House Proceeding 05-12-09 on May 12th, 2009 :: 1:35:20 to 1:55:20
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1:33:05 to 1:35:20( Edit History Discussion )
Speech By: Earl Blumenauer

1:35:11 to 1:35:21( Edit History Discussion )

Earl Blumenauer: countries we think are less developed than the united states, like the chinese, or small countries like denmark, really making significant

1:35:22 to 1:35:43( Edit History Discussion )

Jay Inslee: advancement and putng the pressure on us to step up and do what we know we can do. mr. inslee: the gentleman has mentioned wind. some people think of wind as a toy you get under a christmas tree or something. inact, wind energy, according to the department of energy, this was under the previous president's department of energy, concluded we can have 20% of all of our electricity

1:35:25 to 1:36:40( Edit History Discussion )
Speech By: Jay Inslee

1:35:44 to 1:36:04( Edit History Discussion )

Jay Inslee: generated by wind in the next couple of decades just using existing technology. now, we believe there is going to be some advances in technology. we think there's a good shot at having good storage. one of the issues of wind is the wind doesn't blow all the time. it's an intermittant source. so there's two ways to get around that problem.

1:36:05 to 1:36:25( Edit History Discussion )

Jay Inslee: one, have multiple wind sites that are tied together in advance transmission grid. so if the wind's not blowing in one place it will be blowing in another. or to have a storage system. i have talked to these countries now -- companies now that are developing batteries that are as large as a semitrailer trailer.

1:36:26 to 1:36:40( Edit History Discussion )

Jay Inslee: these now h actuly being grid connected to store wind and solar when we have excess power generation. we think there is a reasonable chance to get to 20%, which is very significant, just on one technology alone.

1:36:41 to 1:37:01( Edit History Discussion )

Earl Blumenauer: then we have so many other options. of course including efficiency which can be done everywhere da or night. mr. blumenauer: than -- and even problems of intermittiancy dealing with wind energy, if it's coupled with other areas of innovation, like plug-in

1:36:45 to 1:44:00( Edit History Discussion )
Speech By: Earl Blumenauer

1:37:02 to 1:37:23( Edit History Discussion )

Earl Blumenauer: hybrids, and using storage capacity in vehicles to be able to help balance some of the load, we have tremendous opportunities to have these work together. i must say we are both from the pacific northwest. the issue of wind integration and how we are going to do that is something that is looming large on my agenda. i know you are concerned.

1:37:24 to 1:37:45( Edit History Discussion )

Earl Blumenauer: we have our regional power marketing authority, the bonneville power administration, which has been a leader in helping facilitate wind energy, but now is looking at really rather dramatic cost increases for wind integration which i'm hopeful we can look at very hard

1:37:46 to 1:38:06( Edit History Discussion )

Earl Blumenauer: and help them find ways to not provide disincentives for wind energy production right at the point where all of the incentives tha we have put in place are starting to kick it would be unfortunate if somehow they are priced out of the market at just the time we want to engage them. mr. inslee: we appreciate the gentleman's leadership on

1:38:07 to 1:38:30( Edit History Discussion )

Earl Blumenauer: i must excuse myself. i want to thank mr. blumenauer for being such a stalwart champion of these causes. we know there's going to be enthusiasts of jobs created in this clean energy revolution and i hope a lot will be in oregon which is a great state. thank you. mr. blumenauer: thank you, congressman inslee, for joining us. and nor your leadership and comments.

1:38:33 to 1:38:55( Edit History Discussion )

Earl Blumenauer: . mr. speaker, i hope that this chamber will be able to reject the arguments of people who are looking at the smallest possible elements of the puzzle. people who are seeking to politicize it for short-term

1:38:56 to 1:39:18( Edit History Discussion )

Earl Blumenauer: electoral gain at the expense of the long-term interests of our children. i frankly have been earrassed by some of the argumentation that we have heard, the misrepresentation of just basic factual information. one of the things that we are hearing from, sadly, from

1:39:19 to 1:39:40( Edit History Discussion )

Earl Blumenauer: republican leadership, is consistent misrepresentation, for instance, of the m.i.t. study that you'll hear referred to. the st. petersburg times had an editorial of late saying the g.o.p. is full of hot air about obama's light switch tax.

