Floor Statements

Mr. Chairman, we are not launching just a stimulus package here, we are launching a new, clean energy rocket. We know how to launch revolutions in technology. We did it in the original Apollo project that started right in this Chamber when John F. Kennedy launched that project standing right behind me. In this bill today, we are launching a similarly ambitious and similarly important clean energy revolution.

The reason I say that is the next few years, when hundreds of people go to work building lithium-ion batteries for our advanced electric cars, like at the A123 Battery Company in Massachusetts, it is because of this bill. When hundreds of people go to work doing advanced photovoltaic panels, like at Nanosolar, a thin-film photovoltaic company in California, it is going to be because of this bill. When hundreds of people go to work making gasoline out of algae, like they are doing in the deserts of Nevada, it is because of this bill. We are launching a rocket, a revolution, today.

Madam Speaker, as you know America recently lost one of the greatest leading men the silver screen has ever known. At the request of one our Capitol tour guides, Albert Caswell, please submit to the Congressional Record a poem written by Mr. Caswell honoring the great Paul Newman.

A Good Man . . .

A Good Life . . .

Left burning ever bright . . . of which now so stands this

night!

Sunrise . . .

Sunset . . .

Day in . . . day out . . .

All in the moments that we have left . . .

All in our life's quest . . .

As all upon this our earth as left . . . all in what our

lives were about . . .

Just moments, are all we have . . .

To show our worth . . . to remind us all of what it is that

so comes first!

A Good Life . . .

To play our parts . . . our starring roles, that which so

touches all hearts!

Upon, the golden screen of life . . . as lie our life's work

of art!

As left behind, to so touch and warm so each and everyone's

heart . . .

As was your Paul, as was yours . . . but a true fine work of

art . . .

A great man of character, and heart . . .

A sheer work of art . . .

A loving Father, with a wife . . . who was but the love of

his life . . .

A giver, not a taker . . .

As upon each morning as he would wake here . . .

But, his greatest beauty . . . be lie inside his heart so

wide . . .

Even, beating out those blue eyes!

As was his caring and compassion, as his life's work to help

others . . . a man of action . . .

And, humble as the day was long . . . a private man, who

refused to play his own song!

Do we give? Or do we take? All in these our short lives we

make!

Who will we touch, all in our life's wake?

A Shining Star, both on and off the screen . . .

A Bright Light . . .

Touching all hearts as we have seen!

Acting out his life, was but The Great American Dream . . .

A Cool Hand on the screen, but in life that was not his theme

. . .

And yet, Paul's great part!

Was but, what was so inside his heart . . .

Judge a man, all the while . . . but how he so treats and

loves a child!

As there, you will ever see . . . ever see Paul's great smile

. . .

For Newman's Own, is not no more . . .

Surely, he's up in Heaven . . . he's the Lord's!

For his life, was but a fine race . . . which was won . . .

Finishing First, in Heaven's Sun . . .

``Rain drops keep falling on my head''

So wipe those tears from your eyes . . .

Because Paul, was such A Good Man, and led such A Good Life

which lies!

Mr. Speaker, I am delighted to be here tonight to help pass the Webcaster Settlement Act of 2008. The reason is I really do believe the upshot of this legislation will be the survival of webcasting as we know it in the United States, to really allow our consumers and our constituents to continue to enjoy tremendous opportunities to listen to great music and great news over the Internet, and allow the continued development of businesses around the business model of webcasting.

I am very appreciative of Chairman Berman and his efforts to facilitate discussions to help resolve this difficult issue and to the ranking member, Mr. Smith, who is a cosponsor of this legislation. This really is a bipartisan effort to find a resolution to a difficult issue.

As Mr. Berman indicated, there is a wide divergence on what the right royalty to pay is. Certainly a lot of businesses were jeopardized by this decision. I just note one that led to this relief. Big R Radio, it is actually in the State of Washington where I hail from, under the CRB decision that gave rise to this issue, it would have caused Big R Radio to exceed by 150 percent of their revenues what they would have to pay in royalties.

We have heard many businesses would be in that situation.

We have been engaged now for some period of time, discussions to try to find a resolution and agreement between those who are webcasters, who have big dreams, and providing tremendous music to allow them to continue.

We hope that those will succeed. We think that we are close to a successful resolution of those discussions. Mr. Berman has been very helpful in that regard.

