Senator Coons leads bipartisan, bicameral letter to President Obama on MLPs, REITs

The sponsors of the Senate and House versions of the Master Limited Partnerships Parity Act will hold a press conference on Wednesday morning to discuss a letter they and more than two-dozen of their colleagues are sending to President Obama this week calling for Master Limited Partnerships and Real Estate Investment Trusts to be a priority in the federal government’s “all of the above” energy strategy. 

Their letter is below:

December 12, 2012
The President
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20500

Dear Mr. President,

Over the past four years, the renewable energy sector has seen major reductions in technology costs, including a 75 percent decline in the price of solar panels and about a 25 percent decline in the price of wind turbines. But even as technology costs have dropped, the cost of capital required to deploy those technologies has remained stubbornly high – inflating overall project costs and presenting a major barrier to wider deployment.

Minor changes to the federal tax code could provide the renewable energy industry access to large pools of low-cost private capital. Already, oil, gas, and coal infrastructure projects raise cheap capital by selling shares of Master Limited Partnerships (MLPs), as do energy transmission projects using Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs). Wind, solar, and other renewable energy projects cannot use these investment tools and, therefore, suffer from high costs of capital.

Opening MLPs and REITs to renewable energy would level the playing field by giving renewables the same access to low-cost capital enjoyed by oil, gas, coal and transmission infrastructure projects. Small tweaks to the tax code could attract billions of dollars in private sector investment to renewable energy deployment, reduce the cost of renewable electricity by up to one third, and dramatically broaden the base of eligible investors. In fact, bipartisan legislation has already been introduced in both the House and the Senate (H.R. 6437 and S. 3275 respectively) to allow renewable energy projects to raise low-cost capital through the MLP structure. In the case of REITs, a straight forward ruling by the Treasury Department would allow access to this investment vehicle for renewable energy projects.

We strongly support moving America towards energy independence using an “all of the above” energy strategy. Renewable energy can play a critical role in accomplishing that goal. We ask that your administration move to unlock capital markets for broad-scale investment in renewable energy and help move our country towards cleaner, more efficient energy. We stand ready to work with you to accomplish this goal.

Sincerely,

Senator Coons (D-DE)
Senator Moran (R-KS)
Representative Poe (R-TX-2)
Representative Thompson (D-CA-1)
Representative Welch (D-VT)
Representative Carney (D-DE)
Representative McCollum (D-MN-4)
Representative Moran (D-VA-8)
Representative Garamendi (D-CA-10)
Representative Schakowsky (D-IL-9)
Representative Clay (D-MO-1)
Senator Begich (D-AK)
Senator Harkin (D-IA)
Representative Kissell (D-NC-8)
Senator Murkowski (R-AK)
Senator Bennet (D-CO)
Senator Tester (D-MT)
Representative Lujan (D-NM-3)
Senator Brown (R-MA)
Representative Grijalva (D-AZ-07)
Representative Capps (D-CA-23)
Representative Connolly (D-VA-11)
Senator Franken (D-MN)
Representative Matsui (D-CA-5)
Senator Shaheen (D-NH)
Representative Watt (D-NC-12)
Representative Carson (D-IN-7)
Representative McIntyre (D-NC-7)
Representative Carnahan (D-MO-3)

Senator Coons calls for extension of unemployment insurance benefits

Senator Coons and 41 of his colleagues wrote to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell to call for an extension of unemployment insurance for millions of out-of-work Americans. You can read the letter below:

Senator Coons calls for executive order on cybersecurity

Frustrated by the Senate's inability to pass the Cybersecurity Act of 2012 and determined to confront the growing threat of cyber attacks on our nation's critical infrastructure, Senator Coons teamed up with Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) to send a letter to President Obama Tuesday urging him to issue an executive order to take the first steps on implementing a voluntary system to increase information-sharing in the private sector.

"We remain committed to the passage of this important legislation, and are continuing our efforts to resolve differences regarding the appropriate role of government in the protection of critical infrastructure,” the senators wrote. “We write today to stress, however, that the failure of Congress to act should not prevent the executive branch from taking available steps to counter the enormous and growing cyber threat."

