 Good afternoon everyone. My name is Carol Werner. I'm the Director of the Environmental and Energy Study Institute and also a member of the Steering Committee for the Sustainable Energy Coalition, which has worked closely with the House and Senate caucuses on renewable energy and energy efficiency in putting together the Technology Expo and Policy Forum today. So on behalf of all of our groups, I really want to welcome you here for our sessions this afternoon and I hope that you are also making sure that you get around to all of the exhibits in the caucus room right next door. We will start our panel this afternoon. We feel very privileged to have four speakers from the administration from the executive branch with us this afternoon to talk about some of the very interesting initiatives and things underway looking at energy efficiency and renewable energy initiatives and programs that are really making a difference in terms of how we do things in terms of both advancing technology, how it is making a real difference with regard to thinking about economic development that occurs throughout the country as a result of this, how it is affecting manufacturing, energy security, public health and greenhouse emissions and so one of the really, I think, always interesting things as we think about new technologies and and how all of these technologies that you are seeing in the other room as well This is not all about just the future. It's things that are available and are being done now that are making a very, very real difference and these executive branch agencies, the leadership that is being shown in a lot of different programs I think that you will find very, very interesting. So our first speaker will be Dan Yutek who is the deputy director for the Domestic Policy Council, the office of energy and climate change. Dan? Good afternoon. Thank you Carol for that introduction. I want to thank the the coalition for inviting me to speak here today. It's an organization I'm familiar with going back many years and one that is very effective in educating the public and decision-makers here in Washington about sustainable energy. So I'm very pleased to be here. I'm here to talk today in broad strokes about administration, how we think about energy policy and specifically the important role we see for renewables and efficiency. Shortly after the president took office, we unveiled an all the above energy strategy for the country. We said let's produce more oil and gas, but let's also produce more biofuels. Let's produce more fuel-efficient cars. Let's produce solar and wind and other clean renewable sources of energy. Since then our dependence on foreign oil has gone down every year the president's been in office. America is now producing more domestic oil than at any time in the last eight years, but we're also producing more natural gas and biofuels than at any time in our history. We're laying the foundation for some of the nation's first offshore wind farms and since 2008 America has nearly doubled generation of renewable energies like solar, geothermal and wind power. So as I said, I'm going to focus on renewables and efficiency and I'm going to start with efficiency. It was from day one a top priority for the president and the administration. In fact, one of the very first actions that the president took in January of 2009 was to direct the EPA and DOT to work with the auto industry and other stakeholders to develop new fuel economy standards for cars and trucks. This was an important step for two reasons. First, the vast majority of the oil that we use about 70 percent is in the transportation sector and second, at the time that the president took that action, fuel economy standards had not been changed for about 30 years. That was 30 years of lost time when it comes to developing new technologies that can improve the efficiencies of our cars and trucks. But with the president's leadership, we were able to move forward, taken together the standards that we were putting in place, covered the model years 2011 to 2025, and represent the toughest standards in our history. Under our final program, average fuel efficiency for cars and trucks is expected to nearly double, reaching an average performance equivalent of about 55 miles per gallon in 2025. These historic standards are a win for our economy. Our standards will ensure that consumers enjoy a full range of vehicle choices, while also saving them thousands of dollars at the pump. And because they are ambitious standards, they're driving innovation in the sector and creating new jobs throughout the supply chain, including companies that make everything from advanced engines and transients and systems to cutting-edge technologies like batteries. Already, we're seeing more efficient cars and trucks roll off the assembly line, thanks in part to these standards. We expect these – four years ago, Chrysler didn't have any vehicles delivering 30 MPG, now they make half a dozen. And this year, Ford will offer nine models that deliver 40 MPG or higher. So we expect these trends to continue, and when the fuel economy standards are fully implemented, American families will save a total of $1.7 trillion at the pump over the life of the program, or roughly $8,200 per vehicle. Of course, these standards are also a win for the environment. They represent the single most important step we've ever taken to decrease our dependence on foreign oil. The loss of slash carbon