 I've been a congressman since 2007 and was inspired to run for public office by his son who enlisted after the 9-11 attacks and was kind of reinforced the family sense of public duty and we certainly understand and appreciate that. John McNerney is a member of the committee on energy and commerce in the house. He is a PhD in mathematics which already places him way above my pay grade. He has been an engineering contractor and at Sandia National Labs worked for U.S. wind power and kinetech. There are wind developers and people who understand the value of transmission around Congress. Angus King on the senate energy and natural resources committee was a wind developer. So I think we have a congress that understands infrastructure and this particular infrastructure. I'm delighted to introduce the congressman again. He is a good friend and he is also co-chair of something I hope we hear more about in the future something called the grid innovation caucus which is maybe I don't know about 20 representatives who have a particular interest in the grid and in the science associated with the grid. So I will turn it over to congressman McNerney with my thanks. Thank you Jim. Good morning everyone. Jim told a little story of the start of a story and I hate the story that hasn't been told completely but when I was working for wind energy companies and PG&E and EPRI back in the early 2000s it seemed like a good place to be, things were happening and then I got a call from my son, he was in the service and he said, hey dad, I just got my absentee ballot in the mail and there is no one on the ballot running against the incumbent. So what are you doing with yourself, I mean I'm serving, what are you going to do? So he talked me into running, before that I had no real interest in politics other than complaining like everyone does but so it was a sort of an interesting way to get started but it's been a challenge and my background as James said is renewable energy, wind energy. I spent about 25 years in the business, we got in the business when it was just starting and you were able to design a stuff from a blank piece of paper and that's always good in the sense that it's exciting and you get to put your ideas down. Of course the bad thing is that things go wrong that you don't foresee and I may have told this story to this group before but we got investors to give us money, we designed a wind turbine on a blank piece of paper and we put it together, we put it out in the hills of New Hampshire, we called the investors in, turned the thing on and then everything just flew into pieces, everyone was done for cover including the investors so there's always a difficult start but you know the thing is that we kept going, we got the investors to keep on with us, we improved the blade roots, we improved the foundations, the generation, the transmission, all these things need to be improved until now we see wind energy if you go out into the plains of Kansas or Dakotas you see these beautiful slow moving devices out there. The tips aren't necessarily moving slowly but it looks like they're moving slowly so it was quite an experience but ever since the oil embargo back in the 70s, energy has been my passion. I want to make sure that the United States has the energy it needs, that it's reliable, that it's affordable and that it allows us to continue our march as the greatest nation on earth so that's always been my passion. I understand the importance of investing in renewable energy and in energy products in general, in energy infrastructure in general. One of the things I experienced in those years in the development, wind energy development phases, how a federal interest, a federal investment, waxed and waned over the years and what happened when it waxed, a bunch of new people came into the business, we tried to create new stuff, there was a big learning curve always because it was new people and then we got stuff out there and then federal interest fell off, investment fell off, there were big layoffs, the stuff that we developed went into the closet or went into the fighting cabinet or worse than that, it went overseas. The Germans in particular and some of the Europeans saw that we were falling off in our investment and they made those investments and they created the products and they've been selling those products so we don't want to see this sort of cyclical investment in our technology development because basically it just gives our stuff over to other countries so that's been one of my driving forces is to let's level this off, let's keep it constant, we need to invest in our infrastructure, we need to invest in our grid, transmission is one of the big bottlenecks I believe out there, we need to have distribution as we see the market changing, renewals are becoming a significant part of our energy mix, we see coal dropping off, we see natural gas exploding so to speak in terms of our energy mix and all this needs constant evaluation, constant investment, we need to have our grid and everything ready for these kinds of changes, I mean when you have a distributed generation, the people at Cal ISO or the other ISOs around the country are experiencing hernias trying to figure out how to keep up with it so we need to make sure that we have the money and the investment so that they can do that and I think American leadership is on the line, we want America to be a leader both in terms of technology and in terms of exporting our technology and engineering expertise and also giving our own businesses and our own communities the energy with the reliability and the price points that they need to thrive so these are very big challenges, I was out about a month ago in