Renewable Energy and Energy Conservation Tax Act of 2008

Floor Speech

Renewable Energy and Energy Conservation Tax Act of 2008

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Mr. VAN HOLLEN. I thank the chairman of the Ways and Means Committee for his leadership on this very important national issue.

The legislation before us today presents a very clear choice: Does the people's House stand with the American consumer or do we stand with big oil companies and the special interests?

With gas prices now more than twice as high as they were the day President Bush took office, the American people can simply not afford a continuation of those failed policies that brought us to this point. They're looking to us to take specific steps towards strengthening our national security by reducing our dependence on foreign oil, cleaning up our environment, and creating millions of good-paying green collar jobs and saving on their costs at the pump.

Now the energy bill that this Congress passed last session was a very important step in the right direction. We improved automobile efficiency standards and provided greater incentives to renewable fuels and new economy-wide efficiency standards, and that will help ease the demand for fossil fuels and spur important energy alternatives.

However, we left a very important piece of that on the table because Senate Republicans and the White House refused to accept a very simple proposition. We want to take the $14 billion in taxpayer subsidies that the Bush administration and the earlier Congress gave the oil and gas companies and we say let's reinvest them in a new energy strategy that focuses on renewable energy and energy efficiency. And now on the other side they say no, we don't want to make that choice. We think the taxpayers, all of us and all the people around this country, should continue to subsidize oil and gas companies that are making record profits rather than making this choice.

Well, that's what this bill is about: let's make a choice. Let's use those resources to invest in over $8 billion in electricity generated from clean, homegrown renewable sources. Let's expand production of homegrown fuels like cellulosic ethanol and renewable biodiesel so that we can reduce our dependence on foreign oil. And let's empower consumers interested in being part of the solution by incentivizing the purchase of energy-efficient appliances and advanced plug-in hybrid vehicles.

There is a whole new energy frontier out there for us to seize upon if only we will make the right choices. And instead of looking backwards and continuing to subsidize companies with the hard-earned dollars of the American people, let's instead invest in an energy future that puts millions of people back to work in green technologies, that advances our national security interests by reducing our reliance on foreign oil, and which addresses major environmental concerns that we all face with respect to climate change.

That is the fundamental question at stake today. Let's make the right choice. Let's make a choice that the people's House can be proud of and support the American consumer and the American people, and not the special interests.

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