Domenici Statement Given At Today's EIA Climate Change Hearing
January 24, 2007
01:05 PM
I want to add my thanks to our witnesses for taking time out of their busy schedules to participate in our hearing today.
In his State of the Union address last night, the President laid out an ambitious, but worthy, goal to reduce our consumption of gasoline by 20 percent in 10 years. I applaud the President’s leadership in emphasizing the importance of alternative fuels and vehicle fuel efficiency. These efforts will enhance our national energy security, as well as decrease emissions of greenhouse gases.
However, I was disappointed that the President gave little attention to the tremendous promise nuclear energy holds for this nation. Expanding our use of nuclear power is the single most significant thing we can do to confront climate change.
In the last Congress, Senator Bingaman and I started a bipartisan discussion in this Committee to consider the climate change issue, and I am pleased that we are continuing the discussion in the 110th Congress.
Senator Bingaman and I released a white paper on climate change which laid out the key questions and design challenges for a mandatory program for limiting greenhouse gas emissions. At our Climate Conference last April, we received more than 150 submissions containing more than 500 individual documents.
We have had a very productive discussion on climate, and we have learned a lot so far. I am aware that many in the scientific community are warning us that something needs to be done. We still have a lot of questions before us, though.
With this hearing we are continuing a search for answers that are meaningful, economically feasible and that will produce real reductions in greenhouse gas emissions.
It is clear to me that developing a system of mandatory controls on carbon emissions could be a daunting task. Controls must be effective – they must produce significant emission reductions to be meaningful. The cost of such controls should have the least possible overall negative effect on our economy and any burdens must be as equitable as they can possibly be. And we must be sure that we do not impose costs on our industry that will drive them to relocate in countries such as India and China that do not have similar controls on carbon.
I believe an essential part of any response to climate change is to double – maybe triple – our commitment to developing new energy technologies. Research and development funding, both public and private, is vital to addressing many of our nation’s energy challenges, and the climate change issue is no exception.
