Ken Salazar

Mr. SALAZAR

Mr. SALAZAR. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate now proceed to the immediate consideration of S. Res. 256 submitted earlier today.

Mr. SALAZAR

Mr. SALAZAR. Mr. President, I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. SALAZAR. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that when the Senate completes its business today, it stand adjourned until 10 a.m., Wednesday, June 27; that on Wednesday, following the prayer and pledge, the Journal of proceedings be approved to date, the morning hour be deemed expired and the time for the two leaders reserved for their use later in the day, and the Senate then resume consideration of S. 1639, the comprehensive immigration bill.

Mr. SALAZAR

Mr. SALAZAR. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the resolution be agreed to, the preamble be agreed to, the motions to reconsider be laid upon the table, and that any statements relating thereto be printed in the Record.

Mr. SALAZAR. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to the immediate consideration of S. Res. 257, submitted earlier today.

Mr. SALAZAR

Mr. SALAZAR. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the amendment at the desk be considered and agreed to, the bill, as amended, be read a third time, passed, and the motion to reconsider be laid upon the table; that any statements relating thereto be printed in the Record.

Mr. SALAZAR. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to the immediate consideration of Calendar No. 199, S. 1612.

Mr. SALAZAR

Mr. SALAZAR. Mr. President, I wish to commemorate the 150th anniversary of Colorado's oldest family-owned business--the R&R Market in the town of San Luis, in Costilla County, CO. My family has ranched and farmed in the San Luis Valley for five generations just a few miles west of San Luis. I grew up knowing the R&R Market as one of the treasures of the valley, a great symbol of our shared history and heritage. Colorado was built upon the ingenuity, hard work, and entrepreneurial spirit of people like Don Jose Dario Gallegos, who traveled from the San Luis Valley by mule train over the Santa Fe Trail to trade centers in St. Louis and Independence, Missouri. Don Dario Gallegos was among the founders of the town of San Luis in 1851 and helped establish some of the first water rights in the area. The irrigation ditches--or acequias--that he and the settlers dug are still in use today. When Don Dario Gallegos opened his store in San Luis in 1857, Colorado was still a young territory, and statehood was nearly 20 years away. Though the physical foundation of Don Jose Dario Gallegos's original adobe structure would be destroyed in an 1895 fire, the people of San Luis came together to form the indestructible foundation rooted in a commitment to community and family that sustains the R&R Market to this very day. It is this commitment that the people of San Luis will celebrate on June 30, 150 years after the original R&R Market opened its doors. I congratulate the Gallegos descendants--who still own and operate the market--and the people of San Luis on this momentous anniversary. I have a painting of the R&R Market hanging in my Washington, DC, office. It serves as an everyday reminder of the place I come from--a place where community and family mean everything, a place where the spirit of Colorado was born and continues to thrive. I am honored to represent that place and the people who come from it.

