Rural Community Renewable Energy Bonds Act

Mr. President, I come to the Senate floor to speak about the issue of energy and the importance of this Senate and this Congress and this country moving forward with an authentic picture with respect to energy independence for our country. When I get up in the morning and think about the major issues that are facing our country, there are three issues which always come to mind.

The first is what is happening in Iraq and around the world and how we restore America's greatness and how we put Humpty Dumpty together again with respect to making sure America's greatness which we have enjoyed for the last two centuries is something we enjoy in the 21st century and beyond.

Second are the difficult and important domestic issues which we are attempting to confront today--the issue of health care and how we move forward to create a system of health insurance and health care availability for all the people of America, an issue which continues to confront us.

Third, the issue of energy and how we look forward. The issue of energy is something many of us in this Chamber and in the House of Representatives and the White House today will continue to work on, which is so important to all of us.

With respect to Iraq, we will be facing that issue here in the weeks and months ahead. I believe strongly there is unity in the United States of America in terms of our support for our troops. I believe there is a long-term desire for us to make sure what we do is establish stability in the Middle East.

I believe all of us want to make sure we are doing everything we can do to support our troops. Nonetheless, the debate will occur here on this floor this week and beyond. It is an important debate. It is a debate that involves perhaps the most important issue of our time. That is the issue of war and peace and the debate that is certainly appropriate to be held on the floor of the Senate.

With respect to health care, I am pleased with the efforts the Senate Finance Committee and the HELP Committee are undertaking, with the leadership of Senator Baucus and Senator Kennedy and others, as we try to address the issue of health care. This year for sure we will move forward with a program that hopefully will expand the coverage of health insurance to the children of America. We think about 9 million children in this country today who have no health insurance. The expansion of the SCHIP program is something that is very important for all of these children across our many States who today do not have health insurance.

But the other issue, the energy issue, is one which is winding its way through our various committees in the Senate today. In the Agriculture Committee, under the leadership of Senator Tom Harkin, we currently are looking at title 9 of the farm bill. We will have a robust law that will move us forward with a new agenda with respect to agriculture and energy.

In the Senate Energy Committee, under the leadership of Senators Bingaman and Domenici, we are working on several bills that will help us move forward toward energy independence.

In the Senate Finance Committee, under the leadership of Senator Baucus and Senator Grassley, we have numerous initiatives on the table that will create incentives for us to have the kind of biofuels, solar energy, and the other kinds of energy that will create the new environment for us to be successful in a program on energy independence.

For me, when I think about energy, I see the dawning of a new age for my State of Colorado and also for America. It is a dawning of an age for America which we ought to embrace with vigor. It is the dawning of the age of a clean energy future for the United States of America. One year ago in my State I hosted the first Colorado Renewable Energy Summit. At the summit, there were more than 500 of us brought together to talk about our national energy policy and the energy opportunities we face in my State.

We put renewable energy in the headlines for Colorado, and we have kept energy at the top of Colorado's agenda for the past year. This last Saturday, 2 days ago, on March 24, 2007, we again summoned the people of Colorado and we had over 1,000 people who attended a summit at the Colorado Convention Center. We were joined in that summit by my colleague Senator Wayne Allard, by Colorado Governor Ritter, the mayor, six Members of the U.S. House of Representatives, the president of the Colorado Senate, the speaker of the Colorado House of Representatives and, as I said, more than 1,000 people in my State who were interested in renewable energy and energy efficiency, not only for our State but for the entire country.

Because of the work we have taken on in the last year in Colorado, today we have a Colorado Renewable Energy collaboration. That laboratory is an incredible association with the National Renewable Energy Lab, the Colorado School of Mines, Colorado State University, and the University of Colorado at Boulder.

Even though the ink is not yet dry on the formation of the collaboration, these four great research institutions have already launched a world-class research program. It is called the Colorado Center for Bioresearch and Biofuels.

Colorado's private sector is moving forward, too, on a variety of different fronts. First, with respect to wind, Colorado has added over 60 megawatts of wind generation in the last 4 years. But consider what is on the agenda for 2007. In 2007, my State of Colorado will add another 775 megawatts. That is more than tripling the State's production of wind generation. That is an equivalent of the generation we get from approximately two full-fledged powerplants.

Beyond wind, we have embraced solar. Since the passage of a citizens' initiative in Colorado 2 years ago, Colorado's solar industries have seen a growth of 40 percent every year. The State's first commercial solar electricity project will be constructed in my native San Luis Valley in 2007. We moved from wind to solar to biodiesel. In 2004, there was no biodiesel produced in the State of Colorado. Today we have three plants in my State that are producing more than 30 million gallons a year, and a fourth plant is ready to start operations in the production of biodiesel.

