow us to be the architects of new programmatic efforts of inducing all sorts of beneficial sorts of concepts and programs which will enable us to showcase the American pioneer spirit.
You know, I represent a district in upstate New York that was the birthplace to the westward movement. My district houses the confluence of two historic water channels--the Mohawk River and the Hudson River--
and the confluence of those two rivers is the edge of that westward movement that created a port out of a town called New York City, which then gave birth to a necklace of communities which became the epicenters of invention and innovation, which then created the pathway to a westward movement that developed not only New York as a State but the entire country as a nation, which then impacted with its discoveries the quality of life of people around the world.
That same pioneer spirit that drove the Industrial Revolution and that drove the first energy revolution can also now be that inspiration that allows us to move forward in a way that creates this green energy revolution that will respond to the absolute symbolism and spirit of Earth Day, which, as I said, started some four decades ago, over 40 years ago, when the first celebration occurred.
In embracing this sort of agenda, it also will enable us to lower energy costs for American businesses and certainly for American households. It is such an important factor as people have learned through these very difficult economic times that we need to be able to control those costs. We will talk a bit tonight, I imagine, about a smart grid, about smart meters, about smart thermostats, all of which put control and responsibility, but then also provide opportunities for America's energy consumers--large and small, businesses and households--with all of us prospering from that sort of activity.
So, in lowering those energy costs, which sometimes can be a very significant price to pay, it can be a significant wedge of a business pie chart for costs of that particular business or for that particular industry. It also can be a very painful and growing wedge of the household pie chart for its finances, especially for some of our lower income strata families, working families, who, when impacted by these growing energy costs, are paying more and more of a percentage of their household incomes, disproportionately represented for their households, compared to other households that may be living in better energy environments and that may be living in situations which don't extract as much pain, require as much pain, due to those energy costs as they do for other families.
Also, with this agenda of progress, with this progressive nature of policy reforms, I think it will allow us to reduce that growing gluttonous dependence on foreign imports, on fossil-based fuels that are still our heavy reliance. That dependence on foreign oil is oftentimes associated with unstable countries, yes, but more critically with unfriendly nations to America as a country. Certainly, leaders of our country have had difficult times with those unfriendly nations, and we continue to move forward with this gluttonous dependency on that foreign import of oil.
Then, finally, there is the opportunity for us to speak in meaningful measure about reducing our carbon pollution that is now causing climate change, global warming. This increasing carbon footprint threatens not only the Nation's environment but the world's environment, the global environment. These efforts, these benefits, that can be realized simply through the investment of resources, through the development of public policy, through the resolve of taking on an agenda that can really grow a positive outcome and that can provide a more optimistic flavor for all of us here in this Nation are doable items, and they should be committed to with a strong sense of resolve as we celebrate Earth Day tomorrow on April 22 across this country.
Americans cannot afford, Mr. Speaker, to return to some of the failed policies of the past where people have associated a partnership as a tradition with Big Oil. Big Oil has been demanding of us to continually send those billions of dollars, which I made mention of, overseas for foreign oil. It is putting dictators who, perhaps, tolerate terrorism or who, more dreadfully, engineer that terrorism in ways that put them in charge of our energy supplies. That should be a no-brainer. That should be a challenge to all of us to escape the woes of that sort of dependency to enable us again to be in charge of our energy decisions and in charge of our energy resources and supplies.
Also, we are lavishing those subsidies on oil companies which have been earning continually--and especially in recent history--record profits, record profits that should behoove us to reformulate our thinking, enabling us to move forward in a way that doesn't have us furthering our dependence on foreign imports of oil but rather has us escaping the crippling impact that this expensive, dirty, and dangerous 19th century thinking, as it relates to fuel sources, continues to bear on the outcomes for so many Americans.
