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85–526 PDF 2014

S. HRG. 110–1244 

HEARING ON EXAMINING STRATEGIES TO 

REDUCE GREENHOUSE GAS EMISSIONS 

AT U.S. COLLEGES AND UNIVERSITIES 

HEARING 

BEFORE THE

COMMITTEE ON ENVIRONMENT AND 

PUBLIC WORKS 

UNITED STATES SENATE 

ONE HUNDRED TENTH CONGRESS 

SECOND SESSION 

APRIL 3, 2008 

Printed for the use of the Committee on Environment and Public Works 

( 

Available via the World Wide Web: http://www.access.gpo.gov/congress.senate 

(II) 

COMMITTEE ON ENVIRONMENT AND PUBLIC WORKS 

ONE HUNDRED TENTH CONGRESS 

SECOND SESSION 

BARBARA BOXER, California, Chairman 

MAX BAUCUS, Montana 

JOSEPH I. LIEBERMAN, Connecticut 

THOMAS R. CARPER, Delaware 

HILLARY RODHAM CLINTON, New York 

FRANK R. LAUTENBERG, New Jersey 

BENJAMIN L. CARDIN, Maryland 

BERNARD SANDERS, Vermont 

AMY KLOBUCHAR, Minnesota 

SHELDON WHITEHOUSE, Rhode Island 

JAMES M. INHOFE, Oklahoma 

JOHN W. WARNER, Virginia 

GEORGE V. VOINOVICH, Ohio 

JOHNNY ISAKSON, Georgia 

DAVID VITTER, Louisiana 

JOHN BARRASSO, Wyoming 

LARRY E. CRAIG, Idaho 

LAMAR ALEXANDER, Tennessee 

CHRISTOPHER S. BOND, Missouri 

BETTINA POIRIER, Majority Staff Director and Chief Counsel 

ANDREW WHEELER, Minority Staff Director 

(III) 

C O N T E N T S 

Page 

THURSDAY, APRIL 3, 2008 

OPENING STATEMENTS 

Klobuchar, Hon. Amy, U.S. Senator from the State of Minnesota ...................... 1 

Craig, Hon. Larry E., U.S. Senator from the State of Idaho ............................... 3 

Sanders, Hon. Bernard, U.S. Senator from the State of Vermont ....................... 4 

Whitehouse, Hon. Sheldon, U.S. Senator from the State of Rhode Island ......... 5 

WITNESSES 

Birgeneau, Robert, Chancellor, University of California, Berkeley ..................... 7 

Prepared statement .......................................................................................... 10 

Johnson, Jacqueline, Chancellor, University of Minnesota, Morris .................... 31 

Prepared statement .......................................................................................... 34 

Levin, Richard C., President, Yale University ...................................................... 75 

Prepared statement .......................................................................................... 78 

(1) 

HEARING ON EXAMINING STRATEGIES TO REDUCE GREENHOUSE GAS EMISSIONS AT U.S. 

COLLEGES AND UNIVERSITIES 

THURSDAY, APRIL 3, 2008 

U.S. SENATE, 

COMMITTEE ON ENVIRONMENT AND PUBLIC WORKS, 

Washington, DC. 

The full committee met, pursuant to notice, at 10 a.m. in room 

406, Dirksen Senate Office Building, Hon. Amy Klobuchar (member 

of the full committee) presiding. 

Present: Senators Klobuchar, Craig, Sanders and Whitehouse. 

OPENING STATEMENT OF HON. AMY KLOBUCHAR, 

U.S. SENATOR FROM THE STATE OF MINNESOTA 

Senator KLOBUCHAR. The hearing will come to order. 

Senator Boxer is going to be joining us soon, and she asked me 

to sit in and begin this important hearing, which is entitled Examining Strategies to Reduce Greenhouse Gas Emissions at U.S. Colleges and Universities. 

We are very pleased that we have our guests here today. We 

have Robert Birgeneau, who is the Chancellor of the University of 

California at Berkeley. I will say, Dr. Birgeneau, that I saw the 

other day Mark Yudof, who is going to be heading up the University of California system, who previously left the University of Minnesota where he was much loved, and then went to Texas. So you 

are very lucky to have him there. He also would host pancake 

breakfasts every so often. Maybe that was more of a Minnesota 

thing. I don’t know what he will do in California, maybe granola. 

I don’t know. 

We also have Dr. Jacqueline Johnson with us. She is the Chancellor at the University of Minnesota at Morris. We are pleased to 

have her here. I visited the campus on my tour of all 87 counties 

in Minnesota, and was so impressed by the work that they are 

doing with the wind turbine and everything else, and really the 

whole university community is a part of it. I think it will give us 

a different perspective, more of a rural perspective of what colleges 

and universities are doing. 

And then we also have Dr. Richard Levin here from Yale University. I was honored to speak on climate change in front of the Yale 

trustees about a month ago. I know that Yale has been doing great 

work in this area as well. 

I thank each of you for being here today. I believe each of you 

has recognized the challenges of climate change, and have taken 

2 

steps toward reducing the universities’ carbon footprint, doing 

something about it, working with not just faculty, but also students 

and alumni to make sure that they understand that this is so important to our entire world going forward. 

I know that all of you have had unique initiatives. President 

Levin, I have gotten the information on what you have done, and 

Yale has been committed to reducing greenhouse gas emissions on 

campus to 10 percent below 1990 levels by the year 2020. What interests me most, and I know interests some of my colleagues who 

are going to be coming shortly, is the fact that Yale plans on expanding its 13.5 million square foot campus by nearly 20 percent 

during the same time. I think this underscores this idea that you 

can expand economically and still be able to reduce carbon dioxide. 

In fact, with new buildings it is probably easier to do. 

Chancellor Birgeneau, I understand that you have made a similar commitment, and we look forward to hearing about some of the 

climate research programs at Berkeley. 

As I mentioned, Chancellor Johnson, you have been doing great 

work there, and the fact is that by 2010, your campus will be carbon-neutral. But what is even more impressive is that the University of Minnesota at Morris has achieved this carbon neutrality 

completely through onsite generation. 

Today’s hearing is about more than specific greenhouse gas reduction strategies. It is also about how colleges and universities 

can have a unique role to play in this important work. I truly believe that we have to act quickly to develop the technologies and 

strategies to address climate change before other nations do. Not 

only is it an environmental necessity and obligation, but it is also 

an economic necessity. We have seen first-hand in our State the 

wind turbines all over. We just went to No. 3 in the Country with 

wind energy, and it has really been a boon to our rural economies 

in Minnesota. 

By eliminating our own greenhouse gases and conducting vital 

climate researches, colleges and universities across the Country are 

leading the fight against global warming. They are educating and 

training the next generation of engineers, architects, business leaders and scientists to build and compete in a low-carbon economy. 

I often use the example of the space race and Sputnik and all 

of the great technology that came out of our colleges and universities and those devoted to this research just because we wanted 

to put a man on the moon. We can do the same thing here with 

this challenge that we are faced with. We did everything from developing CAT scans to space sticks, which my family used on hiking trips in Wyoming, Senator Craig, in the western part of our 

State. 

Senator CRAIG. 

[Remarks made off microphone.] 

Senator KLOBUCHAR. What? 

Senator CRAIG. 

[Remarks made off microphone.] 

Senator KLOBUCHAR. Yes. Well, of course. 

This all came out of, again, the Nation’s commitment to doing 

something to move our Country ahead. 

3 

The National Renewable Energy Labs have identified a shortage 

of skilled workers as one of the leading barriers to deployment of 

clean energy technologies. High schools, vocational schools, junior 

colleges, labor management apprenticeship programs and, yes, colleges and universities like yours will be all called on to prepare our 

young people to fill the gap. 

So I look forward to hearing about the ways in which colleges 

and universities are incorporating climate matters into their curriculum and what more can be done. I also look forward to learning 

more about how successes achieved on campuses are being scaled 

up to the community and State level and what more can be done 

to accelerate that process. 

So I thank each of you for being here. 

Senator KLOBUCHAR. I know my colleagues would like to make 

brief opening remarks. 

Senator Craig. 

