Senator Coons discusses sustainable chemistry during keynote remarks at ACS Conference
"Thank you Joe. Thank you for the introductions and for your great leadership in making sure that this green chemistry conference has come off well and strongly. As you've heard in the introduction by David Constable, Dr. Richard Wool, who is known to many of you as well, I assume, left us too soon and unexpectedly. And I wanted to start by congratulating the five winners of the president's green chemistry awards given earlier today. And just note that Dr. Wool was also a winner of the Presidential Green Chemistry Award in 2013, named by the EPA in 2013 for his work to develop bio-based materials, and earlier this year he was named a fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry.
"Dr. Wool brought passion and creativity and drive to his work. His daughter once explained to a number of us how he never really stopped thinking about chemistry and engineering and sustainability. He would pick up something, a feather or a seashell, and ponder for hours at how we could turn it into something else -- something sustainable, and something productive. We will truly miss Dr. Wool in Delaware, and I know you will, as well. So we continue with this conference, and continue our work together in the weeks and months ahead conscience that we follow in Richard's giant footsteps. And I want to thank one organization that's done an extraordinary job to carry the mantle of green chemistry, not just for today's scientists, but the students who will be tomorrow's scientists, as well: The ACS and its Green Chemistry Institute. So to Richard, thank you for your leadership to the Institute. And to Carl Maxwell, thank you for your partnership. And to everyone here today, thanks for what you do to move our country forward.
"I heard a start of some applause for Dr. Richard Wool's legacy. Let's give Richard Wool a strong round of applause for all that he is done [applause]. As you heard in the introduction, I come from a background in science. Although common and uniform across this room is a passion for, training in, and strength in hard science that is really quite unusual in the United States Senate. There are fewer than five of us of the 100 of us at the moment who have any real training in hard sciences. And as of now I'm the sole chemist, although there is a chemical engineer who is beginning to hone in on my chemistry caucus. I really enjoyed my time as the president, secretary, treasurer, and sole member of the Senate chemist caucus. But he's a chemical engineer so he's thinking of moving into the engineers' caucus, and we're fighting over the boundaries,jurisdiction, and so forth.
"I come from a family of inventors and entrepreneurs, chemical engineering PhDs and folks who spent much of their life around it. And I grew up in a neighborhood where twelve out of fourteen heads-of-household were DuPont PhD chemical engineers and patent holders. So my passion for innovation and for science has continued into my service in the United States Senate. And I focused a lot on chemistry and on the federal role in scientific research in no small part because I believe that when humanity faces great challenges, America's role so much in the past, and hopefully in the future, has been and will be to innovate, to tackle these great challenges with solutions, and that those solutions come out of the skills and the resources that chemistry makes possible. And that then redefines what's possible.
"We face huge challenges globally, where chemistry is and will be at the forefront of allowing us to meet those challenges. As populations soar, and as technology and trade bring us ever closer together globally, we face a world with scarcer resources and a more interdependent world than ever before. It is America's scientists and innovators who I believe are poised to move us forward.
"There's a couple of things I believe we must do together if our country is going to take advantage of this opportunity, if we are going to keep up with our competitors who already see this opportunity, and if we are going to sustain some of our global leadership role in science and innovation. So I'd like to talk today specifically about sustainable chemistry, and its role in America continuing to be one of the leaders in competitiveness and sustainability in the world.
"We face the core challenge of sustaining our high standard of living in a more sustainable, a more healthy, more durable way. And doing so will require new innovations and new investments that focus principally on sustainability. The implications are global, not just national. Sustainable chemistry can solve some of the world's most pressing problems, from how to produce more reliably clean drinking water to new renewable energy technologies.
"Over the last few years my policy team and I have tried to figure out what we could do to move forward the disparate and somewhat disjointed federal efforts in this field, and concluded that legislation was badly needed to spur research and development and commercialization. What we've produced is a bipartisan bill that my staff and I partnered closely with ACS and others to produce, and I'm proud of it. I think it's advancing the discussion in the field.
"What we've seen is that although there is great work being done in academia and in industry and in some federal labs, something that your presence today attests to, we can and must do a better job as a country of building closer ties between the classroom, the laboratory, and the marketplace. And while the federal government does currently have several programs dedicated to sustainable chemistry, they really lack a coherent vision of how best to serve the industry and how to encourage innovation. There's relatively little connective tissue, and there isn't an identifiable national strategy. So that's why the bill I've introduced again in this Congress I believe is so important. It does three core things.
"First, it creates us a cohesive and strategic vision for federal support for sustainable chemistry across many different areas of activity. Second, it authorizes an interagency program that combines competitive grants for research, partnerships between industry and academia, collaboration with federal labs, and commercialization of sustainable products and processes, as well as expanding education in sustainable chemistry. Third and last, it creates an interagency working group and advisory council made up of experts from the private sector.
"Overall, it's about trying to be more thoughtful with the federal investments we make, and to bring together the best minds from every sector to focus on the challenge to ensure that we've built the platform for strengthened and sustained federal investment and partnership with the private sector and academia in the future.
"I'm pleased a portion of this bill is already included in the underlying TSCA bill that is already moving through the Senate, which you may know as the Udall-Vitter TSCA bill, and I'm going to continue working with my colleagues to ensure that the entire bill is included in what is ultimately adopted. I believe there is, today, a historic opportunity for larger TSCA reform, and part of the solution has to be to continue the federal investment in sustainable chemistry innovation.
"So, briefly and in conclusion, you more than anyone, the very community that has given birth to and sustained the sustainable chemistry movement -- professors, engineers, industry executives, students -- understand the power, the scope and reach and range of sustainable chemistry. And I hope you will help educate and engage my colleagues, many of whom just don't appreciate what you're doing, and why it's powerful, and what its compounding consequences can be for our country and the world.
"Thank you for what you're doing. Thank you for letting me be a part of this conference, albeit briefly, and I really am excited to continue to work together as long as the people of Delaware will tolerate my service in the United States Senate. I am excited to continue partnering with you to catalyze real and lasting change in how we teach, how we innovate, and how we deploy the skills and resources of sustainable chemistry for a world that badly needs the solutions. Thank you, I hope you have a great conference, and I look forward to racing back to the Capitol."
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