Pacific Marine Energy Center

Floor Speech

Mr. SCHRADER. Mr. Speaker, I'm here today to share with my colleagues yesterday's very exciting announcement of the first utility-scale, grid-connected wave energy test site in the United States, which I'm proud to say is going to occur in my district in Newport, Oregon.

The Northwest National Marine Energy Center, based at Oregon State University, will be constructing the Pacific Marine Energy Center to test energy generation potential and environmental impacts of these wave energy devices.

NNMREC, established in 2008, is a partnership between Oregon State University and the University of Washington and is one of only three U.S. Department of Energy-supported marine renewable energy centers. In addition to the Department of Energy, this work is supported by my State of Oregon, the Wave Energy Trust, and other private and public agencies.

NNMREC's selection of Newport as the site will not only benefit the community of Newport but, frankly, the entire Oregon coast and will set a course for Oregon and the Nation to be one step closer to energy independence.

I am also very proud of Oregon State University and their continued leadership in this area. I would be very remiss if I didn't give a shout out to the incredible work done by Belinda Batten, director of NNMREC, and Annette von Jouanne, professor at Oregon State University, and all the faculty and students in the Wave Energy Department at OSU. Their tireless efforts are the reason we're able to celebrate this achievement today.

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