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116-20

Two years ago Columbia took the next step setting a target of powering our community with 100 percent clean and renewable energy by 2035

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These includeas I concludereauthorizing and fully funding the Energy Efficiency and Conservation Block Grant Program in fiscal year 2020 and beyond establishing and implementing a national greenhouse gas emission reduction standard by 2030 a DOTan aggressive national renewable portfolio standard and providing sensors for electric utilities including municipal electric utilities to invest in clean and renewable energy direct the EPA to maintain and approve CAFE standards provide incentives for the energy sector to ramp up and research investments in renewable energy modernize the nations electric utility grids to provide transportation funding to help metropolitan areas and local areas invest in lowcarbon modeneutral transportation options creating increased funding for the surface transportation block grant increase funding for transit

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We are home to 20 major oil and exploration companies

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To date the Permian Shelf transports 3 million barrels of crude oil per day and by the summer of 2019 may be transporting 4 million and by 2020 when transportation lines could hit over 6 billion barrels6 million barrels of oil a day

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What the US Geological Survey numbers mean is that the Permian Basis is the largest single reservoir oil and gas in the United States of America and is also one of the largest on local soil

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Today one of the issues challenging Midland is 15000 oil workers are lacking in our industry

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Midland also has a housing crisis due to the influx of oil and gas families moving into the area

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During that drought and even today the oil companies played a responsible part in retracting their need of water for production by going under the Ogallala Reservoir and pulling the brackish water and repurposing it for their own industrial use

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These oil companies are not allowed to use municipalities water resources and in the last 100 years there have not been any incidents of earthquakes or tremors that have been associated with drilling activity in the Permian Basin

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While methane emissions have been raised as concerns by detractors of the industry a large majority of methane emissions from production of the Permian Basin centers around flaring necessitated by lack of takeaway capacity

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However there is an estimated 14 billion cubic feet per day of additional natural gas pipeline capacity that is scheduled to come online in the Permian Basin by the end of 2022 according to the Texans on natural gas

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Once these pipelines are in place even with the increased production methane emissions in the field will be greatly reduced

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Unprecedented efforts such as the range wide plan for the lesser prairie chicken which covers five States including Texas New Mexico Oklahoma Kansas and Colorado as well as more localized conservation plans for species like the dunes sagebrush lizard and the Texas hornshell mussel

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Municipalities do not regulate downhole drilling nor do they control where water comes from from the drilling and fracking process

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In addition many operations are reclaiming water production which is produced byas a byproduct of oil and gas production

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This pollution almost half of which is caused by vehicle emissions impacts our quality of life almost daily and is contributing to the longterm effects of climate change such as wildfires and droughts

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In 2016 Salt Lake City became the sixteenth city in the nation to establish a 100 percent clean energy goal

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To fulfil this pledge we have taken action including passing a costfree energy bench marking ordinance estimated to remove 29 tons of pollutants from the air annually

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Perhaps most significantly Salt Lake City Park City Moab and Summit County have been working with our utility Rocky Mountain Power to establish a framework to allow our communities to have net 100 percent renewable electricity by 2030

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Just last Friday Governor Gary Herbert signed into law the Community Renewable Energy Act which is the legislation we needed to continue building this framework

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I sit on the Natural Gas Task Force for the County Commissioners Association of Pennsylvania

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Today energy drives our economy

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With an investment measured in the billions we partnered with an engine that would fuel the nation

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In Beaver County we are proud of our past but we are also confident in our energy future

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The current energy boom in Beaver County started with the Marcellus Shale

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Approximately 10 years ago Beaver County started to see the effects of the technological advancements that made developing the Marcellus Shale possible

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In addition to the billions of dollars in bonuses and royalty payments made to Pennsylvanians who leased their lands and property for natural gas extraction in 2012 the Pennsylvanian General Assembly imposed a special tax on the industry called an impact fee which is paid annually by the unconventional natural gas producers for each well drilled

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Beaver County has tremendous potential and that potential stems in large part from the economic opportunity Marcellus Shale presents

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Without a doubt our modern world is built on energy and our future hinges on the ability to leverage our domestic energy resources

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To fuel our economy grow manufacturing employ Americas labor workforce and continue to propel our country forward as a global leader I am proud to represent a county that is integral to making this future possible