pollution that contributes to climate change by six billion metric tons, roughly equivalent to all of the U.S. emissions from last year. And we did this with the support of the industry, labor groups, states across the country, and Democrats and Republicans alike. Beyond the transport sector, administration has taken a variety of actions to improve efficiency. You're going to hear from Beth about some of the efforts at EPA, and I'm not going to talk about those. But since October 2009, Department of Energy and Department of Housing and Urban Development have joined the completed energy upgrades in more than one million homes across the country. For many families, these upgrades save over $400 on their heating and cooling bills in the first year alone. To complement these efforts, the administration has also taken new steps to help families save money by increasing the efficiency of everyday appliances like refrigerators and dishwashers. Under this administration, the Department of Energy has finalized new standards for more than 30 products, which are estimated to save consumers more than $300 billion through 2030. So we have a robust agenda on energy efficiency, and I will just briefly mention one other thing, which is the President's Better Buildings Challenge. Something announced, it's focused on working cross-sectors to make commercial buildings 20% more efficient by 2020. We recently announced some new partners to that effort last week, so that Better Buildings Challenge now has nearly 70 partners committed to upgrading over 1.7 billion square feet of commercial real estate. So we're very excited about energy efficiency, and we continue to look for new ways to work with all of you to continue to make progress. Renewable energy has also been a major priority for the President, incentives backed by the administration have helped spur enormous investment in wind solar and geothermal. Today we have enough wind capacity to power 10 million homes, and 2011 nearly one-third of all new power capacity installed in the U.S. came from wind. Five states now produce more than 10% of their electricity from wind power, and in places like Iowa and South Dakota that figure is closer to 20%. That's important for our vision of clean energy, and it's vital for our economy and for putting people back to work. It used to be that we had to import most of the components, the 8,000 components that go into a modern wind turbine, but today when nearly 500 wind-related manufacturing facilities in 43 states were producing more and more of these components in America. So that means literally tens of thousands of jobs across this country associated with the wind projects that have been going up. So we make great progress, but we know that there are challenges looming. If Congress does not act, the production tax credit that supports wind developers in this country will expire at the end of the year. That's why President Obama has called on Congress to act now and not wait until the end of the year, because we know that if this waits until December, demand for turbines will shrink, factories will come to a standstill, and many jobs will be on the line. So we're continuing to push, and we appreciate your support in that effort. I just want to touch on a few additional things before I turn it over to my agency colleagues who have deep expertise in many of these areas. We're also committed to biofuels as part of an all the above strategy. At the Department of Energy, we're investing in research and development to accelerate the development of next-generation biofuels. DOE has invested more than $1 billion, which has been cost-shared by $1.7 billion in private investment to support 29 biorefinery projects across the country, including a number of commercial-scale projects. These are significant investments, and the administration's commitment continues. In March, the White House announced up to $35 million over three years to support research and development in advanced biofuels, bioenergy, and high-value biobased products. These projects will be funded through the Biomass R&D Initiative, a joint program through the Department of Agriculture and the Energy Department. Department of Defense is also supporting efforts to develop and test biofuels. As you know, Secretary Ray Mabus of the Navy has teamed up with DOE and the Agriculture on a program to develop advanced biofuels. These efforts are part of a larger initiative by the Defense Department to develop energy technologies that serve the department's objectives. And I know that Dorothy Robine was here this morning, and I'm sure she spoke to many of those issues. I just want to briefly quote Secretary Panetta, who testified in front of the Center Appropriations Committee, I believe, last week, who said that as part of our efforts to confront fuel costs and enhance our warfighting capabilities, we're looking to make our installations and operations more fuel-efficient and to diversify our energy sources, including with alternative fuels. Of the efforts to block those programs, he said that these efforts could deprive commanders of the flexibility they need to meet tactical and operational needs and make us more exposed to potential supply disruptions and future price volatility of petroleum products. So the Defense Department is committed to these efforts as well, and we're continuing to push forward on biofuels across the administration. Last, but certainly not least on this