But to get there, we need to have this bill to make sure that when an agreement is reached, that it has, in fact, the sanction of the United States. This bill is really kind of simple. It just basically says that the parties, if they can reach an agreement, Uncle Sam will not get in the way. Certainly that makes sense from all standpoints on both sides of the aisle.

I just want to note how important it is. I know many people have been interested in this in the last few days to encourage Congress to pass this legislation. Webcasting really has become a fabric of people's daily lives.

I want to read one quote from Luis Jimenez, who is involved in Live365 network. He is from Frederick, Maryland. This is a quote:

``Internet radio gave me the freedom to put together my own format station without having to be a cookie-cutter station. Listeners and musicians love it because of the variety of music and the fact local and independent artists are played.'' That's a quote from the Frederick News Post.

This is really why our constituents love this service. We want to find a business model where webcasting can thrive, where consumers can listen, and, at some point, terrestrial broadcasters who will be able to simulcast under this the legislation, they will be able to access the benefit of this legislation, and they will be involved in negotiations to find a right, appropriate level.

I am delighted by the passage of this, and I thank all involved in this effort.

Mr. Speaker, I do also want to express my great respect for the previous speaker, Representative Cannon. He is a fellow of such great heart and cheerful countenance, it has been a pleasure to serve with him. He and I now belong or shortly will belong to an elite group. He will be joining the Former Members of Congress. I am also a member of the Former Members of Congress.

I just want to relate to him that many of us who are not serving at one time, it is a respectful and honorable position to be in. I want his family to know how much we respect his service. We know he is going to go on to do great things for his community and his family.

Congressman, I would like to tell you how much we respect you. Hope you come by and say hello on occasion. Congratulations.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to support an economic stimulus package that will create American jobs in a growing clean energy economy. Thanks to the advocacy of Majority Leader Steny Hoyer and Chairman John Dingell, Congress authorized an advanced battery loan guarantee program for advanced vehicle batteries and systems--key components to fuel efficient cars--in the United States. I also want to thank my good friends Representatives Steve Israel and Tim Ryan for engaging in the effort to push this program and others like Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Chairman Dave Obey and Rahm Emanuel for their support in moving forward. Also integral in this achievement are hard-working staff.

As many Americans know, a healthy automobile industry is as American as apple pie. In the transition to a clean energy economy, batteries and advanced electric systems are the key to our future success in this area. Once cars are electrified, batteries will be equivalent to up to 50 percent the total cost of the car. At this time, all of the domestic auto manufacturers plan to purchase batteries that have been produced offshore for their new efficient electric vehicles. However, today, the House will provide funding for a $3.3 billion in loan guarantee program for the domestic construction of facilities that will manufacture advanced vehicle batteries and battery systems. This will enable an American industry to remain competitive in producing advanced lithium ion batteries, hybrid electrical systems, components and software designs.

Loan guarantees provided in this bill will enable several domestic advanced battery manufacturers and advanced vehicle systems companies to grow in a global marketplace. Such companies could include AFS Trinity, of Medina, WA, Enerdel of Indianapolis, IN, Altairnano Battery of Reno, NV, Firefly of Peoria, IL and International Battery of Allentown, PA. There are others that have also developed technology here and we hope that this provision will encourage those companies to open facilities in the United States.

Absent this program, we risk losing the advanced battery industry to Asia when there is no technological reason that America cannot compete in this technology. With this program, we will ensure that America retains green collar jobs in an important industry. We also ensure our companies grow in a global marketplace. I urge my colleagues to support this bill and fund this program.

Madam Speaker, listening to the President last night, I had a very disturbing sense of deja vu, or actually, maybe, appropriately, deja voodoo.

I remember the situation where the President said we had this threat to the country, we had to respond in Iraq. He then went on to foist hundreds of billions of dollars of deficit spending in the Iraq war, without paying one single dime in a fiscally responsible way to do it.

Last night he did exactly the same thing. He attempted to foist somewhere between 200, 500, 700 billion dollars of deficit spending on the American people. When you do deficit spending, you ultimately put the cost on middle-income taxpayers in America.

This President, if he believes this crisis is so bad, needs to come to the American people and put the cost on the folks who got us into this predicament, the industry that created this crisis, not on middle- income taxpayers.

This is fiscal irresponsibility. It will not stand.