So I believe, on Earth Day, we should step back and recommit, as we move forward, to go forward with this green thinking, with this green Earth thinking of outcomes that can be very real in our lives here as Americans, a thinking that enables us to commit with a high degree of passion to R&D, to research and development, to basic research through our universities and through our private sector to enable us to continue to build upon those active qualities of growing shelf opportunities that can be reached in terms of energy efficiency issues and in terms of retrofits for homes and businesses, which will enable us to look at not just the supply side of the equation but will enable us to reach over to the other side of that equation, the demand outcome. That demand side of the equation is one that can find us prospering simply by addressing a reduction in the amount of energy supplies that we utilize, in energy supplies that are meaningful and in energy supplies that should be seen, accompanied by a strong commitment, a resolve, to address energy efficiencies as a fuel of choice.
That energy efficiency outcome should be a very high priority of fuels to which we reach. It should be seen as that quantity out there, as that commodity that is mined and drilled, just as we actively mine for coal or drill for oil, and we should again do the mining and drilling operation with energy efficiency, our fuel of choice, to reduce that mountain of electrons that is required, that is depended upon. We can deal with that in very meaningful measure by moving forward with opportunities in research and development and certainly in the practical outlay of resources where we measure up by retrofitting our businesses, our communities, and our households with energy efficiency.
Let me just speak to some practical measures that are very much akin to the 21st Congressional District, which I represent in upstate New York. While I served in the State legislature for many years, just shy of 25 years in the New York State Assembly, I served as energy chair for the last 15 years. We had put together some novel opportunities, experiments, that would provide for a greener thinking of energy policy.
What we had done in our efforts was to, for example, work with threatened economies, with the ag economy. I happen to represent a number of agriculture-related industries and businesses within upstate New York. Chief amongst them was the dairy sector, a sector that, until this day, has always been threatened by an inappropriate response for the pricing mechanism that is required to enable our dairy farmers to be justly responded to for the hard work, 24/7, that they do at their businesses, oftentimes family business-related, that brings food to the table.
In order to respond to that agenda where their costs of production were oftentimes not covered and were not met by the price of milk that was delivered to them for the produce, for the product they delivered to the market, we set upon a course, an agenda, to respond in favorable and in sensitive measure to our dairy farmers.
Well, we put together a commitment with a partnership--with ESCOs, Energy Services Companies; with NYSERDA, the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority; with farm organizations; with local utilities; and with the State of New York, the assembly--working with some legislative resources that it would apply towards this experiment.
{time} 1830
We were able to reach out to the farming community. We got two volunteer farms to enter into a demonstration project. And here they are dealing with milk as a commodity. That is a very perishable product that is highly regulated, that deals with the pumping and cooling process, that deals with many energy issues that are unique. They can't go off peak. Mother Nature calls. Their milking process is one that is governed by nature, not by human decision to go off peak or on peak.
So with the uniqueness, we addressed their concerns. We came forward with an energy efficiency retrofit for these dairy farms that introduced double-digit percentage reduction in the amount of energy supplies that were required at that farm, without even addressing the tariff rate that they were charged. Simply by reducing the mountains of electrons required at those two dairy farm operations, we were able to reduce their cost of production significantly simply through energy terms.
Now, that is one small example in one sector of one important industry in upstate New York, throughout New York State, and a very meaningful, meaningful industry because they are dealing with nutritional needs. They are placing those nutrition needs onto the table, the dinner tables of families across this country. That is one example of how we are able to relate energy efficiency to a struggling industry, to one that needed greater respect in public policy measure. That is inspiration to all of us. And certainly for just the dairy sector, it was inspiration to then reach out and do a much larger program with time where we dealt with about 70 farms that were equally surprised with their outcomes, that came with energy efficiency operations, that enabled us to have a much stronger outcome. The response of that, the result of all of that was that people are now looking and expanding through the Public Service Commission some greater opportunities that would perhaps allow for statewide programs to take hold.
The point of mentioning this, Mr. Speaker, is that we have it within our grasp--we certainly have it within our intellect--to make these sorts of success stories more and more relevant, more and more visible, and more and more numerous across the industry types and business types of our State and our country. I think it's important for us to see that as an investment that is very sound, no matter what the supply mix, no matter where the power and how the power is generated, and hopefully we move toward an American self-sufficiency, growing self-sufficiency. No matter what that mix, we need to be less gluttonous in the usage. And I think we can. I think we will. And it takes that resolve to move forward and provide the incentives, provide the focus, provide the terms of legislation that will take us to that new era of innovation within the energy cycle.