OPENING STATEMENT OF HON. LARRY E. CRAIG, 

U.S. SENATOR FROM THE STATE OF IDAHO 

Senator CRAIG. Madam Chairman, thank you very much. 

And to all of you chancellors who have joined us today, thank 

you for being here and participating in this hearing. 

I must say at the outset, Madam Chair, that the hearing came 

as a bit of a surprise in relation to its timing. I say that because 

it was very difficult for all of our staffs on this side to properly 

scope and get ready for it. So it has reduced me to suggesting and 

this is to you, Dr. Levin that this is an alumni gathering for Yale, 

and probably that in itself makes it worth turning on the lights 

and assembling the staff, because we have obviously the Chair as 

an alum as well as committee members Senator Lieberman, Senator Clinton and Senator Whitehouse. So congratulations. That in 

itself is worth the gathering. 

But I must say, Madam Chair, that in looking at the totality of 

what universities are doing today, it is important that we get it 

right. Again, I look at the timeliness of the meeting and the proper 

preparedness that went into it. I am looking at a memo that suggests four universities tied to the Chicago Climate Exchange, and 

they missed four for some reason. They missed my University of 

Idaho. They missed Tufts. They missed Hadlow College, and they 

missed the University of California at Irvine. 

So let’s get it right as we talk about these critical and important 

issues, and that in no way belittles the universities that are before 

us today. Michigan State, they said it was the University of Michigan. 

I happen to watch these things very closely, as does my staff. 

Timeliness and preparedness are critical to good scoping in the 

preparation of a hearing. The President of my alma mater at the 

University of Idaho brags that the University of Idaho has the lowest carbon footprint per student of any school in the Exchange. We 

are very proud of that because Idaho itself has the lowest carbon 

footprint of any State on a per capita basis. Idaho will further reduce its emissions by 6 percent, not by 2020, but by 2010, on the 

guidelines of the membership of the CCX in Chicago. 

4 

With that said, I will yield my time, because as we get to the testimony and the questions, the role that universities play in educating and training the work force that the Chairman has spoken 

to is critical. We know right now that we are stressed out as we 

try to bring clean energy online from the nuclear side of the equation, that we simply don’t have the talent that we need and the 

skills necessary, and that is going to take time to make sure that 

can come online appropriately and safely, so those roles are played 

dramatically and very importantly by our universities. 

I look forward to your testimony. 

Thank you, Madam Chair. 

Senator KLOBUCHAR. Thank you, Senator Craig. 

Just to clarify, we did try to have a geographic representation 

with the East, the Midwest, and the West, with a private and a 

public school. I talked to Chairman Boxer about having an additional hearing. I understand that we did offer your side to provide 

a witness, and we can do it again with more timing. 

Senator CRAIG. Timing is important for preparedness and accuracy. You are absolutely right. 

Senator KLOBUCHAR. OK. I would also note for the record that 

President Bush also went to Yale. 

Senator CRAIG. Oh, dear. 

[Laughter.] 

Senator KLOBUCHAR. We have Senator Sanders here. 

Senator SANDERS. I did not go to Yale. 

[Laughter.] 

OPENING STATEMENT OF HON. BERNARD SANDERS, 

U.S. SENATOR FROM THE STATE OF VERMONT 

Senator SANDERS. Thank you very much for being here. This is 

in fact an important hearing. The reason that it is an important 

hearing is not just that colleges and universities all over this Country, some are smaller, some are larger, consume a lot of energy, 

and like every other entity, we want to see them become more energy efficient. But there is something obviously unique about colleges and universities, and that is they are educating the future of 

this Country. 

So to the degree to which you can involve your student body in 

greening your campuses, developing sustainable energy, moving toward energy efficiency, what you are doing is you are educating an 

entire new generation who will leave your schools, go out into the 

world, and take the lessons that were learned on your campuses. 

That, if I may mention, Madam Chairman, is one of the reasons 

why I, in the recently passed energy bill, introduced a provision 

which will provide financial support to institutions of higher education as they look to increase more onsite renewable energy and 

to become more energy efficient. So we now have within the energy 

bill a provision that should help potentially over a period of time 

every campus in this Country. 

This program supports institutions of higher education through 

multiple grant opportunities. Taken together, the projects to be 

funded through the program must develop renewable energy facilities, improve the energy efficiency of buildings, or promote innovative energy sustainable projects. 

5 

One of the most exciting parts of this new program is that the 

colleges and universities must involve their students and local communities in their efforts. That is when you apply for a grant, that 

is one of the components of the grant. So you work with your students in greening up your campuses. 

The other part of the provision is that then you have to tell your 

communities, your cities, your States what you are doing because 

colleges and universities virtually all over this Country play a 

unique role. People look to you, and it is not only the football game 

or the basketball game. You develop an energy-efficient project all 

over the State, you will get the publicity, and people will say, wow, 

Yale did something really extraordinary, what can we learn from 

that? Or we have something in Minnesota or wherever. 

As I mentioned, we have that provision in law, and right now, 

along with Senator Kerry, we are requesting support from our colleagues to fully fund that provision. I want to thank one of our witnesses, Jacqueline Johnson, the Chancellor of the University of 

Minnesota at Morris, for signing a letter which has dozens and dozens of signatures on it, seeking full funding of this legislation. And 

I want to thank my colleague, Senator Warner, for supporting the 

efforts to get full funding as well. 

I want to also thank all of our witnesses for being here and for 

the good work that you are doing. 

So we see that the passage of this provision and the funding of 

this provision could provide the kind of funds that will really increase the efforts that many campuses are making in America and 

put you in the forefront of moving this Country away from fossil 

fuels to energy efficiency and to sustainable energy. 

Madam Chair, thank you. 

Senator KLOBUCHAR. Thank you very much, Senator Sanders. 

Senator Whitehouse has joined us. 

OPENING STATEMENT OF HON. SHELDON WHITEHOUSE, 

U.S. SENATOR FROM THE STATE OF RHODE ISLAND 

Senator WHITEHOUSE. I am delighted that we varied from the 

Yale alumni program briefly to have Senator Sanders say a few 

words, but I want to welcome the panel and particularly express 

my appreciation to President Levin. Not only am I an alum, but I 

am a parent at the moment. I am very pleased to see you here. 

My daughter reports about how energetically her sustainability 

class is working with the university on issues that actually pertain 

to the university’s policies. So the manner in which the university 

has combined its educational and management roles around this I 

think is very helpful and I appreciate it very much. 

I hope we all recognize how quickly Yale graduates can move up 

in the Senate. We have a brand new freshman Senator, senior to 

me, but still a freshman Senator who is chairing the hearing. So 

it is a great thing. 

I wanted to just add to the record. I will ask unanimous consent 

that my full statement be made a part of the record. But I would 

like to note that Ruth Simmons, the President of Brown University, was in Washington yesterday giving a speech to the Economic 

Club of Washington. I went to hear her remarks. She said this: 

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radation that has led to climate change? Yet, science stands ready 

to identify problems, raise awareness, change behavior, and bring 

solutions to bear. This is the miracle of what the modern university 

and its research capacity offers the world today. What an evolution 

from the narrow missions of colonial universities.’’ 

So I couldn’t agree more. I am delighted that you all are here. 

I want to take a moment to brag on the work that Brown University is doing and the University of Rhode Island. They are both 

heavily engaged in this. Brown has been at work on green initiatives I believe since 1991, and has been a real leader in this area. 

All of our colleges participate. Even one of our smaller colleges, 

Roger Williams, is now running its shuttle bus service on the recycled canola oil from its fryers in the dining halls. 

So Rhode Island is keenly interested, and I appreciate very much 

the role of universities, and I thank all of you for being here. 

Thank you, Madam Chair. 

[The prepared statement of Senator Whitehouse follows:] 

STATEMENT OF HON. SHELDON WHITEHOUSE, U.S. SENATOR

FROM THE STATE OF RHODE ISLAND

Thank you Madam Chairman, and thank you to all of the members of the panel 

for being here today. I’d like to extend a special hello and thank you to President 

Levin of my alma mater, Yale University. I recall my undergraduate career there 

very fondly and I am proud that my daughter Molly is a freshman at Yale today. 

