Senate Proceeding on Oct 29th, 2009 :: 4:13:25 to 4:33:20
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4:13:21 to 4:13:44( Edit History Discussion )

Lamar Alexander: this is the week of two more thousand-page bills. the house has produced a nearly 2,000-page health care bill, which we're all looking forward to reading, and the senator from new mexico and i are members of the environment and public works committee and so this week we've been spending almost all day each day on a nearly 1,000-page

4:13:25 to 4:33:20( Edit History Discussion )
Speech By: Lamar Alexander

4:13:45 to 4:14:05( Edit History Discussion )

Lamar Alexander: bill on climate change. mr. president, as i said on tuesday, when the bill was presented, i have no problem with the problem. 11 national science academies of 11 major industrialized countries, including the united states, have said the change is real and that humans

4:14:06 to 4:14:27( Edit History Discussion )

Lamar Alexander: are causing most of the recent warming. if the same -- if fire chiefs with the same reputation had said my house was likely to burn down, i'd buy some fire insurance. i have no problem acknowledging the problem. but i do have a problem with the proposed solution.

4:14:28 to 4:14:49( Edit History Discussion )

Lamar Alexander: if i bout fire insurance, i'd buy fire insurance that worked and i wouldn't buy insurance so expensive that i couldn't pay my mortgage or i couldn't pay my hospital bill. and that's my concern about the solution that's -- that's a part of the kerry-boxer bill which we've been working

4:14:50 to 4:15:10( Edit History Discussion )

Lamar Alexander: the kerry-boxer bill is at a high-cost clean energy solution that will make it harder for americans to support our families. when it's finished, when it's all put together, it will be even big are and it will be a combination of an cap-and-trade and ordinarily defined renewable energy

4:15:11 to 4:15:33( Edit History Discussion )

Lamar Alexander: mandates. it will be a well-intentioned 1,000-page plus of taxes, mandates and surprises. but some things will not be a surprise. we've heard in a good deal of detail this week about the costs. at a time of 10% unemployment in america, and that unemployment is likely to continue for a

4:15:34 to 4:15:55( Edit History Discussion )

Lamar Alexander: while, it will impose a new national energy tax that will raise jobs overseas looking for cheap energy. it will collect hundreds of billions of dollars each year from a washington slush fund -- no, from american taxpayers and put into a washington slush fund

4:16:18 to 4:16:40( Edit History Discussion )

Lamar Alexander: will be ineffective against fuel. fuel is 30% of our cargo, which is because the human -- which is the cause or human cause or contributor to global warming. so the idea is that we put a cap-and-trade on fuel and it raises the price of fuel, but the testimony before our committee has been it it doesn't

4:16:41 to 4:17:02( Edit History Discussion )

Lamar Alexander: do much to reduce the carbon because even the large price increase in gasoline, for example, which will be passed on to those of us who drive cars and drive cars and fly in airplanes, won't be enough -- it will be enough to cause a lot of pain, but it won't change much human behavior.

4:17:03 to 4:17:23( Edit History Discussion )

Lamar Alexander: the environmental protection agency has done a quick look at this nearly 1,000-page bill. and its conclusion is that its costs and benefits are much like the waxman-markey, which was passed by the house of representatives a few weeks ago. we know what people have said about that bill.

4:17:24 to 4:17:47( Edit History Discussion )

Lamar Alexander: president obama's director, peter orszag said in march that the allowances part of all of this money and giving a lot of them away was the largest -- quote - "corporate welfare program in history." that's president obama's budget director. the current director of the congressional budget office

4:17:48 to 4:18:09( Edit History Discussion )

Lamar Alexander: testified last month that these economy-wide cap-and-trade bills would cut up to 3.5% off our gross domestic product by 2050. in other words, it would make us poorer than we otherwise would be. the brookings institution has said the cost is likely to b

4:18:10 to 4:18:31( Edit History Discussion )

Lamar Alexander: be $300 billion annually by 2030. former senator weather of colorado -- werth of colorado criticized the bl as a cav new tax incentive. mr. hanson at nasa who believes

4:18:32 to 4:18:54( Edit History Discussion )

Lamar Alexander: it's a problem, and i believe it's a problem, says the bill is less than worthless. so taken together, this strategy, this approach, this way to deal with cite change, is -- climate change is, in my view, taxes, expen and mandates. plus a national windmill policy.