In 2009, this very House was a leader as it passed clean energy jobs legislation that reduced at the same time carbon emissions in this country, the carbon emissions that would be reduced by some 17 percent by the year 2020. A significant amount of improvement there, keeping America number one in terms of making our country a world leader in new energy technologies, a new leader in making certain that we preserve our American manufacturing base, while protecting consumers. And I think some of the multi-faceted qualities of the outcomes of the driving forces to do a number of these formats for reform sometimes are underestimated and not clearly communicated to the consuming public, to those around this country who are looking for job creation.
Especially as we recover from this very long and deep and painful recession, it is important for us to be the masters of this comeback of the American economy. The way we do it and do it best is to make certain that we advance the notions of progressive reforms that will enable us to create jobs not yet, as I made mention, on the radar and put together a responsiveness to the energy needs of people of this country.
Through the Recovery Act of 2009, much talked about, oftentimes much focused on and perhaps misinforming what really happened, our Nation made in that Recovery Act an historic investment in job creation, investments that would lead to a clean, more vibrant energy future. And it's estimated that we can create with those dollars more than 700,000 jobs, nearly doubling our renewable efforts here in this country for electricity and saving consumers on an ongoing annual basis; making certain that operating costs at home, operating costs at businesses and industries are reduced simply by putting together a solid mix of energy opportunities within that Recovery Act of 2009. Again, if we are moving with smart grids, smart meters, smart thermostats, a better controlled destiny, and more architected opportunity to be creative in our usage, to look off peak and to move to issues like advanced battery manufacturing, which is the linchpin to taking us to a new era in energy, we can do it. It takes leadership. It takes focus. It takes incentives that take us down this new pathway that is greener than the past and in a way that looks in a new direction, that really embraces what still happens in this country.
We are robust in our patent development. We are strong in our higher ed investments. We are strong in our incubator programs, in our R&D opportunities. We need simply to then deploy those success stories that have been prototyped and tested and then advance somehow an agenda that partners with the Angel Network and with the venture capital community the success stories that can then be translated through deployment into the commercialization networks, the business creation that is essential that then translates to the outpouring of jobs that are then available to Americans as we securitize that effort, as we grow our energy independence and grow our security as not only consumers but generators of the energy supplies that we require.
In 2009, this House also passed the clean energy jobs legislation that reduced those carbon emissions, as I said, by some 17 percent. But also in 2007, before my time here because I entered in this past term as a freshman, Congress enacted a landmark energy law that would increase vehicle fuel efficiency for the first time in more than three decades so that the outcome would be 35 miles per gallon, a much more efficient outcome for the industry in this country, and that threshold year of 2020 would be the benchmark, so that by 2020 we would be achieving 35 miles per gallon, a very much increased and improved-upon measurement for fuel efficiency in our auto fleets in this country. These are actions that respond to and underscore the historic commitment to a clean homegrown American agenda. And I think that those biofuels that we've embraced through renewables, with wind and solar, the efforts for geothermal as energy supplies and advanced vehicle technology are just the beginning of progress, the exploration of new frontiers, new pioneer efforts to take us to this new realm of energy creation and energy responsiveness.
I think that with this ACES legislation, the American Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009, it was a landmark opportunity for us to now debate in this House the merits of moving forward with an investment in greener thinking. The historic legislation to launch a new and clean energy economy holds great potential. These, again, are jobs that will not be offshored. They will not be outsourced. We will be working to create 1.7 million American jobs with this measure and would help to reduce, again, the dangerous dependence on foreign supplies, so much so that we reduce that dangerous dependence on foreign oil by some 5 million barrels per day, keeping energy costs low for Americans and protecting American consumers from the ravages of costs and price controls that have gone beyond their pocketbook. The impact of all of this is done without any increase to the deficit, which I believe is a very strong outcome for all of us.