California the hills are kind of greenish, it's backwards from the east coast because in the summer it's brown out in California and in the winter it's green around here it's green in the summer, I don't know what color in the winter but my wife and I were out at a place in Contra Costa County called the Black Diamond Mine and it's a place where in the 1800s folks were out there mining coal for local use and it was beautiful and green and we walked, there's a cemetery up on the top of the hill so we walked up to the cemetery and looked at some of the grave markers and you know there were children that died at 10 years old of dysentery and there were people that just gave their all for that business and because of people were willing to make that kind of sacrifice their lives and their families for American industry, America grew, America became strong and ironically this was up in the hill when you turned around you could see across the California Delta, some people call it the San Joaquin Delta, you could see across the Delta and in the Montezuma Hills in Solano County there's all these windmills, the new big windmills, it was like what a transition from the hard just breathtaking work that these people did and over to see the new modern generation it was quite a transition just in just a few moments so it just struck me as to where we're going and where we want to go and of course we have a huge challenge of climate change that's not going away we've already omitted I think we're emitting what 30 gigatons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere every year so we're already committed to significant change but that doesn't mean we can continue to emit I mean the sooner we reduce emissions the better off we're gonna be my main city of Stockton California is really kind of below sea level and it worries me that if sea levels rise my biggest town could become submerged so I certainly don't want to see that or Miami or New York or Calcutta or all these towns that are on the coast so we need to be very proactive in terms of how we deal with that emerging problem but specifically in terms of the grid not in terms of generation but in terms of the grid we see these major events like a hurricane a sandy and and other hurricanes and and natural disasters threatening our grids we see also a sort of an emerging threat from terrorism and that needs to be the grid needs to be hardened the grid needs to be modernized so that when there are outages so that when there's some some parts of the grid go down that the grid can can manage the transition and we see that happening today and it's because a private investment it's because of public investment and the partnership that happens between those two things now I think one another issue that I kind of want to touch on is the curtailments I think last year there were 272 megawatt hours of renewable energy curtailed now if you're in the business and you see a curtailment order what does that mean that means you're not going to get revenue means you're losing you're losing money and so that's a that's a very that's that's not a very progressive way to manage a grid so we need demand side management and regional cooperation just the other day Cal ISO was in my office they're talking about how if they cooperate regionally across the western states that they won't have to curtail any longer that and that the the grid will be much more stable at the same time so we have plenty of opportunity left for innovation and in ways to make sure that we use our our resources in the most effective possible way now I want to talk about the grid innovation caucus I'm a co-chair of the caucus with Bob Lara he's from Ohio he's also a member of the Energy and Commerce Committee as I am and we are committed to to bringing I think the challenge we see with the caucus is is sharing our passion and interest on on grid issues on electricity with the rest of the Congress so what I'd like to do is bring as many members of our body along with us in understanding the challenges and understanding the opportunities that this grid is bringing us and and so that's we've done several things we have a fast act that I introduced last year which makes sure that we have a sufficient equipment such as transformers when we have outages so that we can quickly replace equipment when there's problems we have cyber issues that we've addressed legislatively there was grid 01 we've involved the national laboratories we're going to have a grid expo this summer and we we're working on grid resolutions just we just introduced a good resolution recently so my aim is to is to help inflame the passions of my colleagues on this issue on the grid infrastructure issue so recently in the last Congress we we had a pretty significant legislation in the Energy Committee included hydropower and included resources how to develop the the people that we need for for these jobs they're going to be coming up as as you all might know we're seeing a significant number of fat wire people retire everybody wants to do skinny wire and and and and soft wire but there's a real need for fat wire and and so we want to make sure that there's people out there that know how to to do those jobs and do them well see anything else I want to discuss a little bit of partisanship here the House Democratic members of the Energy Committee have an infrastructure plan that we put forth which includes four billion dollars for grid investment unfortunately we see that the President's budget includes a 21 percent cut in infrastructure and in energy infrastructure which I think is going in the very wrong direction these dollars that we invest in our infrastructure are going to get a