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As you deliberate your policy changes I am here to ask you to consider the monumental impact American shale gas development has had on our country and support this economic driver as vital to our shared future

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We are successfully making our community safer and healthier for our residents businesses and visitors through initiatives aimed at reducing pollution and harmful emissions

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I have also shown my support here nationally as one of the original signers on the Conference of Mayors Climate Protection Agreement and ultimately over 1200 mayors from both parties throughout the United States signed into the agreement and pledged local efforts to help achieve greater reduction of harmful emissions

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I have cochaired the Congress of Mayors Energy Independence and Climate Protection Task Force

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I am often asked by younger Republicans and students why as a Republican am I strongly advocating for conservation and environmental initiatives

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We need to search for answers that help our environment while presenting opportunities to encourage thousands of new green jobs that save energy or make renewable energy

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Not only do we get an 80 percent increase or decrease rather in injury accidents last year our city engineer estimated we saved about 28000 tons of carbon

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Since 2005 we required alternative fuel vehicles be purchased by city departments when available

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This month our police department announced that we are switching to a 130car fleet of renewables

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We worked hard at the Conference of Mayors with you and with this committee to get the energy efficiency and environmental block grant program authorized

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And I am guessing your community was not as active doing this sort of clean energy or resilience work a decade ago

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The Permian Basin in Midland TexasOdessa Texas our sister citywhat we have learned from the these oil and gas companies which makes up 90probably about 90 percent of our industry out there is technology

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The Energy and Environmental Block Grant Program is a wonderful idea

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During the stimulus Carmel received about 700000 in an Environmental Energy Block Grant

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We reduced as a result of doing that our energy consumption for those lights by close to 50 percent and getting a return in excess of 10 percent in electricity savings on that investment

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So if youin longterm view energy innovation and carbon dividend act and you passed that that is a longterm solution that would be very helpful and would create about 21 million new jobs and reduce our emissions by 40 percent in this country

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Short term though I think the Energy Efficiency and Conservation Grant has been very helpful and should be renewedthe EPAtargeted air shed grant Department of Energy Solar Cities Grant or theandor the congestion mitigation and air quality improvement program all of which have helped our cities across this country

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In terms of the energy and efficiency improvements what would you cite in terms of gains that you made with some of those programs that you just mentioned

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So on energy efficiency we are shoring up opportunities with our buildings and our property owners

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I want to ask Mayor Morales and Commissioner Camp would Archie and Jackare they better off now in your community because of oil and gas development from the aspect of health interaction to education and future job opportunities and can you give me some examples of that

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It isas I just alluded to technology has really brought the oil company and been able to allow these companies to drill more effectively in less time and more advanced manner in the sense of between the city ordinances and the State ordinances the Railroad Commission you are seeing less and less and less rigs go up

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So then I will just because of the shale and because of the technology and the drilling it has then brought these families that we are seeing a mass increase into our community which means then those companies have to participate in helping us with road infrastructure

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So I would say that today because of the oil companies and the impact that they are having in our community it is publicprivate partnership and one that they know that their children are on the roads one that they know the community cannot handle alone

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So schoolsor theseagain these oil companies are realizing that they are the ones that are making the impact so they need to make that investment

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As I stated in my testimony earlier in the 1980s when the steel industry left Beaver County and left western Pennsylvania because of the emissions and the changes were one of the key driving factors to that a lot of thea lot of the collegeeducated individuals left western Pennsylvania to go work elsewhere we are starting to see them come back now

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So it is safe to say that energy development and the livelihood of people who you represent are greatly benefited by that

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They are and as the Governor said earlier those who suffer the most from air quality and any other emissions are the ones who are living in poverty under the bridges and by the roads

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I would wholeheartedly agree and I would also say in the State of Texas because the Permian shale 35 percent of the severance tax that we submit is staying in the roads infrastructures of all of Texas not just the Permian Basin

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So our shale the production out there is impacting schools and infrastructure

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And they have achieved their netzero energy status in 2016 which they define as producing more energy from sun or wind than they use

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They have all electric buses in Lancaster

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They make sure that every new home built is solar powered and affordable at that

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It is the first city to require actually solar panels on every home