Working with the Cybersecurity Act’s authors, Senators Coons and Blumenthal were part of a bipartisan effort to build consensus around a voluntary system for owners of key power, transportation, and communication facilities to coordinate with the federal government on the strengthening of their cyber defenses. In their letter today, the senators urge President Obama to instruct Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano “to convene an inter-agency group that will develop, in close collaboration with the private sector, voluntary standards for digital safeguards for our nation’s critical infrastructure.”

“We recognize that an order directing the promulgation of voluntary standards cannot and should not be the final word in cybersecurity,” the senators wrote. “An executive order, for example, would not be able to provide the types of incentives for participating companies that Congress can establish.  A well-crafted set of voluntary standards could, however, be an important step towards improving the cybersecurity of our nation’s critical infrastructure.”

Read the full letter below:

Resolution calls for free elections in Iran

Senator Coons this week cosponsored a bipartisan resolution condeming human rights violations and calling for free and fair elections in Iran. You can read the resolution below:

Senator Coons calls on Komen Foundation to restore Planned Parenthood funding

Senator Coons joined 25 of his Senate colleagues on Thursday in penning a letter to Nancy Brinker, Founder and CEO of Susan G. Komen for the Cure, urging her to reconsider her organization’s decision to stop funding cancer screenings at Planned Parenthood, a trusted provider of health care for women and men.

Twenty percent of all women in the U.S. have visited a Planned Parenthood health center, where more than 90 percent of the services provided are primary and preventative including wellness exams and cancers screenings.

“It would be tragic if any woman — let alone thousands of women — lost access to these potentially life-saving screenings because of a politically motivated attack,” the Senators wrote. 

Susan G. Komen for the Cure Foundation funds have saved countless lives. In 2011 alone, grants from the foundation provided Planned Parenthood with roughly $650,000 in funding for breast cancer prevention, screening, and education. Komen funding for Planned Parenthood has provided nearly 170,000 clinical breast exams and resulted in 6,400 referrals for mammograms.

The letter is below:

Senator Coons applauds OnStar's decision to reverse course on privacy issue

Senator Coons received word from OnStar today that it was reversing course on its decision to continue to track the locations of its customers and potentially sell that information to third parties even after those customers have terminated their service plans with the company.

"As location-based mobile technology becomes a larger part of consumers' lives, it's important that we're vigilant about balancing convenience with privacy. I'm glad that OnStar heard our concerns and has decided to reverse course. OnStar's announcement today is an important step toward restoring the trust consumers had placed in it, and I hope that other companies learn from this experience. Systems that automatically track users' locations should, by default, protect their users' privacy. Sensitive personal information should not be for sale without users' explicit consent."

Last week, Chris sent a letter to OnStar with Senator Al Franken (D-Minn.) urging the in-vehicle navigation system provider to undo controversial changes to its terms and conditions that it planned to roll out in December. 

Senator Coons and Senator Franken are both members of the Senate Judiciary Committee, which has jurisdiction over laws relating to the use and distribution of consumer information by businesses.

You can read OnStar's press release announcing the reveral here.

Senator Coons tells OnStar that selling customers' location data is privacy breach

Senators Coons and Franken yesterday sent a letter to OnStar urging the in-car navigation provider to reconsider its decision to continue to track the locations of its customers and potentially sell that information to third parties even after those customers have terminated their service plans with the company. The senators requested that the company provide detailed information on how OnStar intends to protect its customers’ location data. The full text of the letter is available below.

Earlier this year, Senator Coons cosponsored the Location Privacy Protection Act — introduced by Senator Franken — which would require companies like OnStar to obtain their customers’ explicit permission before tracking their location information or sharing that information with third parties.

"OnStar’s actions appear to violate basic principles of privacy and fairness for OnStar’s approximately six million customers—especially for those customers who have already ended their relationships with your company," the letter states. "...We believe that OnStar’s actions underscore the urgent need for prompt congressional action to enact privacy laws that protect private, sensitive information like location. In the meantime, we believe that it is the responsibility of corporate citizens like OnStar to take every step possible to safeguard the privacy of their customers."