I am also greatly pleased to see this great institution at work to combat global climate change. The universities represented here today are educating the next generation of leaders who will help reverse the tide of global warming, and at the same 

time are leading by example by minimizing their own carbon footprints. I know 

these efforts required difficult choices, and I commend all the panelists for their institutions? commitment to their students and our environment. 

America’s universities are uniquely positioned to lead the fight against climate 

change. Yesterday, I attended a speech by Dr. Ruth Simmons, the President of 

Rhode Island’s own Brown University, in which Dr. Simmons spoke eloquently on 

the very issue that brings us here today. She stated: 

‘‘Who would have predicted a century ago the environmental degradation that has 

led to climate change? Yet, science stands ready to identify problems, raise awareness, change behavior, and bring solutions to bear. This is the miracle of what the 

modern university and its research capacity offers the world today. What an evolution from the narrow missions of colonial universities!’’ 

I couldn’t agree more. I’m especially proud that colleges and universities in Rhode 

Island have taken critical steps to transform their campuses into models of energy 

efficiency and carbon neutrality. We in the ‘‘Ocean State’’ regard our environment 

and our responsibility to protect and preserve it as a nearly sacred cause. So it 

makes sense that our institutions of higher learning should be models for the way 

we think and act about climate change. They make me and all Rhode Islanders extremely proud. 

Brown University innovated the ‘‘green campus’ revolution, starting in 1991 with 

its ‘‘Green Initiative’’ Seventeen years later, Brown has achieved one of the lowest 

energy densities and carbon footprints among universities of its size. With its recently inaugurated Community Carbon Use Reduction Program, Brown plans to do 

even more: reduce its greenhouse gas emissions to 42 percent below 2007 levels by 

2020, and up to 50 percent below that threshold for all new construction on campus. 

Similarly, the University of Rhode Island, in Kingston, has also taken significant 

steps to reduce its carbon footprint and become more energy-efficient. This winter, 

URI announced that it would undertake a massive upgrade of its operational systems, from lighting to heating to water management. These upgrades will save the 

university seven million kilowatt hours of electricity and forty-two millions of 

pounds of steam per year. Meanwhile, the college’s Renewable Energy Club has 

been studying the feasibility of wind turbines and other alternative energy generation that could make the campus even more sustainable and further reduce its footprint. It’s a great example of a university attacking the problem at many different 

levels, the administration and students matching each other’s commitment to 

change. 

7 

Our smaller institutions are also busy creating innovative solutions that will help 

better meet the needs of the planet. 

Roger Williams University, in the town of Bristol on the shores of Narragansett 

Bay, now runs it shuttle bus on 100 percent recycled canola oil taken from its cafeteria’s fryers. This alone will keep 2300 gallons of diesel fuel from being burned, 

and cut the shuttle’s CO2 emissions by 75 percent. It’s a small step, but one that 

shows the innovative and creative thinking that have become the hallmarks of 

Rhode Island’s college and universities in this area. 

America’s universities give our young people the tools and the opportunities to 

live happy, healthy, and productive lives. It makes sense, then, that while these institutions are preparing their students for the future, they should also do everything 

they themselves can do to make sure that our planet will be in a condition to be 

enjoyed and enriched by these students. Brown, URI, Roger Williams, and other 

Rhode Island institutions have all made that commitment, and it is essential that 

more and more colleges take up this cause and begin to look for ways in which they 

can contribute to our fight against global climate change. 

I thank the Chairman again for bringing this excellent panel together today and 

I look forward to hearing the testimony from our witnesses. 

Senator KLOBUCHAR. Thank you very much. 

I think each witness has 5 minutes. We will start with Dr. 

Birgeneau. 

STATEMENT OF ROBERT BIRGENEAU, CHANCELLOR, 

UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, BERKELEY 

Mr. BIRGENEAU. I hate to admit it, but both I and two of my 

daughters are Yale graduates also. 

[Laughter.] 

Senator CRAIG. Oops. Now, this is taking it much too far. 

[Laughter.] 

Senator KLOBUCHAR. OK, look what you started, Senator Craig. 

My husband went to the University of Minnesota. 

Senator CRAIG. Oh, come on now. You trumped me with George 

W. 

[Laughter.] 

Mr. BIRGENEAU. I might also point out, having had to finance my 

two daughters through Yale, that fees at Berkeley are $7,200 a 

year. 

[Laughter.] 

Mr. BIRGENEAU. Senator Boxer, Senator Klobuchar, and other 

Senators and members of the Committee, thank you for giving me 

the opportunity to speak to you today on one of the most urgent 

issues facing our State, our Nation and our globe. 

Climate change caused by our use of carbon fuels is one of the 

most significant and pressing challenges of our time. At UC Berkeley, which is one of the Nation’s preeminent teaching and research 

universities, we are aggressively addressing climate change 

through our teaching and research, as well as through policy and 

collective and individual actions on our campus. 

The State of California has demonstrated national and international leadership in committing to reduce its greenhouse gas 

emissions. It has legislated that the State’s global warming emissions be reduced to 1990 levels by 2020, which is a 25 percent cut 

in greenhouse gases, and 80 percent below 1990 levels by 2050. UC 

Berkeley is at the forefront of energy research and specifically any 

energy research and implementation to make these goals viable. 

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stitute through a 5-year, $125 million grant. Another important effort is the creation of the Energy Biosciences Institute, a collaboration between ourselves, the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and the global energy corporation, BP. The institute is funded by—and this is unprecedented—a $500 

million 10-year grant to UC Berkeley and our partners by BP, 

awarded in 2007. The purpose is primarily to explore and develop 

biofuels beyond the corn to ethanol paradigm. 

Additionally, scientists from UC Berkeley and the Lawrence 

Berkeley National Laboratory has been developing a bold research 

agenda called Helios, exploring solar energy devices from 

photovoltaics to microorganisms, including nanotechnologies to 

produce cheaper and more efficient solar cells. 

Today, Berkeley has emerged as a leading world center on energy research and education with an annual research budget of 

about $100 million per year through unprecedented public-private 

partnerships. 

We have also been aggressive with measures to reduce greenhouse gas emissions on campus. Under the Cal Climate Action 

Partnership, which is a coalition of students, faculty and staff of 

the administration, we have undertaken a feasibility study, and 

based on sound analysis and actual policy, have committed to a target of reducing greenhouse gas emissions on campus to 1990 levels 

by 2014. This is 6 years ahead of the State’s mandated reduction. 

Our strategies for achieving this ambitious target include increasing the efficiency of our energy usage, greening our electricity supply, and promoting sustainable transportation. 

Buildings account for over 70 percent of campus emissions. 

Projects to reduce emissions include large scale lighting retrofits, 

building recommissioning, making our heating, ventilation and air 

conditioning systems more efficient, and deploying additional onsite 

renewable energy production. 

Our plan also contains efforts that are indirectly related to energy usage, and also have enormous impact on resource conservation such as water conservation, minimizing waste, and purchasing 

greener products. 

These actions are supported by a formal campus policy entitled 

the Statement of Commitment to the Environment, and the recent 

appointment of a Director of Sustainability. Many of these efforts 

to mitigate UC Berkeley’s climate footprint have been led by our 

students, who are a new generation passionately committed to solving the world’s energy needs in both a clean and socially responsible way. 

Berkeley students recently voted a $5 add-on student fee increase to fund sustainability projects on campus. The Berkeley Energy and Resources Collaborative is a unique student community 

that brings together hundreds of students, professors and industry 

and government leaders on issues of energy and resources at 

Berkeley. 

Our students are acutely aware that one billion people on this 

planet have no access to modern forms of energy and they live on 

50 cents per day or less. These populations will suffer devastating 

effects if global climate change continues to progress at its current 

9 

rate. Our students understand that how we deal with these challenges will transform humankind’s relationship with the environment and change the way that we drive the global economy. Universities must lead this transformation. 

[The prepared statement of Mr. Birgeneau follows:] 

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Senator KLOBUCHAR. Thank you very much. 

Dr. Johnson. 