Mr. Speaker, I would like to address the importance of this bill, the American job creation bill, and how this bill relates to another bill we are working on. By doing that, I just want to share something I saw in Colorado about 3 weeks ago.

I was in Golden, Colorado, at the National Renewable Energy Lab. At that National Renewable Energy Lab I saw a functioning system of powering our cars with solar energy.

It was a photovoltaic cell about 400 square feet mounted on a little pod that basically would run two cars, two electric plug-in cars for a day, just by charging them for about 6 to 8 hours. So you plug them in, they run 40 miles on all electricity, and then they could go another 250 miles on gasoline. Basically what it showed was a vision for this country using home-grown solar power and home-grown electric cars.

This bill is absolutely imperative to make sure that we get that solar energy located in the United States. So these industries like Ausra Solar Thermal Power, like Nanosolar in Palo Alto with photovoltaic power, so we keep building those businesses right here in the United States. And the renewable tax credits are imperative in this bill.

But I want to point out how this dovetails with another bill that is under consideration today in the House, and that is a bill we will have to try to stimulate job creation.

It very important in those plug-in cars that we have that we manufacture in this country the batteries that are going to run our electric cars. When we have plug-in electric cars and fully electric cars, the batteries will represent 50 percent of the value of those cars, and we cannot allow those jobs to go to China and Korea. Unfortunately, right now the plans are to make the car bodies here, but make the batteries in China and Korea. That is a sure loss of tens of thousands of jobs.

So we are working on another bill here today parallel to this one that would create a loan guarantee program to ensure that those battery production jobs stay in America. I am hopeful that we get these renewable energy tax credits extended, and I think it is imperative that we move forward to save the battery industry in this country.

Madam Speaker, almost 2.5 billion people live on less than $2 per day. Malaria kills over 1 million children every year. Nearly 40 million people are infected with HIV/AIDS and almost 2.8 million people die from it annually. Madam Speaker, the great State of Washington is blessed to be home to many of the top minds in the world tackling these heart-sinking problems. And while it is easy to feel small and insignificant in the face of the enormity of these challenges, William Gates, Sr. has never been a wallflower.

While he is perhaps most well-known for being the father of the founder of the Microsoft Corporation, he is truly a powerhouse unto himself and a beacon of what a life driven with purpose and compassion can achieve. Mr. Gates currently serves as the chair of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, but as the people of our great state know, that is an encore on top of a prominent legal career and record of community leadership that spans from school levy campaigns to the United Way to a place on the University of Washington Board of Regents.

In his role as chair at the largest philanthropic organization in world history, Mr. Gates has applied the same devotion that he has carried with him throughout his life to improving the lives of those less fortunate. Through his work we are seeing amazing results in our schools, our libraries, and our villages.

Mr. Gates believes that every life is valuable, that every person deserves the opportunity to learn, and that the power of knowledge can change our lives. He continues to challenge us to redefine how we think of our neighbor and to extend the same compassion to our global friends as we would the elderly widow down the street. His work exemplifies the good we can achieve when that compassion is coalesced with the energy, determination, and resources to concentrate on targeted results-driven projects that are held accountable to achieving their goals.

We are fortunate in our State to have such an extraordinary example for the young and the old among us of what we might achieve when we answer the call to civic action. For his lifelong commitment to improving our communities, for his never failing to embrace the have- nots, and for his visionary leadership on global health and education, William Gates, Sr. deserves the highest accolades.

Mr. Speaker, the previous speaker alluded to a financial crisis we are now in that has occurred in part because of greed and avarice and incompetence and perhaps fraud, but it's also arisen because of the lack of an honest, tough regulatory system to rein in those abuses that has been most unfortunate during the last several years. It's happened sort of in the dead of the night, and it points out the need for Uncle Sam to provide a regulatory system that really stands up for hardworking Americans.

And I come to talk about one of those things that we need, which is a regulatory system to make sure that Americans have access to multiple sources of information so that we can make studied, reasoned decisions about public policy. And unfortunately, under the Bush administration, which I must say has not done a heck of a job in regulating the financial services industry the last few years, has also not done a heck of a job recently in providing a regulatory structure that would give Americans access to multiple sources of information in our news outlets.

Specifically, what I'm concerned about, I'd like to talk about tonight, is the Federal Communications Commission, under this administration, has attempted to allow greater consolidation in our media outlets which basically reduces the sources and multiple diverse sources of information that Americans receive, and this has happened in the dark of the night. I'd like to address this problem tonight.

