Senate Proceeding on Nov 16th, 2009 :: 0:08:25 to 0:22:45
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0:08:25 to 0:22:45( Edit History Discussion )
Speech By: Lamar Alexander

0:08:27 to 0:08:48( Edit History Discussion )

Lamar Alexander: a nator: mr. president? mr. alexander: mr. president? the pres senator from tennessee. mr. alexander: thanks, mr. president. would you please let me know when ten minutes has expired? the senate is in a mr. alexander: mr. president, i ask consent that the quorum be vitiated. the presid objection. mr. alexander: would you please let me know when ten minutes has expired? the presiding officer: sure.

0:08:49 to 0:09:11( Edit History Discussion )

Lamar Alexander: mr. alexander: thanks, mr. president. senator webb of virginia, the colleague of the presiding officer, and i are introducing legislation today to propose that the united states build its clean energy future upon the lessons of the manhattan project in world war ii. that helped end the war. it was a millions of man-hour

0:09:12 to 0:09:32( Edit History Discussion )

Lamar Alexander: effort that the "new york times" called -- "without doubt the most concentrated intebtual effort in history." specifically, we'll introduce legislation to create the business and regulatory environment to double our country's nuclear power production to launch five mini manhattan projec to make advanced clean energy technologies effective and cost competive.

0:09:33 to 0:09:53( Edit History Discussion )

Lamar Alexander: the most important thing i can say, mr. president, is the senator from -- the senior senator from west virginia and the junior senat virginia -- i have all talked about this subject before. i think we see that there is a great deal of consensus in this body about some steps we can take on clean energy, and so

0:09:54 to 0:10:15( Edit History Discussion )

Lamar Alexander: what senator webb and i are hoping to do with this framework is to see on a one b one basis whether it's the kind of framework that will permit us to work with other senators who have expressed an interest in nuclear power and energy research and development, and while we're economywide cap and trade, we

0:10:16 to 0:10:36( Edit History Discussion )

Lamar Alexander: could move ahead with these steps that have to do with -- with clean energy, clean air, climate change, low-cost, reliable energy. in other words, this is a piece of legislation that you can support if you're for an economywide cap-and-trade or if

0:10:37 to 0:10:58( Edit History Discussion )

Lamar Alexander: you're against an economywide cap-and-trade. there are some things that we can do that help our country that also help us deal with climate change. in 1942, roosevelt asked senator mckellar, the tennessee ann who chaired the appropriations committee, to hide $2 billion in an appropriations bill for a

0:10:59 to 0:11:19( Edit History Discussion )

Lamar Alexander: secret project to win world war ii. senator mckellar replied "that should be no problem, mr. president. i just have one question. where in tennessee do you want me to hide it?" that place in tennessee turned out to be oak ridge, one of the three key cities that became the principal sites for the manhattan project that split the

0:11:20 to 0:11:41( Edit History Discussion )

Lamar Alexander: atom and built the bomb before germany could. nearly 3,000 people worked on the project in two countries. president roosevelt's appropriation would be $34 billion today. after world war ii in 1947, admiral hyman ryover came for the traing that has helped our

0:11:42 to 0:12:02( Edit History Discussion )

Lamar Alexander: country for half a century. shortly thereafter, in december, 1953, president eisenhower oposed his atoms for peace program that has grown into the world's most effective supplier of large amounts of reliable carbon-free low-cost electricity. the rest of the world has a new interest in this american success story as countries seek

0:12:03 to 0:12:23( Edit History Discussion )

Lamar Alexander: energy independence, clean air, cheap energy for job creation, as well as carbon-free energy to deal with global warming. the chinese are start ago new nuclear power plant every two or three months. the japanese obtained a third of their power from nuclear plants anduilt new reactors from start to finish in less than four years.

0:12:24 to 0:12:44( Edit History Discussion )

Lamar Alexander: france gets 80% of its electricity from nuclear power and as a result has among the lowest electric rates in carbon emissions in western europe. russia plans to double its nuclear power capacity. united arab emirates is planning three new reactors by 2020. and just last week, the united kingdom announced it will build ten. yet the country that invented

0:12:45 to 0:13:06( Edit History Discussion )

Lamar Alexander: this remarkable technology, the united states of america, hasn't started a new nuclear power plant in 30 years. even though we still get 70% of our carbon-free electricity and 19% of all our electricity from 104 reactors built between 1970-1990.