STATEMENT OF JACQUELINE JOHNSON, CHANCELLOR, 

UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA, MORRIS 

Ms. JOHNSON. Thank you, Senator Klobuchar, members of the 

Committee. In the spirit of full disclosure, I suppose I need to begin 

by saying that I have absolutely no connection to Yale University, 

and I do hope you won’t hold that against me. 

Senator CRAIG. That is very appropriate at this moment, Doctor. 

[Laughter.] 

Ms. JOHNSON. Thank you very much for inviting me to address 

the Committee on behalf of my campus. In the year 2010, the University of Minnesota, Morris, will be carbon-neutral. We will have 

accomplished this reduction of greenhouse gas emissions through 

the onsite generation of nearly all of our electrical and thermal 

needs using renewable, sustainable local resources. 

How is this possible, you ask? I am about to tell you. Minnesota, 

Morris, one of five campuses of the University of Minnesota system, is a decidedly rural, residential public liberal arts college of 

1,700 students. On a hill overlooking our prairie campus, a 1.65 

megawatt wind turbine currently powers 50 percent of our campus 

buildings. It is the first turbine of its kind to be constructed at a 

public university, and it has been in operation since Earth Day 

2005. 

Tucked behind our campus physical education center, a small unobtrusive building is currently under construction. It will house our 

biomass gasification plant scheduled for its first burn in May of 

this year. By burning locally procured non-food based biofuel feedstocks, principally cornstover—if you wonder what that is, it is the 

stocks of the corn—and mixed prairie grasses, we will essentially 

replace our natural gas supply and our natural gas dependency. 

In addition to providing a minimum of 80 percent of campus 

heating needs, we anticipate that this plant will put approximately 

$500,000 back into the local economy annually. Thus, instead of 

sending dollars out of State to purchase natural gas, we will deposit these resources into the pockets of area citizens. 

But that is not all. In the fall of 2008, we will add a steam turbine to this gasification system. Operating on the green steam, 

which is a product of the gasification process, the steam turbine 

will produce electricity for us on those days when the wind isn’t 

blowing and it provides a redundant source of electrical power that 

goes back into the grid on those windy days that are the hallmark 

of the prairie. This same green steam that provides heat for our 

campus in the winter will connect to an absorption chiller in the 

summer to cool our buildings. 

And there is more. In the spring of 2009, we will add a second 

wind turbine on the hill which when it is operational will provide 

the remainder of our electrical needs and then some, eventually allowing us to put the excess electricity produced on our campus back 

onto the grid. 

Of course, like many American colleges and universities, we are 

taking other steps to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions. Our 

fleet includes hybrid and zero-emission vehicles. We recycle. We 

32 

conserve. We have an active local foods initiative. We are designing 

new and renovating old buildings with attention to LEED specifications. 

How does this fit into our academic mission and our undergraduate liberal arts focus? Our students have been and are at the 

forefront of our green initiatives. They are active participants in 

studying the impact of these initiatives through an interdisciplinary studies major and of course a number of other majors as well, 

a robust undergraduate research program, service learning, and a 

variety of active internships. Students work directly with Morris 

faculty. They present nationally at conferences. They co-author papers with faculty members. They are our best spokespersons. 

How have we managed financially and are we saving money? 

Our work is financed through investments made by the University 

of Minnesota system, whose regents in 2004 adopted a system-wide 

policy related to sustainability. Our work is also supported through 

investments made by the State of Minnesota. In addition, we have 

received grants from the U.S. Department of Energy and from the 

U.S. Department of Agriculture. 

In December 2007, we were authorized by the Internal Revenue 

Service to issue three clean renewable energy bonds and we are 

currently in the process of negotiating an energy service contract. 

We will have achieved our goal through an integrated set of financial tools. 

Do these investments save us money? The answer is both yes 

and it depends. For example, as long as the price of natural gas 

stays at or above $8 per BTU, we save money by using biomass 

gasification. While CREBs are no-interest bonds, they still must be 

paid back. We don’t have deep pockets or abundant resources, just 

imagination, vision and resolved. 

Moreover, we are spending close to home. We are reinvesting dollars in rural America. And we have only just begun. We believe 

that the work happening on our campus provides prototypes for 

transforming the future of rural America in a way reminiscent of 

the Rural Electrification Act of the 1930’s. We believe that this onsite renewable electric and thermal generation system provides a 

model not only for other colleges and universities, and for small 

communities and for neighborhoods in the United States, but that 

it also has great relevance for developing countries, truly a model 

of global significance. 

We also have an obligation to use the investments that have 

been made in our campus infrastructure to train a new work force 

for a new economy, green collar jobs, career ladders that provide 

technical, intellectual and entrepreneurial pathways for the future. 

We believe that when we reach our goal in 2010, we will be the 

first college in the United States to have reduced greenhouse gas 

emissions in this way through onsite generation. BW, before wind, 

our fossil fuel footprint was 12,000 tons of carbon dioxide per year. 

By 2010, we will have reduced that footprint to zero. We will have 

achieved carbon neutrality. 

I am just about finished, if I could have just a few more seconds 

here. 

I am thinking that some of you are listening to this and you are 

saying to yourselves, where on earth is Morris, Minnesota? So let 

33 

me end my remarks by helping you to get your geographic bearings. The best way that I can think of to do this is by sharing with 

you a story that involves one of our alums, who is a University of 

Minnesota, Morris, graduate of course, and a graduate law degree 

from Georgetown. She currently sits as a Justice on the Minnesota 

State Supreme Court. This is Justice Lorie Gildea. She describes 

the location of the University of Minnesota, Morris, like this. She 

says: ‘‘It is west of Harvard, east of Stanford, and a whole lot closer 

to heaven.’’ So we just thought you might enjoy that. 

[Laughter.] 

Ms. JOHNSON. University of Minnesota, Morris, students like 

Justice Gildea are outspoken and they are action-oriented. We encourage students and faculty to ask and answer the big questions 

of our time. Our work in reducing greenhouse gas emissions speaks 

directly to these characteristics and qualities. 

At the University of Minnesota, Morris, we provide a liberal arts 

living and learning environment that is literally both renewable 

and sustainable. 

Thank you very much. 

[The prepared statement of Ms. Johnson follows:] 

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Senator KLOBUCHAR. Thank you, Chancellor Johnson. You have 

done our State proud, and mostly you have made Senator Craig 

happy. So this is good. 

President Levin. 

STATEMENT OF RICHARD C. LEVIN, 

PRESIDENT, YALE UNIVERSITY 

Mr. LEVIN. Thank you, Senator Klobuchar and members of the 

Committee. 

Thank you, Chancellor Johnson, for that inspiring case study. I 

will point out, however, that your description of your institution 

being west of Harvard, east of Stanford, and closer to heaven also 

suits Yale. 

[Laughter.] 

Mr. LEVIN. There is no doubt that we have a problem. The 

Fourth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change concluded last year that in the absence of corrective 

measures, global temperatures are likely to rise between one and 

6 degrees centigrade by the end of the century, with the best estimates ranging between two and four degrees. 

Even a one degree increase will limit the availability of fresh 

water and cause coastal flooding in much of the world. Environmental damages and dislocation will be even more consequential if 

global temperatures rise by more than two degrees. 

Universities have four important roles to play in the effort to curtail global warming. First, we must continue to advance our understanding of climate change. As Brown President Simmons said, it 

is in universities that these effects were first discovered. We need 

to discern the effects of climate change on the economy and the environment, and also understand the consequences of taking corrective action. 

Second, universities must pursue research into carbon-free energy technologies such as solar, wind and geothermal power, as 

well as seek more efficient ways of using carbon-based fuels 

through improved building materials and design, and improved 

technologies for vehicles and power plants. 

Third, we must educate students who go on to become future 

leaders and influential citizens. At Yale, we take this part of our 

mission extremely seriously. We offer over 60 undergraduate 

courses focused on the environment. Our School of Forestry and 

Environmental Studies has for decades produced some of America’s 

most influential environmental leaders. The study of the environment and sustainability is now embedded in the curriculum of our 

graduate schools of business, architecture and public health. 

