SEEC Members Highlight Impacts of Sequestration to Energy and the Environment

Over the past two days, members of the House Sustainable Energy and Environment Coalition (SEEC) have taken to the House floor during one minute speeches to raise awareness and bring attention to the looming impacts of sequestration on energy and environmental programs. Members discussed the consequences of sequestration on water resources, water infrastructure, clean energy development, the electric grid, national laboratories, national parks, and wildlife management. The group also included calls for an extension of the wind production tax credit, due to expire at the end of the year.

Unless President Obama and Congress reach a deal before January 1, 2013, $1.2 trillion in across-the-board cuts to defense and non-defense programs will go into effect. These cuts, known as sequestration, are required as a result of the Congressional Budget Act of 2011, enacted as part of a compromise to raise the federal debt ceiling.

SEEC members highlighted these devastating consequences to demonstrate the need for a balanced approach to resolving our nation’s long-term budget problems.

SEEC Member Rep. John Sarbanes (D-MD) said, “Critical initiatives that help the Chesapeake Bay will be among the hardest hit by sequestration…. These programs are some of the most important tools we have for addressing pollution and storm water runoff in the bay….. We must make clean water and clean air a priority. I urge my colleagues to protect these critical programs from reckless cuts that will destroy jobs and destroy the environment.”

“Impending budget cuts under sequestration pose a serious risk to America's leadership in a variety of areas. The one in particular that I want to focus on today is the serious risk to America's leadership on a clean-energy economy and to developing grid-scale energy infrastructure, made possible in part by the Production Tax Credit. These investments help to ensure our Nation's energy security and independence while spurring growth in a wind industry that supports over 70,000 jobs nationwide, including hundreds in Rhode Island,” said SEEC Member Rep. Jim Langevin (D-RI).

SEEC Member Rep. Barbara Lee (D-CA) stated, “Renewable energy research is the first step for job creation and building up American manufacturing. I'm proud to say that in my own district we're leading the way with a vibrant renewable energy research industry led by the University of California at Berkeley, the East Bay Municipal Utility District, the PolyPlus Battery Company, and the Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. They and others work day and night on innovations that will power our future and fuel our economy.”

SEEC Member Rep. Mike Quigley (D-IL) said: “Whether you call it a fiscal cliff or slope, there’s no denying the environmental wreckage hitting a metaphoric ledge will have. Under the sequester, the National Park Service would likely have to close national parks, campgrounds, and visitor centers. Under the sequester, widespread rural job loss, weaker wildfire management, closure of trails, and campgrounds, poor maintenance of forest roads, unprocessed recreational permits, and greater invasive species growth is forecasted. Under the sequester, $148 million would be taken away from the U.S. Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy program, which would be equivalent to cutting the solar industry program in half or equal to eliminating the entire wind and geothermal programs. Fiscal cliff or slopE, the environment knows no difference. We must act and act now.”

Said SEEC Member Rep. Lois Capps (D-CA), “Sequestration would be a huge blow… to our clean energy innovators and entrepreneurs…. These cuts would tremendously damage our ability to develop the clean energy technologies of tomorrow, technologies that lead not only to lower energy bills for our constituents but also to new business and middle class jobs. I see it every day in my congressional district where cutting-edge companies like LaunchPoint Technologies and Transform use federal funding to develop exciting new ideas that would otherwise languish on the drawing board…. It’s time for us to come together and pass a balanced package that continues building for a clean energy future.”

SEEC Member Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-IL) said of the wind production tax credit, “The Production Tax Credit is essential for energy independence, the environment, and public health; and it is critical for job creation and our economy. The Production Tax Credit has helped to create good-paying jobs across the country, including 7,000 in my home State of Illinois…. This is not a partisan issue. Eighty-nine percent of Americans, including 84 percent of Republicans, want more wind power. We must act to extend the Production Tax Credit for wind without delay. The American people can't wait any longer.”

“Thousands of jobs all across the country are dependent upon [the wind production] tax credit. Again, it would be passed overwhelmingly if it were brought to the floor,” SEEC Member Rep. Ed Perlmutter (D-CO) echoed.

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