John Hall: “I wanted to mention something that should be another part of our energy mix and that is low head hydroelectric power.…”

“I wanted to mention something that should be another part of our energy mix and that is low head hydroelectric power. There are dams and waterfalls throughout this country where in some instances they used to generate power and no longer do. But our own Idaho National Laboratory from the Department of Energy did a study a couple of years ago that showed, and it is on their Website, it shows how much State By State latent hydroelectric power is waiting to be harvested. In New York State, there are some 4,000 dams and waterfalls that could, just by having turbines placed where the water is already falling, yield greater than 1,200 megawatts of power, which is about 60 percent of the peak output of the Indian Point Nuclear Plant in my district. It is that kind of using everything. We have to leave no stone unturned and to try every opportunity for clean, renewable domestic sources of power for national security purposes, as Mr. Klein mentioned, for environmental purposes, as we all know, and for global warming. Anybody in my part of the country knows that the weather is not normal this year. And, indeed, the records for last year showed that it is the warmest year on record and there has been a string of years getting warmer.”