Clean Energy Demonstration Transparency Act of 2023

Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 1069) to amend the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act to require reporting regarding clean energy demonstration projects, and for other purposes, as amended.

Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days to revise and extend their remarks and to include extemporaneous material on H.R. 1069, the bill now under consideration.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of H.R. 1069, the Clean Energy Demonstration Transparency Act of 2023 offered by the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Carey). This commonsense legislation will provide Congress with the necessary tools to conduct thorough oversight on the Department of Energy's growing number of demonstration projects.

Specifically, H.R. 1069 requires the Secretary of Energy to report to Congress on all demonstration projects administered by the Office of Clean Energy Demonstrations. As part of this report, the Secretary must include all contracts, milestones, schedules, and funding profiles, including cost-share agreements.

DOE established OCED to carry out the technology demonstration projects that were authorized in the Energy Act of 2020 and the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act. This includes projects with bipartisan support such as the Advanced Reactor Demonstration Program and Long-Duration Energy Storage Demonstrations.

Historically, DOE's applied energy offices have administered these programs, creating a natural pipeline from the lab to the field. With the creation of OCED, DOE put these activities in a new and untested office, separating expertise and adding a new layer of bureaucracy. At the same time, the infrastructure bill and the Inflation Reduction Act appropriated $27 billion to OCED to fund these projects.

This organizational change and influx of money should concern every lawmaker given previous instances of DOE's mismanagement of demonstration projects. Already, OCED has been slow to award recipients and struggled to identify unique capabilities not covered by the applied energy offices.

Currently, Congress lacks the necessary safeguards and the ability to conduct rigorous oversight over OCED and its demonstration projects. For example, when the Science Committee tried to get more information on DOE waiving the cost-share requirement for a multimillion-dollar project, DOE had no requirement to document or justify their decision.

H.R. 1069 requires DOE to submit semiannual reports which include all contracts, agreements, and funding breakdowns, and enables Congress to have the tools to protect taxpayers' dollars, hold OCED accountable, and ensure a truly competitive selection process based on merits.

I am proud to cosponsor this bill, along with Ranking Member Lofgren, and I extend my appreciation to Representative Carey for continuing his leadership on this issue despite no longer sitting on the Science Committee.

Mr. Speaker, I urge all my colleagues to support this bill, and I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I yield such time as he may consume to the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Carey).

Mr. Speaker, I have no further requests for time, and I am prepared to close once the gentlewoman from Michigan does.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself the balance of my time to close.

Mr. Speaker, one of our most important responsibilities in Congress is to serve as the steward of taxpayers' dollars. I take that job very seriously.

I want to see DOE and all of our Federal research agencies succeed in developing next-generation technologies. At the same time, we need to be conscious of the body and keep a watchful eye on the progress of these projects well before their costs balloon into multibillions of dollars.

H.R. 1069 allows us to do exactly that. It increases transparency between DOE and Congress, enabling both sides to have beneficial information and insight into the successes of Federal demonstration projects.

Once again, I thank Mr. Carey for leading this bill along with his co-sponsors, Representatives Williams, Davids, and Donalds.

Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to support this bill, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Mr. Speaker, this is one of the moments where we find ourselves so grateful for the House Record, as we yet again are moving to pass a bipartisan piece of legislation, H.R. 1069, the Clean Energy Demonstration Transparency Act in a bipartisan fashion here, forever commemorated on the House floor.

We are recognizing that here in the United States of America, our phenomenal Department of Energy, now being run by Michigan's former Governor, Secretary Jennifer Granholm, is doing clean energy. These are clean energy projects that are coming to fruition because of the Invest in America agenda promulgated by the President of the United States, the great Joe Biden.

We have already in place, 3 years on, the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law which established a first of its kind clean energy demonstration office centrally coordinating the Department of Energy's larger-scale clean energy technology development. I really appreciate when we can say, as Democrats and Republicans, yes to transparency because we do want the world to see that we are doing clean energy, and we will lead the sustainability vision for the future.

We also know that $25 billion coming out of this Bipartisan Infrastructure Law legislation is funding and scaling emerging technologies such as clean hydrogen and advanced nuclear energy, which is needed to tackle some of our most pressing climate challenges and certainly to achieve our net zero goals that we have established for ourselves.

One of the initiatives that has been supported by the Office of Clean Energy Demonstrations, one that I am very excited about and has great meaning for us in Michigan, the automotive supply chain innovation capital of the world, is hydrogen hubs. We have these hydrogen hubs that have come to fruition or are being invested in out of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. Certainly, as I mentioned, these hubs are helping my State of Michigan. We have got the Midwest Alliance for Clean Hydrogen, and it is going to leverage my State's famous industrial power to lead the Nation in this clean energy hydrogen production.

The hubs are going to benefit from this transparency legislation, this network of hydrogen hubs which are seeking to lower our emissions as a Nation

in certainly a very trying moment for decarbonization. We see hydrogen really coming into play with heavy-duty transportation and maritime port equipment.

I invite everyone to take a peek at what is happening in Michigan because it is really quite phenomenal with these supply chain corridors and manufacturers and how they are adopting hydrogen. I will keep my finger on the pulse of their work for many years to come.

Here we stand now with this demonstration activity. We are going to push for transparency. We have this great group, the chairman of the Science Committee and the ranking member of the Science Committee, that have come together to support this legislation. We want Congress to have a hand in it because we know when we pass these big bills, a lot of times we just go forward and then we are hungry to implement and hungry to keep a finger on the pulse and maybe we can have a couple of hearings, but H.R. 1069 gives us a runway. It is really quite essential, and it also helps the Department of Energy, particularly President Biden's Department of Energy, continue to do what it is doing really well.

Let us all see this phenomenal bill get passed. I join the chairman of the Science Committee calling on my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to continue to push forward in a bipartisan fashion the passage of H.R. 1069.

Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, in closing, again, I feel passionate about this legislation. I thank Mr. Carey for his remarks and for joining us on the House floor. I look forward to seeing this bill become law.

Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of a bill that will lead America toward an all-of-the-above energy future, H.R. 1069, the Clean Energy Demonstration Transparency Act.

First, I thank Chairman Lucas, Ranking Member Lofgren, and Energy Subcommittee Chairman Williams for their work on bringing this bill to the floor. I also thank the Science, Space, and Technology Committee staff for their bipartisan efforts in moving this legislation forward.

Strengthening the energy category of domestic energy production, including renewables, oil, gas, coal, and nuclear, will safeguard our supply chains, defend our national security, and, in fact, boost our economy.

H.R. 1069 is a commonsense bill that will increase transparency and oversight of the investments in homegrown, clean energy, including the billions of taxpayer dollars entrusted to the newly established Office of Clean Energy Demonstrations.

Specifically, the bill requires the Office of Clean Energy Demonstrations to submit semiannual reports to Congress regarding the budget, schedule, and participating entities of their demonstration projects.

Mr. Speaker, I encourage my colleagues to vote ``yes'' on this bill, which will give Americans confidence that their taxpayer dollars are being used wisely in our pursuit of energy independence.