M. Speaker, House Resolution 745 provides for a structured rule for consideration of H.R. 3246, the Advanced Vehicle Technology Act of 2009. The rule makes in order all three of the Republican amendments submitted to the Rules Committee for consideration of this bipartisan bill.
The Advanced Vehicle Technology Act of 2009 is an important part of this Congress’s commitment to clean energy, job creation, and reducing our country’s dependence on foreign oil. It recognizes what many of us know to be true.
We need a significant boost in research and development of innovative vehicle technologies in order to become energy-independent, to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions that threaten our planet, and to ensure that the American auto industry remains viable.
To that end, H.R. 3246 authorizes $2.85 billion over the next five years to strengthen and support advanced vehicle technology research at the Department of Energy.
While through other measures we have laid a foundation to increase the accessibility of public transportation, and even in this bill we will invest in increasing the energy efficiency and reducing the costs of producing and operating these vehicles, in many parts of this country it is still necessary that the primary mode of transit is the automobile.
The expanse of rural America simply requires personal vehicles for work and pleasure. The good news is that in this bill we will be able to capitalize on a movement that already exists.
One need only look to the Biodiesel Co-Ops of Iowa where folks can buy clean, domestically produced fuel at cost frequently lower that the petroleum option or companies such as Rocky Mountain Sustainable Enterprises—founded and based in Boulder in my home district. This company recycles waste vegetable oil, oil that would otherwise find its way to a landfill, but instead has been used to power agricultural equipment.
I am proud to say this company will be opening a new facility in Ft. Morgan, Colorado, in the district of my Colleague Representative Betsy Markey. This facility will enable this firm to produce enough fuel to continue providing to their agricultural clients while expanding to mass transit and passenger vehicle premium biodiesel.
All across the country the nascent biofuels industry is gearing up to provide the clean domestic fuel of America’s future while providing good paying jobs today. We must help keep these companies growing and we can do this by ensuring that vehicles made right here in America are prepared to use our domestic fuel.
America has had a long love affair with the automobile and as vehicles are continually becoming more efficient, more comfortable, and easier to own, this by right should continue. Through this legislation we will make the investments required to ensure that the great tradition of the family summer roadtrip is available to future generations
M. Speaker, our domestic auto industry has had difficulties. And I speak of not only the big 3 Detroit automakers so iconic of the industry, but also of all the companies, such as Delphi, that create components for vehicles. It is these smaller companies that have produced significant innovation.
However, due to the economic crisis and rising operational costs including health care for their employees, many of these companies have had to slow or shutter their research and development in order to afford to keep the assembly line running. In order to navigate out of this recession back to manufacturing leadership, we must have the compass of innovation.
The bill before us today ensures that the best technologies from electric drivetrains to clean diesel are made available, and that the vehicles driven in the United States are the cleanest most efficient in the world. Further, the technologies that are sponsored through this competitive process will reduce our dependence on foreign oil while increasing demand for domestically produced renewable energy. This bill is as good for the air in urban America as it is for the economy of rural America.
The question now is how do we create and perfect the non-petroleum technologies that the market wants? The Advanced Vehicle Technology Act is part of the answer.
By jump-starting vehicle technology research, this bill puts American ingenuity to work cleaning up our transportation sector, which currently accounts for about a third of our global warming emissions. Electrifying vehicle systems, increasing engine durability, and developing waste-heat recovery systems are just a few of the many innovative technologies that this bill will support.
At the same time, we know we need to take action today to fight global warming, lessen our petroleum dependence, and create jobs here in America. For that reason, the legislation before us emphasizes public-private partnerships that will help create jobs in private industry—not just in government offices.
There is a reason why this bill is supported by the Ford Motor Company, Delphi, Caterpillar, General Motors, EcoMotors, the United Auto Workers, and the National Association of Manufacturers. H.R. 3246 means good jobs today developing and building the vehicle technologies of the future.
When we can create jobs and cut our petroleum dependence at the same time, it is clear that we are making good policy, M. Speaker.
By this measure, the Advanced Vehicle Technology Act is the clearest and most straightforward kind of good policy. With this in mind, I urge my colleagues to support this very fair rule and the underlying legislation.
I reserve the balance of my time.