Many of my colleagues have advocated against the consolidation of our news outlets because we know having multiple sources of information is healthy for public debate. It's absolutely intrinsic to a functioning democracy, and that's why we were outraged when the FCC voted last December to lift a ban on one company owning a daily newspaper and a broadcast station in the same market, too much consolidation.

FCC Chairman Kevin Martin claimed that the new rules applied only in our Nation's biggest markets. Unfortunately, we found out that that was simply not the case. The new rules contained enormous loopholes that would allow companies to easily obtain permanent waivers that would allow this illicit and unnecessary consolidation in our media markets.

Now this process has also lacked transparency. Americans have not had a fair shake to weigh in on this decision. Prior to the vote, the FCC held six town hall meetings during the course of the year. And even though the FCC gave little notice, thousands of people showed up to express concerns about what the Bush administration was doing here.

The last public hearing the FCC held was in my hometown of Seattle this last November. Along with Senator Maria Cantwell, I called on Chairman Martin to give the public at least 4 weeks' notice prior to a town hall meeting. Well, clearly in an effort to reduce public response, they gave us about 4 days' notice. Nonetheless, 1,000 citizens showed up to express a relatively unanimous opinion against any more media consolidation, against the position the FCC was advocating.

However, the FCC Chair did not listen to those people. I know this because it turns out--I thought this was a little embarrassing for the FCC chairman--it turned out he had written an op-ed piece for the New York Times in favor of further possible consolidation and submitted it to the paper even before he got done with the hearings. And then he came out to Seattle and purported to be listening to the Americans. He'd already formed his opinion and had written an op-ed about what he was going to do. It wasn't a very fair process.

This is in part why I had introduced bipartisan legislation prior to the vote calling on the Commission to conduct its ownership proceedings with greater transparency and to deal with the crisis in minority and female ownership of broadcast stations. It's shameful that people of color own just 3 percent and women 5 percent of our Nation's TV stations.

Following the December vote, the Senate introduced and passed a resolution of disapproval in May by a nearly unanimous voice vote. This enjoyed broad bipartisan support. We know where Americans stand on this issue. They do not want to continue the increasing consolidation in the media market.

I've introduced a resolution of disapproval. We have over 50 cosponsors. We're going to run out of time to get this bill passed this year, but I want to congratulate the public whose vigorous opposition to this consolidation has allowed our voices to be heard. There have been no new major media mergers that have taken place in the broadcast industry while we have been fighting this battle.

I want to congratulate people for fighting this effort, and we will continue our efforts into the next Congress.

I have come this morning to take issue with a comment by one of the candidates for President about how our economy is doing fine, the fundamentals are strong. I want to say that we have to do some major work rebuilding our economy and rebuilding millions of jobs, and that we will have a bill on the floor this week that we will propose to restore economic growth by rebuilding a new, clean energy economy for America.

We believe that we need to have a new birth of whole new industries in America to start to replace the hemorrhaging of jobs that we have suffered,

and we believe that we can do this by building green collar jobs and a whole new clean economy for America.

In the next few days, we will be proposing to the House a comprehensive energy bill that will be focused on building new jobs in America. And we think Americans deserve this. We think Americans are ready for this. And we think it is an American destiny, as we were the arsenal of democracy in World War II, to now become the arsenal of clean energy for the world.

I want to talk about some of the things I've learned just in the last few months about our ability to grow a new clean energy economy in the world.

I'd like to refer to a photograph taken a few weeks ago in Golden, Colorado. This is a photograph taken at the National Renewable Energy Lab. This lab is vested with the charge to help build new technologies to grow new jobs in America. I want to report this picture, I think, encapsulates the potential future for the American transportation system and the American new energy system to drive jobs in that direction.

This is a photograph of a photovoltaic array, this panel here that is mounted on this pedestal. On the other side of this metal is a photovoltaic array that basically captures the sun's energy and transfers it to electric energy. This array itself is attached to these two cars here. These two cars are plug-in electric cars. These are two cars that essentially we will plug in at night, when these cars are on the road. And they are mass produced in America.

