Hearing of the House Committee on Oversight and Reform - How Obama's Green Energy Agenda is Killing Jobs - Oppositional Statement

Statement

Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

You and I both know that the Chinese are watching this hearing. They're probably what they're seeing is more partisan bickering. Now we don't know if the Chinese bicker because they make their decisions in private.

We're also seeing a false conflict between fossil fuels and renewable fuels and that suits certain partisan motivations at this time in our democracy.

I think most Americans are for the lowest cost fuel, period, including externalities.

SO far in this hearing, no one has made reference to the fact that you can barely breathe the air in Beijing, China and other major cities. You can cut it with a knife.

I'm from coal country, I love coal. I want it to work. But we've also created that coal is the unsubsidized fuel.

Mr. Chairman, you and I both know that coal has been subsidized for decades. In my area, clean coal has been subsidized for decades. I wish some of those efforts had been more productive because it's hard to clean up coal. Maybe it's still possible; I haven't given up trying.

We are blessed with vast coal reserves, but it's hard to clean up that fuel.

Global warming may be more controversial on your side. Most scientists agree that global warming is happening and may even have a man made cause. Carbon-based fuel, that is an externality.

Mr. Chairman as you pointed out in an earlier letter on behalf of a constituent, and I by no means for those efforts, it's very important that we don't create false conflicts between fuels, that we make rational decisions about the best way to go.

It's been established by the testimony here today that the Chinese vastly subsidize renewables more than we do, by 5 or 10 fold or even larger because we don't really know the Chinese numbers.

Now the Germans are subsidizing it more than we are. I would prefer that the free market work entirely on its own; that would be great.

We in Tennessee are blessed because a company called Hemlock, a private sector American company, a subsidiary of Dow Chemical Company, not a dewey-eyed idealist in this field, has located thousands of green jobs in Tennessee. I hope that Dr. Hall is counting those jobs.

Volker, the leading German producer of solar panels, has also created thousands of green jobs in Tennessee. No one is ever quite sure why they located in this state but perhaps the lack of a state income tax in Tennessee had something to it. Those states that want green jobs, maybe they could have a more efficient state government and then attract more industries.

There are some real opportunities here, Mr. Chairman, to help America have more energy choices, help us pick the lowest cost choices including the externalities. Nobody wants to live in a polluted, dirty air environment. No one wants to ruin the planet. Experimental technologies take time, and they take effort.

I don't know the stats because they're not included in this hearing, but coal may have been one of the most subsidized fuels ever if you look at the decades we've spent on subsidizing clean coal technology.

Let's do our best to try to make rational decisions for the country. Hopefully we can get back on the right path. I think that, again, one of the worst parts of hearings like this is the Chinese see us fighting. They see the partisanship and they say maybe state capitalism, their version, is working better than our version. And that should please them.

We've got to make sure that Democracy works better. More balanced hearings, I think, can help us do that.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

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