he introduced chu and then chu was followed by carol browner. as you may know she was the impression person for clinton, and then was followed by think it was lisa jackson, one of the-- governor schwartzenegger's people in this. ewind theroux the resumes and it was beautiful. he announced his policies that this a demonstration is going to go along with science and when he hesitated with that word science, there was an application no one had heard of it but that he was going to go along with science and then said that we wanted to have energy independence. we were worried about the environment, the research and the globals the. and then chu came up and he too mention science many times and hesitating. the words came out, hit the table and crawled towards you. let me if i can go little bit on the energy policy. one of the goals of this adminstration is energy independence and of course i am an old german. i am an economist. i worry about how things get put together, the capitol resources and how people get them so in comes-- i am braded bachman da

another fact, on march 17, 2009, energy secretary steven chu testifying before the science committee said, quote, the cap and trade bill will likely increase the cost of electricity. end of quote. another fact i'd like to bring up today, energy secretary steven ch usaid that advocating -- chu said that advocating effective trade duties as a weapon to protect u.s. manufacturing is otherwise again u.s. manufacturing would be put at a huge disadvantage. he said establishing a carbon tariff would help, quote, level the playing field if other countries have an imposed mandatory redestructions in carbon emissions. again, referring to the fact that it would put our industry at a huge disadvantage. mr. chu said, quote, if other countries don't impose a cost on carbon, then we will be at a disadvantage. and he went on to say and we would look at considering duties to offset that cost, but the legislation doesn't have those in the bill. again, what we are looking at then is the united states to impose a self-inflicted wound, to put our industry and our country, our country at a huge disadvanta

secretary chu has already started to look at our light bulbs and replace them. if we want to make our economy run more efficiently, we also have to make our homes and businesses run more efficiently. that is it why we are also speeding up a $346 million investment under the recovery act to expand the accelerate the development, deployment and use of energy efficient technologies in residential and commercial buildings, which consume almost 40% of the energy we use and crints to almost 40% of the carbon pollution we produce. we are talking about technologies that are available right now, or will soon be available, from lighting to windows, heating to cooling, smart sensors and controls. by adopting these technologies in our homes and businesses, we can make our buildings up to 80% more energy efficient. or with additions like solar panels on the roof, or geothermal power underground, turn them into buildings that produce as much energy as they consume. it may seem forefetched, but the idea is we are not lacking for ideas or innovation. all we lack is the politics

and that's why i've asked secretary chu to lead a new effort at the department of energy focusing on implementing more aggressive efficiency standards for common household appliances like refrigerators and ovens which will spark innovation, save consumers money, and reduce energy demand. so today we are announcing additional action to promote energy efficiency across america. actions that will create jobs in the short run and save money and reduce dangerous emissions in the long run. the first step we are taking sets new efficiency standards on fluorescent and incandescent lighting. and i know lightbulbs may not seem sexy, but this simple action holds enormous promise because 7% of all the energy consumed in america is used to light our homes and businesses between 2012 and 2042 these standards will save consumers to $4 billion a year, a concerted of electricity to power every home in america for ten months. reduce emissions equal to the amount produced by 166 million cars each year and eliminate the need for as many as 14 coal-fired power plants. and by the way, we are going to star

that is something that secretary chu is working on every single day. we know the benefits. in the late 1970's, the state of california enacted tougher energy efficiency policies. over the next three decades, those policies helped to create almost 1.5 million jobs. today, californians consume 40% less energy per person than the national average. over time, this has prevented the need to build at least 24 new power plants. think about that. california, their economy keeping pace with the rest of the country, and yet they have been able to maintain their energy usage at a much lower level than the rest of their country. that is why we took steps in a recovery act to invest in energy efficiency measures, modernizing federal building, helping american families make upgrades to their homes, steps that will create jobs that will save consumers money. i have asked the secretary to lead a new effort at the brennan of energy, focusing on implementing more aggressive efficiency standards for household appliances like refrigerators and ovens, which will spark innovation, mike consumers

it is encouraging that secretary chu says something the other day about moving ahead and asking for four new nuclear power plants. i will be interested in what the panelists have to say about that. that is just the beginning. one of the purposes of our hearing is to remind the american people that if we want pollution-free, carbon-free electricity, we know how to do that. 70% of our pollution-free, carbon-free electricity is produced by nuclear power. only 6% of our pollution-free, carbon-free electricity is produced by the sun, wind, and earth. from really want to deal with clean air and do it -- if you really want to deal with clean- air into with in a way that provides a low-cost, reliable electricity, nuclear power is the proven way to do it. france produces 86% of their energy that would. we are helping india, china produced clean electricity that way. the president himself has said that iran has a right to make electricity from nuclear plants, so why should we not, and united states, pickup this technology that we ourselves invented? the only thing i would like to say is that i att