These cars plug in at night. We charge them for 8 hours. And then they will run about 40 miles on all electricity. So that these cars will emit no carbon dioxide. They'll run just on energy and electricity for 40 miles. If you want to go more than 40 miles a day, you'll run on gasoline or ethanol for the remaining 200, 250-mile range, plus.

Now the wonderful thing about this, and I've done a lot of research, but something I learned, and I was very impressed with the young man at the National Renewable Lab that told me that this array right here, which isn't a lot larger, you can see, than a rooftop, will charge in 8 hours, fully charge, two of these plug-in electric cars to run a full 40 miles on electricity, and they then can run on gasoline an additional 200, 250 miles.

This was a remarkable statement to me because this picture, I believe, is Exhibit A in our ability to totally revolutionize our transportation system and grow millions of new jobs in America to do that. Let me give you an example of that.

These photovoltaic arrays are now being manufactured in America, not just in the silicone-based systems that we're familiar with, but 2 months ago at the Nano Solar Company in California, Americans produced the first thin-cell photovoltaic to actually have a revolutionary system that is 30 to 40 percent less expensive for a lot of energy coming from these photovoltaic arrays. Those are manufacturing jobs in America.

General Motors is getting ready in 2010 or 2011 to mass produce the first plug-in electric car in America, where we are going to put Americans to work in this manufacturing process.

This is why I mention this. We will have a bill on the floor in the next few days that will truly advance these manufacturing millions of new green collar jobs in solar, in plug-in electric cars, by doing several things. It will create a tax code that will give benefits to companies to manufacture these products. It will give tax breaks to Americans to buy these products. It will create a 15 percent requirement that our utilities use these new, clean energy sources. It will create a research and development fund to help do the research to bring these to market.

And my Republican colleagues, I will call on them and we will call on them to join us in a comprehensive bill to truly help the development of these new technologies. We hope they will abandon their shortsighted view that these technologies aren't the future. This is the future.

You know, if we were having this debate in the 1800s, someone would be arguing about need to preserve whale oil, because that was the dominant source of energy in the 1800s and they couldn't see the emerging transition to different fuels. And now we have some people in this Chamber who don't understand the transition of fuels for Americans, the only transition that has a chance of breaking our addiction to oil and truly keeping down the price of energy.

I want to show you a transition fuel that is just on the cusp. I met a man named Tony Markel. He works at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Golden, Colorado, two weeks ago, and he showed me this.

This is a photo-voltaic panel. It is about 400 square feet, and it is plugged into two plug-in electric hybrid cars. These are cars that run on electricity, only electricity, for about 40 miles, and if you want to go further than 40 miles, you use gasoline. This one system, a PV system, can power these two cars for essentially 40 miles, and then you use gasoline if you want to go more than 40 miles.

This bill that the Republicans hate is going to give Americans a step forward to this future, which is the only future, together with some biofuels and perhaps even some other technologies, that can break the stranglehold of the oil and gas industry over the American consumer. And it is clear to me from people at Boeing, who revolutionized commercial aircraft; from people at Microsoft, who revolutionized software, that now is a chance for Americans to revolutionize the world of new clean energy.

We know that we need innovation, not intransigence. We need invention, not insignificance. And we know we can't drill our way out of this problem. But we can, we must, and we will innovate our way to a clean energy future. This is a destiny of ours. It is a clean energy destiny.

In addition, I would like to add that Tony Markel is an employee of the National Renewable Energy Laboratory. NREL is a national laboratory that provides great data and research on energy efficiency and renewable energy; however, NREL does not generally have a position on pending legislation, nor does it have a position on this bill, H.R. 6899.

Mr. Speaker, nothing is more apt for Americans than the clean energy revolution that we will start with today's bill. Nothing is more apt for Americans because this bill depends on two very intrinsic American qualities. Those are the qualities of optimism and innovation. And we believe that this bill sets us on a course for innovation that will achieve for clean energy what we achieved in the space race of the 1960s.

And I'd like to share why I'm optimistic about this. This is a picture I took a couple of weeks ago in Golden, Colorado, at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, the center of our national effort on renewable energy. It's a picture of a photovoltaic cell. On the other side of this array is a 400-square-foot photovoltaic cell converting sunlight into electricity. That sunlight feeds down into these two cars that are plugged-in electric hybrid cars. This is a term Americans are going to get to know real well. They plug in. They use this solar-based power, and they will go 40 miles with zero gasoline. And then after you go more than 40 miles, they have a gasoline engine to go another 200 or 250 miles.