We go beyond biodiesel to ethanol. Two years ago we had no ethanol plants in the State of Colorado. Today we have three ethanol plants that are producing 90 million gallons of ethanol, and we have a fourth plant that will come on line in 2007, adding 50 million more gallons per year, and several other plants that are in the planning stages.

That is not all. In my State of Colorado, we have moved forward with wind energy companies, with solar, photovoltaic designers, and manufacturers who are opening facilities in places such as Larimer County. Cellulosic ethanol companies, which are engaged in research and development, inform us within 2 years they will be at a point where cellulosic ethanol will be available in the commercial markets.

We have hybrid vehicle manufacturers who are doing the technology development and research in my State, hybrid and plug-in vehicle battery manufacturers, engine efficiency research companies, such as German manufacturers in El Paso County and Colorado Springs.

There is a whole lot more that is happening with respect to clean renewable energy in my State of Colorado. We have a long road ahead of us, but we have found our stride and we know the destination. We want America to be the world's center for renewable energy research, for development and for production. I want my State to play a significant role as we embrace that agenda.

Let's be clear about what is happening with respect to energy in the United States of America. Some of us need to remind ourselves it was not so long ago when President Nixon and then President Carter later on said we needed to embrace a new ethic of energy independence. This was in the 1970s, some 35, 40, 45 years ago when we were talking about the importance of energy independence, frankly, because of the economics that were driving it at the time. There was great concern with respect to the formation of OPEC and with respect to the volatility of markets that could disrupt the American economy.

We see what happened in response to the leadership in the 1970s where there were great investments made in technologies that would look at alternative fuels that would power our homes and cars in this country. But the driver of economics went away when the price of oil dropped to around $20, $21, $22, $23 per barrel. Over this last year, we saw the price of oil get up to $60 and $70 per barrel, and we saw the price of a gallon come up to $3 a gallon, in some places more than $3.50, $3.60 a gallon, the price of diesel following the same path. It became apparent at the time the economic driver was not the only significant driver here.

Mr. President, may I inquire as to the amount of time we have in morning business?

May I inquire of my friend from West Virginia as to whether he planned on using any of the time in morning business.

Mr. President, so I am clear on my time, I have about 7 minutes in morning business allocated to me under the current order?

Mr. President, let me continue with respect to the comments I was making concerning the issue of energy.

If you think about the 1970s and the 1980s, it was the economy that was at the root of what we were trying to do to develop solar energy and wind energy and looking at biofuels and the like. A lot has changed in those times. There is tremendous interest and a tremendous amount of energy being spent in each of our committees here in the Senate and the House of Representatives and in the White House and the Department of Energy on a clean energy future for America.

Some people will ask the question today: Well, is this another short- lived agenda in the same way it was in the 1970s and the 1980s? When you look at the charts and you see what we were investing in clean energy technology back in the 1970s and 1980s, it was significantly higher than what we are investing in the 1980s and the 1990s and the early 2000s.

I submit that things have changed because the drivers today are not only the economic drivers of our time. Today when we look at the energy issues we face in our world, it is not just about the volatility of the energy markets we see around the world and here in the United States, there are two other drivers that are equally as important. The first of those drivers has to be our national security. When you think about the fact that today we are importing about 60 percent of our oil from foreign countries, in the next 10 to 15 years, if projections continue the way they are, and growth continues the way it is expected to continue, we will be importing 70 percent of our oil from foreign countries.

If that occurs, then we will continue to compromise the foreign policy, the national security of this Nation in a manner none of us should ever allow to happen. In fact, it would be a dereliction of duty for this Congress, for the Senate, and for this country to allow that to happen.

In the latest skirmish with Israel and Lebanon, one has to ask the question about where that money was coming from that was funding the militia group of Hezbollah in its firing of nearly 10,000 rockets into the northern city of Haifa in northern Israel. One has to ask that question, where was the money coming from that would fund the 10,000 members of that militia group called Hezbollah in Lebanon and other places around the world?

Well, we do not need to look very far for the answer to that question. You and I know--you as the Presiding Officer are well aware of the security interests here in our country--very well that the money creating and funding the terrorist groups in places such as Lebanon is coming from oil. It is coming from oil we are paying $60 and $70 a barrel for today.

So the very national security of our country requires us, it demands of us, and we can do no less than to move forward with an agenda that grasps the imperative of energy independence in our world. That energy independence will come about with great opportunities as we look at a clean energy future for America. We will be able to derive jobs and create the kind of national economic security we need in the United States of America.