Senator Coons is a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, which has jurisdiction over laws relating to the use and distribution of consumer information by businesses. He firmly believes that strong consumer data privacy is an issue of civil liberties, because American companies must be able to earn the trust of the consumers whose information they collect and store or risk consumer revolt and, ultimately, non-competitiveness in the market.

Read the full letter below.

Senator Coons supports plan to offer states No Child Left Behind waivers

Senator Coons joined nine of his moderate Democratic senate colleagues Friday in writing to Secretary of Education Arne Duncan to offer his support for the administration's plan to offer waivers to states seeing relief from some of the more onerous provisions of No Child Left Behind.

The waivers wouldn't be necessary if Congress was to move forward with plans to reform and reauthorize the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, but with those efforts apparently stalled, the waivers represent the best option for continuing some progress on education reform.

"Like you, we are committed to working to reauthorize No Child Left Behind," the Senators wrote. "However, we also recognize that students are headed back to school under the current law, which is simply not working for too many students."

"While it remains our first choice that Congress move quickly to reauthorize this critical piece of legislation, we also know that our states are in need of relief now, and our kids can’t afford to wait. Therefore, in the absence of a reauthorization bill, we support your recent announcement that you will use your authority under the law to provide much needed relief to states in the form of an ESEA flexibility package in exchange for needed reforms."

Read the full letter below.

Senator Coons offers support for DoE Office of Science

Senator Coons today joined several of his colleagues in signing onto a letter to the Senate Energy and Water (E&W) Appropriations Committee in support of the Department of Energy’s (DOE) Office of Science.

"The DOE Office of Science has been integral to the development of several innovative technologies," Senator Coons said, "including MRI machines and PET scans, leading supercomputing research, new composite materials for military hardware and motor vehicles, medical and industrial isotopes, drop-in biofuel technologies, DNA sequencing technologies, more aerodynamic and fuel efficient long-haul trucks, electric vehicle battery technology, an artificial retina, newer and safer nuclear reactor designs, 3-D models of pathogens for vaccine development, tools to manufacture nanomaterials, and better sensors and detectors for biological, chemical, and radioactive materials.”

The DOE Office of Science also supports a first-rate workforce of research scientists, engineers, and support personnel who work as teams on long-term solutions to some of the nation’s greatest challenges. Moreover, it plays a unique and critical role in the education of the next generation of American scientific talent, including thousands of graduate students and postdoctoral researchers at hundreds of U.S. institutions who depend upon DOE Office of Science support and facilities for their research and training. For Fiscal Year 2010, the Office of Science funded 17 research projects at The University of Delaware totaling nearly $4 million.

Support for the DOE Office of Science is consistent with Chris’ leadership in using the best possible science to solve the nation’s most pressing problems and to boost the U.S. innovation economy to compete in the 21st century.

Race to the Top-Early Learning Challenge will help ensure our students are prepared for grade school

Senator Coons today praised the President’s new Race to the Top-Early Learning Challenge, which allocates $500 million in state-level competitive grants that helps states improve and expand access to early education. The program was launched today at a press conference with U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan and U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius.

The Race to the Top-Early Learning Challenge will reward states that develop comprehensive plans for transforming their early learning systems with better coordination, clearer learning standards, and meaningful workforce development. States applying for challenge grants will be encouraged to increase access to quality early learning programs for low income and disadvantaged children, design integrated and transparent systems that align their early care and education programs, bolster training and support for the early learning workforce, create robust evaluation systems to document and share effective practices and successful programs, and help parents make informed decisions about care for their children.

Chris is no stranger to the positive impact early learning programs have on students’ overall educational achievement, earlier this month he joined Senators Bob Casey (D-Pa.), Patty Murray (D-Wash.), and Al Franken (D-Minn.) on a letter to Secretary Duncan and Sebelius urging them to implement the type of grant program described in the bill. The full letter can be read below.

Senator Coons was also an original cosponsor of the Supporting State Systems of Early Learning Act (S. 470) that would create a similar grant program.