significant return on investment so I see I see some conflicts political conflicts ahead as we as we try to decide how we're going to spend our federal dollars in the next in the next couple of years and closing I want to say that the consumers in this country in the last year I think it was 2015 or last year or two only spent four percent of their household income on electricity that that's an incredible achievement I mean look what electricity brings us it brings us refrigeration it brings us heating cooling in our homes it brings us lights it powers our computers and all this stuff is only four percent of our household income I mean that is an incredible achievement and we want to keep moving in that direction the more reliable the more cost effective we make power the better off we're going to be because people are going to want to use more of it and and we're going to be able to generate generate more more economies so I think we have an incredible record we have significant challenges ahead but I see us moving more or less in the right direction and I see my job is helping to make sure that the federal government plays its role in a constructive way as we move forward into the next decade or so so those are my remarks I think James said there might be a few questions I'll try my best not to answer them but go ahead thank you yes ma'am Barbara for mentioning this in your remarks and thank you for your leadership on the grid innovation caucus which is bipartisan so that's my question a 21 percent budget cut versus four billion dollars for the grid how do you see your republican colleagues in you getting reconciled around those different numbers well thank you Barbara and I do want to say I did work for EPRI for a number as a consultant for a number of years and it was a it was a pleasure to see an organization that's committed to those kinds of things that that I was passionate about the 21 percent budget cut comes from the administration and I don't want to say too much about that other than you know there's the the administration there's the the congress and then there's the supreme court it's really true that the congress controls the purse so I don't see that that 21 percent cut it's it's the ideal of the administration I don't see that being shared widely in the congress I don't know that we're going to get everything I'd like to see but I think we're going to get significant improvement over that 21 percent cut I wouldn't be surprised if we were able to maintain current spending or maybe increase that a little bit that would certainly be I think that's achievable for us thank you for your comment I'm Bob Hershey I'm a consultant how can we explain to the general public what's in it for them as far as their electric service and their costs and the future okay thank you that's a good question I mean people take for granted what they have as I mentioned the electricity that we we have really provides us quite a bit but I think you can you can give them an idea that there'll be electric vehicles though they'll reduce their gasoline costs so they'll be able to drive around town at a few cents a gallon instead of a few dollars a gallon that the and that I think that would be the best thing is to is to concentrate on on transportation because that's coming and I think it's going to affect everybody's lives not only just electric vehicles but the sort of the sort of improvement in our in our quality of life that that would bring with with the integration of electric vehicles and self-driving cars self-driving trucks so that we don't have the kind of congestion that we're seeing traffic can be planned better parking shouldn't be a problem so I see these things as real quality of life improvements in the next 10 10 years or so good morning congressman my question is you talked about the bipartisan approach to great innovation and you also mentioned your concerns about climate change and the and the impacts of that and certainly the world health organization agrees with you that that's probably the one of the greatest threats to to to well-being is there any are you providing any feedback to congress with respect to climate change or is there any bipartisan approach to the climate change issue well a good an issue that I think is is a huge concern to myself and to many people along with the concern of our water availability our fresh water availability I think those are two biggest concerns that I might have right now and there is a significant energy water water nexus which I'm going to be addressing in legislation in the next month or so but the the climate change issue is it has been sort of a partisan issue for some reason I don't quite understand but I had the privilege of going with the chairman of the science committee to the Arctic last week and there was the impacts of climate change are more than obvious there they're if you if you're in the Arctic we were in tool Air Force Base which is on the northwest corner of Greenland if you're in they're saying well we didn't used to have mosquitoes you know we got them now the people in Barrow Alaska were saying you know the the ice has has receded away from us toward the North Pole and because of that the storm surges are bringing water into our streets when when the weather gets bad so the the data was more than obvious and the the members of the trip the republican members were acknowledging that and as a result the chairman has offered to work with me specifically on some some small parts of the climate issue so I think there's a real opportunity here now you know as long as we don't make it into some big them versus us or you know as long as we keep it as as here here's a policy issue that's