The final driver is the issue of global warming. The debate is about whether global warming is an issue that needs to be confronted in the United States of America, the debate that was being held several years ago. But I would imagine most people in the United States of America today are saying it is important for us to confront this issue.

In fact, as we are opening this day in the Senate, Senator Bingaman and Senator Domenici are holding a hearing with members of the European Union on the issue of global warming. Things have changed. Things have changed from the 1970s and the 1980s and the 1990s when America slept, and the only factor that was driving us to energy independence was the volatility of the markets.

Today the driver is national security. We cannot afford to compromise our national security by continuing to be overdependent, by continuing our current addiction to foreign oil. We cannot afford to ignore the issue of global warming that threatens the future of civilization. How we approach those issues and how we develop solutions that bring us to a positive movement forward is very important.

The issue of energy is one that can bring America together. To be sure, the last 6 years have seen a divided America on many issues, including Iraq. Energy can bring together Democrats and Republicans, progressives and conservatives, much as the Energy Futures Coalition has done in working with all of us. We crafted legislation that we call Set America Free. It is my hope that by the time the Senate finishes for the year or before we begin the August recess, we will have legislation that is bipartisan in nature, that will move us forward with a new energy future for America. That energy future will be one that is bound by a vision of a clean energy future that includes renewable energies, new technologies, and that goes after the low- hanging fruit of energy efficiency and addresses the issue of global warming.

I ask unanimous consent that a portion of a speech I gave at an energy summit in Colorado be printed in the Record.

I yield the floor and suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. President, today I am introducing two bills that will help drive the renewable energy revolution that is currently underway in our rural communities. The Rural Community Renewable Energy Bonds Act, which I am introducing with Senator Smith, and the Rural Wind Energy Development Act, which I am introducing with Senators Smith, Dorgan and Craig, will help spur much needed private investment in renewable energy infrastructure in rural areas.

I have spoken countless times about the great possibilities that rural America holds for our Nation's energy future. I have also expressed my alarm at how our rising dependence on foreign oil is undermining our security and our interests around the world.

How do we build a more energy secure economy--one that is less vulnerable to wild swings in oil prices, political instability, and supply disruptions? Unfortunately, we don't have the resources in this country to drill our way to energy independence. We do, however, have the most productive lands in the world, and the most productive farmers, ranchers, engineers and entrepreneurs in the world. If we give them the right tools, they can build a new, clean energy economy that will rely heavily on biofuels, wind power, solar energy, and alternative sources.

If you spend time in places like Prowers County or Alamosa County, you see that a clean energy revolution is already underway in our heartland. In these rural communities, like so many across the country, people are banding together to build small biofuels plants, solar farms, and wind turbines. These projects are already underway, and they are the seeds for a full-blown clean energy revolution in rural America.

The farmers, ranchers, and entrepreneurs who are behind these projects want to be a part of the solution to our Nation's energy challenges. They also understand that home-grown energy can revitalize the Main Streets that have been boarded up in the last few years.

The bills I am introducing today provide tools that rural communities can use to build a renewable energy economy.

The first bill, the Renewable Energy Bonds Act, provides incentives for investment in wind and other renewable energy projects by giving private developers access to tax-exempt bond markets.

Currently, the Federal tax code only allows municipal and public entities access to tax-exempt bond markets for wind and other renewable energy projects. Private developers, who are more likely to invest in smaller projects and who are currently responsible for nearly 75 percent of current renewable energy development, are not eligible to use these federally tax-exempt bonds.

This is unfortunate because these are the same small developers who don't benefit much from the production tax credit, as their Federal tax liabilities usually aren't big enough to reap the tax credit's benefits.

Renewable energy bonds make sense for these small developers and, because they cost the Federal Government less than the production tax credit, they also make sense from a fiscal perspective. This bill may actually save the Government money.

The second bill I am introducing, the Rural Wind Energy Development Act, would extend the production tax credit to include small wind systems. We have made great strides in wind development over the last few years, as evidenced by wind energy's growing availability to Colorado consumers.

The trouble is that the existing production tax credit only benefits larger producers that want to build wind farms with million-dollar turbines. Small businesses, towns, farms, and families aren't given the same incentive to produce their own renewable power from smaller, more affordable turbines.

This is unfortunate because the National Renewable Energy Lab in Golden, Colorado, and others are making great strides in the development of small wind systems that can be installed on homes and businesses. The system now available costs around $50,000 for 10kW of capacity.

That's a steep investment for any family or any business. But our bill, by providing a tax incentive for their purchase, would not only reduce the cost, but it would create more market certainty for manufacturers of small wind systems. With more systems in production, costs will fall further and small wind will be a real option for more people.