Finally, universities can demonstrate to the Nation and to the 

world that substantial reductions in greenhouse gases are feasible 

and not prohibitively expensive. With 12,000 employees, Yale is the 

third largest private employer in Connecticut. There are 11,000 

students on our campus and we have an annual budget of $2.5 billion. We are a large organization by any standard, the equivalent 

of a Fortune 1,000 company. We are large enough to be a model 

of responsible environmental practice for other universities and 

business organizations. We are large enough to demonstrate that 

greenhouse gas reduction is feasible and affordable. 

76 

As Senator Whitehouse indicated, in these efforts to demonstrate 

best practices in limiting carbon emissions, we are also teaching 

our students, who are full participants in this campus-wide effort. 

We are teaching them how to be responsible citizens of the world. 

Together, we are learning how to balance near-term economic considerations against the long-term health of the environment and 

the well being of future human generations. 

We have committed to reducing the university’s greenhouse gas 

emissions to 43 percent below our 2005 baseline by 2020. That is 

also 10 percent below 1990 levels. It is a goal that is within the 

range of estimates of what is required to keep global temperatures 

from rising two degrees centigrade. So far in the first 2 years of 

our program, we have reduced carbon emissions by 17 percent. To 

achieve this, we have retrofitted heating, ventilation and air conditioning systems in 90 of our roughly 300 buildings. 

We have installed thermally efficient windows in many of our 

largest existing buildings, and in all of the new buildings we have 

constructed in the last decade. We have acquired new power plant 

equipment and modified some existing equipment to achieve substantial savings in fuel consumption. We have used a mix of conventional and renewable fuels in our power plant and in our campus bus fleet. 

We have made a commitment that all of our new buildings will 

achieve a silver rating or better from the LEED building rating 

system. And engaging our students, we have reduced student electricity consumption by 10 percent in each of the last 2 years by 

sponsoring a competition among our residential colleges. 

Other measures currently in the works should yield an additional 

17 percent reduction in the next 3 years. These projects include the 

replacement of university-owned buses and trucks with hybrid 

models, a new co-generation plant, solar panels on selected buildings, and small wind turbines in the windiest sections of our campus. 

In most cases, the present value of the energy savings from these 

projects exceeds the initial investment. In other cases, we will invest to achieve carbon savings even at a modest net economic cost, 

in part to demonstrate the feasibility of new technologies, and in 

part, to encourage policy change that would price carbon correctly. 

I believe we can reach our greenhouse gas reduction goal at a 

cost of less than 1 percent of our annual operating expenses. In our 

view, this additional expense is justified and we believe the leadership of many other large organizations would come to the same 

conclusion. 

Other universities are joining us in aggressively reducing their 

carbon footprints. By the end of the academic year, I expect that 

every one of our sister institutions in the Ivy League will adopt its 

own concrete greenhouse gas reduction goal. These efforts are 

being replicated at colleges and universities across the Nation and 

around the world, as you have heard today. 

I hope the members of the Committee take heart in the knowledge that large organizations are concluding that they can and 

should take actions to reduce their carbon footprint significantly. I 

commend the Committee for its thoughtful consideration and apVerDate Aug 31 2005 08:37 Aug 12, 2014 Jkt 000000 PO 00000 Frm 00080 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6633 S:\_EPW\DOCS\85526.TXT VERN
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proval of legislation that would establish a national system for reducing carbon emissions. Our future depends on it. 

Thank you. 

[The prepared statement of Mr. Levin follows:] 

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Senator KLOBUCHAR. Thank you so much to all of you. I am 

going to start with a few questions, and then turn it over to my 

fellow Senators. Of course, I will start with my chancellor here, 

Chancellor Johnson. 

Could you talk about how you came upon this, that Morris started to get into this so early? Was it something about your mission 

or what you have historically focused on as a campus? 

Ms. JOHNSON. I appreciate the question. Thank you very much, 

Senator Klobuchar. I think there are a number of reasons. One of 

the immediate reasons I believe had to do with the high cost of gas 

in 2000. 

I think another one of the reasons does really have to do with 

the kind of populist, and as I mentioned earlier, action-orientation 

of the students, the faculty and staff who are on our campus. But 

you may not know that the University of Minnesota, Morris, started life as an American Indian boarding school in the late 1900’s. 

It was founded by the Sisters of Mercy and turned over to the Federal Government who in turn in the early 1900’s then established, 

after the American boarding school movement ended, an agricultural high school on the grounds. 

So when you come to the University of Minnesota, Morris, and 

I hope that you will, you will see a collection of historic buildings 

that are on the National Historic Registry that are part of that era 

of an agricultural high school. I like to think that the work that 

is happening on the prairie right now in Morris and at the university is really in some ways reaching back to those elements of our 

heritage. It is a new way of working collaboratively with partners 

in the region and with our agricultural community. Thank you. 

Senator KLOBUCHAR. I was just thinking as I heard this, there 

are more opportunities for a huge wind turbine in a rural university than there is in an urban one, although we now have on in 

Minnesota in a suburban shopping mall. Are there other rural universities that you know of that are doing similar things across the 

Country? 

Ms. JOHNSON. Sure there are, including in the State of Minnesota. If you go to Northfield, you will see the big wind turbine 

there as well. And obviously, it depends on location. We actually 

are sponsoring it. We have a Center for Small Towns on our campus, and we will be hosting a symposium in June with special invitations having been issued to about 50 schools, private and public 

schools in the region who are very much like us, situated in rural 

communities. 

We believe that the work that is happening on our campus, it is 

about wind; it is it about biomass and gasification, but it really is 

as much about this integrated system of renewable energy onsite. 

We think that it isn’t just the unique characteristics of our geography that there are others who can replicate and reproduce the 

same kind of thing. 

Senator Sanders had mentioned earlier the importance of dissemination, the importance of producing an educated citizenry. I 

think we are really in the midst of that in terms of building this 

research and demonstration platform on the prairie. We have good 

partners with an outreach center that is part of the University of 

Minnesota’s agricultural school. We are lucky to be part of the sysVerDate Aug 31 2005 08:37 Aug 12, 2014 Jkt 000000 PO 00000 Frm 00084 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6633 S:\_EPW\DOCS\85526.TXT VERN
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tem. We also have a wonderful partner with the USDA Agricultural Research Station that is in Morris. We talk about this as the 

research triangle, and we say North Carolina, move over. But we 

really have great opportunities in our small town to do some of 

these things and to share them. 

Senator KLOBUCHAR. OK. Thank you. 

I have been trying to get Senator Sanders out to Minnesota, so 

maybe we will bring him out to the campus, although your campus 

may never be the same. 

President Levin, as you know, we are considering, and this Committee has voted through legislation with a cap-and-trade. It seems 

that carbon offsets will be an integral part of any kind of future 

cap-and-trade program. I know that Yale is utilizing them to meet 

your own emission goals. Could you elaborate on the role of offsets 

in your climate strategy and the kind of research that is going on 

at Yale with carbon offsets? 

Mr. LEVIN. Sure. Actually, except as a prize to the residential college that wins the energy savings competition, we are actually not 

focused on the purchase of carbon offsets in today’s markets such 

as they are, in part because today’s markets don’t really reflect a 

scarcity price on carbon as markets will when the Lieberman-Warner bill is passed and enacted into legislation. 

We are committed to participating in direct investments in carbon offsets. In other words, we have looked at and are likely to 

make in the future investments in wind farms in areas remote to 

the campus that won’t actually feed the campus, but will feed the 

New England power grid and will be incremental sources of renewable supply. 

So the carbon markets, as I suggest, really will work much better 

when they do reflect a true scarcity price. Right now, they do not, 

and in fact if one wanted to satisfy our large requirements, we 

could reach our 43 percent goal, which would require purchasing 

about 203,000 metric tons of CO2 at a price that is actually fairly 

modest today, but that is not reflecting the true cost. 

Senator KLOBUCHAR. Thank you very much. 

Chancellor Birgeneau, I am out of time here, but I have some 

great questions of you about your green rooms, your green dorm 

rooms or whatever they are. So we will come back on the second 

round. 

Senator Craig. 

Senator CRAIG. Thank you all very much. 