sweltering summer solstice day, I wanted to briefly discuss solar power. There was a UN report out last week that indicated that global investment in renewable energy reached a record $257 billion in 2011. Solar attracted about half of that total spending. Taking together investments in solar surged to $147 billion globally in 2011, a year-over-year increase of 52%. In 2011, solar had a very strong year here in the U.S. and total installations of PV were about 1,800 megawatts, representing about over 100% growth as compared to the 2010 prior year. In the fourth quarter of 2011 alone, there was more PV installed than any other quarter in U.S. market history. Cost of solar modules has come down 400% in the last four years, about $4 per watt in 2008 to roughly $1 per day. To make solar even more cost competitive, the SunShot program at the Department of Energy is working to bring down the cost of solar technologies by 75% by the end of the decade. The result of all this activity is that there are tens of thousands of Americans working in the solar industry throughout the supply chain, and we're really just the beginning of what is possible for this industry. In closing, I want to say that we are proud of the progress that we've made together, but we're also extremely mindful of the challenges that lie ahead. President Obama understands these challenges and remains committed to sustainable energy. He's spoken directly to these issues a number of times this year, including a speech that he gave in March on energy policy. And in that speech, the President said, quote, we also need to keep investing in clean energy like wind power and solar power. Today, tens of thousands of Americans have jobs because our public investments have doubled the use of clean energy in this country. And as long as I'm present, we will keep making these investments. I won't see the wind, solar, and advanced battery industries to countries like China or Germany. I want them manufactured here in the U.S. by American workers. That's the future we deserve. President Obama shares your vision, and our administration looks forward to a committed partnership to make that vision a reality. Thank you. We have time for one question. If anybody has a question for Dan? Okay. And if we end up with any time for other questions at the very end, you know, we'll certainly open it up for that. Otherwise, we will try to take one or two questions with each speaker if we have them. Our next speaker will be Karen Atkinson, who is the Director at the Department of Interior Bureau of Indian Affairs of the Indian Energy and Economic Development Office. I think what's really interesting is that in each of these capacities, you're seeing really robust activities going forward that are very exciting and that can make a difference all over every region of this great country. Karen? Thank you, Carol, and thank you to the Coalition for inviting me here to speak today. My name is Karen Atkinson. I'm the Director of the Office of Indian Energy and Economic Development at the Department of Interior. Our office works with Indian tribes to empower them, to provide them with information and tools they need to successfully develop their energy resources and to build sustainable tribal economies. Nationwide, the Department of Interior manages 55 million acres of Indian lands on behalf of tribes and the tribal members. Our office helps tribes in the development of their energy resources by empowering them with the information they need to assess their resources and to assess their energy development potential. We do this by providing technical assistance, grant awards, and also access to capital to finance tribal projects. The Department of Energy has estimated that 4% of the nation's renewable energy resources are located on tribal lands. Our office has identified 267 Indian reservations that have significant renewable energy potential, including wind and solar resources. We are working with tribes to develop these untapped resources. At the Department, Indian Affairs is currently finalizing new business leasing regulations that will govern business leases on tribal lands. This will include provisions that will govern new leasing procedures for solar and wind leases. The goal of these new regulations are to streamline the process for solar and wind leases on tribal lands. These rules will be finalized sometime later this month. Included in the rule will be a new two-step process for leasing for wind projects on tribal lands. This will allow for a quicker review for the evaluation of a wind lease and then further environmental review when the wind equipment is installed. Our office is also developing renewable energy curriculum for Indian Affairs staff, the realty and environmental staff that will be in charge of implementing these leasing regulations. As I mentioned, we also provide technical assistance to tribes to assess their resources by providing feasibility studies and marketing studies for tribes to evaluate the business potential for developing energy projects on their lands. We focus both on utility-scale projects and also community-scale projects. Oftentimes, community-scale projects are more feasible for tribal governments because they lack access to capital and also access to transmission lines. Also, community-scale development provides tribes a greater opportunity to have ownership in the project. We also manage an energy grant program. Each year, we