Here's the stunning fact which they told me at the renewable lab. This panel, which can go on your roof, powers two cars in 8 hours to get that all-electric drive for a full 40 miles.

We are in the midst of a transition. We are on the cusp of a great transition. It reminds me of another transition when we went from typewriters to software, and there were a bunch of optimists out in Redmond, Washington at Microsoft, in my district, that were optimistic about this new transition we were going to get into.

Now, I will tell you this: I've heard some of my Republican friends saying ``drill, baby, drill.'' I think during that transition from typewriters to software, what they would have been saying is ``type, baby, type.''

We know that we have to break our addiction to oil, not to continue it, and this bill is a comprehensive measure.

Let's be clear. The Republicans who will vote against this bill today are voting against solar energy for Americans. They are voting against plug-in hybrid technology for Americans. They are voting against enhanced geothermal for Americans. They are voting against more wind energy for Americans. And this idea of drilling as a bridge to these technologies, it's a bridge to nowhere. It won't show up for 15 years.

We need this technology starting today. That's a future America deserves.

I've come to the floor this morning to talk about a great opportunity we have in the next 2 or 3 weeks here in Congress to really adopt a comprehensive energy bill that will move forward with the bold strokes that America needs, but I mention bold strokes rather than tiny, little baby steps, and we will not have accomplished our goal this fall if we just take tiny, little baby steps, and unfortunately, that still remains a possibility.

Now, the tiny, little baby steps that I refer to are the efforts to go for a little thimble full of fuel off of our coastline, and this has really gotten the majority of the debate, but unfortunately, it's not where the tankers full of energy are. We know that if we drill off our coastlines it simply won't answer the problem that we have because there is just not enough oil there. We consume 25 percent of the world's oil, but we only have 3 percent of the world's oil supply even if we drill off our coastline or in Yellowstone National Park or on the south lawn of the White House. So, while we're having an honest debate about where to drill, there is one thing we know for sure: drilling is not enough. Even if we do expand the places where we drill--and my side of the aisle is supporting using the 68 million acres that are already leased, in fact, starting drilling on those areas that are already leased--we know we have to do so much more than just drill.

The good news is that we will have on the floor in the next couple of weeks a proposal that will move forward broadly with the new technologies that really provide the vast, huge tankers full of energy that we need to replace our fossil fuel-based economy, but I learned this August at some companies that I visited and at some research labs that we are just on the cusp of a clean energy revolution that is now ready, if we can ask some of my fellows across the aisle to join us, for truly having a comprehensive plan.

I want to just run through some of the companies I visited this August. I went to the National Renewable Energy Lab in Golden, Colorado, and I saw an incredible place where they had two plug-in electric cars. Right above them was a photovoltaic cell of about, maybe, 10 by 20 on a pedestal right above them. With that one solar photovoltaic panel, they were charging two plug-in electric cars that would go 30 to 40 miles, all electric. Then if you wanted to go more than 40 miles, you could run it on gasoline or potentially on ethanol, a plug-in electric car. You could see a vision where we have PV cells in our homes or at our businesses, powering our cars with plug-in electric technology, and it was right there in Golden, Colorado. It is not a pipe dream. It is on the roads today. The first commercially available plug-in electric car today was written about in the Seattle Post Intelligence in my hometown in Seattle. This is ready to go. Our bill will support that technology.

I met a guy named Bob Nelson on Bainbridge Island in Washington who has a company called Sapphire Energy. Sapphire Energy has figured out a way to use algae and to convert algae to gasoline, pure American-bred gasoline from algae. Our technology will support the commercialization of that technology.

I met a woman named Susan Petty, also in Seattle. She has a company called AltaRock. AltaRock is a company that drills down 3 to 5 kilometers. It pumps down cold water. It fractures rock. It then pumps down water and brings it back up at 300 degrees temperature. It uses that hot water to create steam, and it generates electricity with zero CO2 emissions and with zero global warming gases. AltaRock Energy is going to be ready to commercialize this technology, we hope, in the next several years that could produce potentially half of our electrical needs in the United States if we can surmount a couple of technological challenges involving pumps. Here is a company that could be a total game changer, and it needs policies from Congress to move forward. Our proposal, the Democratic leadership will propose, will support that technology.