1:39:41 to 1:40:01( Edit History Discussion )

Earl Blumenauer: if the republicans had simply, and i'm quoting here, misstated the results of the m.i.t. study, the truth-o-meter would have been content giving this one fault. but for them to keep repeating the claim after the author of the study told them it was wrong

1:40:02 to 1:40:24( Edit History Discussion )

Earl Blumenauer: means we have to set the meter ablaze. pants on fire was their evaluation. in the "wall street journal," and i quote, for starters, the figure cited by the republican house leadership is almost 10 times higher than the cost estimate provided in the study by professor riley of m.i.t.

1:40:25 to 1:40:45( Edit History Discussion )

Earl Blumenauer: the "boston globe," on one particular issue, the assertion that it would mean a light tax switch, it's just wrong, said professor riley, wrong in so many ways it's hard to begin. i would hope, particularly when

1:40:46 to 1:41:06( Edit History Discussion )

Earl Blumenauer: provisions of the legislation put in place, for people to make wild misrepresentations about costs and consequences does a disservice to what is one of the most important debates of our generation. being able to protect the

1:41:07 to 1:41:27( Edit History Discussion )

Earl Blumenauer: planet, to restore our economy, to regain our position of technological leadership and be able to put us on a path of sustain blet environmentally and economically for the -- sustainability environmentally and economically for the future, the stakes are too high to have

1:41:28 to 1:41:49( Edit History Discussion )

Earl Blumenauer: misrepresentation, to have an inability for people to engage in reasonable discussion. i know the republican leader has sa be legislators, they should be communicators, they should be talkers instead of doers. i hope, i fervently hope that many of our colleagu on the

1:41:50 to 1:42:11( Edit History Discussion )

Earl Blumenauer: other side of the aisle will reject the leadership's marching orders to politicize, to talk, and to not engage and instead to deal with the facts, instead, deal with opportunities to restore our economy, to create millions of clean energy jobs,

1:42:12 to 1:42:32( Edit History Discussion )

Earl Blumenauer: some in whole new industry that we take important steps to reduce the tragic dependence on imported oil. even if we weren't concerned about the pollution, even if we weren't concerned about global warming and the damage that --

1:42:33 to 1:42:55( Edit History Discussion )

Earl Blumenauer: that is attendant thereto. just in terms of strategic interests of the united states, we should stop wasting more oil than anyone in the world. we should stop using more oil per capita for transportation than anybody in the world. we should reduce our strategic

1:42:56 to 1:43:17( Edit History Discussion )

Earl Blumenauer: vulnerability to actions of people who don't like us very much in unstable or hostile parts of the world and of course the damage that is done to our economy by shipping over $1 billion a day overseas. i'm hopeful that we will be able

1:43:18 to 1:43:40( Edit History Discussion )

Earl Blumenauer: to reduce the carbon pollution that causes global warming, that will enable us to be good stewards of the land now because the effects of global warming is going o-- is going to cost a lot more than the consequences of reducing it. as we've discussed this evening, this is in fact an opportunity for us to put our economy back

1:43:41 to 1:44:01( Edit History Discussion )

Earl Blumenauer: on track, create millions of jobs, strengthen our strategic position, while we make a contribution to the future of humankind. mr. speaker, i appreciate the opportunity to spend some time this evening dealing with this issue. i look forward to continuing the discussion about the new technologies, about the facts of

1:44:02 to 1:44:22( Edit History Discussion )

Steven C. LaTourette: science and economy on the floor as we prepare to move this legislation forward. thank you and i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back. under the speaker's announced policy of january 6, 2009, the gentleman from ohio, mr. latourette, is recognized for 60 minutes as the designee of the

1:44:05 to 2:40:30( Edit History Discussion )
Speech By: Steven C. LaTourette

1:44:23 to 1:44:45( Edit History Discussion )

Steven C. LaTourette: minority leader. mr. latourette: thank you very much, mr. speaker. tonight i return to talk about an old topic and also something that's happened in the last couple of weeks. the speaker may recall that a number of weeks ago there was outrage at both ends of pennsylvania avenu determined that located within

1:44:46 to 1:45:06( Edit History Discussion )

Steven C. LaTourette: the 79 -- $792 billion stimulus bill, there was a provision that authorized $173 million in bonuses to executives at the insurance company a.i.g. and at the time, a number of us thought, well, how could that happen? and it seems, just to review,

1:45:07 to 1:45:27( Edit History Discussion )

Steven C. LaTourette: mr. speaker, that when the stimulus package was considered on the other side of the capitol in the united states senate, two senators in a rare display of bipartisanship, senator snow of -- a republican of maine, and senator wyden, a democrat of oregon, offered an amendment that would hav

1:45:28 to 1:45:48( Edit History Discussion )

Steven C. LaTourette: and indicated that if you were a firm like a.i.g. that's received billions and billions of dollars in bailout money, perhaps there should be restrictions on executive compensation and what people should make. a funny thing happened, however, on the way to the conference committee.

