John Shimkus: “I think that is the first time I have been directed to my region of the State of Illinois, and I appreciate it. Illinois…”

“I think that is the first time I have been directed to my region of the State of Illinois, and I appreciate it. Illinois has 102 counties. I represent 33 of those, or parts of 33, so it is a little different than north of I-80, as the Chairman knows and as does the author of this amendment. And, of course, you had me at a disadvantage because I have great kinship and friendship with my colleague who is offering this amendment. I would pause to say sometimes we have a hard time defining ``clean.'' What is clean energy? For me, some of this debate is no CO<INF>2</INF> or very limited CO<INF>2</INF> emissions. I think that is in the Paris accord, in the climate change, global warming debate. It is all about CO<INF>2</INF>. We have some colleagues come here and talk about the four criteria pollutants and stuff, but this is really about CO<INF>2</INF>. So we also think not just solar, but we ought to make sure we do geothermal provisions. We ought to look at pump storage provisions. We should do the hydroelectric provisions. As my colleagues know, Mr. Chairman, the Chicagoland area of Illinois has the largest production of electricity through the use of nuclear power--six locations, 11 reactors. How much does it emit of CO<INF>2</INF> into the atmosphere? Zero. Major baseload energy that is beneficial in this debate, because we can't meet these standards unless we have some major generation, some major baseload.…”