Washington, DC - Congressman John D. Dingell (D-MI15) made the following statement on H.R. 2454, The American Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009 (ACES), as the Committee on Energy and Commerce began its markup of the bill:

“Mr. Chairman, I commend you for putting forth a good bill; this is bill that I can support and I commend you for working with me and other Members of this Committee to work out our concerns with the initial draft.  The work on this bill began in the 110th Congress, and I am pleased that you, Mr. Chairman, and Mr. Markey, used much of the Dingell-Boucher climate draft from last year as a basis for proceeding on this piece of legislation before us today.

“My only regret is that our colleagues on the other side of the dais chose not to work with us on the bill.  The best legislation is always crafted in a bipartisan manner, and it is disappointing that our Republican colleagues chose the path of rejection rather than working with us in a constructive manner.

“The Renewable Electricity Standard (RES) in this bill is a rationale approach that will position all states, including my home state of Michigan, to be able to meet an aggressive but achievable benchmark – and a benchmark which will go a long way in preventing the so-called ‘dash to gas’.  Michigan will use the renewable electricity mandates to position our workers to be at the forefront of green technology, building the wind turbines and solar panels that will be used as our nation transitions to renewable energy.  I was pleased that we were able to include waste-to-energy as a renewable energy source, a vital power source to Michigan and many other states, and back clean burning nuclear energy out of the RES baseline.

“This bill addresses Carbon Capture and Sequestration (CCS) and I am pleased with the approach followed in the bill, which is largely based on language proposed by Mr. Boucher.  Coal currently generates more than 50 percent of the United States’ electricity, and we have hundreds of years of coal reserves.  Coal must play a significant role in our energy future.  This legislation will spur development and deployment of CCS technology to allow our country to utilize one of our most abundant energy resources, but transition to clean coal as quickly as technologically feasible.

“The Fleet Modernization program that I hope will be added to this bill through an Amendment to be offered by Ms. Sutton can not come at a more opportune time.  By stimulating consumer demand for new vehicles, this proposal will directly benefit domestic autoworkers and automotive manufacturers, which have arguably been hardest hit by the current economic downturn.  Under this proposal, consumers will be able to trade in their old, fuel-inefficient vehicles for vouchers to help pay for newer, more efficient ones.  This proposal’s requirement that new cars and trucks achieve demonstrably greater fuel economy levels than trade-in vehicles will ensure federal funds support a national fleet modernization plan that results in meaningful reductions in energy use by American drivers.  In addition, this program will spur consumer demand for new vehicles, thereby injecting much-needed cash into our ailing domestic automakers.  I applaud the work of this Committee, specifically Chairmen Waxman and Markey as well as Ms. Sutton, Mr. Inslee and Mr. Stupak, for working with me to craft this significant compromise language.

“I am glad this bill directs the distribution of allowances for advanced technology vehicles and plug-in electric vehicle manufacturing and deployment through the Advanced Technology Vehicles Manufacturing Program, or “Section 136” program.  There will also be allowances to other programs to spur advanced technology vehicles, including financial assistance for retooling existing factories for the manufacture of electric vehicles and financial assistance for regional deployment and integration of grid-connected vehicles.  We have seen remarkable innovations from the automakers as consumers have shown interest in more fuel efficient vehicles and the allowance values will spur more innovations and new, green job creation here at home.  This is a significant achievement for the automotive industry and its workers, as the bill will help fund research, development, implementation and deployment of new, low-carbon technologies and upgrading manufacturing facilities to provide the next generation of green vehicles right here in the United States.

“The bill also directs allowances to states for renewable energy and energy efficiency purposes, and I support this.  I am particularly pleased to see that at my request, some of those allowances will also go to local governments too.  Communities in my district, like Ann Arbor, Michigan, and all across this country are doing great work on renewable energy and energy efficiency and this bill recognizes that.  At my request, this bill also amends the Energy Independence and Security Act to allow small communities to join with other neighboring small communities in a joint program to take part in the Energy Efficiency and Conservation Block Grant program.

“Importantly, this bill provides for strict oversight and regulation of the new markets for carbon allowances and offset and ensures market transparency and liquidity.  The bill wisely allows trading in carbon allowance futures so that regulated entities can protect themselves against future cost increases and can obtain the allowances they need for compliance at a fair price.  I am pleased that language proposed by Chairman Stupak to provide greater oversight of energy commodity derivatives and credit default swaps has been included in the Manager’s Amendment.  This language establishes default Commodity Futures Trading Commission regulatory authority over and regulations of allowance derivative markets.  This is absolutely necessary to prevent waste, fraud, and abuse in the carbon trading markets.