1:45:49 to 1:46:09( Edit History Discussion )

Steven C. LaTourette: and the snow-wyden language removed and instead paragraph was inserted. now this paragraph, you read it carefully, mr. speaker, indicates that rather than

1:46:10 to 1:46:30( Edit History Discussion )

Steven C. LaTourette: placing restrictions on the bonuses, it specifically authorizes and exempts any bonus at a.i. or anybody else, any other wall street giant that received billions and billions of taxpayer money, any executive compensation scheme entered into before february 11 of this year, which happened to be the date that the stimulus package was

1:46:31 to 1:46:51( Edit History Discussion )

Steven C. LaTourette: considere and the bonuses would be pai now, i have indicated a number of times on the floor that i know a lot of people were embarrassed by that. i would suggest that that's what happens when you legislate in a sloppy, rushed, haphazard, nonpartisan fashion. speak -- the speaker will

1:46:52 to 1:47:13( Edit History Discussion )

Steven C. LaTourette: recall, the week of the consideration of the stimulus bill, the members of the republican party, the minority party, put forward so of a novel proposition. that was, since we were talking about spending $792 billion in a stimulus bill, it might be a good idea if members had 48 hours to read the bill.

1:47:14 to 1:47:36( Edit History Discussion )

Steven C. LaTourette: and further suggested that it should be put on the internet so anybody in america could take a look at this over 1,000 pages of legislation. well, that proposal passed. it came to a vote here in the house. and every member who was present that day, republican or democrat, voted and agreed that that was a good idea, we should

1:47:37 to 1:47:57( Edit History Discussion )

Steven C. LaTourette: have 48 hours to read the bill. that was tuesday. on thursday, apparently the majority leadership forgot about the vote on tuesday and the was filed about midnight on thursday. the next morning, and i've apologized to my constituents that i didn't read the 1,000 pages at midnight, it didn't come to my attention at we had

1:47:58 to 1:48:18( Edit History Discussion )

Steven C. LaTourette: 1,000-page bill we were going to consider on friday until i arrived at the office that morning. the debate was 90 minutes and members, both republican and democrats, had 90 minutes to digest 1,000 pages and determine whether or not that piece of legislation deserved an up or a down vote. it was a bipartisan vote in that

1:48:19 to 1:48:39( Edit History Discussion )

Steven C. LaTourette: every member of the republican caucus, conference, voted against the stimulus bill, together with some democrats. but the overriding majority of the democratic party voted in favor of it and it passed and it went on to be signed by the president of the united states. what is strange is that everyone

1:48:40 to 1:49:00( Edit History Discussion )

Steven C. LaTourette: who voted for the stimulus bill, voted for this paragraph that authorized the bonuses to a.i.g. yet, the next day, or days after the bonuses were announced, everybody was coming to the floor with -- beating their est, pulling out their hair, saying, i'm shocked. i can't believe it.

1:49:01 to 1:49:22( Edit History Discussion )

Steven C. LaTourette: i don't know how this happened. we want our money back. well, nobody should have been surprised. nobody suld have been shocked. because anyone who supported the stimulus package in the house or senate ved to -- the final conference report, voted to specifically allow a.i.g. and anybody else that had received billions of collars of taxpayer money and bailouts to receive

1:49:23 to 1:49:44( Edit History Discussion )

Steven C. LaTourette: those bailout payments. but people were shocked. so they came up with -- i'll call them goofy. they came up with goofy pieces of legislation in an attempt to cover their political rear ends. and so the first one was, let's tax those bonuses at 90%. what a dumb piece of legislation that was, mr. speaker.