going to benefit your your constituents now the chairman was very careful to point out to me and I agree with him on this is that any action we take on climate change has to benefit the economy if if if people perceive that you're doing legislation that's going to make their lives more difficult they're going to throw your rear end out of office it's going to happen so something like that happened in Australia not long ago they had a carbon tax and the people were so angry that they threw that political organization out of office so we have to design whatever federal policies we we come up with in a way that benefits the economy as well and make sure that people understand that it's going to benefit them because it's easy to misconstrue policy when it's first initiated before things start taking effect but I think there's a real opportunity on a bipartisan basis right now that's opened up in the recent in the recent last few months yeah why don't you allow me to eat that piece of banana in it bro I got okay in the context of good green jobs I was very upset about the cylindra issue those were innovative really outstanding solar panels and at the turn of the 20th century all of Pasadena was passive solar we developed that technology what happened to cylindra was the administration gave a lot of money and then let the Chinese send in their solar panels manufactured under no health and safety regulations so what is the opportunity not to let that happen again while promoting domestic production and not being undercut by what I would argue would be an inferior product well thank you I think that's that's an excellent point a trade benefits our economy in a real real dollars and cents ways but a couple of problems emerge one is that the benefit is highly stratified so a fairly small a segment of the population benefits strongly from the from the economic benefit of trade and a large part doesn't benefit or or loses and it's like the old question if you if you have one foot in the fire and one foot in the ice you know you're pretty comfortable on average well that isn't that isn't really a very good outcome but I think that that trade needs to if we have regulations in this country that I think are important that save lives that protect our our quality of life that protect our environment protect our workers our lives and health and safety and then we're competing company farm farmers and businesses that are following those regulations that are competing against countries that are not following our regulations that have child labor or health and safety violations that we would consider violations or pollute the environment in an unacceptable way use insecticides that are banned in this country then they're not competing on a fair basis and I'd like to see trade agreements in some way reflect that that mismatch and I don't know exactly what the answer is but and I won't be supporting trade agreements that don't take that kind of thing into consideration one more question one more question I have one I have one question I'd like I'd love to ask the president's budget it does pay attention to transmission but in an unusual way it proposes to sell all the transmission in BPA the western area power administration and SIPA um which which is uh I certainly asked the first jurisdiction but that may not be the only consideration of you have you thought about what the impact that might be uh no I haven't really come across that too much yet uh James um I mean that the prognosis for this budget isn't very good but I but that is one area that is really kind of an unprecedented well I mean I don't see I'll just I'll just be flat out honest I don't see the budget proposal as a serious document the real uh the real work is going to take place over across the street that is is more or less a an opportunity for the administration to show what its priorities are and but again the responsibility for for creating a budget for spending is is with the body that I'm a part of so don't get too too worried just yet well infrastructure legislation you have any idea what what what you'd like to see well I you know I think uh I mentioned that the the democratic part of the energy and commerce committee has proposed a infrastructure package I I support that idea I'd like to see more um and uh but the problem of course is where do we get the money to do these things and uh you know nobody wants a gas tax if anybody sticks their head up above the trenches and say I want a gas tax you'll be shot you know you'll be gone so uh vehicle miles traveled you know the thing is that these all these new vehicles have so much technology in them it's not going to be hard to to implement a vehicle miles traveled maybe vehicle registration fees I don't know exactly uh again I'm sticking I'm starting to stick my head out and I'm starting to see the the fire go by so um I I I want to be a part of whatever solution uh but I can't do it myself I have to have my colleagues join in with me but we need more infrastructure not only electric grid but we need more money for our water infrastructure as I mentioned uh water clean water access is is a critical part of of civilization we if we let that wane we're we're really in trouble we have um the roads and our bridges our area of traffic control system we're we're undermanned on our our traffic controllers I mean all these things need real investment broadband access so that we can have uh so small rural areas like part of my district so people have opportunity to to grow their businesses so we need to figure out how we're going to pay for this and we need to ask the American public to give us the resources to do it well join me in thanking the carers