We talk about the advancements. We talk about scientists. We talk about technology and engineering. It is important for all of us to understand that there is great potential here in growing the jobs as we address the progressive agenda, and there are those who have led the discussion, led the debate because of their experience as scientists, those who have been there. They understand the value added of these technical-related fields and professions. They know the potential. They know the commitment. They know the passion that these professionals embrace to change our thinking, to bring us to a newer, higher realm of outcome that is within our grasp. We have seen it through the decades. We have seen it in a way that has inspired progress for the entire world well beyond the boundaries of this country. We need to bring back that sort of commitment, that sort of encouragement that enables all of us to work together as a society.
One of those outspoken voices, the informed voices speaking with a fullness, with a depth, comes from scientists like Rush Holt. Representative Holt represents a congressional district in New Jersey, and it has been his passion, it has been his advocacy, as we dealt with policy like ACES, the American Clean Energy and Security Act, issues like the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, which, again, historically made large down payments to take us to this new thinking--
it has been people like Representative Rush Holt that have delivered and have brought us to this discussion and have forged a positive outcome.
Tonight we are pleased to be joined by Representative Holt as he adds his voice to tonight's discussion, celebrating Earth Day tomorrow in a way that takes us to this green energy economy, this innovation economy.
Representative Holt, it's great to have you join us.
Mr. HOLT. I thank my friend from New York. If he would yield, I would be pleased to contribute to this discussion.
Mr. TONKO. I would be happy to yield.
Mr. HOLT. Remembering 40 years ago, you and I are old enough to remember when tens of millions of Americans joined together in what was at the time a very visionary day, Earth Day, where Wisconsin Senator Gaylord Nelson, drawing from Wisconsin's own Aldo Leopold, who had developed an ethic of the land, and he said,
``Earth Day is a dramatic evidence of a broad new national concern that cuts across generations and ideologies. Our goal is not just an environment of clean air and water and scenic beauty. The object is an environment of decency, quality, and mutual respect for other human beings and living creatures.''
It was really very visionary. But what resulted from that were specific bills, solid legislation, these bills that have moved the country along. So it is not just soft-headed, warm-hearted embracing of the wilderness. It was scientific engineering expertise brought to cleaning up the land and the water. And since Earth Day in 1970, laws have been passed such as the National Environmental Protection Act, the Clean Air Act, the Endangered Species Act, to mention a few. And Earth Day is no longer just a day. This ethic has been taken to heart, and we continue to move along with the solid science-based efforts to preserve our environment.
{time} 1845
Now certainly the number one insult to planet Earth is the way we produce and use energy. My friend from New York has been talking about not only the costs, the costs facing us, which are in dollars and lives, if we do not confront the problems created by the way we produce and use energy. It's not just an average rise in temperature where spring might come a little bit earlier; it is not just that sea level might be up a few inches or a few feet. It is that tropical diseases will appear where they haven't appeared before. We see that happening now. It is not just that we lose the scenery of glaciers in the mountains, we actually lose groundwater; we lose habitat for those things that we depend on for our well-being. So we need comprehensive energy reform to stop using dirty fuels.
It is fortunate that the efforts to deal with the dirty fuels could also relieve our trade imbalance, could also contribute to our national security by making us less dependent on foreign sources of fossil fuels, and in fact it could not only save us money; it could make us money.
Mr. TONKO. Representative Holt, if you'll suffer a disruption, if you will yield, you triggered a thought.
Just recently my district hosted the only stop in New York State, actually in Schenectady, of the Operation Free Tour. As you know, it's a bus tour being conducted by veterans for American power and they are doing a coast-to-coast tour, hitting all of the States. It was so impressive. We invited veterans from all vintages, from World War II, from the Korean War, from the Vietnam conflict and up to the present day, more present-day veterans that have committed in uniform and have fought on foreign soils in defense of this nation. Very impressive, very impressive visits by these folks.
They, at our stop in Schenectady, New York, had three spokespersons: one veteran from the State of Arkansas, who has done two tours of duty as a marine in Iraq, spoke to the crowd, spoke to those assembled. We had a visitor, a veteran from the State of Wisconsin. She drove a truck, I believe, with the Army in Iraq. And then finally a veteran from the State of New Hampshire who as an Army officer did a tour of duty in Iraq and a tour of duty in Afghanistan. He is now at Yale Law School.