4:18:55 to 4:19:16( Edit History Discussion )

Lamar Alexander: a combination of subsidies and incentives and mandates that would have as a goal making 20% of our electricity from giant wind turbines. mr. president, i believe our dream for energy ought to be just the reverse. we should want large amounts of

4:19:17 to 4:19:37( Edit History Discussion )

Lamar Alexander: reliable, clean, low carbon or carbon-free energy, but it should be cheap energy, not deliberate, high-cost energy, cheap energy because that's the way we create jobs and avoid hardships for families. our dream throughout our existence is civilizations. and civilizations in this world

4:19:38 to 4:19:58( Edit History Discussion )

Lamar Alexander: is that some day we'd have cheap, almost no-cost energy for the people of the world so that they could get out of poverty. we're fortunate in this country. we're just 5% of the people in the world, we have 25% of the money year in and year out, we use 25% of the energy. we should have a goal and not

4:19:59 to 4:20:20( Edit History Discussion )

Lamar Alexander: one that raises the price of energy, we ought to deliberately lower, if we can find one. so before we deliberately embark on a program to send manufacturing jobs overseas, which the -- this unquestionably will. if you work in an auto plant or auto supplier plan or cement

4:20:21 to 4:20:41( Edit History Discussion )

Lamar Alexander: plant, that if this bill passes, your job is more likely to go overseas much before we deliberately make ourselves poorer, we should try a low-cost strategy, and we have one. republicans, all 40 republicans have a four-point low-cost clean-air strategy, which i

4:20:42 to 4:21:02( Edit History Discussion )

Lamar Alexander: think many drcts agree with, and i believe president obama agrees with a lot of it. rather than this economywide high-cost strategy, why not the following four-point strategy? number one, create the environment in which we can build 100 new nuclear power plants in the next 20 years. that's the same number we have today.

4:21:03 to 4:21:28( Edit History Discussion )

Lamar Alexander: we have 103 today. we built those in 20 years between 1970 and 1990. those plants produce 70% of our carbon-free electricity today. wind a all of the renewable energy except for the hydropower produce 4%. 100 new power plants.

4:21:29 to 4:21:49( Edit History Discussion )

Lamar Alexander: number two, electrify half our cars and trucks in the next 20 years. this can happen, mr. president. almost all automobile manufacturers make electric cars. i drive a plug-in. i put gas in weeks. electrify half our cars and trucks in 20 yrs.

4:21:50 to 4:22:10( Edit History Discussion )

Lamar Alexander: we can do this by plugging them in at night when we have so much spare electricity. we can do this without building one new power plant. at's according to the testimony of brookings institution scholars and that scholar is now in the obama administration as the assistant secretary of energy. three, explore offshore for

4:22:11 to 4:22:32( Edit History Discussion )

Lamar Alexander: low-carbon natural gas and for our own oil. natural gas suddenly has become an abundant supply and the price is low. we can begin to use some of it for energy -- for -- for electricity. we have to be careful of that. we did that before and the price went up to $15.

4:22:33 to 4:22:54( Edit History Discussion )

Lamar Alexander: we have a new supply of abundan natural gas. it's our own. it's not overseas. we should find it and use it. it's low carbon. while we're add it, we should find our oil. even if we drive half our cars, our electric cars, which will reduce our oil from overseas by

4:22:55 to 4:23:18( Edit History Discussion )

Lamar Alexander: one-third, we'll still be using 12 million or 13 billion barrels of oil a day just for transportation and we'll be better off if we use our oil instead of oil from overseas from countries who don't like us. and, finally, mr. president, the fourth item is launch four mini manhattan projects like the one we had in world war ii.