“As we address the important issue of climate change, it is also extremely important that we protect our people from economic harm.  This bill goes a long way to protect consumers, and I thank the Chairmen and all members of the Committee, particularly Mr. Boucher, Mr. Butterfield and Mr. Rush for their work to protect all consumers from rate hikes, but also for the special assistance low-income Americans will receive.  The bill establishes an “Energy Refund Program” to provide monthly cash energy refunds to low income individuals and provides tax credits to the lowest-income households so that they are not penalized by the goals of this legislation. 

“Additionally, the bill protects trade vulnerable industries from foreign competition that does not have to meet the same greenhouse gas reduction standards.  This is done both through giving allowance values to trade exposed industries and later in the program requiring the President to make a determination about job leakage.  The President would then have the ability to continue giving allowance value to these trade exposed industries and/or creating a border adjustment program.  This is essential to ensuring the competitiveness of American industry and preserving American jobs.  I commend Chairmen Waxman and Markey for working with my friends Mr. Doyle and Mr. Inslee on this language.  It is a very good addition to the bill.

“The bill also provides international offset credits for activities outside the United States.  This acts as a series of carrots for developing countries to take action to also reduce their greenhouse gas emissions.  It is important to note that in order for developing countries to be eligible for these sectorial offsets, they must show marked improvement in greenhouse gas reductions before they can even be considered for offset credits for further improvements.

“I am pleased the Managers Amendment we will consider later today will strike Section 221(a), which deals with automobile fuel economy standards.  It is my belief that the President and his Administration are undergoing a sincere effort to address the issue of harmonization of state and federal CAFE standards and Congress should allow the President to finish his work before considering any further action.

“I still have some concerns with this bill; however, that I hope that we can address these issues down the road after the bill is passed by this Committee.  Specifically, while I support the noteworthy goal of reducing our greenhouse gas emissions rapidly and to levels demanded by science, I am still concerned that the target of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 17% below 2005 levels by 2020 may be too aggressive for our fragile economy.  The President proposed 14% reductions by 2020 and I believe that is the better approach. 

“Additionally, I intend to offer an Amendment to add essential language similar to what has been proposed by Mr. Inslee in the House and Senator Bingaman in the Senate to establish a Clean Energy Investment Bank to provide various types of credit to support the research and development and deployment of clean energy technologies including loans, loan guarantees, and other credit enhancements as well as secondary market support to develop products such as clean energy-backed bonds that would allow less expensive lending in the private sector.  As we transition to clean energy, we must fund the research and development as well as deployment of these energy sources to meet the mounting demand for zero-carbon technology to dramatically reduce our greenhouse gas emissions.  My Amendment will also make some changes to the Title 17 loan guarantee program including making clear that a final term sheet from the Secretary constitutes a binding commitment such that energy projects can obtain required non-federal financing with surety that the federal guarantee will proceed and it will make, in my view, a long overdue change, supported by the nuclear industry and labor, to add Davis-Bacon prevailing wage protections to the Title 17 program.

“Finally, I am very pleased that this bill includes a dedicated allowance for natural resource adaptation.  As we heard in testimony before the Energy & Environment Subcommittee during a hearing on adaptation, the Fourth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change noted, ‘observational evidence from all continents and most oceans shows that many natural systems are being affected by regional climate changes, particularly temperature increases.’  In that same report, we are warned that in the lifetime of a child born today, 20 to 30 percent of the world’s plant and animal species will be on the brink of extinction if we don’t take action now.  The great conservationist and the 26th President of these United States, Theodore Roosevelt, taught us that conservation is a great moral issue – that it is our duty, as it insures the safety and continuance of the nation.

“Again, I repeat what I said at the beginning of this statement:  this is a good bill and I intend to support it.  There are areas where we can still make improvements and I look forward to working with this Committee on those areas, but we have made great strides forward on the issues of energy independence and climate change in the past two and a half years and this bill is the product of a lot of hard work by all Members of this distinguished Committee.  I commend the Chairmen, and all Democratic Members of this Committee, for your diligence and hard work on this bill.”

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