Clearly, our colleges and universities can lead in the areas that 

you are now speaking to, in the concept of university competition 

and the walled thinking and creating areas that our universities 

are supposed to be. The one thing that I have focused on is not distorting a marketplace or not creating artificial mechanisms, but 

truly allowing technology and the innovative mind to get there. 

What your colleges and universities are doing today is outside 

any law that Congress could ever create. You are grabbing the 

issue. You are taking the issue and you are running with it in a 

fair and responsible way, as are my colleges and universities. 

But let me have some fun with you for a moment. Let us turn 

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versities and our alumni to a test. Can we do that? So let me direct 

my questions, Madam Chair, to have some fun. 

Let me start with Cal Berkeley first. Now, listen up folks, because I want to get it accurate and I want to get it right. Cal 

Berkeley, 110 metric tons in 2006. Is that accurate? Excuse me, 

210,000 metric tons in 2006. 

Mr. BIRGENEAU. I can’t tell you if that is the exact number. 

Senator CRAIG. I believe that is correct. And you have 23,482 undergraduate and 10,076 graduate students, 33,558 students. All 

right. So your carbon footprint would be, under current day calculations, about 6.3 metric tons per student year. OK? Let’s put that 

up. 

Now, we will go to you, Dr. Johnson. You do very well, by the 

way. You are going to score well here. You predict that you are a 

zero-emission campus by 2010. 

Ms. JOHNSON. That is right. 

Senator CRAIG. All right. And with what you have laid out, that 

is very possible. You also say that your footprint was 12,000 metric 

tons before wind. 

Ms. JOHNSON. Yes. 

Senator CRAIG. About 12,000 tons for 1,700 students, and you 

were at 7.1 metric tons per student year. 

Ms. JOHNSON. That sounds probable. 

Senator CRAIG. OK. But you haven’t won yet. Remember, we are 

going to play this game out right through to the final playoff. 

Now, Dr. Levin, your footprint today is roughly the same as Cal 

Berkeley’s, is it not? 

Mr. LEVIN. That is right, about 220,000 metric tons right now. 

Senator CRAIG. Yes. However, your institution has one-third as 

many students, 11,000 students. 

Mr. LEVIN. That is correct. 

Senator CRAIG. All right. So your carbon footprint is three times 

as large as Cal Berkeley’s. Is that correct? 

Mr. LEVIN. That is true. We are in a harsher climate and we 

have—— 

Senator CRAIG. No excuses, now. No excuses. Remember, this is 

a playoff. 

Mr. LEVIN. We are in a harsher climate and we have much higher per capita Federal support for research than Berkeley, and research is—— 

Senator CRAIG. Oh, you’re competitive. Listen, we are going into 

the final stretch here so we are going to score you at 19.1 metric 

tons per student year. OK? 

Mr. LEVIN. That is about right. 

Senator CRAIG. Now, in that case, we always like to degrade our 

Country as being the greatest emitter. So Yale is the United States 

of university emissions at this point. 

Mr. LEVIN. I think we are losing. 

Senator CRAIG. You are. You are losing. 

Mr. LEVIN. Right. 

Senator CRAIG. That is why I am so pleased to have you get with 

it. 

Now, we are going to score Boise State University, you know, 

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ball history here a year ago. Guess where they are going to come 

in, because we have the things that we like. We have hydro. We 

have wind. We have a little coal, very little nuclear yet. How are 

we going to score Boise State University as it relates to their carbon footprint per student per year? 

Voila. 2.7 metric tons per year Oh, those Broncos did it again. 

[Laughter.] 

Senator CRAIG. My point here is really quite simple, and it is as 

important for our Committee as it is for the witnesses before us 

this morning. When we talk about the totality of responsibility that 

our universities have, and we do, and you have demonstrated that, 

and by using this little exercise, not in any way am I attempting 

to degrade your efforts. That isn’t the purpose. 

You are going to do what will really solve the climate change 

problem. We can manipulate markets here. We can command and 

control by public policy. But what is emerging out of this is a consciousness in America today that all new energy technologies have 

to be clean. It is really quite simple. We will accept nothing less 

than that. 

Now, in the midst of getting there, and it will take several decades to get there, the question is, how do we remain competitive? 

We have to continue an energy supply. There is no doubt about it. 

And we need to continue to grow if we are going to remain competitive. And that is the margin of frustration in between. 

So Madam Chair, as we look at Warner-Lieberman, as we ultimately decide a climate change policy, and hopefully we will not 

distort or damage markets or damage our competitiveness in the 

world marketplace. Where the market really is today is with these 

universities and what they will and their students will produce. 

That is what we will sell to the world. That is what we will make 

available to the world. And that is the course of future energy, and 

not us thinking we are so smart we can manipulate it and play 

games with it here. 

I thank you for your leadership. I thank you for being here. 

While I am not an alum of Boise State, Boise State is going to be 

awfully proud of me today, and they are going to be proud of you. 

Thank you. 

Senator KLOBUCHAR. All right. Thank you, Senator Craig. Again, 

you could have invited Boise State and we hope we will have another hearing where we can give them their March Madness 

award. 

Senator CRAIG. Madam Chair, I just talked with the ranking 

member of the Committee and he said that if the Committee and 

the Chairman want to do a second hearing and give us the accurate lead time to scope and lay it out, we would be more than 

happy to participate. We just might bring one of Idaho’s clean universities to play. 

Senator KLOBUCHAR. Excellent. We look forward to it. 

Senator CRAIG. Thank you. 

Senator KLOBUCHAR. Senator Sanders. 

Senator SANDERS. Thank you. 

And for Yale University, what you need is a major river and a 

dam in New Haven. That will help you a whole lot. You can work 

on that. 

84 

[Laughter.] 

Senator SANDERS. I want to congratulate all of the campuses and 

the colleges and universities for what you are doing, but I agree 

with President Johnson that heaven is probably somewhere near 

rural America, and maybe in Vermont we share some of that as 

well. So I want to ask you a couple of questions because what you 

are doing sounds extraordinarily exciting. I would like to see that 

in Vermont. We are making a little bit of progress. We just haven’t 

quite advanced as far as you have. 

Talk a little bit about the wind turbines, and talk a little bit 

about the financial implications of what you are doing, because as 

is always the case, the initial investment is what is significant, 

coming up with the money to buy the sustainable energy and then 

the payback period over a period of time. And then talk a little bit, 

and then I want the others as well, about what role do you think 

the Federal Government can play? It always seems to me to be a 

very sad State of affairs if people say, well, over a 20 or 30 year 

period, we can actually save money, but we don’t have the money 

to make those investments right now, which is why we are working 

on legislation to help colleges and universities make those investments. Could you comment a little bit about that? 

Ms. JOHNSON. Thank you. I appreciate the question and also 

your leadership in terms of potentially providing some of these resources for colleges and universities around the Country. 

The wind turbines are not only expensive, the big ones that we 

are putting up, but they are also right now not very easy to find. 

That may be another kind of interesting issue legislatively. It is 

very difficult—— 

Senator SANDERS. Excuse me. Were you unable to locate that in 

the United States? Are you importing this? 

Ms. JOHNSON. We are in the process of identifying a second wind 

turbine. We hope to have that up about a year from now. The line 

is long for people who are trying to buy wind turbines and that is 

mostly going to private—— 

Senator SANDERS. If I could just interrupt you for a second to 

talk about what a pathetic State of affairs that is. I think all over 

this Country, people want to move in that direction and we can’t 

even buy it because we are not even manufacturing these products 

in the United States, which is beyond comprehension. It is another 

issue. I didn’t mean to interrupt you. 

Ms. JOHNSON. And one of the issues for Minnesota does have to 

do with Vestas, who was a manufacturer of wind turbines and who 

is looking to locate somewhere in the United States, and we would 

love them to come to Minnesota. But I think you are right. The pro 

formas that we have established, I mentioned in my remarks that 

we don’t have a lot of resources. We don’t have ourself, the University of Minnesota, Morris, a big endowment, so we don’t have a lot 

of funds to invest. So we are relying, for example, for the second 

wind turbine on the CREBs, the one that we have been issued for 

that. We need to find the turbine. 