Next, I go down the drive to Bellevue, Washington, and I visit a company called MagnaDrive that is producing an electrical system that can reduce the electrical needs of electrical motors by 60 to 70 percent. They are manufacturing that product today and are shipping it to China. They're hiring people in Bellevue, Washington to produce these things to go to China, to start exporting products to China. This is the future of this country to build these clean energy technologies and to ship them to China. Our bill that we will propose will support that technology.

Now what we need are for some of my Republican colleagues to drop this proposal of ``none of the above'' and to start joining us with a comprehensive approach. What America needs is a clean energy revolution.

Madam Speaker, I appreciate some of my Republican colleagues' discussion of some alternative energy, but it hasn't been an ``all of the above'' voting history for them; it has been a ``none of the above'' voting history when it comes to the vast sources of energy.

We know America is a bold country, not a timid country. But an energy policy that revolves around exclusively offshore drilling is a timid policy. The large swaths of energy we need are not off the coast, they are in the sunshine falling on our land, the wind blowing in the Midwest, the geothermal below our feet, the wave and tidal power; these are the vast swaths of energy.

Yesterday, right around this building, I drove a plug-in electric hybrid car. That is the future, using electricity driven by the sun. And I wish my Republican colleagues would just take a look at the USA Today newspaper yesterday that talked about the enormous strides being made in solar energy. We need a bold policy that can truly get us out of this pickle. That's one based on energy sources, not the timidity of the Republican Party.

Was this part of the secret Dick Cheney task force to come up with an opposition to have a little transparency in the speculation markets? Secrecy does its worst work in the dark, and that's what happened in the Cheney secret energy task force. And why should we allow these speculative markets to continue in the dark?

The people who support this are not a bunch of hemp smoking Communists. The Air Transport Association, the people whose industry is on the verge of disaster, realize we have to rein in this rampant speculation. These are capitalists, CEOs, accountants who know that we've got to get to the root of this speculation.

And I don't understand, when it comes to energy, my Republican colleagues are against virtually every solution. Speculation, they're against it. Opening the SPR, they're against it. Solar energy in our REC standard, they're against it. Wind in our tax bill, they're against it. Electrified cars in our CAFE, they're against it. They're the none- of-the-above caucus.

Of course we need a long-term energy plan that can wean ourselves off this addiction to oil. President Bush said we are addicted to oil, and he turns around and says let's just get more addicted to oil.

I don't understand why the Republicans then voted against our bill to call for new clean energy sources of electricity so we can electrify our car and not have to burn oil. I don't know why they voted against our tax package that would allow tax breaks for companies like the Sapphire Energy Company that's making biofuels out of algae. That's a long-term solution to this problem, but we have got to have a short- term solution too.

I will tell you this, listening to my Republican colleagues, if you run out of gas on a dusty rural road somewhere, you better hope it's not a Republican Congressman who pulls up and basically comes to your aid and says, I can't help you now, can't help you next week, can't help you next year. I'll be back around here in 10 years. Then maybe we'll do something about it. Because that is all they are suggesting, and that is a plan doomed for failure. We can't wait 10 years for solutions to this problem. We need solutions that will work.

Let me suggest that the evidence is very, very clear about doing very small releases from the SPR, and I was shocked to learn how successful this can be. I went to a bipartisan war game at the war college last week with some of my colleagues, and we war gamed out what would happen if there was an interruption of our oil supplies due to overseas disruption.

Let me tell you what I learned since then: Small releases from the SPR can have huge ramifications for the price of gasoline. Look what happened in 1990 during Desert Shield when the first President Bush allowed release. Here is what the Energy Department concluded:

``The rapid decision to release crude oil from government-controlled stocks in the United States and other OECD countries helped calm the global oil market, and prices began to moderate. When the 1991 SPR drawdown was announced in connection with Operation Desert Storm, the price of oil immediately dropped $8 a barrel.''

Now why does this small less than 10 percent change in SPR, how can it have these enormous ramifications? The answer has to do with human psychology. These markets are driven by

psychology, and that's why the three times we have been done this before, all the last three Presidents, including this President, has achieved reductions from 5 to 30 percent within 30 days in the price of oil.

Don't allow Americans to be told they have got to wait 10 years for relief. Let's act now in conjunction with the legislation we are going to pass eventually to tamp down speculation. Democrats have both a long-term and a short-term response. Pass this bill.