Mr. SALAZAR

Mr. SALAZAR. Mr. President, I come to the floor to speak tonight as we get close to the point hopefully of passing an energy bill here in the Senate. I first acknowledge the leadership of both Senator Bingaman and Senator Domenici. When we look at where we are today on energy, much of it started, the bipartisan cooperation, between Senator Bingaman and Senator Domenici, in the passage of the 2005 Energy Policy Act. I know there have been critics of that act, but it was a creation that was put out in a bipartisan fashion, a significant step forward on energy. This legislation that came out of the Energy Committee, which is included in the bill which we are about to vote on, in large part is a very good step forward in terms of trying to address the goals we had in that particular legislation. I also congratulate both Senator Stevens and Senator Inouye. I think when you think about the people who have made such a mark, an imprint on the Senate today and on our country, two of our national heroes are Ted Stevens and Dan Inouye. I never get tired of hearing the story of Senator Inouye and his service to our country. Every time I see him and I remember his great contribution and sacrifice to our country, I remember those are the greatest of the greatest generation, and certainly both Senator Stevens and Senator Inouye embody that greatness. I also thank the chairman and ranking member of the Finance Committee for their great work. As a member of the Finance Committee, we worked very hard to come up with legislation that would help us move forward in dealing with the reality of getting energy independence. While I am disappointed that part of the package is not included as we move forward toward final passage here, it nonetheless represented the best of our thinking about how we could invest in this new imperative of America, and gets us to a new energy future for the 21st century. I also thank the rest of my colleagues who were involved in some of the discussions that have been underway today. Let my say that from my point of view, there is no more important issue we must deal with here in Washington, here in the Congress, than the issue of energy. If we look at the big issues of our time in the 21st century, I think in my mind there are three issues we have to deal with. We have to deal with the issue of foreign relations and how we put the world back together again and restore America's greatness in the world. We also need to make sure we embark on a new clean energy future for the 21st century. We also need to deal with other issues that are very difficult, the enormous challenge that we face with the health care in America today. That issue is bankrupting America's families and America's businesses day by day. So how we move forward with those three issues is very important. But tonight we are at the doorstep of taking a significant step forward on one of those huge issues; that is, the issue of energy and moving forward to establishing a clean energy future. Now, when I often talk about energy, I think back to what happened in the early 1970s and through the 1970s with both President Nixon and President Jimmy Carter, where President Nixon declared the need for us to be energy independent, and coined that term. Then following him, President Carter spoke about energy independence as being something that was the moral equivalent of war. Well, the fact is that in those days the driver for those statements and the coining of that term came from the economic volatility that was caused by the formation of OPEC and their ability to be able to influence the world markets on oil. I think today we have three inescapable forces that drive us to look at the clean energy future as the imperative of the 21st century. Those inescapable forces are, first and foremost, our national security. When we see what is happening in the Middle East with Hezbollah and in Lebanon with Hamas in the Gaza, you know that terrorist organizations such as those are being funded by the very oil that is being consumed by the free world. So for us to become energy independent is our way of making sure we are not held hostage to those kinds of organizations, to the oil barons and sheiks of this world. It is an imperative we do that from a national security point of view. Secondly, I think it is now beyond argument in our world today that the issue of global warming is here, and we will have some debate that will come on down the road with respect to how we address the issue of global warming here in America and across the world. It is inescapable that we must do something about global warming if we are to save civilization for our children and grandchildren and save this planet we have been given the humble privilege of inhabiting. That is an inescapable force that will drive us to a clean energy future in the 21st century. Last is the economic opportunity and dealing with the economic volatility that happens when you are hostage to someone who controls supplies such as OPEC can today. The