The pro formas, I believe, and I believe that material has been 

entered into the record, show us as paying back, as saving money, 

but using the money to pay back the investment over the course 

of something like 13 years. The average lifespan for a wind turbine 

85 

is 20 years. So we think even with that sort of long payback period 

when we are using no-interest bonds to purchase the turbine, we 

will still have some years of good investment. I think the investment goes beyond just the dollars that we are saving. The investment, of course, is also in the environment and I think that is an 

important piece of it as well. 

So we think of that not just as an investment in the materials 

themselves, but also as an investment in the earth, if you will. 

That seems important. So I think the questions of financing are 

really important. I think that the opportunities for the Senate, for 

local legislators are there to find ways to assist those who want to 

do alternative and renewable energy sources. I think one of the 

challenges also has to do with getting energy back onto the grid 

and some of the resistance to that. We face that locally. That is 

more of a local issue. If you have excess energy, how do you get 

it onto the grid so that people can use renewable energy supplies 

there? 

There are any of a number of policy implications that are connected to this, but again, including the implications that are related to being able to purchase a single wind turbine, which is 

where we are. Perhaps there are ways that people could organize 

collectively so nonprofit organizations, higher education organizations, could collaborate to purchase multiple wind turbines, and 

that might make it both more feasible financially, but also more 

possible for us actually to find a turbine. 

Senator SANDERS. If I could ask the same question to our friends 

from Yale or Berkeley. Yes? 

Mr. LEVIN. Yes. I just want to add that I agree with all of what 

Chancellor Johnson is saying. Some of these concerns, like the limited supply of the turbines, is presumably going to be short term. 

Capacity will ramp up if there is demand for the product. 

Let me speak to the financing concern and tie it to why we need 

a cap and trade system with a market price on carbon. Wind power 

may look attractive today at the high prices we have for substitute 

fossil fuel energy production or electricity production, but there is 

of course a risk. One reason why it might be difficult to finance a 

wind turbine by going into the debt markets would be that there 

is no way to hedge the risk of fluctuating prices. 

But if you have a cap-and-trade system, a market price of carbon, 

and a set of futures markets for carbon prices, then there would 

be a way. People prepared to take the risk could then be the buyers 

of risk, and the institutions that are investing and their direct 

creditors could hedge that risk, so it would make capital more 

available through the markets. 

I am very much a fan of Senator Craig in this respect. I think 

we ought to rely on market mechanisms as much as possible. 

Senator CRAIG. Excuse me, Senator. 

I think your logic there fits. I mean, it clearly does. The problem 

we have with wind turbines today is that we were not producers 

of the kind that President Johnson talks about. They were European. They are now here and they are being produced here. But because of our tax credit, in all fairness, we are subsidizing wind 

today and it has made it popular. I am not criticizing that. I support it. But it has created a demand where you do stand in line. 

86 

I think your concern about non-profits, we would want to watch 

that very closely because what I don’t want to happen is for everybody to become a non-profit then, to try to get to the front of the 

line. I think the marketplace, you are right President Levin, it is 

going to work this thing out. I don’t decry it, Senator Sanders, because we simply weren’t there. We are now there very aggressively 

and they are being produced in the Midwest. The factories are 

going up. 

Senator KLOBUCHAR. Senator Sanders, do you want to respond 

before Chancellor Birgeneau answers? 

Senator SANDERS. Well, I just did want to suggest that, as I understand it, we helped develop the initial wind technology, and for 

a variety of reasons that has gone to other countries. I think that 

speaks to the decline of manufacturing in this Country in general. 

But let UC Berkeley answer, please. 

Mr. BIRGENEAU. I would like to address the innovation and 

American ingenuity part of the challenge, which is that ultimately 

the U.S. must lead in this area, which means that we have to take 

advantage of the phenomenal research talent that we have in this 

Country and the passion of young people. In this new program, Energy Biosciences Institute, the global energy corporation, BP, which 

is based in London, was under tremendous pressure to fund that 

research either at Cambridge University or Imperial College. 

They ultimately decided to send the money overseas to the State 

of California because of the entrepreneurial character of the Bay 

Area and the scientific power of the University of Illinois UrbanaChampaign, a great Midwest university, combined with Berkeley 

and Lawrence Berkeley National Lab, which is a Department of 

Energy laboratory. 

Similarly, the Department of Energy is investing now, and has 

under-invested in energy research, and we need to see a significant 

growth in support of energy research both at the national laboratories and in our universities. 

Finally, we have a generation of students who are absolutely passionate about sustainable energy. Much of my own knowledge 

comes not from our technical experts, but from our students. I 

think it is time for government agencies, perhaps the National 

Science Foundation, to create a new set of graduate fellowships 

which will be sustainable energy fellowships. There will be a queue 

a mile long of the most talented young people in the Country who 

would love to have fellowships of that sort in which they could devote their careers to solving this problem for the United States. 

Senator SANDERS. Good idea. OK. 

Thank you very much, Madam Chairman. 

Senator KLOBUCHAR. Thank you, Senator Sanders. 

Before I go to some other questions, on behalf of Senator Boxer, 

I ask unanimous consent to enter into the record a statement from 

the University of California at San Diego. Hearing no objection, so 

ordered. 

[The referenced document follows:] 

Senator KLOBUCHAR. Senator Craig. 

Senator CRAIG. What happens among our very competitive institutions when they compete head to head? I just turned to staff and 

said, after you entered and for Senator Boxer’s benefit, ‘‘and the 

87 

competition builds!’’ We are going to have a great second hearing. 

I look forward to it. 

Senator KLOBUCHAR. It will be a lot of fun. I just can’t wait. 

OK, Chancellor Birgeneau, you mentioned in your testimony, just 

in fact in your last statement, about the BP grant. I think some 

of that is going to research on cellulosic ethanol. Are you familiar 

with that? It is very important in our State as we build and expand 

into cornstover, as the Chancellor pointed out, and switchgrass and 

prairie grass. Could you talk a little bit about that research? 

Mr. BIRGENEAU. Sure, absolutely. The goal is to go beyond ethanol and to go beyond the corn to ethanol paradigm, to basically 

take the incredible progress that we have made in modern molecular medicine and take that knowledge base and transform it into 

the agricultural world. So there has been some work done already, 

for example, at our partner University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, but the relative development of the technology on the plant 

side compared with the human body side is actually quite disproportionate. 

Our goal is in essence to use modern genetic techniques to create 

artificial termites, so we would like to develop organisms which 

will very efficiently convert, let’s say, miscanthus grass, which is 

a grass that grows well in the Midwest in the United States, including in your State, an incredibly high-density, low-fertilizer, 

low-water, perennial, and grows to a height of 12 feet. 

If we can develop the chemistry that will enable us to efficiently 

convert those kinds of grasses, break down the lignin and the cellulose into their constituent sugars, and then ultimately into alcohols, which will probably be other than ethanol, we could conceivably replace 30 percent of petroleum products by naturally produced biofuels. That would have a huge impact on the U.S. economy, and this, of course, is carbon-neutral. 

Senator KLOBUCHAR. Very good. My question about the Green 

Living Project, and this came out of your written testimony where 

you talked about the fact that you can convert these student resident hall rooms to be environmentally friendly without costing a 

huge sum of money. Could you explain how a green room differs 

from a traditional dorm room? 

Mr. BIRGENEAU. This is actually a 100 percent student-driven 

initiative, so I gave a little bit of seed funding to our students and 

said, do something creative. So they just looked very carefully at 

the way their rooms worked, whether or not the computers turned 

off automatically when they left the room; whether or not the lights 

turned off automatically; whether or not they had waterless toilets; 

whether or not they had appliances which were green. 

Just by integrating a whole series of steps, not any single one 

critical, but the integral is that they then have been able to convert 

their dormitory rooms. This has been student-driven, so that there 

are green rooms which are extraordinarily energy efficient. This is 

now leading into a large-scale research project at Berkeley of how 

we design homes so that homes are energy neutral. 

Senator KLOBUCHAR. Very good. 