To a person, each of these veterans spoke of the wisdom, the no-
brainer, as we might call it, of moving to energy independence for Americans; energy security. They witnessed the outright destruction of troops, the threat to the troops, the supreme sacrifice oftentimes made simply by forces of Taliban that they believed are fed by the treasuries of these unfriendly nations to which we feed over $400 billion a year; unstable but, more importantly, unfriendly governments to the U.S., using those dollars from their treasury to work against our operations for freedom-loving people around the world.
They also spoke to--and it's what your comments triggered in me--the concerns for global warming, for climate change. They said, this is an issue of national security. Beyond our domestic programming for energy security and energy independence, it's a national security issue. Because what they believe is happening is that with drought, with floods, with famine, you're creating the perfect storm that finds people weakened by famine and a much more robust competition for available land around the world. It's a breeding ground for terrorist activity. The veterans who were there, many of whom had fought in the Second World War, walked away from that saying, what an interesting way to approach the issue. They were impacted by the thought process that was inspired by each of these three veterans, recent veterans, to the honor roll of American history, but to a person these two men and one woman spoke in very relevant terms about what our energy policy can mean to our troops and to the goals of our military into the future.
It just makes so much sense, from a national security, energy independence, energy security concept and perspective if we move forward with clean energy thinking and an innovation economy that can be inspired by that thinking. I think that their comments are very relevant to today's eve of celebration of Earth Day.
Mr. HOLT. As my friend points out, the way we are producing and using energy not only costs lives and dollars through the climate change but it exacerbates our security problems. And by addressing the energy problems, we will indeed increase our national security, saving lives. And if we really make a commitment to investing in reliable energy solutions for the United States, the United States, the historic leader in innovation in the world, the country whose economy has been built on invention and innovation, can lead the world and benefit economically big time through addressing these energy problems, through new clean, sustainable energy, starting first with the low-hanging fruit of efficiency, of wind and geothermal and other readily available sources; moving on to things, some of which are not yet developed but with the American powers of innovation, we can master these things and sell them to the rest of the world.
So the advantages in addressing the energy problem are not just in avoiding catastrophe, it is really to have a positive economic and social future. Waste is never good economics and the United States' attitude toward energy is really profligate. So there is a lot of low-
hanging fruit to be gained and money to be saved that way, and then a lot of money to be earned through innovative solutions to the problems.
Mr. TONKO. I certainly think that this move to innovation, which can be a job growth factor, if that's being denied simply because of an association, a kinship, a partnership with Big Oil, with industries out there as an industry, with big oil companies, then that is a detrimental outcome, one that really needs to be exposed for what it is. To continue with tradition, to continue with that comfortable, cozy relationship, to be able to do the subsidies, to be able to reach out, to empower those traditional sources in a way that has been advocated because there are friendships out there, people enjoy that partnership continuing, that needs to be refocused. It needs to be brought to the attention of the American public, to the consuming public.
And I think that the innovation that can be inspired here, and it's part of the value added that I believe you bring to this House, Representative Holt. I have been with you in many discussions and I enjoy your passionate plea to really invest in research and development, basic research. You are absolutely right. When we do that, we need to see R&D investments equal to economic development, to job growth. They're not just investments made with no jobs growing from them but we're developing very sound jobs, very good-paying outcomes.
You talked about the innovation. One of the impacts out there of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, one of the stalwart efforts of the ACES with R&D investment is to look at the battery as the linchpin, that's that linkage that takes us to this new era of energy thinking. We have seen many of these opportunities, investments made over the last couple of months through the Recovery Act into lithium ion as an advanced battery production out there and the concept of some of the sodium-based. For me in my area with GE and the sodium-based outcome, these are the cornerstone, the building block to the future. If we develop that mastery of innovation in the battery concepts, we then unleash untold stories of success in the energy-related areas.
Mr. HOLT. The lithium ion battery is a good example. In the ARRA, the bill that many in America know as the stimulus bill, there is a significant investment in development and manufacturing for lithium ion batteries and we are well on our way to capturing maybe a third or more of the world market in producing these lithium batteries; where previously we had a small, tiny percent of the production. So it shows that with the commitment, we really can move ahead, we really can seize, earn, a large part of the world market. That's just one example.
