Thank you very much, good morning. Special thanks to everyone with Duke University's Nicholas Institute and with Third Way.
As we discuss China's efforts on renewable energy, my mind's eye can't help but return to a recent trade mission to China. Everywhere we traveled we could see new construction as far as the eye can see. But what we didn't see was a blue sky.
Thus is the paradox of China. On one hand, it's the country which invests $54 billion annually in clean energy. And on the other hand, it's the country which opens two coal-fire power plants each week, as the world's largest producer and consumer of coal, and the world's largest emitter of sulfur dioxide and greenhouse gas.
None of us can deny the serious competitive challenges posed by a country which creates 100,000 clean energy industry jobs every year. None of us can underestimate what it means that China builds 50% of all the world's solar panels and wind turbines. Or that Chinese companies control two thirds of the global solar photovoltaic cell production market -- a market for which America's share has decreased from 42% in 2005 to 10% in 2010.
But I'm here to tell you that all is not lost. I wanted to share a few words with you from Bill Gates. He told an audience in Seattle recently, quote: "[A] lot of the figures that are thrown around about China are sort of these bogeyman, oh-we-should-feel-bad type things. China's very important, and China can be part of the solution here, If I have a disease, and the thing that saves my life happens to come from China, I'm not going to complain. And so environmentally, if they have some environmental breakthrough that makes things cheap, that'll be great. [But] that's not the situation. [In terms of] The great innovation, the power to innovate in the sciences, including in energy, the U.S. still has a dominant position."
As Americans we rate number 1 in the world in innovation, while China ranks 26th. Our universities are the envy of the world. We have the coastline conducive to offshore wind, the climate that's right for solar, and the agricultural resources for biomass. And we are home to the most innovative and creative people on earth.
We are, what Tom Friedman calls a "high imagination enabling economy." We have the wherewithal to create more clean energy jobs and secure a greater market share than our global competitors, if we are able to find the will. This is what I want to talk with you about this morning.
The issues at hand are more Lewis and Clarke than third grade reading, more the voyage of the Mayflower, than multiplication tables. There is no recipe. This is discovery. And in any great discovery -- whether by an individual or a people -- there is a mixture of will, of action, in the sparking of the Divine on the flint of the human spirit.
Our Greatest Challenges Are Political
When countries like China are willing to invest 9% of their GDP on their infrastructure, while we spend 2%, there is only one logical conclusion: it's not what other countries are doing to us, it's what we're not doing for ourselves.
Our greatest challenges are not primarily financial nor are they technological. They are political. To move forward, we have to ask ourselves whether we still have the ability as a nation to govern ourselves well, to choose wisely, to make the tough but right decisions and investments that expand opportunity and improve our children's lives.
Or do we allow a vocal few in Congress to hold our nation's credit hostage, while preventing any real investment in renewable energy or our infrastructure or our workforce or any of the other priorities that allow us to spur innovation and make our children winners in the changing new economy?
To move forward, we must renew our national focus on creating jobs, expanding opportunity, and spurring the innovation that allows us to compete and win in a changing new economy. And to do this, we have to find the ability to balance our budgets and make strategic investments in our future -- all at the same time.
It's our hope that our experiences in Maryland can provide insights for other states, and for our country to rally around.
In this spirit, I wanted to share with you a few things we've learned in Maryland and how we believe they are relevant to our country's competitive position in the battle to create clean energy jobs by investing smarter, partnering across sectors, and leveraging our strategic assets.
Investing Smarter &Partnering Across Sectors
When I was in China, many of the government and universities leaders we met with were eager to learn about our StateStat initiative, which makes government work more effectively and efficiently so we can get more out of every dollar.
At its core, StateStat is about governing by outputs; by results. While we may not have the political capital to out-invest China in terms of inputs, I believe we can build competitive advantages by choosing to invest our dollars smarter to get better outputs.
One of the ways we are best-positioned to do this is by partnering across sectors. It's been suggested that America is perhaps the greatest "public-private partnership" in human history. As Americans we rank #1 in the world in university and industry collaboration in R&D. And if you look around our country you can see example after example of partnerships between government and industry that are creating jobs.
In Baltimore County, Maryland for example, we're partnering with General Motors to create 800 jobs building the next generation of green electric motors. GM put these jobs in Maryland, not in Mexico, and they're housing them in a solar-powered facility.
In another example, through a tax incentive initiative we call the Sustainable Communities Tax Credit, we're using the tax code to help local governments team with businesses on green buildings -- and create jobs in the process.