4:23:19 to 4:23:40( Edit History Discussion )

Lamar Alexander: secretary chu, the distinguished physicist who is president obama's secretary of energy, calls them innovation hubs. but many manhattan projects, or innovation them to find ways to recapture carbon from coal plants. we know how to take nitrogen and sulfur and mercury out of coal

4:23:41 to 4:24:01( Edit History Discussion )

Lamar Alexander: plants, if we can find a way to find carbon out of coal plants, we should give a noble prize to that scientist. a solar more affordable it is too expensive to use a widespread way. germany, which has invested much

4:24:02 to 4:24:22( Edit History Discussion )

Lamar Alexander: of its energy in solar power gets less than 1% of electricity from solar power. in the united states it's less than 1%. we need a mini manhattan project to put it on a mini manhattan project to make batteries better so that our

4:24:23 to 4:24:43( Edit History Discussion )

Lamar Alexander: cars can go 400 miles instead of 100 miles with electricity. and a mini manhattan project to use nuclear fuel in a way that doesn't isolate plutonium. there is a strategy supported by 40 republican senators and by many democrats and i believe some of that the president embraces.

4:24:44 to 4:25:04( Edit History Discussion )

Lamar Alexander: nuclear power plants, electric cars, offanother exploration for natural gas and oil and double energy research and development for four mini manhattan project for solar power, electric power and recycling nuclear fuel. that doesn't drive manufacturing jobs overseas.

4:25:05 to 4:25:25( Edit History Discussion )

Lamar Alexander: that doesn't put an ineffective economy-wide cap-and-trade on fuel and gasoline without preduesing much -- reducing much carbon. that is better than a national windmill policy than what the obama administration and the

4:25:26 to 4:25:46( Edit History Discussion )

Lamar Alexander: current sub i dids have in our -- subsidies have in our future. to produce electricity from nuclear power would take 100 reactors on 100 square miles, most of them could be built on cites where we now have reactors. we've been doing this successfully since the 1950's.

4:25:47 to 4:26:07( Edit History Discussion )

Lamar Alexander: we have a nuclear navy. we produce 19% of our electricity from these 103 reactors we have today. but the proposal of the administration is to build 20% of our electricity from wind power. that would require 186,000, 50-story wind turbines whose

4:26:08 to 4:26:31( Edit History Discussion )

Lamar Alexander: blades are the size of a football field. it would require 19,000 miles new transmissio remote places through your back yard, over your scenic view scape to bring that electricity to your house. it would require $170 billion in taxpayer subsidies over the next 10 years, while the same for

4:26:32 to 4:26:53( Edit History Discussion )

Lamar Alexander: nuclear power would be abou about $6.8 billion, according to current law. it would turn our ridge tops into junk yards in the sky. it it it would kill these turbines more than 1 million birds a year. these turbines would work one-third of the time -- you can't store the electricity today in the commercial way.

4:26:54 to 4:27:14( Edit History Discussion )

Lamar Alexander: you'd have to build nuclear power natural gas plants or coal plants to backup these 186,000 turbines which would cover an area the size of west virginia. that's a prospect for our country that ranges from impractical to expensive to preposterous.

4:27:15 to 4:27:35( Edit History Discussion )

Lamar Alexander: especially when we have available, the possibility of what we did before, add 100 nuclear reactors, which is what the rest of the world is doing. what happened to nuclear power? we went to war an created a nuclear navy 60 years ago, and it was doing exactly what we wanted it to do today as the world's leading military power

4:27:36 to 4:27:56( Edit History Discussion )

Lamar Alexander: and 1,000 of our sailors lived on top of those reactors, would we stop building nuclear ships and start subsidizing sail boats? well, that's the current administration's energy policy. what we should be doing is building 100 nuclear power plants as rapidly and safely as we can.

4:27:57 to 4:28:18( Edit History Discussion )

Lamar Alexander: as the cheapest, reliable way to reduce carbon and to deal with climate change. it's the fastest way to do that. just as electrifying half of our cars and trucks is a fast way to reduce foreign oil. we invented nuclear power in this country. it's one of our great technologies. maybe the most important technology of the last 100 years, one of the most.