We can do the same thing in building technologies. We can do the same thing in other transportation technologies. We can do the same thing in electricity generation; and on and on and on. In fact, we have led the world in technologies for electricity generation, whether it be nuclear or combined cycle turbines, but that is now based on an unsustainable fossil fuel model, the way we had developed electricity generation in the United States.
Mr. TONKO. And I think there's such a coupling here. I think if we can speak to the focus, the vision, that the Democratic majority in the House embraces, it's pushing efforts the way of small business. So many of these entrepreneurial efforts, the innovation that is driven by these whiz-kid ideas, are substantiated by investments in their prototyping, their testing; and then we need to further commit to deploying these to the commercial networks.
While I was at NYSERDA, the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority, we were involved with a demonstration project on kinetic hydro, utilizing the turbulence of the East River along the edge of the island of Manhattan to create energy simply through the movement of water with a turbine sub the surface of that water and relying on the turbulence. We disassembled that demo, sent it to the labs in Colorado for DOE, found out the improvements that were required for the blade design, the fin design, the assembly itself of the gearbox, made those improvements, and now there is expectation that perhaps 1100 megawatts worth of power can be realized in one State like New York alone simply through the motion of water.
These are things that should be invested in. These are the opportunities that are growing jobs out there and that can respond in much more environmentally friendly outcomes for our energy needs and energy needs around the world. That pioneer spirit should not be denied and that breaking of, the departure here, our thinking is far removed from that partnership that was, I think, hurtful to us where we're relying on those oil industries, this majority has said, ``Look, let's make that break, let's go into a new energy arena.''
And now you look at the accounts in Newsweek, in Business Week of late, they're talking about the wonderful growth that is coming to the economy because of the Recovery Act, because of that stimulus bill that you talked of. That is providing a lot of impetus for reform, for growth, for change, for recovery. At the same time we're responding to the needs of our energy and our environment, and that needs to be recognized on this eve of Earth Day. I think we can take a great bit of enthusiasm and encouragement from that latest bit of news.
But as a scientist that you are and as one who's an engineer here in the arena, I think that we can continue to push the emphasis on technology that's so important as we just made mention with batteries. I'll talk about that. I think you want to share something here.
Mr. HOLT. I would like to talk about another aspect of Earth Day, where over the years now, the same level of hardheaded analysis that we are beginning to bring to the energy problem has been brought to ecology, the relationship between life forms and the environment.
{time} 1900
Earth Day is not only about protecting the planet's atmosphere. One of the lessons of the last 40 or 50 years now is that we are a seamless web and that protection of wildlife is not just for aesthetics or humane reasons. Really, protecting the whole environment is important for human quality of life as well.
And I wanted to talk a little bit about wildlife because today I introduced legislation with my colleague and fellow Sustainable Energy Coalition member Jared Polis. This is legislation that will create a program to protect and preserve wildlife corridors. Wildlife corridors are connected strips of land in which a wide range of animals can migrate, can propagate. One professor has called these ``sidewalks for animals.''
They are really necessary in every State. And as we have paved America, as we have bisected it and trisected it and cut it up with roads, we have found that we have moved wildlife into smaller and smaller spaces, where it is now unsustainable. So these corridors will help support the economy of hunting and wildlife watching, but it also will keep the web of life intact.
Our bill, the Wildlife Corridors Conservation Act, would establish a Wildlife Corridor Stewardship and Protection Fund to provide grants to Federal agencies, State and local governments, nonprofits, and corporations for creating these essential wildlife corridors. And the Department of Agriculture, the Department of the Interior, the Department of Transportation are all part of this; and dozens and dozens of organizations that study and that advocate for environmental protection have endorsed this. I commend it to my colleagues, and I hope we can move along with that so that it will be law by next Earth Day.
Mr. TONKO. I think it is interesting, as you pointed out, this whole Earth Day celebration covers a multitude of needs, but a multitude of opportunities that transcends a number, just travels over so many dynamics out there, from agriculture, to wildlife, to the ecosystem, to water supplies, water usage, air quality, environment, energy requirements and needs. And all of that brought into a compilation of a bigger picture, a thoughtfulness, a planning that enables us to have these strong and measurably improved programs, all while creating job opportunities and developing a strategy that places the environment in the hands of the next generations in a much better outcome than we inherited.