0:13:07 to 0:13:28( Edit History Discussion )

Lamar Alexander: it is true that there are other promising forms of low carbon and carbon-free renewable energy, but the stark reality is that there is a huge gap between this renewable electricity we would like to have and the reliable low-cost electricity a country that uses 25% of all the energy in the world has to have.

0:13:29 to 0:13:49( Edit History Discussion )

Lamar Alexander: today, despite heavy subsidies, wind, solar, geothermal, biomass renewable energy produce only 3% of u.s. electricity. the energy information administration forecasts a 2% increase in u.s. -- a 22% increase in u.s. electricity demand in the next 20 years.

0:13:50 to 0:14:11( Edit History Discussion )

Lamar Alexander: for that much electricity, our country simpl can't rely solely on conservion, windmills or solar panels or even on natural gas. we're fortunate to have a new, massive natural gas set of discoveries in the united states. but a natural gas power plant still produces about half as much carbon as a new coal plant. and if too many natural gas

0:14:12 to 0:14:33( Edit History Discussion )

Lamar Alexander: plants are built, today's low prices could mean high prices tomorrow for farmers, homeowners, and manufacturers. add to that a recent nature conservancy scientific paper that warned of a coming renewable energy sprawl, especially from biofuels, biomass and wind turbines that would consume an area the size

0:14:34 to 0:14:55( Edit History Discussion )

Lamar Alexander: of west virginia. a biomass plant, for example, that would produce as much electricity as one nuclear reactor on one square mile would require continuously foresting an area about one and a half times the size of the great smoky mountain national park. produce 20% of our electricity

0:14:56 to 0:15:16( Edit History Discussion )

Lamar Alexander: from 50-story wind turbines, as some have suggested, would require covering an area the size of west virginia and building 19,000 miles of new transmission lines. when these are strung along our scenic ridgetops, coastlines or other treasured afraid we'll be destroying the environment in the name of saving the environment. sew expler wind installations --

0:15:17 to 0:15:38( Edit History Discussion )

Lamar Alexander: solar and wind installations require between 30 and 270 square miles to duplicate the output of just one nuclear reactor on one square mile. moreover, these energy sources must be backed up by other generation since they only produce power when the wind blows or the sun shines and that electricity can't be stored in large amounts.

0:15:39 to 0:15:59( Edit History Discussion )

Lamar Alexander: there's only one wind farm in the entire southeastern united states because the wind doesn't blow enough. and in the tennessee valley authority region, solar costs at least four to five times as much as other electricity that t.v.a. buys. and as for green jobs, according to the department of energy, there will be 250,000

0:16:00 to 0:16:21( Edit History Discussion )

Lamar Alexander: construction jobs for 100 new nuclear plants. this would compare with 73,000 jobs to construct the 180,000 wind turbines needed to produce 20% of our electricity from wind. of course, producing a lot of cheap, reliable energy is the best way to produce new jobs. think of it this way.

0:16:22 to 0:16:42( Edit History Discussion )

Lamar Alexander: if we were going to war, we wouldn't m navy and start subsidizing sailboats. and if climate change as well as low-cost, reliable energy are national imperatives, we shouldn't stop building nuclear plants and stop -- and start subsidizing windmills. i'm on the side of those who say

0:16:43 to 0:17:04( Edit History Discussion )

Lamar Alexander: we need to deal with climate change. the national academies of 11 industrialized countries, including the united states, have said that humans probably have caused most of the recent global warming. if fire chiefs of the same reputation said my house might burn down, i'd buy fire insurance, but i'd buy insurance that worked and that was not so

0:17:05 to 0:17:26( Edit History Discussion )

Lamar Alexander: expensive that i couldn't pay my mortgage or my hospital bill. fortunately, there are two steps that will benefit our country in multiple ways: namely, cleaner air, more energy independence, more reliable low-cost power that will also help fight global warming. the first is to double production of electricity from

0:17:27 to 0:17:47( Edit History Discussion )

Lamar Alexander: carbon-free nuclear power which would mean building a hundred new plants, as we did between 1970 or 1990 or a larger number of the new sll and modular reactors now being discussed. the second is to apply to the promising new technologies, such as the renewable technologies,

0:17:48 to 0:18:08( Edit History Discussion )