economic opportunity is one that you already see happening throughout our great Nation. In my State of Colorado, where 2 years ago, before passage of the 2005 act, there was really nothing going on in terms of renewable energy, we have totally turned that around. We have now ethanol plants in places such as Fort Morgan and Yuma. We have a number of other ethanol plants springing up in Windsor and Devon, down in the southern part of the State, places which were part of the forgotten rural America which had been hanging on by a shoestring just to keep their communities alive. There is a new breath of activity, a new breath of hope and opportunity and optimism in rural America, in large part because we believe we can grow our way to energy independence. I believe strongly we are headed in the right track with the legislation that has been put forward. I am hopeful that we will move forward and conclude our effort on this energy legislation tonight. I want to go back for a minute and reflect upon the legislation that came out of the Energy Committee which was led in a remarkable fashion by Senator Bingaman, with the support of Senator Domenici. It was a bipartisan effort that focused on three major issues, all of which are included in the underlying legislation. The first of those was moving forward with alternative fuels. If you think about what we have done with the renewable fuels standard, we will be quintupling the amount of energy we create from biofuels. We will be opening a new chapter with cellulosic ethanol that will make the biofuels targets a reality. Secondly, the efficiency measures are important to make sure we stop wasting the energy we consume. When we look at what the experts tell us, from the Department of Energy, the National Renewable Energy Lab, we know we waste 60 percent of the energy that is consumed in America today. Therefore, the lowest hanging fruit for all of us is to move forward with efficiency measures. We are doing that in the part of the legislation that was created in the Energy Committee. We also are doing it very much with the CAFE standards, the fuel efficiency standards that were negotiated today with the leadership of Senators Stevens and Inouye, Senator Feinstein, and many others who were involved. That will help us achieve the oil savings targets and goals we have set forth in this legislation. Finally, we take some movement forward in terms of dealing with the issue of carbon by making sure that we are dealing with carbon sequestration mapping in the United States and that we develop the way forward in terms of how we sequester carbon. There has been debate about coal. Not everybody agrees on how we ought to move forward with respect to coal. I believe it is important that we look at coal as a possible resource because it currently generates about 50 percent of our electricity today and it is the most abundant resource we have in this country. We have enough coal resources for the next 200 years of energy for America's use. Coal is to the United States what oil is to Saudi Arabia. So it is important that we not turn a blind eye and say we are a nation that is not going to look at all at coal. Some of the new technologies we have with respect to IGCC--the creation of electricity in a way that can help us with the hybrid plug- ins--will open a whole new chapter today and build on the 2005 act. That will all be very important. Carbon sequestration needs to be a part of the equation. We know there are formations throughout this country where, in fact, we can sequester carbon. The technology is not all that complex. The enhanced oil recovery efforts and the technology we have with EOR is technology that has been used in the oilfields for decades. We know there are formations out there where we can, in fact, store carbon. So we can find ways of utilizing this abundant fuel we have in the United States to help us fuel the energy needs of the country. In addition to the many Members who have worked on making this a possibility--and I hope we do get the 60 votes we need--there have been a lot of people on many staffs on both the majority side and the minority side who have worked to make this happen. I thank each and every one of them for getting us to the point we are today. I know the countless hours and nights and days they have spent working on this issue. Without them, we would not be where we are tonight. I thank the people in my office who have been working hard on this legislation for a long time, both in the Energy Committee and in the Finance Committee. I say thank you to Steve Black, who has been an enormous player on the energy issue, in 2005 as well as today; Matt Lee-Ashley, Suzanne Wells in my office, Grant Leslie, and Sam Mitchell, who have done an enormous job pulling all of this together. This is a major step we are about ready to take. I look forward to being a part of the celebration when we get this all done, hopefully in the not too distant future before we go into the wee hours of tomorrow morning. Efficiency Title