provide up to $2 million or $4 million for energy resource grants. This includes both oil and gas grant awards and renewable awards. Our grant awards for this year for 2012 will be announced in the near future. A majority of the grant awards this year will go towards renewable projects. I'd like to highlight just two projects that our office has been involved in pretty closely. I'm also very pleased to announce that later this afternoon at 1.30 Eastern Time, the Secretary of Interior will be announcing the final approval of a lease for the first utility-scale solar project on Indian lands. This project is located in Clark County, Nevada and is located on lands owned by the Moapa Band of Paiute Indians. Our office has worked closely with the Moapa Band to assess their resources and working through some of the issues with their developer to get this lease finalized. The solar project that the Moapa Band is working on will build a 350 megawatt PV power plant on tribal lands. If it's constructed, it would be the second utility-scale project built on Indian lands. The first utility-scale project was in Southern California and that was a wind project constructed by the Campo Band of Indians. The Moapa lease will allow the developer to use about 2,000 acres of tribal land for a period of up to 50 years. This will include solar arrays, a substation, and an operations building. The lease also includes construction of a 12-V transmission line that would link the solar field to an existing tribal plaza. This will enable the tribe to displace its diesel-generated power that's currently using right now for the tribal plaza. And will also include a right-of-way for an existing utility quarter that runs through this 22,000-acre track of land. The lease will generate revenue to the tribe and it will create new jobs for tribal members. It's estimated that the project will create 400 construction jobs and 15 to 20 permanent jobs to operate the plant once it's built. The project will generate clean renewable energy that can be used to connect existing transmission lines and to help regional utilities meet their clean energy goals. Our office provided support to this project by providing assistance to the tribe and to the Bureau of Indian Affairs to complete the environmental review and documentation for the project. A second project that I'd like to highlight is a 20-megawatt waste-to-energy power plant and recycling center that will use municipal solid waste in Green Bay, Wisconsin. This project is being developed by the Oneida Tribe of Wisconsin through a tribal corporation called the Oneida Seven Generations Corporation. The project will use a gasification technology and will create up to 30 new full-time jobs and 45 temporary construction jobs. The initial unit will be built and will generate 5 megawatts of power initially and within a year the tribe hopes to expand that to 20 megawatts after it's been in operation for a year. The project can be replicated by other tribes and can provide a significant economic benefit to tribal communities. To finance the project, the tribal corporation received commitments from the state of Wisconsin to finance part of the project through a state loan program. Our office has also obligated funds to guarantee a loan to a private lender for debt financing and we've also provided significant funding through grants and feasibility studies required for the development of the project. Our office has also worked with the Seven Generations Corporation to develop a business proposal to seek private financing and utilize our loan guarantee program so our office also administers a loan guarantee program that can finance renewable projects. We think that this project is unique because it realizes various sources of revenue streams in its operation including those generated from tipping fees and also for the sale of the power itself. The waste to energy facility will significantly reduce the municipal solid waste going to area landfills. The Seven Generations staff has indicated that our involvement with the funding technical assistance and helping to put the financing package together helped to accelerate the completion of this project by about two years. The project should be completed, the financing should be wrapped up soon and the groundbreaking for this project is scheduled for about mid-July. I briefly mentioned our Indian loan guarantee program which our office also manages. This program can support the development and deployment of renewable energy projects financed through the Indian loan guarantee. The program promotes economic development on Indian reservations and most tribal renewable projects would be eligible for a guarantee under the program. Both businesses and non-profit entities are eligible for the Indian loan guarantee program. This includes partnerships, corporations and other business structures that are at least 51% native owned. So this allows for certain business ownership structures to be created to take advantage of tax incentives that might apply for renewable projects or new market tax credits. So we have, I think with the Oneida Seven Generations project, the financing was structured in such a way that the new market tax credit could be utilized. The loan guarantee program can work both with banks and non-bank lenders in facilitating access to capital for renewable projects. And we have found that the ability to use non-bank lenders has been critical to some of