Lamar Alexander: resources that we did with the original manhattan project, in order to make them effective and cost competive. that's why the bill that senator webb and i are introducing today, "the clean energy act of 2009," proposes the following. number one, loan guarantees. $100 billion to encourage start-ups of all forms of

0:18:09 to 0:18:30( Edit History Discussion )

Lamar Alexander: carbon-free electricity production. expanding the $47 billion loan guarantee program that exists today. $18 billion of those funds are currently available for nuclear projects. second chu has suggested it should be in the 40's. i believe that number should be

0:18:31 to 0:18:52( Edit History Discussion )

Lamar Alexander: closer to the 60's or the 70's. but the purpose of this is to get the first few new nuclear plants up and running and then e money is paid back. the congressional budget office has estimated this could cost up to $10 billion but must cost much less. new reactor designs --: $1 billion over five years to enable the nuclear regulatory commission to review new designs, such as the generation

0:18:53 to 0:19:14( Edit History Discussion )

Lamar Alexander: 4 reactors that don't isolate plutonium and, therefore, help solve the used nuclear fuel problems, and small modular reactors that can be built in united states factories and assemble on-site like lego blocks. number three, nuclear work force. $1 billion over ten years to

0:19:15 to 0:19:37( Edit History Discussion )

Lamar Alexander: ensure a supply of nuclear engineers, operators, and craftsmen, such as welders and pipefitters. americans have a generation gap in these skilled personnel. number four, more power from existing reactors. this would be $500 million over ten years to increase the efficiency and develop longer

0:19:38 to 0:19:58( Edit History Discussion )

Lamar Alexander: lifetimes for our existing 104 reactors. if we did both of these things, we might create the equivalent production of 20 or 30 more reactors. and then finally, the five new what we call mini manhattan projects for clean energy. i thank the president, and i ask for three more minutes to finish my remarks.

0:19:59 to 0:20:21( Edit History Discussion )

Lamar Alexander: the presiding officer: without objection. mr. alexander: here are the five mini manhattan projects. $750 million per year over ten years for research and development on, number one, carbon capture emissions from coal plants. in many ways, that's the holy grail of energy r find a way to do that, we can

0:20:22 to 0:20:42( Edit History Discussion )

Lamar Alexander: have all of the low-cost, clean energelectricity that we can use. number two, develop advanced biofuels from crops that we don't eat. three, improve batteri electric cars, so instead of taking us a hundred miles without recharging, they might take us 300 miles or 400 make solar power more cost

0:20:43 to 0:21:03( Edit History Discussion )

Lamar Alexander: competitive. that has the most promise i think in terms of renewable energy because we have rooftops on which to put the panels. they just cost too much today. and then recycling used nuclear fuel in a way that doesn't isolate the plutonium, that reduces by 99.99% the

0:21:04 to 0:21:25( Edit History Discussion )

Lamar Alexander: radioactive life of what's left, and by 97% the mess that we have to deal with. the cost to taxpayers over 20 years would be no more than $20 billion. there would be no new energy taxes or mandates these $20 billion would compare with the $170 billio would ? taxpayer subdie --

0:21:26 to 0:21:46( Edit History Discussion )

Lamar Alexander: that we would spend in taxpayer subsidies if we were to spend 20% of our electricity from wind, not counting the billions more for transmiion lines. and by my computation, mr. esident, if we actually did build 100 nuclear plants in 20 years as well as electrify half our cars and trucks in 20 years -- which we should be able to do without building one new

0:21:47 to 0:22:07( Edit History Discussion )

Lamar Alexander: power plant if we plug them in at night -- we would come close to reaching the 1990 kyoto global warming protocols without expensive, new energy taxes. reaching that goal is even more likely if some of our mini manhattan projects produce the results we hope for from new technologies. so in conclusion, the world

0:22:08 to 0:22:28( Edit History Discussion )

Lamar Alexander: nuclear power revival is well underway. with our clean energy act of 2009, that revival might finally reach american shores, where it began. and the lessons of the manhattan project could advance the day when more nuclear power and new forms of clean energy can make us more energy dependent, clean our air, help fight global warming and produce the large

0:22:29 to 0:22:46( Edit History Discussion )

Lamar Alexander: amounts of reliable, low-cost clean electricity that will keep american jobs from going overseas looking for cheap energy. mr. president, i ask unanimous consent to include following my remarks a one-page summary of the that is called "the clean energy