Mr. SALAZAR. Mr. President, I rise today to urge my colleagues to support the improvements to vehicle efficiency that are included in H.R. 6. It is time for us to make reasonable, achievable, and meaningful increases to the corporate average fuel economy standards. In the past 2 weeks I have spoken repeatedly about the national security, economic security, and environmental security implications of the energy debate that we are holding. The converging and growing risks of our overdependence on foreign oil are well understood among Americans, who see the impacts of our failed energy policy on a daily basis. At the gas station, consumers see prices spike at OPEC's whim or with the threat of supply disruptions in countries like Venezuela or Nigeria. In their businesses, Americans feel the pain of soaring oil prices--fuel prices for farmers are so high that some do not know if they will be able to complete the harvest in the fall. And in their land, air, and natural surroundings, Americans are beginning to understand the impacts that global warming could have over the coming decades. This week we have already made significant progress in our quest to reduce our dependence on foreign oil. Not only is the underlying bill an important step forward, but we have passed several amendments that strengthen the foundations of a new, clean energy economy for the United States. So far we have increased the oil savings targets in this bill by 50 percent, so that by 2016, we are saving as much oil as we are currently importing from the Middle East. We have passed provisions from the DRIVE Act that will bring high-efficiency vehicles, such as plug-in hybrids, to consumers. And we set a goal of producing 25 percent of our energy from renewable sources by 2025. These are important improvements that will accelerate the pace at which we are moving toward energy independence. Today, though, I want to talk more specifically about a provision of this bill that has been a point of intense debate for some time. Vehicle efficiency standards in this country have been stagnant for too long. Although our vehicle manufacturers have made impressive improvements to the safety, strength, and power of our vehicles, the average fuel economy of new cars and trucks was actually lower in 2006 than it was 20 years ago. Passenger cars sold in the U.S. only get around 27.5 miles per gallon on average. The result? American consumers and businesses are suffering disproportionately from $3-a-gasoline. $50 and $80 visits to the gas station are now the norm, and transportation costs are taking a growing slice out of family budgets. People who live in rural areas are hit the hardest by low fuel- efficiency standards. They drive around 15 percent more miles than people who live in cities, they rarely have the choice of using public transit, and they use work vehicles, like pickups, that get fewer miles to the gallon. As a result, gas bills in rural households have risen almost $1,300 in the past 5 years. The question of how to improve vehicle efficiency standards is not an easy one, and is not to be taken lightly. But today the path forward is clearer than it has been in some time. Not only is the need for improved efficiency evident, but we have the technological know-how to make these changes to our vehicle-fleet in a safe and cost-effective manner. The bill before us raises the CAFE standards for cars and light trucks to 35 mpg by 2020. This is a reasonable and appropriate goal for efficiency. The bill also gives manufacturers tremendous flexibility to meet the standards. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, NHTSA, will have the ability to set a national fleet-wide average fuel economy standard of 35 mpg by 2020 that will be tailored to the weight, size, type of use and towing capabilities of each car type. Under this flexible system, the standards for light trucks will likely be significantly lower than the standards for passenger cars, and standards will vary for passenger cars: smaller cars will have higher standards than larger cars. The bill also includes an important exemption for work-trucks between 8,500 and 10,000 pounds--these are the trucks that are essential to the daily operations of farmers, ranchers, and small business owners. The CAFE standards in this bill are achievable by incorporating a group of modest, proven conventional technologies into vehicles. The technologies would add about $1,100 to the price of an average vehicle in 2019, an investment that would be recovered in less than 3 years of driving, assuming that gasoline costs $2.00 per gallon. Over the lifetime of the vehicle the owner would save a total of more than $3,600 in gasoline costs. And the technologies are only getting better. Our national labs and universities are making breakthroughs in research that will allow us to make even greater advances in fuel efficiency. At the Colorado School of Mines, for example, researchers are developing a way to cast metal alloy composite materials for high strength, lightweight vehicle parts. This technology will reduce the weight of vehicle components by as much as 60 percent without compromising vehicle performance, cost, or safety. While I am a champion for the responsible development of our domestic energy supplies and I firmly believe that we need to make smart investments in a renewable energy economy, improving efficiency is the cheapest, cleanest and quickest way for us to extend our energy supplies, get a handle on rising gas prices, and reduce our dependence on foreign oil. I am proud of the responsible, bipartisan approach we have taken to improving vehicle standards. I want to again thank Senator Bingaman and Senator Domenici for their leadership on this bill and I look forward to passing it as soon as possible. I yield the floor and suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. SALAZAR