these types of project financing. It could also, the loan program provides up to a 90% guarantee on loans. And this is critical especially when financing projects using emerging technology or new technologies. I'd like to thank you again Carol for the opportunity to be here and to talk about the work our office is doing and available for questions. Thanks. Great. Thank you, Carol. Are there any questions for Karen right now? Okay. Because I do think that there are a lot of interesting tribal projects underway and that that is a really, really exciting thing in terms of thinking about what it can mean in terms of areas that where there has been chronic under-employment and that this can help generate all sorts of new small businesses and actually bring energy and back out things like diesel generation for electricity, which can be extraordinarily expensive and allow renewable generation for people coming right from their own lands. So I think that's very, very exciting. I'm really, really glad to hear about those kinds of projects. So our next speaker will be Beth Craig who is the director of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Climate Protection Partnership Division. And Beth will talk a little bit about things going on through EPA and Energy Star. And it's hard to believe that it's already been 20 years in terms of thinking about Energy Star and the enormous successes in terms of thinking about how all of us, I think, look for those labels. Thank you very much, Carol, and thank you for the opportunity to speak. As Carol said, my name's Beth Craig. I'm the director of the Climate Protection Partnership Division and within the Office of Atmospheric Programs at EPA. And within our office we have many program, partnership programs that reduce greenhouse gases. But today I'm going to just talk about one of them and that's the Energy Star program. So what I'd like to do is kind of cast our memories back 20 years. And there may be some people in the audience who may remember 20 years ago a little bit better than others, but we're going to start that way. So 20 years ago George H.W. Bush was the president later in the year Bill Clinton was elected. Jay Leno replaced Johnny Carson on The Tonight Show. These are very important things I think we need to remember. But probably one thing that those of us who've been in the Washington area may remember, the Washington Redskins actually won a Super Bowl 20 years ago. So that can tell you the difference if you've been around in the city for a while. But it was also a time that innovation started with the Energy Star program. So the Energy Star program was founded on the idea that you could reduce greenhouse gas emissions by overcoming the barriers, the market barriers that prevented consumers and businesses doing what's actually in their financial interest, which is choosing energy efficient products. So from the very inception there were some simple tenants that put the program into place. And it was built on the ideas that if you worked with the people in the marketplace you identified what those barriers are to adopting energy efficiency. And then developing kind of smart strategies to get everyone to the table and finally ensuring that the Energy Star program delivered on a promise that if you bought energy efficient you would not be sacrificing quality cost-effectiveness performance. Because one of the things we all wanted to do was make sure that we didn't end up in a situation where someone bought an Energy Star product and then said to themselves, it didn't work. It must be because it was energy efficient. So that has been something which was a tenet at the very beginning that continues today. And over that time we've worked with businesses and the consumers, industry, in actions which have made a difference for the environment, for saving energy, and obviously saving money and putting it in people's pocket. So the first products that came into the Energy Star program were in the computers and monitors. It was in the early 90s an area of growth, people were buying them. We started looking at it and saying people are going to buy a lot of electronics. Maybe that's where the agency should focus its efforts. And that's where we did. But there's another story which is how did we move beyond the products that we all remember from then to other types of products. And this is about the same time we started working with the Department of Energy on the Energy Star program, but we wanted to look into appliances. And washing machines are the, clothes washers are the stories. So front loaders were, what was it, 40% more energy efficient, they were 60% more water efficient, but they were all being used in Europe. They weren't being seen in the U.S. And people saw them as, well, do they really work? What's the problem? So Maytag, in an interesting cooperative effort with a small town in Kansas, Bern, at the time I think they had a population of 210, decided to have a joint venture. And Maytag provided washing machines to people in the community who were willing to invest the time in this effort. So it's like if you're willing to weigh the clothes, look at the cleanliness of the clothes after the fact, then you may end up with a washing machine out of it. But from us as a nation, what we came was moving from one type of products to really thinking about appliances in a different way. But the other thing it did was it sparked a discussion with our utility