We are the first State to adopt the International Green Construction Code, and we've also passed reforms that require new public buildings to earn LEED Silver Certification. We've worked with the green building industry on these priorities, recognizing that they are good for jobs, good for business, and yes, good for the more sustainable energy future all of us want to give to our children.
We're also working across sectors to advance solar energy in Maryland. With a combination of new policy choices, stacked state, local, and federal credits, direct investment, and a carve out for solar energy in our renewable energy portfolio, we've been able to create a significant number of solar sales and installation jobs. We anticipate that we'll have more than 1,200 of these jobs in our State by the end of the year. In 2006, this industry barely existed in Maryland.
One of my favorite examples of new policy choices that allow us to advance solar energy are "power purchase agreements." As a State, we agree to purchase 20 years' worth of power from companies who agree, in turn, to build new renewable energy facilities. The agreements we've entered in thus far are projected to bring enough clean power onto our grid to support 20,000 homes or 16% of our state government's energy load.
Through a power purchase initiative called Project Sunburst, we're utilizing Recovery & Reinvestment dollars from the Obama Administration to attract private, solar investment into our State. Through this project, state and local governments enter into power purchase agreements for public buildings and use the federal dollars to help pay down the costs of the solar energy.
We've been able through this initiative to increase the amount of solar energy on our grid from 100 kilowatts to 20 megawatts (a 20,000% increase).
By choosing to advance solar energy in our State, we've found there is a "Field of Dreams" effect; "if you build it they will come." By demonstrating through smart, targeted investment that we're committed to solar, we've been able to recruit several new solar businesses to Maryland.
One of these new arrival companies is teaming with Home Depot so that Marylanders can now walk into a Home Depot store and lease solar panels for their homes.
In addition to solar, we have put a major priority on wind in Maryland. Part of the job-creating magic of wind is that companies tend to build the turbines close to where they install them. Therefore, when you choose to install turbines off the shore of Ocean City, it has the potential to create 2,000 manufacturing, construction, and assembly jobs each year -- on top of the 400 permanent jobs created upon completion. Over five years, that helps contribute to an estimated $1.9 billion economic impact.
We had some off-shore wind legislation that came up a little short this legislative session -- but we're going to keep fighting for it. In addition, we have on-shore projects in Western Maryland, and we are pursuing land-based wind on the Eastern Shore of Maryland.
One last example of how partnerships allow us to drive smarter policy decisions -- and that's RGGI, the regional greenhouse gas initiative. While the tea-party continues to demagogue cap-and-trade, as states we're proving that this is a policy that works. It's been estimated that for every RGGI dollar we invest, we spur $8.50 worth of private investment.
In Maryland we've been able to use RGGI investments to lower energy bills for 50,000 households, invest in energy retrofits for 3,000 low income apartments and 350 farms, train 900 Marylanders for green energy jobs, and reduce 3,500 cars worth of carbon emissions.
Once again, the main obstacle here is political. Despite the $700 million raised through RGGI over the past three years, Governor Chris Christie of New Jersey chose to walk away from it and to divert $65 million toward other priorities.
Leveraging our Assets
One more point before I close: we have in this country all the assets we need to dominate the clean energy market . Greatest among these assets are the talents, skills, creativity, and education of the American people.
At present, the trends are not encouraging. Thirty years ago, when I graduated high school, we ranked #1 in the world in high school graduation. Today we're 11th. Likewise, thirty years ago we were #1 in college completion. Today we're #12, what's more, our students regularly fall beyond their counterparts in other countries in the all-important subjects of science, technology, engineering and math.
To win the battle for our clean energy future, we have to win the battle for our classrooms. That's why in Maryland, even as we've chosen to cut $6.8 billion in state spending, we've made the largest investments in our State's history in public education. That's allowed us to build what Education Week magazine says are America's #1 best public schools.
What's more, we are the only state in America which chose to freeze in-state tuition at our state universities for four years in a row.
Conclusion
I leave you with the words of President Obama from his State of the Union: "for all the hits we've taken these last few years, America still has the largest, most prosperous economy in the world. No workers are more productive than ours. No country has more successful companies, or grants more patents to inventors and entrepreneurs. We're the home to the world's best colleges and universities, where more students come to study than any place on Earth."
Our greatest challenge is not financial or technological, it's political. In this battle of our economic future, victory is a choice. Do we invest to create jobs through innovation? Or do we allow politics to drag us behind?