President Levin, you mentioned that one of the most effective 

steps that Yale has taken is to retrofit the heating, ventilation and 

air conditioning systems in 90 of Yale’s roughly 300 buildings. How 

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many of these 90 buildings are historic or older buildings? How do 

you do this in a cost-effective way? 

Mr. LEVIN. Some of them are challenging. Some of our stone neogothic buildings are really not very feasible for undertaking this 

approach. But for the more modern buildings, it is actually quite 

cost-effective. This has a positive economic return at current energy 

prices to just go through and improve the control systems, introduce centralized controls over HVAC and lighting as well so that 

things switch off automatically when people leave the room, have 

motions sensors and adjust temperatures appropriately when the 

building is occupied and not occupied. 

These are investments that actually yield a payoff at today’s high 

prices of energy. 

Senator KLOBUCHAR. Thank you very much. 

Senator CRAIG. 

Senator CRAIG. Again, thank you all very, very much. 

Let me ask a generic question of you, all three, because clearly 

Congress in response to the American consumer and the environmental realities is awakening and that is appropriate. We should 

be. And that really started in 2005 when we created the new Energy Policy Act that is driving a variety of resources out there 

today. Again, we spoke to it last year, for example, when the discussion on cellulosic ethanol began we bumped that up to 32-plus 

billion gallons annualized, recognizing that a fair or larger portion 

of that total production ultimately would have to come out of cellulosic technologies. 

At the same time, as we deal with intermittent energy sources, 

and of course you at your university, Dr. Johnson, mentioned that 

you are doing feedstocks, biomass energy. I guess I would call that 

baseload, and the wind is intermittent. Because we don’t have storage capacities today for intermittent, we have to have backup because the wind does one thing that we know well. It doesn’t blow 

all the time, and yet we ought to be able to grab it when it does. 

Hopefully someday we will be able to store it, and that will help 

us feed and integrate both baseload and intermittent sources into 

a grid system. 

But having said that, and I trust all of you have looked at Warner-Lieberman. Some version of climate change legislation within 

the next few years will become public policy in this Country. It may 

not be that per se, but there are pieces of it that will probably become that. 

Can we arrive at a reasonable climate change policy that drives 

markets and investments without nuclear energy? How would the 

three of you respond to that? As the No. 2 nuclear research university in the Nation, how would you respond to that? 

Mr. BIRGENEAU. I am highly biased because 10 years ago I 

chaired a committee for the Department of Energy urging the U.S. 

Government to sustain programs in research in nuclear energy and 

nuclear reactors for other kinds of research. 

Senator CRAIG. That is right. 

Mr. BIRGENEAU. So I am a passionate supporter of nuclear energy. I think it should be a critical part of our energy strategy. Because of the disappearance of funding in that area in the 1990’s, 

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nuclear engineering departments like ours at Berkeley really suffered. 

Senator CRAIG. You almost lost it. 

Mr. BIRGENEAU. We are in the process of revitalizing it. Fortunately, we didn’t lost it and we are revitalizing it. 

Senator CRAIG. You and MIT are leaders in those areas of research and development. Thank you. 

Dr. Johnson. 

Ms. JOHNSON. Well, I am not a physicist, so I feel a little bit out 

of my league here. But just to come back to the first element of 

your question, I think that has to do more broadly with can we 

have an impact on climate change. I think the answer is decidedly 

yes. 

I want to just come back again to the concept to make sure that 

stays in front of people, and that is the concept that drives the University of Minnesota, Morris, and that is an integrated system of 

energy. We have researchers at the outreach center, and again I 

am not a physicist so I am out of my league here, but who are 

working on just exactly the capacities that you are talking about— 

wind, hydrogen, the possibility of storing energy so that it isn’t just 

episodic and dependent on when the wind blows. But if you have 

ever been on the prairie, there probably 3 days out of the year that 

the wind doesn’t blow. 

Senator CRAIG. I have been there. 

Ms. JOHNSON. So I think again the number of things that have 

been referred to here that have to do with the interests of young 

people, of college students in this, the educated citizenry, I think 

it is certainly the case that we can have, and as you see on our 

campus, that we are having a positive impact. 

I would like to come back in 2 years and do your final four again. 

Senator CRAIG. We will do it. 

Ms. JOHNSON. I am not sure what the status is going to be. 

Senator CRAIG. We are awfully close to deciding a total rating 

system. 

[Laughter.] 

Ms. JOHNSON. I think you might have a new winner. 

Senator CRAIG. Well, I don’t suggest that you dodged my initial 

question, then, because you have handled it well. I think it is full 

integration. Thank you. 

Dr. Levin. 

Senator KLOBUCHAR. President Levin. 

Mr. LEVIN. Let me say first that I think supporting all of these 

technologies—nuclear, biomass, solar, wind is important because 

we can’t know in advance which will pay off most. So giving appropriate support to advancing them all is important. Price signals 

through a cap and trade system actually do part of that. I think 

direct efforts and subsidies are probably necessary as complements, 

at least in these years. 

Nuclear poses a particular challenge. I agree with Chancellor 

Birgeneau that we ought to be supporting research in that area. 

But actually the challenge is more than research in the nuclear 

area because we will have nuclear plants coming offline in the next 

20 or 30 years, requiring substantial investment to stay online. 

Senator CRAIG. That is right. 

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Mr. LEVIN. In fact, given the long lags in actually designing and 

getting a nuclear plant through the regulatory and political barriers because of siting controversies, we will have a very hard time, 

even if we ran full blast starting today, to actually keep our nuclear capability as high as it is today 20 years from now. 

I agree with you. We have to address this. Nuclear plants are 

very efficient baseload electricity plants, and they are completely 

green. It is very logical to be working on them. 

Senator CRAIG. And of the three universities, yours, Yale, probably is the larger consumer of nuclear-based electricity than the 

other two. That is a rather cursory glance. So the reality you talk 

about of sustaining what we have and maintaining its efficiency 

and its safety as it ages, we have addressed that to some extent 

in the 2005 Policy Act. 

Frankly, just before we left for the Easter Recess, we did something else that advances that. We brought two new commissioners 

to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. One of them is a former 

staffer of mine, Commissioner Kristine Svinicki, formerly from 

Idaho Falls, Idaho. They are now in the process of ramping up in 

a way that will change those timelines substantially as it relates 

to retrofitting and/or bringing new greenfield production facilities 

online. 

To Cal Berkeley, pick up the phone and call DOE, because there 

is a new opportunity there, Chancellor. Last year, Senator Bingaman, Senator Domenici and I authored it we put in legislation that 

was signed by the President and now we are seeking to fund the 

Nuclear Science Talent provision to start bringing the incentives at 

universities back, to take those young bright minds through their 

undergraduate degrees to the masters and the doctorates in those 

fields, to broaden, if you will, the base of that talent, both for our 

Country and the world. So the role Berkeley plays, along with MIT, 

and my universities in Idaho is now working directly with the 

Idaho National laboratory and the Center for Advanced Energy 

Studies. 

America has blinked and awakened to 20 years of abstinence, if 

you will, in the energy field. They are not very happy with us because of the prices involved and the realities that are about. So 

hopefully, with our universities playing very important roles in 

this, like the great Country we are, we will overcome it. 

Thank you, all three, very much for being with us. 

Senator KLOBUCHAR. I wanted to thank all of you for coming, 

and just let you know we have had four Senators here, which isn’t 

bad for a smaller hearing. I think there is just a lot of interest that 

is generated. Clearly, we are going to have college and university 

hearing II as well. 

I also wanted to thank you for the work you have done in being 

leaders in this area, with not only the campus, but in selling this 

to your alumni and to bringing the students on board. In my own 

observations getting around our State, it is really the younger people that have been leading the way. I am sure you have all seen 

this from 8 year olds with penguin buttons, to college kids that 

have shown up here in the Hart Building with green helmets for 

green jobs, chanting in the bottom of the Hart Building, but it has 

really been the students that have been leading the way. 

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We appreciate your leadership and look forward to working with 

you in the years to come. Thank you very much. 

Thank you, Senator Craig, as well. 

[Whereupon, at 11:15 a.m. the committee was adjourned.] 

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