Energy & Environment

Today, I was joined by other leading Democrats to propose the PROGRESS Act, a comprehensive bill that will lead America in a New Direction towards energy independence.  Making our nation energy independent is vital to our national security, our economic security, and our environment, and we can't let another day pass without action.  We owe it to future generations of Americans.

The President signed a civil nuclear deal with the government of India last March. It allowed the U.S. to export nuclear fuel, reactors, and expertise to India in exchange for international safeguards and nuclear facility inspections. This agreement represents a significant foreign policy shift because historically the U.S. refuses the sale of civilian nuclear technology to countries that did not sign the 1970 Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. Since it dramatically alters U.S. policy, Congress must approve the treaty before the U.S.-India pact can take effect.

I believe the United States must increasingly look to India as a strategic partner. India is the largest democracy in the world, is transforming into an economic powerhouse, and occupies a vital strategic position between the Middle East and China. India also shares a long history of combating Muslim extremism and is an important ally in the global war on terror. For all these reasons, I believe the United States should take steps to improve its relationship with India. I support H.R. 5682 and will vote for its passage in the House.

As temperatures soared into the 90s last week, roughly 100,000 people in Western Queens lost power. We’re in the 8th day of the crisis, and nearly 10,000 people remain without power. It took Con Edison, our local power company, days to admit that the problem was real. As time passed and the lights stayed off, I wrote to Con Edison Chairman, President and CEO Kevin Burke to demand some answers and better communication with those who are affected.



Western Queens has 6 power plants and supplies 60% of the power to New York City. The residents bear the brunt of the health impacts of living near so many power plants, and now they are dealing with food spoilage, excessive heat and, in many cases, no hot water because they have no power. On top of that, some businesses have told me that they have millions in spoilage.



The community remains in the dark – both figuratively and literally. On July 21, 2006, I wrote again to Mr. Burke to express my outrage. I also wrote a letter to House Government Reform Committee Chairman Tom Davis and Ranking Member Henry Waxman, requesting that the federal government investigate how the blackout happened, why it happened, and what must be done to reduce the vulnerability of the power grid in the nation’s most prominent terrorist target.



Still, I so far haven’t even heard Con Ed say a simple ‘I'm sorry.’

Yesterday, I sent a letter with Chairman Tom Davis to ask the President's Council on Environmental Quality to provide information about serious allegations that a political appointee had tampered with government scientists' and experts' work on global warming.

Last year, the New York Times reported that the council's chief of staff, Phillip Cooney, had altered scientific government reports to downplay the connection between emissions and global warming. The White House claimed last year that Mr. Cooney's edits were routine. Mr. Cooney had no background in science. Before joining the Bush Administration, he'd been an oil industry lobbyist.

Days after the Times story ran, Mr. Cooney resigned. And went to work for Exxon Mobil.

Yesterday's Government Reform Committee hearing on climate change science presented me with an opportunity to ask Chairman Tom Davis to join me in an effort to get to the bottom of the controversy. Our letter asked CEQ's current chairman James Connaughton to provide any internal documents related to climate change, and we expect them by August 11. Chairman Davis has agreed to schedule a hearing with the CEQ chairman after the August recess.

All the new timetables in the world are not going to correct the mismanagement, fraud and scientific failings that have become a hallmark of the Yucca Mountain Project.  Nuclear waste can safely remain where it was produced for the next 100 years and there is no need to move this waste given the danger of an accident or terrorist attack.

One fact that every member of Congress should know is that the Department of Energy cannot and will not provide Congress with a new estimate of Yucca Mountain's total cost.  The price tag in 2001 was more than $60 billion dollars, and I would not be surprised to see the final cost swell to five times that amount.

For those who think Yucca Mountain is only a Nevada problem, I would remind Members of Congress that President Bush's plan to turn Nevada into a nuclear garbage dump will send thousands of waste shipments across America's roads and highways.  Communities from California to Maine will be impacted and will be potential terrorist targets as decades of waste shipments pass by homes, schools, hospitals and churches.  More than 50 million Americans will be at risk from shipments of nuclear waste headed to Yucca Mountain.

I am confident that this bill will pass through the Senate.  With 80 co-sponsors, it is clear that there is much bipartisan support.  The Upper Mississippi Modernization Act that is included in the Water Resources Development Act is especially important due to growing competition in the agriculture world.  We will find ourselves falling further and further behind if we don’t have the necessary infrastructure to get products down the river for export.  I was in Brazil earlier this year, and I can tell you that Amazon River has facilities that would put the Mississippi River to shame

Currently, half of all our domestic refinery capacity is concentrated in the Gulf States, a region too vulnerable to natural disasters.  That in turn puts the U.S. energy security at risk and causes periodic supply disruptions and price increases. Simply expanding our current refineries fails to address this concentration and indeed makes it worse.  Moreover, such expansion only increases our over reliance on crude oil as a feedstock.  Constructing new refineries in other regions provides needed geographic distribution and also creates the opportunity to utilize locally available biomass and other renewable fuel feedstocks.  Our agricultural and forestry resources are currently sufficient to sustainably displace more than one third of our transportation fuel needs, and we should support domestic supply over protecting the import-dependent status quo.

With rising gas prices and American workers losing their jobs to illegal aliens it's imperative we do all we can to fight for the American worker and ensure them a fair minimum wage. That's why I was pleased to vote this week to instruct House conferees to include language in Senate bill S250 to increase the minimum wage to no less than $7.25 an hour. I'm also proud to be the co-sponsor of House bill, H.R. 3413, which would increase the minimum wage from $5.15 to $7.15 by 2007. I know increasing the minimum wage will be a fight, but it's one worth fighting for. Congress has not raised the federal minimum wage in almost ten years and every day the minimum wage is not increased, it loses value to inflation. I encourage the Senate and House conferees to quickly come to a consensus on SR250 and include in it an increase in the federal minimum wage.

I’m encouraged that Senate leaders have accepted protections for Florida offered by Sen. Martinez and me.  But I remain concerned that the proposal could be dramatically altered by House and Senate negotiators tasked with approving a final deal.

The U.S. computer server market is expected to grow from 2.8 million units in 2005 to 4.9 million units by 2009, no doubt resulting in increased energy demand followed by soaring energy costs as companies deploy greater numbers of servers, consuming more power, and in the process emitting more heat that needs to be dissipated.

That's why I introduced HR 5646, directing the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to identify the potential energy and cost savings to the federal government and private business of energy efficient servers. The legislation was approved the same week Google Inc, the Internet search engine giant, announced plans to hire 1,000 workers in their new office based in my home state of Michigan.

As more everyday services move to the internet, studies are showing that more efficient servers could save up to 80 percent in electricity and cooling costs, and at the same time help protect our communities from the construction of new power plants and new transmission wires. By cooling off our computer servers, we would be cooling off the hot demand on our energy resources.