Date: 2008-06-04
Speaker: GEORGE MILLER (democrat)
Chamber: H
State: California

Mr. Speaker. Members of the House. its interesting that my colleagues on the other side railed against this legislation in the name of energy. It doesnt do a lot of good to pump more energy into these Schools. more air conditioning into these schools. more heat into these schools when the schools are such inefficient users of energy. It makes no sense to pump more and more electricity into the schools. to use lighting thats outdated. outmoded. harmful to the learning of these children. ff4932 The purpose of this legislation is to take a major institution in our country. our elementary secondary education system. and have the Federal Government lend some support to local efforts that are struggling now. trying to accelerate their programs to cut their energy costs in the running of their schools. Thats what this bill allows us to do. It allows us to put in place as they renovate. as they repair. as they remodel these schools. trying to recover. as all businesses are all across the country. as homeowners are all across the country. to reduce their energy costs. It allows us to partner up with them and to provide some assistance in doing that. Its rather interesting that all they can talk about -on the other side is somehow that they didnt get to go to Alaska. If theyd gone to Alaska. it probably would have made a penny or 2 cents or 3 cents a difference in a gallon of gasoline today. But the fact of the matter is why would you go to Alaska and put it into cars that are getting 12 and 13 miles a gallon? But you never went to the question of efficiencies. You never went to the question of better automobiles. We did. The first time in 30 years. this Congress improved the mileage standard for automobiles. Just think if we had done it when George Bush said he wanted it done. Today. it would have been an entire different industry. But no. you listened to the oil industry and you listened to the automobile industry. Well. listen to them today as the chairman of General Motors has to admit that they didnt see it coming. they didnt see it was gqlng to happen. They laid off 20.000 workers. They shut down four plants making SUVs and trucks. Why are we listening to those people? If we continue to listen to them. well be the only people in the world that are listening to them. Theyve made one bad business decision. one bad energy decision after another for the last two decades. and it cost them almost 450.000 jobs to the workers. It cost them market share. it cost them productivity. it cost them profit. Now what are they doing? Theyre trying to play catchup. Well. we dont think the school districts in this country should play catchup like General Motors. We think the school districts in this country ought to have an opportunity to make these facilities more efficient in the use of the energy. more efficient in the conservation of energy so that they can come into the modern age and they can make the changes that all of the studies indicate to us not only will save them energy. not only will make the facilities safer. cleaner and better for the learning environment that these children need. it will also dramatically change the cost of running these school districts. Its happening. but too many school districts in too niany areas dont have sufficient funds. We think the Federal Government ought to put its shoulder to the wheel and help these school districts conserve their energy.