The bill is simple: it creates a five year tax credit of $1500 per half-kW. There is no cap for the purchase and installation of small wind systems, so long as they are smaller than 100kW. It will put more small wind systems on the market and it will give consumers more choices of how to power their homes and businesses.

I'm proud to introduce these bills with my colleagues because they represent two more building blocks for a new, clean energy economy and because they will help revitalize a rural America that has been forgotten for too long.

I hope we can move these straightforward, bipartisan solutions through as quickly as possible.

Mr. President, I am pleased to join my colleague, Senator Roberts, along with Senators Kennedy, Burr, Murray, Clinton, Brown, Bingaman, Collins, Isakson, and Biden in introducing the Trauma Care Systems Planning and Development Act.

Our Nation's emergency medical system is a system on the brink. We need to support and strengthen this essential component of our health care system. The Trauma Care Systems Planning and Development Act is an important building block to achieving an improved national network of care across the country.

Unintentional injury is the leading cause of death among people between the ages of 1 to 44 and in 2002, injuries were responsible for 161,000 deaths. In 2004, about 29.6 million people were treated for an injury in U.S. hospital emergency departments, of which nearly 2 million injuries were severe enough to require hospitalization. Yet, between 20,000 and 25,000 trauma deaths are preventable each year.

A trauma system is an organized, coordinated effort in a specific area that delivers the full range of care to all injured patients. It provides resources, supporting equipment, and personnel along a continuum of care including pre-hospital, hospital, and rehabilitation services. Trauma systems have been proven to reduce mortality rates and provide efficient, cost-effective, and timely care. Since 1990, the Federal Government, through Title XII of the Public Health Service Act, has helped States and territories develop and implement regional and statewide trauma care systems.

The legislation I am introducing today along with my colleagues will reauthorize and reaffirm the Federal Government's commitment to trauma care systems. It will also authorize additional resources for systems planning and development, as well as improved data collection and analysis and the inclusion of an Institute of Medicine study on the state of trauma care and trauma research.

Trauma care is not only critical to providing timely access to lifesaving interventions for persons suffering from serious unintentional injuries, it is central to our national security and disaster preparedness. The tragic events of September 11, 2001 and Hurricanes Rita and Katrina serve as stark reminders of the potential intentional and natural disasters that threaten our Nation. Trauma care systems are an important element of our security and response efforts.

I look forward to working with my colleagues toward expeditious passage of this legislation. I ask unanimous consent that the text of the Trauma Care Systems Planning and Development Act be printed in the Record.

Mr. President, today I join Senator Isakson in introducing the Tanning Accountability and Notification (TAN) Act.

Approximately 1 in 5 Americans will develop skin cancer in their lifetime. While the decline in cancer deaths reported earlier this year is an indication that we are starting to turn the corner on our fight against cancer, approximately 1 million people will be diagnosed with skin cancer and 10,850 are expected to die in 2007 alone.

There are many factors that contribute to these startling figures. In recent years efforts have been undertaken by various organizations to better inform the public about the risk of sun exposure and ways to decrease the chance of developing skin cancer. One area, however, where better information is sorely needed is on the use of indoor tanning salons.

Every day approximately 1 million people visit a tanning salon. It is a practice particularly popular among teens, the group that seems most at risk from the effects of indoor tanning. The American Academy of Dermatology, the Food and Drug Administration, FDA, the National Institutes of Health, NIH, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, CDC, and the World Health Organization, WHO, all discourage the use of indoor tanning equipment.

This message and the current information about the risks of indoor tanning I fear are not being adequately passed on to consumers. The FDA has not updated its warnings on tanning beds since 1979. Regular users of indoor tanning beds deserve to be fully informed.

The TAN Act calls upon the FDA to revisit the current label on indoor tanning beds and determine through a process of public hearings and consumer testing what kind of labeling requirements would convey important information on the risks of indoor tanning.

This legislation is not about introducing new regulations but ensuring that the current FDA regulations remain effective in communicating accurate, current, and clear information to consumers about indoor tanning salons.

I look forward to working with my colleagues toward passage of this bipartisan legislation. I ask unanimous consent that the text of the bill be printed in the Record.

Mr. President, today I am introducing legislation, the Training for Realtime Writers Act of 2007, on behalf of myself and my colleagues, Senators Grassley, Cochran, Dodd, Durbin, Kerry, Kohl, Murray, Rockefeller, Snowe and Stabenow.

The 1996 Telecom Act required that all television broadcasts were to be captioned by 2006 and all Spanish language programming was to be captioned by 2010. This was a much needed reform that has helped millions of deaf and hard-of-hearing Americans to be able to take full advantage of television programming. And now the first deadline has passed. On January 1, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) began fining stations for not captioning.