it is not fair for the critics to call her a racist and equate her with the head of the chu klux klan -- klu klux klan. she can't speak to it until she is in the hearing. in 2005, when president bush made his first nomination to the supreme court, senator mcconnell, the majority whip, observed that the senate should consider and confirm the nominations within 60 to 70 days. we worked hard to achieve that. the nomination of judge sotomayor should more easily be considered within that time frame. we were still able to complete the senate consideration, and the senate confirmed john roberts as chief justice of the united states 72 days after he was initially designated to be the associate justice. we did this despite the fact that the initial nomination was withdrawn and only shortly before his hearing he was renominated to serve as the chief justice of the united states, and we did this despite the terrible aftermath of hurricane katrina, where everybody, republicans and democrats alike, agreed that we should hold back a week on the hearings so that we could all concentrate the nation's

secretary chu is a nobel laureate. secondly, what we are trying to do is bring together all of the stakeholders. the biotech companies, the university's, disease groups, and organizations like this to get behind an agenda. that would really move scientific research, in part to gillette medical innovation to the top of the agenda. we have more money in transitional research to take more of the scientific discoveries to bedside. we have not scratch the surface. we are living in the dark ages with regard to these maladies. finally, we need to get kids. more interested in science and medicine and research. it needs to be cool to be a doctor. >> i thought it was cool. [laughter] >> maybe not as cool as being a football player. we really need to raise falafel of understanding. i told sanjay gupta something, he had a chance to meet the surgeon general, made the decision to stay at cnn, he made the right decision. he made the right decision for the country. raising public knowledge of science and research is critical to making

members of the president's cabinets, which includes three asian americans and an energy secretary steven chu, gary locke, and veterans' affairs secretary eric shinseki. in closing, let us take a moment to recognize the contributions of the asian and pacific american community and celebrate such a rich cultural heritage by supporting house resolution 435. i continue to reserve the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman reserves e balance of his time. the chair recognizes the gentleman from utah. mr. chaffetz: madam speaker, i yield myself such time as i may consume. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized. mr. chaffetz: madam speaker, i rise today in support of this important resolution recognizing asian pacific american heritage month. asian pacific american islanders play an important fabric of the life since the first japanese americans arrived on may 7, 1845. asian americans worked as coal miners and laborers. it's estimated that 14 million americans, if not more, can trace their ethnic heritage to asia or the pacific islands. establishing may as asian pac

i would ask unanimous consent, yesterday, energy secretary chu said all new cars should have flex fuel capacity in this country. without objection, i'd like to enter into into the -- from "the "des moines register"." the speaker pro tempore: without objection. mr. engel: flex fuel vehicles would only cost $90 or $100 per car and would be very important in moving us in that direction. could i have an additional minute? mr. waxman: i yield the gentleman for another minute. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized for a minute. mr. engel: g.m. and ford each committed to making 50% of their cars flex fuel vehicles by 2012. they're reneging now and i believe we should have strong language to move them back to their original position. i really believe that flex fuel cars are really the way to go. but we have a bill before us and the bill is much, much more positive than anything else. it's a big step in the right direction and i think that our colleagues who are on the fence, as i pointed out, the bill doesn't give everything to everybody and doesn't do nearly what i would like t

let's get the record straight: i've talked with many experts and policy people including secretary chu and n.r.c. chairman kline and they all assure me -- this is important everyone understands that -- that the current spent nuclear that's being stored today in dry casks and pools are safe, are safe, and are secure for at least 100 years. that's very important because folks are saying, well, you can't go forward with this because we don't know what to do with the waste. well, we would like to do something more permanent than what we're doing but the fact of the matter is that with the dry casks that we have we're in good shape for at least 100 years. so the lack of a repository at yucca should not be something that would inhibit us from licensing new reactors. that being said, we must pursue a long-term solution now. if yucca is not going to materialize, we owe the american people a viable alternative. the 1982 nuclear waste policy act established a nuclear waste fund, a fee paid by utilities to create a fund to deal with nuclear waste and since its beginning it has collected $29 milli