06.19.01

Senator Cantwell Calls for Increased Energy Efficiency

Sustainable Energy Sources and Technological Innovation Vital to Energy Policy

SEATTLE--Senator Maria Cantwell (D-Wash) today called for development of a "21st Century energy policy" in remarks she submitted to a public hearing on the Department of Energy's (DOE) Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE). In her statement, she called upon the Bush Administration to fully fund the EERE, citing its mission to find efficient means of energy production and distribution. Cantwell also noted the need to employ technological innovation to provide new sustainable energy sources.

Senator Cantwell's statement (as prepared):

"Thank you for the opportunity to submit testimony at this public review of the Department of Energy's Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy.

"With the ongoing West Coast energy crisis, holding this meeting in Seattle is an especially poignant reminder of how critical an affordable and reliable energy system is to our economy and prosperous way of life. I believe that continued investment in the research, development, and deployment of energy efficiency and renewable energy technologies is the most effective way we can maintain our nation's energy security, ensure the health of our citizens, protect our environment, and maintain our economic well-being well into the future.

"There is little doubt that federal funding of EERE programs has catalyzed the technological and institutional innovation necessary to maintain and continually improve America's unique standard of living. A recent DOE study, independently verified by the Government Accounting Office, showed that federal investments of $712 million in 20 EERE activities saved American consumers approximately 5,500 trillion Btu of energy, valued at over $30 billion dollars. And those savings do not even account for the invaluable health, environmental, and national security benefits produced by avoiding contemporary methods of energy consumption.

"These successes confirm our ability to move beyond just restoring the Bush Administration's misguided funding cuts to EERE programs. As we now craft an energy policy for the 21st century, we should begin to retire our century-old reliance on extraction and combustion of fossil fuels, and use technological innovation to provide Americans with more reliable, more competitive, and more sustainable energy choices. Many of the technologies needed for this paradigm shift --bioenergy fuels, high temperature superconducting wires, hydrogen powered fuel cells, distributed energy technologies, more cost-effective renewables, and a host of energy efficient technologies that make our homes, vehicles, industries, and government more energy productive-- are precisely those being researched, developed, and deployed by EERE and their private-sector partners.

"That is why I continue to strongly support EERE's efforts to develop technologies, efficiency standards, and deployment incentives that are so critical to implementing a 21st century energy policy that our children and grandchildren deserve."