Unfortunately, the United States has fallen behind in training captioners. We must jump start training programs to supply captioning for the many broadcasters just realizing their obligation now. And looking forward, we need to get students in the pipeline now to begin to address the need for Spanish language broadcasting.

This is an issue that I feel very strongly about because my late brother, Frank, was deaf. I know personally that access to culture, news, and other media was important to him and to others in achieving a better quality of life. More than 30 million Americans are considered deaf or hard of hearing and many require captioning services to participate in mainstream activities. In 1990, I authored legislation that required all television sets to be equipped with a computer chip to decode closed captioning. This bill completes the promise of that technology, affording deaf and hard of hearing Americans the same equality and access that captioning provides.

With baby boomers aging, the percentage of the population with hearing loss is increasing dramatically and will continue to outpace population growth for the next decade. But let me emphasize that the deaf and hard of hearing population is only one of a number of groups that will benefit from the legislation. The audience for captioning also includes individuals seeking to acquire or improve literacy skills, including approximately functionally illiterate adults, immigrants learning English as a second language, and children learning to read. Empirical research studies have been conducted repeatedly since 1988 to demonstrate that captions improve the performance of individuals learning to read English.

I see people using closed captioning to stay informed everywhere-- from the gym to the airport. Here in the Senate, I would wager that many individuals on our staff have the captioning turned on right now to follow what is happening on the Senate floor while they go about conducting the meetings and phone calls that advance legislation. Captioning helps people educate themselves and helps all of us stay informed and entertained when audio isn't the most appropriate medium.

Although the 2006 deadline has passed, our nation is facing a serious shortage of captioners. The rate of job placement upon graduation nears 100 percent. In addition, the majority of closed captioners are independent contractors. They are the small businesses that run the American economy and we should do everything we can to promote the creation and support of those businesses.

That is why my colleagues and I are re-introducing this vital piece of legislation. The Training for Realtime Writers Act of 2007 would establish competitive grants to be used toward training real time captioners. This is necessary to ensure that we meet the promises we made in the 1996 Telecom Act.

The Senate Commerce Committee reported this bill unanimously in the last two sessions, the full Senate has passed this Act without objection three times now, and we stand here today, once again at the beginning of the process. I am hopeful that this will be the Congress moves our country forward on this accessibility issue. I ask my colleagues to join us once again in support of this legislation and join us in our effort to win its passage into law.

Mr. President, I rise today to co-sponsor the American National Red Cross Governance Modernization Act of 2007. This legislation, a product of close cooperation with my colleagues Senator Grassley and Senator Kennedy, seeks to create a more efficient governance structure of the American Red Cross, and to enhance the Board of Governors' ability to support the critical mission of the American Red Cross in the 21st Century.

Charitable organizations are an indispensable part of American society, but these organizations can only fulfill their important roles by maintaining the trust of the American public. This trust is fostered by effective governance and transparency, which are the principal goals of this legislation. The role of the American Red Cross is one of vital significance to the American people. The ability of the American Red Cross to meet its responsibilities requires a governance structure that reflects a need for clear mission and a culture of accountability.

This past October the American Red Cross Board of Governors announced its unanimous support for a series of important changes to its charter and business practice. The American National Red Cross Governance Modernization Act of 2007 enables a number of those changes, including clarifying the role of the Board of Governors as one of governance and strategic oversight. As this bill facilitates these governance reforms, the American Red Cross is expected to continue to implement amendments to its bylaws consistent with those described in the Governance Report to clarify further the role of the Board of Governors and to outline areas of its responsibility.

This bill ensures that the American Red Cross will remain a federally chartered instrumentality of the United States, and it has the rights and obligations consistent with that status. Consistent with that status Congress expects that the American Red Cross will maintain appropriate communications with State regulators of charitable organizations and to cooperate with them as appropriate in specific matters as they arise from time to time.

Finally, we believe the effectiveness of the American Red Cross will be promoted by the creation of a Red Cross ombudsman to be a dispute resolution practitioner to provide confidential and informal assistance to the many internal and external stakeholders of the American Red Cross. The American Red Cross ombudsman will report to Congress, the American Red Cross chief executive officer, and the audit committee of the Board of Governors. The Red Cross ombudsman will have access to anyone and any documents in the American Red Cross. This is an important tool for improving processes and protections for those inside the American Red Cross who wish to express concerns about the organizations practices and procedures, and an important tool for Congress in providing oversight of the activities of the American Red Cross.

I urge my colleagues to vote for the American National Red Cross Governance Modernization Act of 2007.