Eric Swalwell

Thank you, Chairman Lummis. Thank you for holding this hearing. I look forward to hearing from our distinguished panel of witnesses.

I would hope, though, Mr. McConnell, that you could comment on something I think you and I may agree upon, which is that sequestration has affected our ability to make necessary investments in technology when it comes to carbon capture…

The consequences of our inaction will be far more severe.

If we don't take steps to halt this change, the repercussions for humans and the environment will be catastrophic.

We must take steps to ensure that we are reducing greenhouse gas emissions and lessening their impact on human health, the environment, and the global climate.

I have repeatedly said that I am for an 'all of the above' approach to energy production as we transition to clean energy technologies.

Global climate change, though, is one of the greatest challenges that we face.

Global climate change is one of the greatest challenges that we face.

For our witnesses, it is pretty evident now after a number of scientific studies that 97 percent of scientists agree that human activities are causing climate change.

This hearing is an opportunity to demonstrate the value of a true 'all-of-the-above' approach to energy production.

I will continue to work with our chair to find a future of coal that is clean and good for our environment.

I saw it as a retreat from coal, not a war on coal but an attempt for the United States to eventually one day hopefully pull out of coal and pull closer to more renewable, cleaner energy sources.

Still, fracking requires large, large volumes of water to successfully release shale gas.

In California, we are beginning an expansion of fracking for shale gas that may create an economic boom for the State.

There is simply no place for politics when it comes to making sure that the water that our families rely upon is safe and that the homes that we live in are not put at further risk of a manmade disaster.

That said, when it comes to fracking, I still believe we need to proceed with extreme caution.

However, in any technology, if we cannot make it safe, we should try and fix it to make it safe, and if not, certainly not expose consumers and citizens to any of the hazards that may exist in any project.

As I have said before over and over in this Committee, I do support an all-of-the-above approach to energy production and I do believe that if we can make it safe, we should make it happen.

I look forward to today's hearing and for one example I wanted to highlight was the recommendation in the report to merge the Department's Under Secretary for Energy and Under Secretary for Science into a single Under Secretary for Science…

I represent a district in northern California that has two national laboratories, Sandia and Lawrence Livermore.

I have an amendment at the desk. The Acting CHAIR. The Clerk will report the amendment. The Clerk read as follows: Page 22, line 5, after the dollar amount, insert ``(increased by $1,000,000)''. Page 28, line 10, after the dollar amount…

This hearing is very timely, for we just saw in this horrible accident how critical and relevant social media can be in times of crisis.

I'd like to begin by extending my sympathies to those who died or were injured during the plane crash at San Francisco Airport (SFO) this weekend and to their families.

I am glad the scoring has been brought up and maybe this is an opportunity that the Chairman and I and Ranking Member Maffei can work on to address and try and correct this because it sounds like there is agreement among the three of us…

We have seen locally in the cities that I referred to, Dublin and Livermore, that having these types of contracts not only reduce the city's energy bill but the installation of the different types of upgrades that take place and the…