 First we have a very special guest, Senator Ron Wyden from the great state of Oregon is joining us today. Thanks for making time. I'll turn the lectern over to you. I'm really looking forward to what you have to say. Thank you very much and my understanding is you're going to have Congress speakers all day long. Is that true? That is true. That sounds like cruel and unusual punishment for a Monday and I thought what I'd do is be very brief and if you all want to ask a question we can do it. The saga of what got us the biggest investment in fighting climate change in American history really took a turn in the right direction after cap and trade went down in 2010. I was a pretty junior member of the Senate Finance Committee but I figured by any calculus I could figure out what wasn't working and we looked at the failures of cap and trade, we looked at the failures of carbon taxes, we looked at most of the regulatory side initiatives and we said we're not going to get the Democrats let alone the Republicans and at one point my wife who owns the Strand bookstore in New York City and it's very knowledgeable saw me she said dear you've just got documents practically from head to toe and you're 6-4 I can't even move in here when's this going to end and I said sweetheart I think we got it and almost felt like you know the rain in Spain study is mainly on the plane where they say they think they've got it she said oh interesting I got on the phone and I said folks we're missing something simple and linear and understandable and it's right in front of us and they say yeah right and I said it's the tax code and I looked and said we're talking about billions of dollars that's been allocated in a way that seems foolish even by Washington DC standards and I said for example people like yourselves you want certainty and predictability the tax code gives you everything else but that you all remember the tax extenders that you used to have how many ever heard of a tax extender okay most of energy policy was built around a year or 18 month intervals and I always used to say that some of those extenders had a shelf life a little bit longer than a carton of eggs and I said we've got to redo this and I said to my colleagues on the finance committee we're going to take the tax code all 44 provisions and we're going to get as close to throwing it into the garbage can as we can and we did we did 300 billion dollars clean energy tax credits under the budget assessment has now grown to about 500 billion based on private sector projections of investment there were two bedrock principles one was technological neutrality which I negotiated personally with Joe Manchin his first choice was all of the above I said how about if we say technological neutrality to give this a science basis because nobody knows what's going to be a big carbon reducer 25 30 years from now to his credit he said you bet and then I said there's something I'm going to have to have as senior senator from Oregon we have to have something reduces carbon emissions so what do you have in mind I said let's say more you reduce carbon emissions the bigger your tax savings those are the two principles of the bill that became law we got about 90 percent of what we wanted main thing we didn't get was transmission capability I know many of you care about that so that was the piece that was missing but we're on their way and when we walked out of the finance room I had become chairman over the next few years I walked out in late spring of 2021 and I pinched myself and I said the Senate Finance Committee really do something they never ever come close to doing which is to say the more you reduce carbon the bigger your tax savings did they ever take a science based standard like our technological neutrality and senators tell me about coming up to shake my hand after it was over and they said you looked a little dazed I said I sure as hell was we were making a little bit of history we still are and I see all these young people in the crowd this is your time folks this is your opportunity we've gotten a new system embedded in the black letter law that really rewards innovation rewards entrepreneurship I see some friends that I just visited with some very articulate young advocates we're gonna help us reach underserved communities so my wife says whenever you're out and going through this little story she said I've heard it a few times she says you can't stop smiling yeah it's a fact this one of the most important things I've done in public service and I've had the honor opportunity to represent Oregon a while so let's have a question or two if you have a minute absolutely and softball questions will be especially welcome the glad to visit questions from the audience Sydney can you help with the mic I've got one in the back I went to school on a basketball scholarship and I always hung out in the back because I didn't want to ask any questions or get caught not doing so a senator thank you we really appreciate your efforts here in the accomplishments in Ira wanted to get your thoughts on whether transmission may it someday qualify for the investment tax credit well what I've said is I'm not gonna front-run my colleagues but I am all in on transmission I mean this is not rocket science and I mean if you look at the provisions that passed the Senate Finance Committee in late spring early summer of 2021 you'll see my vision for transmission it's great to have the energy what does it mean if you can't get it to somebody so I'm all in and I'm putting nothing off the table and that's what I did when we started those talks with center mansion in 2010 we have got to do in fact the two areas that I'm now spending the most time on in terms of future policy or transmission and permitting and I would like to do for permitting some version of the incentive based idea that we did in the IRA it is not identical to the provisions in the IRA for a variety of reasons but there ought to be ways to give a fast track to people who are going to get us permits more quickly to clean energy yeah our foreign companies