Paul Tonko: “Yes, just rather briefly, the opportunity to invest in infrastructure--for an example, our water treatment facilities.…”

“Yes, just rather briefly, the opportunity to invest in infrastructure--for an example, our water treatment facilities. When I was at my last work station prior to entering the House, it was with NYSERDA, the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority. There I witnessed these consummate professionals working away at retrofitting systems or designing new that dealt with water treatments. The savings that were anticipated--that were measured in some cases-- were significant so that the energy cost for local governments doing their role, performing their role for treatment of water became much cheaper. Those are savings that are recurring. So that while we invest in this opportunity, we're also chipping away at those budget costs into the future. The same is true of some of the research investment that found us, for example, capturing waste heat and getting more bang for the buck, so to speak, for the investments made in energy systems. The American intellect, which has always served as our DNA for discovery--you know, we are proud of our pioneer spirit of this Nation. It drove an industrial revolution, it inspired a westward movement, and it created from mill town capacity these epicenters of invention and innovation. Well, we still have that within our core spirit.…”