Date: 2007-11-15
Speaker: GEORGE MILLER (democrat)
Chamber: H
State: California

I want to thank you very much for taking this time to discuss what is almost now a year of the effort by Speaker PELOSI to provide for the greening of the Capitol and the surrounding areas here on Capitol Hill in Washington. D.C. And her choice of Dan Beard as the Chief Administrative Officer to lead this effort is a wise choice. Dan Beard worked for the Resources Committee when I was Chair of that committee. and really led a transformation in western water usage throughout the western United States. When he was at the Committee. and later at the Bureau of Reclamation. he transformed those programs from huge. wasteful water projects into projects of conservation. ending subsidies that the taxpayers were paying in many cases. or reducing the subsidies that taxpayers were paying that led. again. to water conservation. to new technologies being brought onto the farmland. to level those lands. to provide for drip irrigation. to provide for computerization of irrigation. to mingle water with fertilizers or other things that were necessary for the growing of those crops. That has saved farmers a huge amount of money. It has provided for better utilization of the resource. Water was able to be recycled into fish and wildlife protection in other parts of the State and all through the Southwest. in Montana. in Utah and in California. So. he has a long experience for this. When he left the Congress and the administration. he went on to work in dealing with publicprivate partnerships to bring about environmental solutions to very difficult problems and was able to engage the public sector. the private sector. the nonprofit sector to build teams. to build organizations to solve some very thorny problems around this country. Thats the expertise he. brought to the greening of the Capitol. And as weve seen in this first year. many things that were just taken for granted here that were so wasteful of our environment. were so wasteful of energy. so wasteful of taxpayer dollars. that now has changed. or started to change. And its a work in progress. but I think as Members see it. one. theyre proud that theyre part of this effort. We go back and we have town hall meetings with our constituents and we talk to them about the urgency and the necessity to do this. And sometimes maybe we dont lead as well as we should. but here we are leading in this wonderful. wonderful United States Capitol. EJ 2310 The other one is that this. Capitol is part of a neighborhood. and to the extent in which we can reduce our reliance on coalfired plants in this neighborhood. we improve the air quality from the people who live downwind from the plants that supply the power for the Capitol. The extent to which the Chief Administrative Officer that been able to role that into green energy is very. very important. to reduce the carbon footprint. which so many businesses now see as just not nice talk. its really about hard decisions. the yield. immense savings over relatively short periods of time. in many cases for those corporations. allow them to increase their investment in their businesses. their employees. or their own profits. And thats the kind of change that .we need. Its the kind of change that we should be leading on. And under this effort to green the Capitol by the Speaker and the leadership with the Chief Administrative Officer. Dan Beard. we all see the benefits of it. And. again. as Mr. BLUMENAUER was pointing out. these choices werent difficult. They werent costly. They werent complex. But they werent being made. And once they are made. people go- on with their lives. and all of a sudden they are participating in reducing the tax that our activity puts on the environment. on the climate. on the resources of this Nation. So I really want to thank you. I want to join and associate myself with your remarks that youve all made. All of you have been involved in this effort on a national basis with your leadership and the protection of the oceans and new forms and methods of transportation and for communities. And. Jay. certainly your efforts on alternative energy has led the way in this Congress. Hopefully. over the next couple of weeks. we will be able to go to even a broader initiative. which is the passage of the energy bill. which will lead to alternative energy sources being developed. alternative fuels. and the savings on the cafe standards so that people who are now looking at a :3.50 gasoline. $4 gasoline will be able to have the alternative of buying a more efficient automobile. a less polluting automobile. Theyll feel good about it. Their pocketbook will feel good about it. and I think their children will really like the idea too. So thank you so much for taking this time on the floor tonight.