Remarks of
Federico Peņa
Secretary of Energy
on
Global Climate Change
at
Carnegie Mellon University
September 15, 1997
Thank you, Tom (Murphy, Mayor of Pittsburgh) for that kind introduction. I would also like to thank Jared (Cohen, President, Carnegie Mellon University) for hosting this event.
I'm pleased to be here in Pittsburgh with Secretary Daley to discuss the important issue of climate change. I will address the role of technology in dealing with climate change, and Secretary Daley will talk about how the Administration is working to minimize the impact on our economy when meeting this important challenge.
It's no accident that we're here in Pittsburgh. In Pittsburgh, we see how smart policies and partnerships with industry can transform a community. Pittsburgh has gone from a two-horse town -- steel and coal -- to a modern city that has diversified its economy and is prepared for the 21st Century. And I'm pleased that the Department of Energy has been a partner in your success. We've worked with the steel and coal industries to reduce pollution and increase production efficiencies. And we've worked with citizens to improve home heating and air conditioning efficiency.
Mr. Mayor, you and other Pittsburgh leaders deserve our congratulations on a job well done.
Pittsburgh's success has special relevance to the subject Secretary Daley and I are here to talk about today: the challenge global climate change poses to our economy, our environment, and our quality of life. We believe that the greenhouse gases responsible for global climate change are a significant problem for our nation, the world and future generations. We have an obligation to the generations who will follow us to act, and act now. But we must do so in a way that won't slow our economy or cost us jobs.
If there is any doubt about the science behind global climate, it should have been silenced after a recent meeting President Clinton had with a group of distinguished scientists, including three Nobel Prize winners. At that meeting, those scientists stated their consensus that global warming is occurring and that it presents a danger to the world.
We may debate the magnitude of the problem and its consequences, but we can't wish away the problem. Dr. John Holdren summed it up well when he said that "scientific uncertainties are not grounds for complacency." And he used the vivid imagery of the world's energy and economic system being very much like a supertanker: it's hard to steer, has very bad brakes, and is headed toward a reef. As Dr. Holdren concluded, "Even though we can't say exactly when we're going to get to the point where that reef rips the bottom out of the supertanker, it's a bad idea in these circumstances to keep on a course of full speed ahead."
I want to avoid that reef, while achieving President Clinton's goal of keeping our economy healthy and staying competitive internationally. And, Mr. Mayor, we want to do it in a way that doesn't make your life difficult. I believe that one of the strategies we must aggressively pursue is to use the best technology and scientific genius to reduce greenhouse gases and, thus, minimize the impact on our economy.
The Technology Challenge
The Clinton Administration's position on global climate change is clear. We want an agreement that establishes realistic targets and timetables for reduced emissions, and is based on flexible, cost-effective methods -- specifically an emissions trading system and joint implementation -- which is a way for U.S. companies to sell clean technologies to developing countries in order to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
Underpinning all of this is a strong belief that we will be able to develop technologies that are based on market realities and cut greenhouse gas emissions.
In June, in a speech before the U.N., President Clinton directed the Federal government's scientific laboratories to develop technological solutions to reduce greenhouse gases that cause global climate change. Technology can help us meet our twin goals of economic growth and environmental stewardship.
I have spoken to the directors of 11 of the Department of Energy's national laboratories and challenged them to respond. Most people don't know that the Department of Energy, at its core, is a science and technology agency. We employ more than 30,000 scientists and technicians who work at world class national laboratories and scientific facilities -- like the Federal Energy Technology Center co-located here in Pittsburgh and West Virginia -- to solve complex national problems. Our laboratories are ensuring the safety and reliability of our nation's nuclear weapons, cleaning up environmental damage at defense sites, producing new energy technologies, and conducting basic research into many and diverse new areas, such as quantum physics and human genetics.
When conducting this research, we often work in partnership with universities, communities, and the private sector. Here at Carnegie Mellon, for example, we are funding over a dozen research projects that are helping build the science base we need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, including research into ways to minimize the environmental impacts of transportation services.
And as Mayor Murphy knows, we work very closely with cities like Pittsburgh. President Clinton, in his June speech, challenged the Department of Energy and other Federal agencies to work with companies and communities to install solar systems on one million roofs by 2010. We are taking this challenge seriously and are working with the Green Building Alliance in Pittsburgh. By 2010, we expect the Million Solar Roofs initiative to reduce carbon dioxide emissions equivalent to what is now produced by 850,000 cars, and to produce the same electricity generating capacity as 3-5 coal-fired plants.
We also partner with private companies. In Pennsylvania alone, we have joined forces with technology companies on more than 20 projects with a total value approaching $512 million. Most of these are energy production technology projects. Westinghouse Electric Corp., for example, just signed a 5 1/2 year research agreement with us to develop an advanced solid oxide fuel cell -- a technology that can help reduce greenhouse gas emissions significantly. We'll provide $83 million in funding and Westinghouse, along with its other partners, will invest $119 million.
It's these kind of partnerships -- whether they are with cities, states, universities, companies, or other federal agencies -- that form the basis of my belief that the Department of Energy will be an important partner in the effort to reduce greenhouse gas. The Department of Energy didn't wait to begin our technology work until global warming became a hot issue. Since the late 1970s, we've invested more than any other government agency on research and technology development that is related to global climate change. These projects range from developing new solar and wind technologies, to fuel cells and advanced gas turbines.
Scientists from our national laboratories, researchers at universities, and industrial scientists have been protecting jobs, making industry more efficient, and reducing pollution -- all at the same time.
A good example of this partnership approach is our Industries of the Future initiative, which we created in 1991. We've entered into partnerships with seven industries -- aluminum, chemicals, forest products, glass, metal casting, petroleum refining, and steel -- that are the dominant energy users and waste generators in the U.S. manufacturing sector. Together, they account for 80% of total energy use and they also employ 2.9 million American workers.
The steel industry, for example, has set a goal to increase recycling of scrap metal from current levels of 50% to about 70% over the next twenty years.
The DOE Response
As part of our ongoing efforts, today I am announcing a $1.5 million, multi-year research effort to develop advanced methods to capture or recycle greenhouse gases. We are asking companies and universities to give us their best ideas about how to capture and reuse emissions of carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous oxide -- all of which contribute to global warming. For example, we want to explore ways to reuse carbon dioxide in biological processes as a way to produce energy.
These are the kinds of technological solutions that could help us address the greenhouse gas problem while keeping our economy strong. Within the next few weeks I will be issuing a report conducted by scientists at five of our national laboratories that will demonstrate that a market driven technology approach to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, without significantly reducing economic growth, may indeed be possible.
Let me conclude by saying that I do not underestimate the difficulty of the challenge that global climate change presents to us. It will take a significant effort and the best talent and technology we have to solve the problem. But years from now, I don't want my three children to ask me why we didn't act when we had the opportunity to act.
I mentioned earlier that work is being funded on climate change here at Carnegie Mellon University. One of the graduate students performing that research is with us today, Andrea Sterdis. She is working on ways to minimize the environmental impacts of transportation services, which will help in our fight on global warming. With Andrea is her 9-year-old daughter, Kirstin.
Andrea is just beginning her career and will no doubt make major contributions to reducing the effects of climate change. But it is her daughter, Kirstin, who will either enjoy a future that is brighter because we addressed the global climate change problem, or will suffer the consequences of our inaction.
With your help and support, we can make sure that Kirstin and future generations inherit a 21st Century that is as full of promise as the smile I see on her face right now.
Thank you.
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