eligible for the tax credits like if an Australian company built a vanadium redox factory in everything in the black letter text is geared the high skill high-wage jobs in America now you have probably seen because there are three branches of government that the Biden administration has tried to factor this in to some of their implementation but at the end of the day this is our path to innovation in America describe to me a little bit more of the facts in your case because it sounds like you have a foreign company that might want to invest in America they just want to be foreign I just like I like the idea of vanadium redox I'm sorry I couldn't hear a what kind of redox but I'd like the idea of vanadium redox because they have a utility-scaled batteries and they can be substituted for a peaker generator and they can store the energy that's curtailed that the can't fit on why don't why don't you get us more information analysis here I mean I have seen the Canadian proposal and what I can't really get my arms around because I think the intent is a good one I can't really get my arms around how many jobs in Canada and how many jobs elsewhere and all of those related kinds of issues but if you think that this is a model that can incent the kind of spirit of what we were trying to do here I'm interested okay that's Alice that's Sydney I kid everybody call them nights and weekends take their free time they're very smart no softballs in the house today Senator may I ask a question mm-hmm so I'm curious for what you're hearing back home Oregon is a state that's out in front on a lot of clean energy policy energy efficiency policy in particular what's the reaction that you're hearing back home about the rebate programs and tax incentives and things like that are that are being rolled out by the agencies my my constituents feel so strongly about clean energy when I'm home and I have town hall meetings in every county every year people come up and say yeah heard about Iran what's next and you know I have to kind of say this is the biggest investment in the history of our country in terms of climate change and people sometimes say yeah with finance committee the head of the thing what do you guys do you guys make loans so I can buy a house so there's a big disconnect in America as you might guess from how policy gets made in Washington it's why I do all these town meetings I think it'd be fair to say the reaction after you get by the disbelief because most people say the Congress can't run a two-car parade let alone do something like this has been very positive we have companies making you know legacy type projections in terms of batteries and stuff like that we have somebody in Clackamas County doing that that Alice and everybody talk others yes we've been hearing a lot today about the challenges people are facing translating the language from the law and all the tax regulations to make it accessible to the people you're trying to get the money to you know can you comment is there any way we can have laws that you know people can understand that is way too logical for the federal government I spend a big chunk of my time on exactly what you're talking about I made a commitment that had never been done in my state they've opened to everybody town hall meetings in every county every year I've now had about a thousand and fifty of them and the overwhelming bulk of the time in the meetings is devoted to exactly what you're talking about so every time I have a chance to sit at my laptop or in the old days put a pencil to something I'm thinking about you know that if we were starting over a lot of the language that's there now wouldn't exist what we're trying to do is make a transition and it's why when I walked in how many of you out of curiosity had ever heard the new energy law explained like I've explained it raise your hand if you had did anybody here know about 10 years ago and technology neutrality and tax credits one person somebody going like this I find nobody's heard anything about that they barely know that there's a new law they're starting to be renewed interest on things like heat pumps because you can look it up it's at our website and others and you can see savings that you can get so we're spending a lot of time on this you got any ideas on how to better get the word out there are a bunch of people I think fitting when I asked my questions because I find people in the energy field had no idea that they started in 2010 no idea about technological neutrality no idea about tax credits economic communities people will know a tiny bit about direct pay don't know about the direct pay features how many people heard of direct pay features okay that's less than half the room direct pay was a hugely consequential matter because local governments obviously don't pay taxes in the kind of classic federal taxes so we wanted to get help to them and they're eligible for quote direct pay from the Treasury so and we got a lot of explaining to do and you can see it in this room of people who you know are willing to tackle bad weather gazillion degree heat come to Washington to listen to a whole bunch of Congress folks um no I'm a journalist I spend my time explaining all this right who do you write for RTO inside or where wonderful yep talk to Alice and Sydney and we we would be happy to do it I'm a journalist kid and very proud of my nonfiction writing dad one of his best books was about the Bay of Pigs there's a picture of Fidel Castro on the back with my dad and Castro says Peter Wyden knows more about it than we do so we're journalists would be glad to work with you why don't we take one other and then I got a zip okay more than more than anything we want you know our door is open I think it's wonderful to see a house full of young people because this is your time folks this is your opportunity you said you know you want to see a transition from complicated lingo this is about clean energy clean transportation energy efficiency if you remember one thing that's the three things the bill does okay to be continued thanks everybody