Mr. SALAZAR. Mr. President, parliamentary inquiry: How much time remains on either side?

Mr. SALAZAR. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that I be recognized to speak for 10 minutes in support of the Tester amendment, followed by 10 minutes for Senator Bingaman.

Mr. SALAZAR. Mr. President, I rise today to speak on behalf of amendment No. 1614, which is the amendment Senators Tester, Byrd, Rockefeller, Bingaman, and I are cosponsoring today. Before I make my prepared remarks, let me make a couple of introductory remarks. The work we are doing today here on the floor of the Senate is perhaps the most important work we could be doing, because how we move from our current chaos on energy here in America to the reality of energy independence is the hallmark of the 21st century. It is an absolute imperative for us to get to the kind of energy independence that has been desired in this country for over 40 years and which has been the topic of much rhetoric and very little action. This is our opportunity, today and in the days ahead, as the Senate speaks out loudly and clearly about the importance of energy and how we will move forward in this world. From my perspective, I believe we have no choice. I believe the inescapable forces of our civilization today require us to do nothing less than to embrace this concept of a clean energy future with the sense of moral imperative President Carter spoke about over 30 years ago. I believe there are three inescapable forces that are with us today. First, there is national security. When we see the rockets that are raining down from Hezbollah and northern Israel, one has to ask, where is that money coming from that is funding those rockets; and where is that money coming from that is funding 10,000 members of the militia? We know it is coming from the $67 per barrel being paid today for oil that is imported from those countries. Today, indeed, when one looks at the fact that, for instance, in March it was 66, 67 percent of the oil we use in America that was imported from foreign sources, our national security requires us to make sure we move forward with this imperative before us today. Secondly, there are environmental security issues in how we deal with climate change. I think it is finally a reality here in America that our world needs to deal with the issue of climate change in a realistic way. We need to do it now. We cannot wait. Even the President of the United States, who appeared to be a person who didn't believe in global warming, in his State of the Union speech as he addressed the Congress, said he wanted the Congress this year to address the issue of global warming. The third and inescapable force which should compel us to move forward on the issue of energy has to do, again, with the economics of our Nation and making sure we are not subject to the volatility we have seen so often in the past. That is why I come to the floor to speak on behalf of the coal gasification amendment for which Senator Tester is the lead sponsor. What we are proposing fits very well into making sure we are adopting this clean energy future. I am not against the development of coal. I know what coal is in the West, in places such as Montana and other places, places such as my own State of Colorado, where the coal miners in the mines on the western slope know the importance of coal and the importance of clean energy. The amendment we have introduced will help us reduce our independence on foreign oil by making better use of our vast coal resources here at home. Fuels, fertilizers, chemicals, and consumer products derived from coal, if produced responsibly with coal gasification technology, can replace much of the imported oil we use on a daily basis. Coal is to the United States what oil is to Saudi Arabia. It is our most abundant domestic energy resource. It produces more than 50 percent of our electricity. As a nation, we have enough coal to last more than 200 years. Until recently, however, coal has not been a legitimate replacement for oil. With old technologies, coal gasification resulted in high CO2 emissions, which caused global warming. Without carbon capture technology, CO2 emissions from liquid coal, a product of the coal gasification process, are twice that from conventional fuels. This poses an unacceptable risk to our environmental security. So as we try to deal with CO2 emissions, we ought not embrace a policy or technology that will increase our problems with respect to CO2 emissions. Fortunately, we have new technologies, and those new technologies offer us a way to use coal in our transportation sector and other sectors of our economy in an environmentally responsible manner. Not only can we sequester the carbon produced in the gasification process, but we are able to produce a wide range of materials that are currently being made from oil and natural gas, including diesel fuel, plastics, fertilizer, chemicals, and a wide range of household items. Senator Tester and I and the other cosponsors of this amendment have included in this amendment a framework for how we proceed with coal gasification in a responsible manner. Our amendment has four main components. First, it provides $10 billion in direct loans for the construction of low emission coal gasification plants. Secondly, our legislation will establish a grant program that will help spur construction of a new generation of coal gasification plants. The grants will be up to $20 million for any one project or $200 million nationwide. They will be awarded to projects that use a variety of feedstocks such as coal and biomass and which have carbon emissions that are 20 percent lower than conventional baseline emissions. The third component of our amendment is a set of studies that will help us determine the opportunities that might be provided with greater use of coal and moving forward with liquid production of coal. The amendment commissions a study of the benefits of maintaining coal-to- liquid products in the Strategic Petroleum Reserve. It also requires the administrator of the EPA to examine the emissions of coal-based products that are used as vehicle and aviation fuel. Fourth, the legislation also provides additional funding for the Air Force research lab to continue its development and testing of synthetic fuels for use in jets. The amendment that Senator Tester, myself, and others are proposing is a reasoned way of making better use of our vast coal resources here at home. It recognizes that coal can replace much of the imported oil, but it also creates a rigorous carbon emission standard for these new coal gasification projects to meet in order to get Federal support. We simply cannot afford to dump excess carbon into the atmosphere, and this amendment ensures we won't. I once again thank Chairman Bingaman and Senator Domenici for their leadership on the overall bill. Before I conclude, I want to make a comment with respect to a statement made on the other side with respect to a competing amendment. The essence of the competing amendment is to say it is the end of the world for coal if we don't adopt the amendment that is being proposed by my good friend from Kentucky. As I said earlier, we are not anti- coal. Both of us who are sponsoring amendments are from coal-producing States. We believe coal is very much an item that has to be in our portfolio in the future. I have a letter, however, in which Dow Chemical says they are fully supportive of Senator Tester's amendment, and one of the conclusions they reach, in support of the amendment is that: Dow Chemical believes the environmental standards in the bill are achievable. It says: The requirement that 75 percent of the carbon dioxide generated is captured will ensure that all companies prepare for long-term CO2 management. This will help drive action to make carbon capture and storage a reality sooner than later. In conclusion, I urge my colleagues to join us in support of amendment 1614 because it is the most responsible way to proceed as we deal with energy independence as well as dealing with the issue of high emissions. Mr. President, I yield the floor.

