Sec. 102. Sense of Congress
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/bill/115/hr/3671/ih/section-102·A research copy — for the controlling text, always check the official state or federal source. Not legal advice.
It is the sense of Congress that: The United States must transition to a 100 percent clean energy economy. It is not in the national interest for taxpayers in the United States to subsidize highly profitable, polluting fossil-fuel companies. It is imperative that the United States Government make extensive investments in grid modernization projects across the country. According to the Hawaii State Energy Office, grid modernization refers to computer-based control and automation technology to bring current utility electricity delivery systems into the 21st century.
The benefits of grid modernization include improvements in efficiency, reliability, economics, and sustainability of the production and distribution of electricity all the way from electricity generation to the user’s home and workplace . This will help States like Hawaii that already have a 100 percent renewable portfolio standard achieve its goals on a more aggressive timeline and will assist cities like: Burlington, Vermont; Aspen, Colorado; Baltimore City, Maryland; Greensburg, Kansas, and every other city and State achieve 100 percent renewable energy standards in a timely fashion.
To meet the demands of a zero carbon economy using only renewable generation by 2035, significant investments in early stage energy technology breakthroughs, grid scale storage technologies, and loan guarantees for utility scale projects will be essential to meet the country’s energy needs by 2035. The most pressing need will be replacing base load power with a wide range of storage technologies during times of intermittent renewable power generation. These technologies are mostly in their early stages and will require a significant amount of funding to scale them for commercial or utility scale deployment.
We must significantly increase Federal R&D funding to develop and deploy the technologies needed for deep decarbonization in our economy. This was a proposal announced at the Paris Climate Accord with Bill Gates called Mission Innovation, which committed to double government investment in energy technology. Funding should be spread throughout the innovation pipeline at the U.S. Department of Energy as well as other Federal agencies and departments including the National Science Foundation, NASA, and the Department of Defense.
We must invest in early-stage proof of concept technologies and basic scientific research at the Department of Energy’s Office of Science through the 17 U.S. National Laboratories will be needed to discover the scientific properties needed to produce proof of concept or prototype technologies. The U.S. National Laboratories are centers of basic scientific research already working on technology programs such as grid modernization and security, battery storage, solar and wind technology efficiency, efficient transmission and distribution technologies, and hard and software control systems for the grid.
Focus on investing in early-stage breakthrough energy technologies. Funding these technologies could lead to innovations that could dramatically change how energy is generated, stored, and distributed. To rapidly move the country towards a 100 percent carbon free economy, it is crucial that the country deploys existing utility and grid scale technologies. Frequently, companies seeking to deploy prototype commercial scale power plants cannot secure large traditional loans. DOE’s Loan Guarantee Program must receive increased funding to provide loans for large renewable energy power plants.
Data released last year by the U.S. Energy and Information Administration (EIA), shows that the transportation sector has become the largest producer of carbon emissions as compared to other sectors of the economy. For this reason, Congress must incentivize the transition to clean energy transportation technology as it pertains to ground, air, rail, sea transportation and shipping in the most efficient, economically friendly methods possible to ensure that jobs are protected and the cost of products remains affordable.
Permitting rules that allow polluters to target poor communities for industrial facilities, chemical plants, and power plants must end immediately. Cumulative environmental impacts on human health and ecosystem impacts must be considered and remediated. Precaution for the health and safety of our children and planet should be valued above profit and must be updated. We must achieve civil rights protections to ensure full access to the courts for siting poor and minority communities to seek legal protections by working to overturn the Sandoval Supreme Court decision that set an unreasonable burden of proof of racism for claims of environmental racism, including disparate and cumulative exposure to environmental health risks must be extended.
We strongly endorse the Principles of Environmental Justice adopted at the First National People of Color Environmental Leadership Summit. The goals and outcomes of any environmental justice plan should continue to be developed under the Jemez Principles for Democratic Organizing with strong and consistent consultation with the communities most affected by the often-unequal enforcement of environmental laws. We must ensure that funding for parks and open spaces are distributed equitably in urban, suburban, and rural areas.
