Bingaman on R&D Priorities for Meeting Climate Challenges
January 21, 2010
11:19 AM
“Today’s hearing will examine the role of research and development in meeting the medium and long-term goals associated with climate change.
“The discovery of new science and the invention of new technologies is the major engine of economic growth in our time. Yet, our investments in new energy technologies, and the science underlying them, have been surprisingly deficient over the last 20 years. We can measure this deficiency in a couple of ways. One traditional way of looking at R&D investments in a given industrial sector is to compare them to the overall sales of products in that sector. Using this measure, our national R&D investments in medicine and biotechnology, as a percentage of sales, are about 40 times greater than our research and development investments in energy. Another way to see the deficiency in energy-related R&D is to look at Federal expenditures.
“The need for an adequate funding policy for energy science and technology is a very important topic, and I would like to thank Secretary Chu for appearing before the Committee today to focus on it. The disparity between the importance of this funding and what we actually have been investing is highlighted by the issue of climate change.
“Various legislative proposals before the Congress require domestic greenhouse gas emission reductions of up to 20 percent below 2005 levels in 2020, and 83 percent below 2005 levels in 2050. In his Fiscal Year 2010 budget blueprint, and during the 2008 Presidential campaign, President Obama addressed the need to stimulate new technology across a variety of sectors by proposing that $15 billion annually, for each of the next 10 years, be devoted to research and development to meet these reduction targets.
“President Obama’s belief that we need a strong technology development effort over the long haul matches up with a recent report from the National Academy of Sciences and the National Academy of Engineering, entitled “America’s Energy Future.” The National Academies concluded that meeting long-term goals to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions will require a transformation of the way we produce, transmit and consume energy. They found that the needed transformation will only come about through sustained research and funding.
“The need for a whole suite of new energy technologies is also being taken very seriously by our international economic competitors, such as Japan – a coordinated effort between government and industry to develop a global lead in export of energy technologies that minimize carbon dioxide emissions. The Japanese see these technologies as being essential to their future economic well-being and job creation.
“With all this as background, it is troubling that current legislative proposals before Congress to address climate change give relatively low emphasis to providing funding for the needed science and technology. And the purpose of the hearing today is to highlight the importance of these innovations.
“In that regard, I am pleased to have Secretary Chu, who has both technical and policy expertise on these important issues, here this morning. I am looking forward to having him discuss how he envisions the research and innovation effort that is needed over the long-term to meet the challenges associated with climate change.”
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