1:49:45 to 1:50:07( Edit History Discussion )

Steven C. LaTourette: i mean, so, tomorrow we decide we're mad at somebody else, maybe tomorrow we're mad at, you know, the oil companies. let's tax them at 90%. day after that, we're not really happy with the airlines, let's tax them at 90%. to use the tax code to punish a small group of people when the mistake was made when this

1:50:08 to 1:50:29( Edit History Discussion )

Steven C. LaTourette: paragraph was inserted in the stimulus package is inappropriate d thankfully, the president of the united states, president obecause marx expressed his opinion that it wasn't a worthy piece of legislation and it's died a natural death over in the united states senate where it exactly should have. the next dumb idea that people

1:50:30 to 1:50:50( Edit History Discussion )

Steven C. LaTourette: came up with was, i know, let's not tax these bonuses at 90%. let's have the united states treasury, the government tell people how much money they can make. what a dumb idea that is. now, listen, today it's the a.i.g. guys, tomorrow let's say that we are not so crazy about

1:50:51 to 1:51:11( Edit History Discussion )

Steven C. LaTourette: the amount of money that bus drivers make. why doesn't the government, the department of transportation, secretary lahood, figure out what the bus drivers in the country should make. another cover your rear end piece of legislation. so in response to all this, we have been coming to the floor on a semiregular basis to try and determine, becauseo one, even

1:51:12 to 1:51:32( Edit History Discussion )

Steven C. LaTourette: though everybody was outraged, no one will say how the first language was removed from the bill and how this paragraph was placed in the bill. so we have devised a game that most americans are are familiar

1:51:33 to 1:51:54( Edit History Discussion )

Steven C. LaTourette: with, the game of clue, great game, i recommend that everyone think about running out to hasbro to get the original edition or is edition. this is the case of the hidden hand. that is, who took out the snow-wyden amendment and who wrote that paragraph i had displayed on the chart before?

1:51:55 to 1:52:17( Edit History Discussion )

Steven C. LaTourette: now, there are a number of suspects. we've taken some out, put some in, but if you read the news reports of the final gokeses on the stimulus bill we know that it either happened in the speaker's office or the conference room. there was a shuttle diplomacy going back and forth as to what the final bill was going to look like. as a matter of fact, the

1:52:18 to 1:52:38( Edit History Discussion )

Steven C. LaTourette: distinguished chairman of the wamse committee, mr. rangel of new york, -- of the ways and means committee, mr. rangel of new york, said it's really difficult to get things done when three people run the institution. we excluded chairman rangel, he's not the hidden hand, he didn't do it.

1:52:39 to 1:52:59( Edit History Discussion )

Steven C. LaTourette: we know it happened in the speaker's office or the conference room, and we know the weapon was the pen what we haven't figured out is who did it. it's pretty simple. think thing didn't appear from nowhere. and someone had to actually say to the drafters of the document,

1:53:00 to 1:53:21( Edit History Discussion )

Steven C. LaTourette: take out snow-wyden and put in what's commonly been referred to as the dodd amendment. put in the dodd amendment. we have asked repeatedly and we have asked everybody we can find, did you do it? and no one has answered the question, i did it, or why. so because we couldn't finish the game of clue on our own, we

1:53:22 to 1:53:46( Edit History Discussion )

Steven C. LaTourette: embarked on another tack, about a month ago, i filed a resolution of inquiry, directed to the secretary of the treasury. it basically asked the treasury to provide to the united states congress all of the documents and communications with a.i.g. and others to try and figure out who the hidden hand was, how the do amendment got into the stimulus package.

1:53:47 to 1:54:07( Edit History Discussion )

Steven C. LaTourette: . i want to recognize the chairman of the full committee of financial services, barney frank, said i'll do whatever you want me to do. do you want me to consider it? i said i would like you to consider it. chairman frank took it before

1:54:08 to 1:54:28( Edit History Discussion )

Steven C. LaTourette: the financial services committee and this is a little bit like the vote we had that we would have 48 hours to read the bill. the resolution of inquiry was called up. every republicannd every democrat voted for this resolution of inquiry and i'm thinking now we're going to get

1:54:29 to 1:54:49( Edit History Discussion )

Steven C. LaTourette: someplace and figure out who the hidden hand is and who sought to protect the bonuses pa to a.i.g. and right before we broke a couple of weeks ago, chairman frank came to the floor, good to his word and filed the report and recommended that the financial services committ reported the bill favorably to

1:54:50 to 1:55:12( Edit History Discussion )

Steven C. LaTourette: the house. now, i thought surely we would have a debate on that. again, this wasn't a party-line vote. it wast close. it was 63 or 64-0. and i thought for sure that we would get this resolved and go down to the treasury and they could hand over the documents and be done with the game of

1:55:13 to 1:55:33( Edit History Discussion )

Steven C. LaTourette: clue and solve whether or not it was the speaker, whether it was harry reid, the majority leader in the senate, whether it was mr. geithner, the new secretary of the treasury, whether it was the chief of staff to the president of the united states, mr. emanuel, because some press accounts indicated that before it could be removed, they had to get the approval of the white ouse.