Date: 2013-04-23
Speaker: HERRERA BEUTLER (republican)
Chamber: H

Im glad you mentioned that because I too believe that we need to be about the business of the American people and helping them make life work. which means helping them in their daytoday activities. not making it harder for folks to survive. Im from southwest Washington. and in our neck of the woods. we have a lot of workingclass families who. like CORY mentioned. are struggling to make ends meet. We all know people who have been or are unemployed. where both parents. one or both parents are out of work. or one or both parents are trying to work. People are working two jobs. and still theyre working longer and harder. but not getting paid more for it. So folks are draining their 401(k)s to make their mortgage payments. This is the climate in which we find ourselves. and thats why it is so. so. so important. like the gentleman from Colorado said. that we employ an allAmerican energy strategy. And the irony is we can do it here and now. Theres no reason to wait. which is why I also have joined the gentleman. We are on the House Energy Action Team. or the HEAT Team. which is a group of likeminded Members who believe we need that allAmerican energy approach. and we need it now. You spoke to some natural gas issues. Ill tell you. in my neck of the woods. in the great Northwest. we get a majority of our energy from clean. renewable hydropower. And the best thing about this clean. renewable hydropower is its inexpensive compared with most other forms of energy. especially renewable energy. So not only is it carbonless and its clean. but its inexpensive. and it is constantly renewed in our backyard. I wanted to point some of these things out because I dont believe hydropower always gets its due. especially among the renewables. but just as a base load energy source in the Nation. Hydropower is Americas largest source of renewable energy. Its American energy. Its produced in America. The jobs that go into producing it are American jobs. and its utilized here in America. It makes up 65.9 percent of all renewable energy in the United States. and it provides more than 30 million homes in the U.S. with inexpensive power. Hydro is clean. It avoids nearly 2 million metric tons of carbon emissions every year. This is a tremendous opportunity for us. Its not only important for families. It does keep our energy bills low and affordable. But its important for manufacturing. We have. in southwest Washington. in my area. in Camas. and in Vancouver. a growing tech sector. Weve traditionally been known for our forests and our beautiful Doug fir stands. but we are also now becoming known for our silicon forest. Were manufacturing chips. One of the reasons some of the large chip manufacturers have come to southwest Washington. as opposed to India or China. is because of the inexpensive energy. because of the hydropower. We need to not only protect it. but promote it as part of the alloftheabove energy approach which. again. is allAmerican energy. Another area when were talking aboutI mentioned clean types of renewables. biomass. Woody biomass is a byproduct of the timber that we have in the Great Northwest. Its another area where we can produce carbonless or lowform energy. And its in our backyard. We have an abundant source. Its an American energy source. Another byproduct of timber manufacturing is black liquor. And its not liquor that you drink. its liquor that can go into helping produce energy. These are the types of ideas and solutions that are going to make energy affordable for the average American family. These are the types of solutions that cause us. rather than to put onerous rules and regulations onoh. I could name a few that cause our energy to spike up and cause Americans to pay morethese are the types of solutions that actually meet the environmental standards. but also reduce the cost of the average power bill. I dont know about youyou could probably speak to this. MARTHAbut. man. our energy bills have gone through the roof. and theres no reason when weve got American energy right here in our backyard.