Mr. SALAZAR

Mr. SALAZAR. Mr. President, let me congratulate my friend from Florida for his passionate statement on this imperative. As Abraham Lincoln might say, we are trying to give our Nation a new birth of freedom from the oil addiction that is very much compromising the national security of our Nation. Certainly how we deal with transportation fuels and move forward with higher standards and more efficient vehicles is something I hope this body has the political will to do through the underlying bill, which will move us to 35 miles per gallon within a reasonable time period. I very much appreciate his leadership on this effort and I look forward to joining him on this battle next week as we try to move forward. Amendment No. 1524 to Amendment No. 1502 Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the pending amendment be set aside, and I call up amendment No. 1524.

Mr. SALAZAR. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the reading of the amendment be dispensed with.

Mr. SALAZAR. Mr. President, I rise today to offer the 25x'25 resolution as an amendment to H.R. 6, the Energy bill. I am proud to be joined in this endeavor by a broad bipartisan group of Senators. They include Senators Grassley, Harkin, Lugar, Obama, Hagel, Clinton, Feingold, Casey, Nelson of Nebraska, Brownback, Kohl, Kerry, Johnson, Tester, Cantwell, Thune, and Cochran, all of whom are sponsors of S. Con. Res. 3, which we introduced earlier this year. Mr. President, 25x'25 is a critical vision for our energy future that will help reduce our dependence on foreign oil by building a new energy economy here at home. Our amendment establishes a national goal of producing 25 percent of America's energy from renewable sources, such as solar, wind, and biofuels, by 2025. The 25x'25 vision is widely endorsed, it is bold, and it is fully attainable. If implemented, it will dramatically improve our energy security, our economy, and our ability to protect the environment and combat global warming. 25x'25 complements the steps we are taking on the bill before us today which reflects the good work of the Energy and Natural Resources Committee and the other committees that have contributed so greatly to this bill. I am pleased that 17 of my colleagues in the Senate from both sides of the aisle are cosponsoring this resolution. In addition, the 25x'25 vision has been endorsed by 22 current and former Governors and many State legislatures around the country. The Big Three auto manufacturers--Ford, Chrysler, and General Motors--are all behind 25x'25. So are many agricultural organizations, environmental groups, scientists, and businesses, ranging from the Farmers' Union and the Farm Bureau to the Natural Resources Defense Council, and companies such as John Deere. The breadth of support for the 25x'25 vision speaks to the extraordinary economic, environmental, and national security benefits that its achievement will yield. In all, nearly 400 organizations have embraced this vision and are working together on a plan to implement it. The amendment I am introducing makes the 25x'25 vision a policy goal for our Nation. It sets a challenging but realistic target for our legislative and budgetary work on energy. Our amendment says the ingenuity and entrepreneurship of the American people should be the engine for a new, clean energy economy for the 21st century. I urge every American to join with me and roughly 400 partner organizations that are part of 25x'25 to make this goal a reality. Results from a recent study conducted by the University of Tennessee show that reaching the 25x'25 goal is, indeed, achievable. The study also shows that 25x'25 would do the following: First, it would increase net farm income in America by $180 billion and, including multiplier effects, could result in $700 billion in economic activity annually for America. Secondly, it would create 5 million new jobs here at home by 2025; and third, it would save as much as $15 billion in Government payments across America. America's working people can and should be at the center of our energy revolution. Farmers and ranchers in my native San Luis Valley, in Sterling, CO, and elsewhere, are already leading the way. They are building biodiesel plants and ethanol refineries that help power cars, tractors, and trucks. They are building wind turbines in Prowers County and biomass generators in Jackson County, and they are searching for new technologies that will allow them to make even greater contributions to our energy supply. These Americans understand we cannot continue to import 60 percent of our oil from foreign countries, many of which are hostile to the United States. If we aim to be strong and secure in this world, we must have this kind of bold vision. They know we will have to build a clean energy economy for America if we are to reduce our dependence on foreign oil. A clean energy economy will take root in our farms and in our fields. It will help revitalize a rural America that has been forgotten for far too long. It will spur our engineers to new developments and designs, and it will help establish the United States as a world leader in clean energy technologies. It is time for Congress to take a more active role in our clean energy future. Establishing a national goal of 25x'25 is an important first step. Americans understand we cannot continue to import 60 percent of our oil from foreign countries, many of which are hostile to the United States, if we aim to be strong and secure in the world. We must rid ourselves of this dependency and this addiction. They know we will have to build a clean energy economy if we are to reduce our dependence on foreign oil. Today, with this amendment, we are articulating a common vision for our energy policy. It is a target that Governors, Senators, Representatives, State legislators, farmers, ranchers, business people, scientists, and automakers all wish to achieve. It is a target we can hit, particularly with the policies that are built into this bill. I ask my Democratic and Republican colleagues to support this amendment and to join the millions of Americans who are already working toward the 25x'25 