We must increase incentives for consumers who purchase zero emission vehicles, from single use of HOV lanes, to reduced registration fees. We must continue to support State, tribe and local campaigns that resist the current administration’s efforts to undercut the efforts of States like Hawaii, and local governments that continue to support the Paris Climate Agreement like Baltimore City, Maryland, Burlington, Vermont, and any other city or State that is working to achieve a 100 percent clean energy standard.
The United States is on the cusp of becoming a net exporter of natural gas. Any continued build-out of natural gas infrastructure and the use of eminent domain to take private land for transporting gas is not to benefit citizens of the United States. Instead it allows for massive profits for fossil fuel companies. In addition to the specific changes made by this Act, we must also explore the methods used in regenerative agriculture that provide healthier, grass-fed cows, chickens and pigs that also restore farmland to its original condition.
This is vital if we hope to expand the market of regenerative farming and work to phase out harmful, conventional practices that contaminate our water and deplete essential topsoil. Conventional, large-scale farming is the cause of widespread topsoil depletion, and is a contributor to greenhouse gas emissions. There are better alternatives and sustainable solutions in the form of regenerative agricultural practices. We should incentivize farmers who provide healthier food, sustain the land and sequester carbon dioxide and methane.
In addition, while the Food and Drug Administration
(FDA)has implemented a voluntary plan with industry to regulate the use of certain antibiotics for enhanced food production, this program must be made mandatory. The United States Government, and governments around the world openly recognize the public health concerns associated with antimicrobial-resistant bacteria. The illnesses connected to the use of drug-resistant strains of bacteria are on the rise, becoming more common, with potentially fatal consequences. It is in the best interest of the country that Congress establish permanent tax credits and start-up grants to encourage the production of Geothermal, Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion (OTEC), and Ocean Tidal energy. Falling oil prices, coal company bankruptcies and other factors are contributing to a loss of extractive industry jobs. For these reasons, it is our responsibility to ensure comprehensive and just worker protection measures that guarantee future financial security for all workers affected by these economic downturns. Just transition to a clean energy economy will create jobs by fixing the market externality and creating a free and fair market for renewables, which currently creates three times as many jobs as the fossil fuel industry. These jobs must include the ability for workers to collectively bargain, organize and otherwise enjoy facilitated access to unionization. Additionally, investment in training in the growing portfolio of trades in the renewable sector is vital. We know that green collar jobs are the present and future of industry from manufacturing and fabrication to solar installation and wind technicians which can fill the void of fossil fuel jobs which are never coming back. This transition will improve the health of the citizenry by promoting energy choice that eliminates extractive processes that threaten natural resources including water quality, air quality and needlessly shorten the lives of those threatened by the last vestiges of the fossil fuel economy. Any attempts to transition United States military equipment and infrastructure to renewable fuels must be done, without exception, with the safety and well-being of our men and women in uniform and the safety of our Nation as the primary focus. Regardless of the overall effects of this Act, it is the duty of Congress to ensure that any transition to a 100 percent clean energy economy does not adversely affect the economy of the United States. We are committed to providing the necessary financial assistance to energy produces, energy workers and energy technology creators in our combined efforts to save our planet from the adverse effects of global climate change. Without equivocation, we must not only create new jobs for workers who have lost work, but we must ensure that those new jobs are good jobs, meaning they pay a family-sustaining wage, they provide health care and retirement benefits, they are safe, and the workers who hold them have a powerful voice on the job through union organizing and the collective bargaining process, especially those in the auto and fossil fuel industries. Moreover, we must create these jobs in the same communities that are suffering. While workers are transitioning to new employment, they must receive protections to maintain family-level wages, healthcare, and pensions until they are able to start their new jobs. Further, workers need support in connecting with new jobs and the opportunity to learn new skills through vocational education programs. In addition, communities must have the infrastructure to attract new investment that provides those jobs. We have the technology to transition to 100 percent renewable energy right now, all that is missing is the political and social will.