Solar Technology Roadmap Act

Floor Speech

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Ms. NORTON. I want to thank my colleague from California for this expansion, and my colleague on the other side for supporting his amendment.

I come to the floor because, in my own work as chairman of a subcommittee that engages in construction of courthouses and of Federal buildings throughout the United States, we have been trying to make the United States lead by example. The cost of all of this, I say to my colleague, will go down tremendously if the Federal Government is in this big time.

Your attention to thermal technology with regard to solar is very important. Just this morning, I went to speak to the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers who are deeply engaged in this work in military institutions and the defense industries. Already we read that 30,000 jobs have come out of the stimulus just reported last week. And what is important about the stimulus is that every bit of construction is built around energy conservation; will not put on a roof, will not do an HVAC system, will not upgrade any part of a building unless at the center is energy conservation, because the taxpayers pay for this energy in leasing even. We do bulk leasing, which means we pay for the heat; we pay for the air conditioning. So to the extent that the gentleman is making us expand the horizons, he does the Nation a great service.

The Chinese are way ahead of us in research. They have trumped us even in manufacturing. This rushes us to manufacturing and moves the Nation ahead so that we regain our leadership on technology, a leadership, I regret to say, that we have already lost in solar, but this bill and the gentleman's amendment helps us to quickly catch up.

I thank the gentleman for yielding.

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