goal. I want to make a comment about the imperative of the energy issue that is before the Senate today. When I look at the 21st century, I ask myself: What is it the people of my State, and what is it the people of America want me to do as their Senator, not only for our generation but for the next generation and generations to come? It seems to me the challenges of the 21st century are daunting challenges, major challenges, that face us. We can essentially put them into three, and they are all under an umbrella of security for this Nation and ultimately security for civilization. The first of those challenges is foreign policy: How can we in America move forward and try to put Humpty Dumpty together again when we see so much violence in the Middle East and other places around the world? How can we make sure the dream and vision of the generation of World War II is something we preserve? How can we say to our children and to our grandchildren that the world we are leaving to them is a safer and more secure world? Certainly that generation of World War II believed they had accomplished that, that they were leaving a world which was a much safer and a much more secure world for the generations that would come after them. Indeed, we have been the beneficiaries of their sacrifices. Over half a million Americans gave their lives to preserve freedom around the world in World War II, including members of my family who gave their lives on the soils of Europe. They had a vision of a more secure world. We have some major challenges in Iraq, as we witness the violence there, and when we see what is happening today in Lebanon where we are on the precipice of another civil war there, and when we see what is happening in Gaza and Israel where Hamas has now apparently taken over the Gaza Strip and the emergency that we see President Abbas has declared in the Gaza Strip. We have to somehow figure out this very challenging task of how we put the world back together again. How do we secure the vision the people of America want us to have, which is that we create a safer and more secure world for ourselves and for those generations who will come behind us? The second issue which, in my view, confronts America today and which is interrelated with some of the violence we see in the Middle East is energy. For far too long we have neglected this issue. I am proud of the fact that in 2005, this body came together in a bipartisan way and we opened a new chapter for energy in America. I am very proud of this bill today because it builds on that chapter that gets us to energy independence. We have to look at the failings of America under both Democratic and Republican administrations in the past. Jimmy Carter, Richard Nixon--Richard Nixon first--coined the term ``energy independence'' when OPEC was formed. President Jimmy Carter spoke to the Nation late one night back in the 1970s and said: We need to deal with energy with the same kind of moral imperative of war. Yet what happened in the 1980s and the 1990s? The low cost of fuel essentially allowed America to go to sleep at the switch. The consequence has been that instead of importing 30 percent of our oil as we were in 1970, today we import 60 percent of our oil. The consequence is we have compromised the national security of the United States. I have been on the border of Israel and Lebanon and looked down at the camps of Hamas and the daunting signs of Hezbollah where Hezbollah had captured at that time Israeli soldiers, and they were at that time daring Prime Minister Sharon to go into southern Lebanon. What is it that creates that kind of condition? What is it that allows Hezbollah to have over 37,000 rockets in their armory? What is it that allows the funding and the creation of a militia of more than 10,000 militant soldiers within the Hezbollah organization? It is the oil. It is the oil revenue that is going into some countries in the Middle East, including Iran, that is directly funding those interests who are fighting the interests of America across the world. In fact, we have gotten to the position where those interests have become so powerful economically that now with the potential of Iran arming itself with nuclear capabilities, we should all be very concerned about the security not only of Israel but also of the Middle East and of our entire world. What does Iran with nuclear armaments mean to the national security of our world? It is a fact that it is our energy dependence, the glutton nature of our energy dependence on oil from those countries that has compromised our national security. So when we work on the energy issue of our country, we need to know we are working on an imperative of the 21st century. It is an imperative of the 21st century that we get ourselves rid of this addiction to foreign oil. That is why we see progressives and conservatives coming together, Democrats and Republicans coming together, to try to tackle this issue. Much of what we have in this legislation before the Senate comes from the efforts of the energy futures coalition that coined the term ``set America free.'' ``Set America free.'' Our passage of this legislation, hopefully this next week, will be part of that achievement where we as Senators will stand and we will say we have taken another bold step in this agenda of setting America free. A second issue that obviously confronts the people of America is health care. That is an issue for another day. That is an issue we will be dealing with as we look at health insurance for children and a whole host of other issues. But today and next week, we have an opportunity to deliver on one of the imperatives of the 21st century for the United States of America, and that imperative is that we move forward with courage and with boldness on the vision of energy independence. Our amendment today on 20x'25 is a critical part of that agenda because it sets forth a vision that is an achievable one that will get us to make sure we are producing 25 percent of our energy from renewable resources by the year 2025. I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. SALAZAR. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.