4:28:19 to 4:28:41( Edit History Discussion )

Lamar Alexander: we haven't built a new nuclear power plant in 30 years, even though the old ones we have are producing 70% of our carbon-free wreck. what is the rest of the -- electricity. what is the rest of the world doing? china is building 132 new nuclear power plants. the head of a french power company was in my office and he

4:28:42 to 4:29:03( Edit History Discussion )

Lamar Alexander: told me that china is starting a new nuclear power plant every three months. france is 0% nuclear and -- 80% nuclear and has the lowest carbon emission rates in europe. we hear about green jobs. spain has a lot of green jobs. and those jobs are going to france because the electric rates are low in france and

4:29:04 to 4:29:26( Edit History Discussion )

Lamar Alexander: they're high in spain because they have invested -- haven't invested in nuclear power. japan it 35% nuclear. taiwan is building nuclear plants. india is building nuclear plants. russia is building two nuclear plants a year so they can use their natural gas' currency for the rest of europe.

4:29:27 to 4:29:47( Edit History Discussion )

Lamar Alexander: the united arab emrates have contracted with france to build eight nuclear plants. we invented it and we haven't started a nuclear power plant in 30 years. why do we go full speed ahead? we believe this is a more sensible, practical, low-cost solution for dealing with climate change.

4:29:48 to 4:30:08( Edit History Discussion )

Lamar Alexander: i'll just speak for myself. we have many different views on climate change here in the republican caucus. we have the whole spectrum. not everyone agrees with me that it's a real problem and that humans are causing i and we ought to do our best to deal with it as rapidly and as reasonably as we can. but here's the way we should do it.

4:30:09 to 4:30:30( Edit History Discussion )

Lamar Alexander: if we by 2030 produced -- 100 new nuclear plants and if we electrified half our cars and trucks, we would be producing about 40% of our electricity from nuclear, natural gas would be about 25%, hydro would be 10%, wind and solar maybe 5% to 10%. we would come close with just those two things, nuclear power

4:30:31 to 4:30:51( Edit History Discussion )

Lamar Alexander: and electric cars, of reaching the kyoto protocol goals for carbon emissions without a significant increase in prices. given in the meantime our minute i manhattan projects for carbon capturing and recycling nuclear waste and electric batteries worked, we would have even more chance of getting there, all without a national energy tax.

4:30:52 to 4:31:13( Edit History Discussion )

Lamar Alexander: you might say well, what's going to make that happen? i would say two words: presidential leadership. president obama is very persuasive. he can set a goal and mobilize the country. and persuade half of us he's right. he could get all 40 republican

4:31:14 to 4:31:35( Edit History Discussion )

Lamar Alexander: senators, he could get a lot of democrats. start speeding up approval of designs for chemical plants. if china can start them every two or three months, we ought to be able to as well. provide incentives, such such $100 billion of loan guarantees. those would all be paid back not just for nuclear but for all clean energy. no carbon or low carbon forms of entering.

4:31:36 to 4:31:56( Edit History Discussion )

Lamar Alexander: fund the mini manhattan projects. at a town meeting recently, president obama said the united states would be -- quote -- stupid, those were his words, not to use nuclear power. i was glad to hear him say that. i was disappointed when he went toew york and spoke at climate change and lectured the other countries for not doing more

4:31:57 to 4:32:18( Edit History Discussion )

Lamar Alexander: about climate change. he didn't mention the words nuclear power and china is building 132 nuclear plants. but i was glad toear the president say what he said in new orleans. so as we move through the senate on the debate about climate change, i would ask my colleagues on both sides to look

4:32:19 to 4:32:39( Edit History Discussion )

Lamar Alexander: carefully at thisconomywide cap-and-trade. we have had some experience with cap-and-trade on small dollars for coal plants and sulfur. that doesn't translate well to what's being proposed here. it does not is 30% of the cost of the carbon. it raises the price without reducing the carbon. it drives manufacturing jobs away. and it raises utility bills.

4:32:40 to 4:33:00( Edit History Discussion )

Lamar Alexander: we don't need to do it. with presidential leadership, we could build 100 nuclear plants, electriccary phi half our c and trucks, find low carbon natural gas and launch the minute i manhattan projects and meet -- the mini manhattan projects and meet our goals without jobs going overseas

4:33:01 to 4:33:20( Edit History Discussion )

Lamar Alexander: looking for cheap electricity. all 40 republican senators agree with this agenda. so do many democrats. president obama agrees with much of it. then so why are we pushing a high-cost national energy tax and subsidizing 186,000 windmills -- that's the plan -- when we could agree on a low-cost clean energy plan that