Mark Udall

This is a very important topic, obviously.

Doing desalination right costs a little more money than doing it wrong.

That does not mean that the federal government should become a water regulator and create winners and losers based on water rights.

Water plays a critical role in the production of the energy that powers our society, especially energy derived from fossil fuels.

Technology that's best imitates Mother Nature.

There's a well known Civil War Major, one armed veteran, Major Powell who made that very proposal. We're now trying in the West to govern ourselves based on his principles.

I think you can measure society's health with a number of different metrics. The energy supplies for one, based on where the accessibility, the affordability, the predictability, you could do the same thing with water and water supplies.

The water supplies are important in all parts of our country. But certainly in the West we, as in the Rocky Mountain West, we really know, living in an arid climate, the challenges that we face.

It's been a fascinating hearing. We see over and over again the nexus between water use and energy use, technology, national security.

I also assume that there's even more work in regards to the outreach to the private sector to the VC leaders.

We do not know currently what the best technology is. But we do know that if we don't get this one, the environmental risk is incredible.

We have to throw the kitchen sink at this.

One of the dynamics here that we should acknowledge is that there may be and this is an overused term these days, but it's effective term and there may be game changers.

CCS will be critical to helping us continue to use our vast domestic sources of coal while also working to address rising greenhouse gas emissions.

There's a realization internationally how important that is.

What that means is--think of this as a common goal, that all countries around the world can really align themselves with and collaborate.

I think we do have a dual goal, Senator, which is to promote renewable energy technologies that have emerged over the last 10 years but also to reduce carbon emissions.

Green is the new red, white and blue.

Energy R&D is the future of our energy industry, but is also critical to our national security, our environment, and our economy.

I think we may be coming to the end of the hearing. But if I might I'd like to direct some additional questions to the panel for the record on coal to liquid technology.

There's no silver bullet. Maybe there's a lot of silver buckshot.

I believe that if we have the right partnership of government, NGO's and businesses, we can promote and embrace current energy efficient technology.

We are not there quite yet. There is much more to accomplish regarding smart grid technology as well as the regulations and policies that govern how energy information is available to consumers.

Smart grid technology will play a critical role in making all Americans smarter and better informed about how we use our energy.

The most affordable kilowatt of energy is the one that is not used.