Mr. SALAZAR. Mr. President, I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. SALAZAR. Mr. President, I understand the amendment I spoke about is acceptable to both sides. Therefore, I ask for a voice vote on the amendment.

Mr. SALAZAR

Mr. SALAZAR. I yield.

Mr. SALAZAR. Madam President, parliamentary inquiry: What is the regular order?

Mr. SALAZAR. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the pending amendment be set aside, and I call up amendment No. 1572.

Mr. SALAZAR. That will be fine. I appreciate the Senator from Tennessee and his leadership, not only on these issues, but also on park issues and so many other issues that he has spent a long career working on in behalf of our country. The amendment No. 1572, which I have introduced with my colleagues Senator Bayh, Senator Alexander, Senator Lieberman, Senator Brownback, Senator Coleman, Senator Cantwell, Senator Lincoln, Senator Clinton, and Senator Biden, is an important amendment to move us forward in our vision of energy independence and to set America free from the addiction we have on imported oil. The amendment we have here is part of the DRIVE Act, which is sponsored by a group of 26 Senators, a true bipartisan coalition which has wanted to move forward in our efforts to set America free from our addiction to foreign oil. The DRIVE electric amendment will make better use of the electricity in the transportation sector by spurring development and deployment of plug-in hybrid electric vehicles and by promoting oil savings at key transportation hubs, including airports and truckstops. The amendment we are offering today will move us toward our oil savings targets included in this bill by making better use of electric in the transportation sector. Currently, it is our cars, trucks, boats, planes, and trains which account for about two-thirds of the Nation's oil consumption. The easiest way to save oil and reduce our dependence on imports is to first improve the efficiency of our vehicles, which we are doing in the underlying bill in a number of ways, especially by raising the CAFE standards and helping manufacturers refuel their vehicle fleets; secondly, by replacing the oil-based fuels that power our vehicles with energy from other sources. The amendment we are offering today will help substitute electric for oil in the transportation sector in two ways. First, this amendment encourages commonsense oil-saving electrification measures at truckstops, ports, and airports. Our amendment directs the Secretary of Energy, in coordination with the Secretary of Transportation and EPA, to create a revolving loan and grant program to support the electrification of these transportation hubs. You would be surprised at how much oil we can save through these simple measures. For example, truckers must rest 10 hours after driving for 11 hours. When they do this, they often park at truckstops, leaving their engines idling to power heaters, air-conditioners, TVs, or refrigerators. This overnight idling by long-haul trucks consumes around 20 million barrels of oil per year. The solution is very simple: You simply give truckers the option of plugging their trucks into an electrical outlet to power their systems while they are stopped at these truck stops. The EPA today estimates that this measure alone would save around $3,240 in fuel costs per truck parking space per year. We can take similar measures at airports and seaports to improve efficiency of handling cargo, refrigerating goods, and powering vehicles. Our amendment helps transportation hubs make these oil- and cost-saving investments. The second way in which our amendment improves the use of electricity in the transportation sector is through the development and deployment of plug-in hybrid and electric drive technologies. The National Renewable Energy Lab in Golden, CO recently conducted a simulation to assess the capabilities of plug-in hybrid electric technology. The simulation showed that a plug-in hybrid electric vehicle fleet with modest technological capabilities would double the fuel economy of a conventional fleet, with less than half the energy costs per mile. Detroit is on the cusp of offering these plug-in hybrid electric vehicles to consumers across the Nation and across the world. Some of the prototypes are far more advanced than those which NREL studied and would get over 100 miles to the gallon, with energy cost to the consumer that is equivalent to around 75 cents per gallon of gas. These plug-in hybrid vehicles are a building block of our new energy economy, and we should be doing more to push these technologies out the door. Americans will benefit from these plug-in hybrid electric vehicles with lower costs and reduced emissions. While the underlying bill would allow for basic and applied energy storage research, the amendment we are proposing would also establish an electric drive transportation research and development program. That program would stimulate research into high-efficiency onboard and offboard charging components, high-power and energy-efficient drivetrain systems, powertrain development and integration, the use of advanced materials technology, and several other areas that are key to getting electric and plug-in hybrid vehicles to the American consumer. Our amendment will also help prepare utility companies to handle the added load these new vehicles will place on the electrical grid. We have directed the Secretary of Energy and EPA to work with the utilities to develop low-cost, simple methods of using off-peak electricity and better managing on-peak use to support a growing fleet of electric drive vehicles. These investments in research and preparation of our electrical grid will usher in an era when all assumptions about how we power our cars and trucks will change. We will see oil consumption, emissions, and costs fall, and we will see a new way of innovation and design, with American engineers leading the charge. So that America gets out front on the development of this electric drive revolution, we are creating a nationwide education program for electric drive transportation technology. The amendment will provide financial assistance to create new university-level degree programs for needed engineers, support student plug-in hybrid electric vehicle competitions, and promote other educational initiatives. We believe American minds can and should power this electric drive revolution so that our best and brightest are delivering the next generation of American cars to consumers. I am proud of how far we have already come on the Energy bill that is before us today. Chairman Bingaman and Senator Domenici, along with the leaders of the Environment and Public Works Committee, the Commerce Committee, and the Finance Committee, have done yeoman's labor over the last 5 months to get us to where we are today. The DRIVE Act electric amendment will magnify the positive impacts of this bill and accelerate the arrival of a clean energy future in which all Americans can access plug-in hybrid technologies that save them gas and money. I urge my colleagues to support this bipartisan amendment which, again, has the cosponsorship of Senator Lieberman, Senator Brownback, Senator Coleman, Senator Cantwell, Senator Lincoln, Senator Clinton, Senator Biden, and my colleague from Tennessee, Senator Alexander. Madam President, I inquire of my friend from Tennessee if I can call up my amendment.

Mr. SALAZAR. Madam President, while my colleagues are seeing if they can work out the objection, let me proceed to speak about this amendment. The amendment I hope to call up is amendment No. 1572, and it is an amendment which is part of----

Mr. SALAZAR. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the pending amendment be set aside, and I call up amendment No. 1572.