Mr. BLUMENAUER. Mr. Speaker, in every great problem there is a great [Page: H5456] opportunity. We are now facing the most severe economic crisis in a generation. At the same time, the scientists are telling us clearly that our inaction dealing with carbon pollution is threatening the planet that is our only home. Fortunately, the same actions that will fix the economy will also help save the planet. In an economic downturn, we want to put people to work and help them manage costs. Energy efficiency does both and reduces carbon emissions at the same time.
The United States finally shook off the great economic depression of the thirties by mobilizing the economy to fight World War II. We can fight off this recession, deep as it is, by mobilizing our fight against global warming.
Mr. Speaker, President Obama, from the rostrum before you, laid out an ambitious agenda in his first speech to the Members of Congress, recognizing that as Americans we can do great things when we come together to work for the common good, as we did dealing with the challenges of World War II and the Great Depression.
The President has presented us with a clean energy jobs plan, a plan that will create new jobs that can't be shipped overseas, a proposal that will protect existing jobs while it reduces our dependence on foreign oil. It will avoid tax increases on working families as we all work to reduce carbon pollution. This plan starts by regulating carbon polluters and making them pay for the pollution that they've been allowed to spew out for free into the sky, damaging the atmosphere and threatening the water and land without regard to the cost to the rest of us.
Then the President's plan will create new jobs through research and development and deployment of new clean energy technologies such as wind, solar and biomass. It is exciting to see in the President's economic recovery package that we have already taken decisive action, investing billions of dollars across America to do something about it.
His plan further provides the support and the incentives needed to help the American spirit of innovation and creativity to build the new clean technologies of the future. Just as we led the world in developing the automobile and the computer, we can, and if we follow the plans that have been set forth that have been articulated by President Obama and the Democratic leadership, we will be able to lead the world in developing the new cheaper, cleaner energy technologies that will power this century in America and around the world.
These new technologies are already resulting in clean energy jobs that are forming the basis of our new economic security. Change is difficult under the best of circumstances, but I think there is growing recognition at this point that we have no choice. But we want to be thinking about the future, not planning the economy through the rear-view mirror.
The proposals that we are working on will provide all Americans with clean energy tax credits so that they will have money to buy clean energy technologies so that they personally can join in America's clean energy future. This will allow them to be stewards of the family budget while we are all stewards of the planet. In this way, the actions of millions of Americans to reduce their energy bills and to protect the planet will create even more jobs and lead to that prosperity that is so important to us all.
There are any number of examples, Mr. Speaker, about how what we have already done in energy efficiency has made a difference. Researchers at the University of California calculate that the gas and electric energy efficiency measures for the past 30 years in California have saved the residents of that State $56 billion while producing 1.5 million new jobs.
They have projected that the savings in jobs for meeting California's new carbon cap-and-trade law, and by projecting it forward just to the year 2020, that Californians will save an additional $76 billion in energy costs just at current rates. And I heard my good friend from South Carolina on the floor just a few minutes ago predicting that energy costs are going to be going up. I personally agree with him, I think he is right. But even at current rates, Californians would save $76 billion and create an additional 400,000 new net jobs.
I'm from the Pacific Northwest, where we've been working very hard on energy efficiency over the course of almost 30 years. My hometown of Portland, Oregon, was the first city in the United States with a comprehensive energy policy that has made a difference for us in terms of saving money on energy, while we've created new economic opportunities and have reduced our carbon footprint.
In the Pacific Northwest, our Power Planning Council has estimated the work that we've done just in the Northwest alone between 1980 and 2000, where we invested almost $2.5 billion in energy efficiency, our region earned that total investment back about once every 18 months. This is a rate of return of about 67 percent, annual rate of return on investment. An extraordinary record when we think about how our 401(k)s are turning into 301(k)s and 201(k)s. Watch the gyrations in the stock market and uncertainty in housing prices. Looking at what has happened with a very solid year-in, year-out rate of return on energy efficiency is truly encouraging and inspirational.
Mr. Speaker, the time to act is now. We have heard the warnings from the vast majority of scientists developing a consensus about the threats to the planet. We are already feeling the effects of changing climate as we watch large quantities of polar ice disappear, as we watch snowpacks rise, when we watch the shift of patterns of migration of birds, where the permafrost in Alaska is no longer perma, and the roads are buckling and coastal villages washing away.
The realities of climate change effects are being visited upon Americans across this country in all 50 States, and they are gathering momentum in terms of a sense of urgency and public awareness. We are watching groups in the evangelical arena, scientific arena, civic organizations, American business, labor, environmental organizations coming together to be part of this consensus. Leadership is being exhibited on college campuses and at synagogues across the country. Over 900 cities have made the decision that they weren't going to wait for the Bush administration; they were starting ahead with their own efforts to reduce pollution from carbon.
Well, we ignored the warnings of experts, for example, with the risks in the financial sector and, sadly, we've seen the consequences. We have learned the dangers and added costs of trying to move after the fact, after a disaster or after some sort of natural catastrophe occurs. It is very expensive cleaning up after Katrina, after flooding, after wildfires, as opposed to taking action to try and prevent it.
We, once again, need to act as good stewards of the Earth, protecting our children and grandchildren. We must remember that there will be great costs associated with dealing with impacts once they have occurred. Mr. Speaker, Mother Nature doesn't do bailouts.
We need to focus on the big picture. The economy is the task at hand. The next step to create millions of American jobs in renewable energy, energy efficiency, and modernization of a smart electric grid is going to make a difference now. Clean energy can provide an engine to drive the Nation out of a recession and sustain our economy for years to come.
It is time for us to step forward, investing seriously in energy innovation. We invest about one-tenth of 1 percent of our annual energy bill in research. It is absolutely ludicrous to have an area that is so central to our economy and our way of life, where we see costs escalating around the globe, and that we have neglected to invest in ways to drive technological innovation. Luckily, as part of the economic recovery package and legislation that is working its way through the House and the Senate, we will be addressing this issue of greater investment in innovation.
I see I have been joined by my colleague from the great State of Washington, Congressman Inslee, who has focused a great deal of time and attention on this question of innovation as it relates to energy. He has sponsored legislation in this regard. He has been a champion in speaking out in forums large and small around the country and is hard at work now on the Commerce Committee in the formulation of legislation that will codify these opportunities and bring them to fruition. [Page: H5457]
I am pleased to yield to my friend if he would care to share some of his thoughts in this area.