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We can do better than that and since so much of the money for building that highway system comes from the highway trust fund having a little stronger requirements that encourage better city design could make a big difference to those auto emissions that cause such problems for instance to Salt Lake City

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Under the Commerce Clauseunder the Commerce Clause there are numerous challenges now around the country about this because you just heardmaybe heard Governor Inslee trying to prevent coal from being exported across the State to be exported

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We have a Governor in Maryland usingpreventing gas pipelines being constructed across Maryland 312 miles long 12 feet wide and is trying to prevent that from happening

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We see in New York fighting the Commerce Clause by preventing the pipeline construction up there to distribute gas

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How are we going to get coal transported up

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How are we going to get gas up into New England when they have shortages

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Fortunately you know for the Shell petrol chemical plant they are running 97mile natural gas line directly to the plant

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I think as Ranking Member Shimkus said earlier you know we had studies in the past administration and go throughif we would have spent our time and energy focusing on how to help these other nations with their emissions you know if you truly believe in global warming and climate change it is a nationalit is a world thing not just a national thing

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And if we focused our time energy finances resources on helping the entire world and not just the United States we would be moving you know to the future a little faster

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They include a report by the University of Montana entitled The Economic Impact of the Early Retirement of Colstrip Units 3 and 4 a letter from the mayor of Rock Falls a Washington Post article from March 28th of 2019 entitled In small towns across the nation the death of a coal plant leaves an unmistakable void a report by Energy Innovation titled The Coal Cost Crossover Economic Viability of Existing Coal Compared to New Local Wind and Solar Resources the United States Climate Alliances 2018 annual report a New York Times article from March 29th of 2019 entitled They Grew Up Around Fossil Fuels

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Now Their Jobs Are in Renewables an article from KPAX titled Montana Senate Advances Bill to Aid Northwestern Purchase of Colstrip 4 Share two articles from the Institute for Energy Research entitled Chinas New Environmental Problem Battery Disposal and the other The Mounting Solar Panel Waste Problem an article from Amnesty International entitled Amnesty challenges industry leaders to clean up their batteries and finally an article from Engineeringcom entitled Will Your Electric Car Save the World or Wreck It

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1 1 The University of Montana Energy Innovation and United States Climate Alliance reports have been retained in committee files and also are available at httpsdocshousegovCommitteeCalendarByEventaspxEventID109745

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At our last hearing on climate change we learned that the abdication of American leadership at the Federal level is having a significant cost in mitigating carbon pollution and meeting the goals of the Paris Agreement

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In 2016 we saw similar issues when foreign adversaries used the power of these platforms against us to disseminate disinformation and foment doubt in order to sow division and instill distrust in our leaders and institutions

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The ability of people to post content that speaks truth to power has created political movements in this country and others that have changed the world we live in

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We all need to recognize the incredible power this technology has for good as well as the risks we face when it is misused

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In 2016 we saw similar issues when foreign adversaries used the power of these platforms against us to disseminate disinformation and foment doubt in order to sow division and instill distrust in our leaders and institutions

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The ability of people to post content that speaks truth to power has created political movements in this country and others that have changed the world we live in

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We all need to recognize the incredible power this technology has had for good as well as the risks we face when its misused

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It is important to understand that rather than helping even narrow changes to 230 can undermine the power of community and hurt the vulnerable

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The law has thereby helped remove much of the gatekeeping that once stifled social change and perpetuated power imbalances and that is because it doesnt just protect tech giants

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So that is the sort of nuance that we think is really important and highlights the power of our community model because I as a nonveteran might not have had that same sort of intuition

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I do think that industrywe do this across the board in a lot of this whether it is engineering of heating and air cooling equipment or that

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However I will say that Indiana State Police Captain Chuck Cohen who has actually testified before Energy and Commerce recently told me that one of the issues that law enforcement runs into when working with internet companies is an attitude that he calls minimally compliant

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I think this is a really important area to show the power and the importance of CDA 230

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About 20 years ago I harnessed the power of the internet to launch a business to improve customer service

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This time however the foundation received an email from Google and I quote Any promotions about hunting practices even when they are intended as a healthy method of population control or conservation is considered animal cruelty and deemed inappropriate to be shown on our network

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I think it is important to understand the work that these groups do to further conservation and to help species thrive

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I think I just said courts do have the power of injunctive relief