I believe we can build a new, clean energy economy to jumpstart our economy, protect our environment and break our addiction to imported oil and environmentally harmful fossil fuels.

America must lead the way toward a global clean energy future, yet, today the race to claim the new clean energy economy is on and the United States is falling behind. We need to ratchet up our effort and focus our country’s ingenuity, hard-work, and resources on developing new industrial opportunities and training the workforce of the future.

As a member of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, I have been a champion of clean energy legislation, including helping shape the comprehensive energy package known as the American Clean Energy and Security (ACES) Act, which passed the House and will create millions of new jobs. I am also the founder and co-chair of the Sustainable Energy and Environment Coalition (SEEC), a caucus of 55 members dedicated to the creation of American jobs, the fight for energy independence, and the reversal of the environmental degradations that threaten our children’s and our planet’s future.

Legislative Update

House passed comprehensive clean energy legislation
I helped author the American Clean Energy and Security (ACES) Act, which will create jobs, help end our dangerous dependence on foreign oil, and combat global warming. We are closer than ever to enacting a historic initiative that will put the clean economy into high gear by recognizing the cost of industrial emissions that are contributing to the disastrous effects of global climate change. The ball is now in the Senate’s court. It’s time for the Senate to pass comprehensive energy legislation. Some of the key provisions that I authored in ACES include:

Creation of a Clean Energy Bank that will give breakthrough clean energy technologies the financing they need to get to commercial-scale deployment. The bank will create new American innovations and the jobs that will bring consumers new energy options and accelerate the clean energy revolution. This will help Washington's business and technology innovators, including developers exploring promising algae-based biofuels, enhanced geothermal and renewable ocean energy technologies.

“Inslee-Doyle” amendment to protect jobs in Washington state industries, providing rebates to local energy-intensive and trade-intensive industries, such as producers of aluminum, steel, and pulp and paper products. This innovative policy, developed in partnership with Rep. Mike Doyle, of Pittsburg, PA, is critical to effectively preserving industrial competitiveness and protecting the environment under the legislation.

Provisions to speed construction of high-priority, high-voltage transmission power lines by allowing the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to site interstate transmission lines that are needed to access remotely located renewable energy resources in the American West.

$20 million for a national wood stove change-out program to help Washington state families who heat their homes with wood-burning stoves to upgrade to cleaner models. This program will cut emissions, improve public health and save money for families in rural areas.

Direct $1.5 billion per year for clean energy research, development, and deployment to ensure American competitiveness in the production of the energy technologies of the twenty-first century.

Loan and grants for transmission technology, enables Washington state’s superconductor industry to qualify for loan guarantees to make high-efficiency, underground transmission lines more cost-effective.

Historical investments and incentives for made-in-America clean energy
I worked with the Sustainable Energy and Environment Coalition and House leaders to pass robust support for the American clean energy industries as part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. According to the Vice President’s December 2009 “Progress Report: The Transformation to a Clean Energy Economy,” this legislation will assist the United States in the creation of more than 800,000 clean energy jobs, and will double American renewable energy manufacturing and generation capacities, by the year 2012.

Created the Clean Energy Corps
I authored the Clean Energy Corps program, which was signed into law by President Obama last year in the Edward Kennedy Serve America Act. This new program will help youths up to age 25 get green jobs training through 2 year positions with the AmeriCorps Program.

Authored net metering bill
I introduced the Americans Making Power (AMP) Act, which would establish a national standard for “net metering”. Setting national net metering standards will simplify consumer interconnection to the electric grid, which, over time, will bring down costs to consumers, increase private investment in renewable and alternative energy sources, and continue to diversify energy resources in the U.S., all critical pieces for American energy independence.

Authored feed-in tariff bill
I introduced the Renewable Energy Jobs and Security Act. This legislation would set national rates-per-kilowatt hour standards for renewable energy production. National feed-in tariff rates would put small businesses, homeowners, schools, farms, churches, any entity that generates electric energy on equal footing with large commercial renewable energy companies.