Byron Dorgan
The Public Record
Byron Dorgan is a former United States Senator from North Dakota, serving from 1992 to 2011 as a member of the Democratic Party. He was born on May 14, 1942. During his tenure in the Senate, Dorgan was known for his advocacy on issues such as agriculture, energy, and Native American rights. He played a significant role in promoting policies aimed at supporting rural communities and addressing the needs of tribal nations. Dorgan also served as the Chairman of the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs, where he focused on improving the lives of Native Americans and addressing their concerns in federal policy.
I want the BIA to work. I want it to work well for the benefit of the first Americans, American Indians.
I have sometimes described dealing with the BIA very much like walking through wet cement.
I want to state at the start of this hearing my strong support for Mr. Echo Hawk's nomination.
I think when we try to address this larger issue of climate change and carbon capture and so on we really do need to think outside the box.
If we are smart and we go about this the right way, we might well find that you can create an asset in terms of trying to deal with what we consider a liability.
Congress should authorize and appropriate funds for a comprehensive research, development, and demonstration program administered by the U.S. Department of Energy specifically focused on algae energy systems.
This subcommittee is going to try to have an impact on that, and we tried to have an impact on that in the stimulus bill as well to make sure that most of these things tend to move toward the geologic side of things because of CCS.
Congress should support and strengthen policies inclusive of algae energy system development in future energy and climate change legislation and loan guarantees for commercial demonstrations.
I don't mean to interrupt you, but if you are doing it right now and it was demonstrated at scale that you can produce a product of substantial value and sequester virtually all of the CO2 at the same time, it seems to me there would be a…
Where do you think the most successful work is going on in algae at the moment on a trial basis?
I am much more interested in finding is there a way to take this carbon and provide from it beneficial use.
We need to make a significant effort to decarbonize coal, and the question is what do you do with that carbon?
It is an unbelievable miscarriage of justice, and I have been working on that case for several months.
If we work together, we can fix what's wrong, we can improve it and we can make it right.
All it not hopeless. I think the fact that someone with great qualifications will step forward to say, let me be part of fixing things, that gives me great cause for hope.
We hope very much in this session of Congress, finally, at last, at long, long last, we will get that done.
If we have done those things and intend to keep those promises, and we should, then there isn't any reason we ought not give them some alternatives for health care as well.
We are going to need your help to work together to write a new Indian Health Care Improvement bill.