That is acting with responsibility. It is acting with tremendous engagement in an issue area and issues that are so correlated and so important to the outcomes here not just in these United States but around the world.
And as a leader in the world, I think it is important for us to show by example and to teach by this sort of flavor and provide the inspiration that will lead to progress around the world.
You know, you talk about the impacts that are made with the wildlife and with the ecosystem that you just described, with perhaps a threatening situation out there with lesser area of space available. The same is true in our ag economy when we look at opportunities that need to respond to agscape around the country. We need to be able to partner with our friends in agriculture in a way that enables them to deal with their concerns in a way that is transitioned into an opportunity.
Just recently we announced, in the last several months, the opportunity for yet another grant that is going to SUNY Cobleskill that I represent, part of the State University of New York system. And they are an ag and tech campus. They are working on a biowaste to bioenergy project that will enable them to create a fuel source and enable us to keep our water streams cleaner, reduce our dependency on landfills, and enable us to go forward and respond to an energy supply in terms of a newly formulated gas that is now part and parcel of this.
And they start talking about what this demo means to the outcome and where you can overlay this opportunity on several municipalities out there. And there is absolutely opportunity for our troops. When you look at how you are developing this fuel supply, you can avoid transportation through war zones that is very, very dangerous. I mean, in talking to this veteran who was part of Operation Free who traveled to my district to speak on behalf of Veterans for American Power, she spoke of the danger zone when she drove trucks through some of these enemy territories that are responded to by situations like this with new developments that come our way.
So there are ample needs that are addressed simply in very academic terms that are science and tech applications. I serve on the Science and Technology Committee. It is a wonderful assignment to be able to witness day in and day out what is happening to the auspices of that committee in a way that builds progress based on the investment and research. And that R&D opportunity for this country, a willingness for us to produce those investments that then translate into success stories that then further translate into business opportunities and job growth are what it's all about.
And it is a recommitment to that agenda on this eve of Earth Day that I think is so essential and so much a framework of what's driving this majority in the House of Representatives to build that new day, that new outcome, and working with the new administration to take what was placed on the back burner. When you think of that Recovery Act, when you think of what was taken from that back burner in terms of smart grids, smart thermostats, smart meters, investment in renewables and R&D, in battery development, in energy-efficiency opportunities, along with broadband for our communities and wiring for a new day for our neighborhoods that are perhaps distressed, and for areas that are very remote or very rural, these are ample opportunities that should have been embraced a long time ago. But we are breaking away from some of that dependency on those big industries that were the tail wagging the dog.
Mr. HOLT. And we call these green because they are sustainable.
Mr. TONKO. Exactly.
Mr. HOLT. Stripping the environment without replenishment is not sustainable. Ultimately, we will fail; we will perish if that's the way we are going to approach our globe. We must do it differently if we are going to prevail. With Earth Day 30 years ago, now 40 years ago----
Mr. TONKO. 1970, yes. It goes by quickly.
Mr. HOLT. We had that vision, we had that vision of a sustainable Earth. And a number of things have followed. Now it's time to really regenerate that vision. And in all of these areas of energy, of agriculture, of transportation, of wildlife management, of oceanography, we need to bring the hard science to bear in ways to make our use and our place on the planet sustainable. That's part of the name of this caucus we have here, the Sustainable Energy and Environmental Caucus, because, as I said before, waste is never good economics. And stripping things without replenishment will only leave us with a bare Earth.
Mr. TONKO. I think both you and I see the merit that is brought forth by working through SEEC as a coalition to provide that green outspokenness and to work with our partners in government to make sure we respond to their, perhaps, district concerns or some of the efforts of folks to hold you back, to walk through that, talk through it, and policy through it.
And we are visited today also by one of the co-chairs of that awesome coalition, Jay Inslee from the State of Washington, who is yet another outspoken voice for green thinking here in the House of Representatives.
Welcome, Representative Inslee, to sort of bring us to a close on our hour of discussion about Earth Day tomorrow.
Mr. INSLEE. Well, I appreciate the opportunity. Thanks for carrying the load here. I just want to, in closing, note tomorrow the actress Sigourney Weaver will be hosting a movie, a documentary called ``Acid Test.'' And it's a very interesting movie with some very disturbing news about our oceans, and that is that our oceans are becoming more acidic. And what this movie discloses is that our oceans are actually 30 percent more acidic than they were before we started to burn coal and oil in the industrial age.
And the way this works, the way this movie that Ms. Weaver narrates, carbon goes up out of our smokestacks, out of our tailpipes, goes into the atmosphere, then falls into the ocean, goes into solution in the ocean, and creates acidic conditions. And I don't think probably many people know that our oceans are becoming actually more acidic.
And the concern of course is that when you change the acidity level of the ocean what it does to life forms. And we had Jane Lubchenco, who is Dr. Jane Lubchenco, who heads NOAA, our National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration, the other day she showed us some time-lapse photography of what happens when you put a shell, like a clam shell, in ocean water that will be as acidic as our oceans will be by the end of the century. And it essentially melts.
What we are finding is the oceans are becoming so acidic that if this trend continues, it will actually dissolve little creatures that form calcium carbonate shells. Shells are made out of calcium carbonate. They take the calcium that precipitates out of a solution and they make a shell. And this isn't just crabs or clams or oysters or coral; it's the little pteropods, the very small creatures that form 40 percent of the bottom of the food chain in the oceans. Of course it's the bottom. And the evidence is showing this may prevent these creatures from having a healthy ability to precipitate calcium to make their body form.
So the long and the short of it is that the actor who gave us
``Alien,'' which was pretty scary, tomorrow will be showing in Congress a movie that I think is maybe at least equally as scary as ``Alien'' because this acidification of the oceans that is caused by carbon pollution has already possibly disrupted some life forms.
In the State of Washington we haven't been able to grow a baby oyster for 2 years in our oyster industry. And we are not sure yet whether that's because of an infection process or because of acidification or both. But it's an example of the kind of thing that can happen if we don't stop ocean acidification.
So the point I want to make tonight is the U.S. Senate is now considering a bill to deal with carbon pollution that will also jump-
start the economy by creating thousands of green collar jobs. But to succeed in both those things, they need some limitation on the amount of carbon pollution that's going into the atmosphere. And they need that because that's the only way we are going to compete with China to drive investment in these green collar jobs, but also because it's the only way we are going to keep our oceans from becoming fatally acidic for large parts of the biosphere.
We get a lot of our human protein from the oceans. I think it is 10 or 20 percent of the human protein comes out of the oceans. So I am hopeful they will do this. And I hope they will know, too, they need some limitation on carbon pollution, because we have a way to do that right now through the Environmental Protection Agency that is going to do it. They have been ordered by the courts to do this. And we are going to either have a good carbon pollution protection system in this bill or we are going to have the EPA do it. We think it's better if Congress designs it.
Mr. TONKO. Absolutely.
Mr. INSLEE. But if Congress does not design it, the EPA is going to do that. And we are not going to vote for bills that do not solve this problem that would strip the EPA of their authority to solve this problem. So we need the Senate to step up to the plate, have some system to reduce carbon pollution so that we can move forward.
I want to thank Mr. Tonko for his leadership here tonight.
Mr. TONKO. Thank you, Chairman Inslee, and thank you for your leadership with SEEC, the Sustainable Energy and Environmental Coalition.
I think as we reference our comments this evening to Earth Day as a celebration tomorrow, we think back to 1970. And it was about the commitment to a better outcome, to addressing business that needed to be accomplished. Tonight we resolved that it's about unfinished business, but yet about untold opportunity. And we can accomplish both by continuing our commitments to a much stronger development and responsiveness to our environment which comes through all sorts of policy, including energy.
So, Mr. Speaker, we thank you this evening for the opportunity to share the thoughts of the majority here. And it is onward with progressive policy to be sensitive to those next generations that will inherit from us the outstanding work we can do if we commit.
____________________