partners and state partners about how do we give incentives to consumers so that they could think in a more energy efficient way. And it may be breaking that barrier, which we call the first cost barrier to efficiency. So if you get a rebate for a washing machine, sometimes that puts you in a position that you're thinking, well, maybe I'll go a little bit more energy efficient. So since that time, we've moved from a handful of products to now having over 65 products in the Energy Star program. We've sold with the label more than five billion products over the last 20 years, 1700 manufacturers, and over 40,000 individual product models have been sold for the program. And in the last couple of years, we've ensured that all of these products have had their performance certified by third party independent organizations. So as we moved from products, where did we go to next? Well, we went to homes because that's where people obviously live. And it's also an area that as we all know, if your home is not energy efficient, it's also not very comfortable. So we started in 95, and we expanded into the labeling of homes. And as of last year, we had certified over 1.3 million new homes in the U.S. So we've looked at it over the years, and every time we've increased the astringency in terms of the effectiveness of homes, and we've recently come out with what we call very affectionately version three, you know, we within the bureaucracy come up with very innovative titles. But it really means that these homes that are being built to these specifications have a real laundry list of the things that they need to do to be more efficient. It has to be not only it has to be independently verified, there are checklists, we're looking at water issues, we're looking at all the things, because at the end of the day we want a more durable home, a more energy efficient home, and we want a more comfortable home. So, and we think based upon the data that we have that the Energy Star qualified new home is going to be approximately 20 to 30 percent more efficient than your standard home. From there, one of the things I haven't had a chance to talk about yet is what were we doing in buildings other than homes? Well, we've also been working over the years in the commercial space as well as industrial plants. And 10 to 15 years ago, looking at measuring whole building energy performance was a concept, but it wasn't put into place that much. And so those over the last years, what we've been thinking about is how do you look at measuring performance in a building? And what can we learn from that? And it has transformed the market. So we have a tool, an Energy Star Portfolio Manager where building owners can go in and assess the energy efficiency of their home. They can compare it, not their homes, but their buildings. They can compare it to other building types, and it gives them the tools to be able to say how energy efficient is my building, and then hopefully using other tools, how can I make it more energy efficient? And over the years, the benchmarking of buildings and labeling those buildings in some cases for the more energy efficient ones has grown, and it's grown for a variety of reasons. One is the leadership by the feds. If it's being under executive order, is it by the Energy Independence and Security Act? What are the feds doing to make their buildings more energy efficient? It's voluntary campaigns which have been done both by EPA and of course by state and locals. But also the state and locals have gotten into the mandatory benchmarking. Certain cities like Washington DC or New York City are requiring that buildings get benchmarked so that they can think about how can they improve their buildings in terms of efficiency. And I think that what has ended up at the end of the day is we have nearly 300,000 buildings which have been benchmarked which about 17,000 have earned the Energy Star. And what we're learning from that is that continual benchmarking in and of itself creates greater energy efficiency which in the long run will get us reduced greenhouse gases saving money and saving energy. So from our perspective, why has the program worked? I think it's the credibility of the program. It's that consumers and business can come to us for unbiased information. I think that it's as we said earlier as I said earlier, it's strategic, it's financially smart for folks to participate but also and most importantly for EPA is the environmental benefits. So we are very, we are not obviously looking at this as kind of a closing a chapter but thinking about what the program can be doing for the next 10 or 15 years as well. So I'm going to wrap up there because I know Carol wants to keep us on track. Thank you very much. And I wanted to just also announce that because there are a lot of people back here if before we move to our next speaker if you would like to come up and you can sit, it's your chance to sit on the dais here. So I mean how much better does it get folks? So anyway if anybody would like to have a chair you can come up here now and sit on the dais, that would be absolutely fine. And are there any questions for Beth? One thing, one comment I just wanted to make briefly was that when I first started looking at and talking to folks with regard to the Energy Star program I'll never forget talking to folks in companies where they said that they were down at the kind of in the staff level doing all sorts of really interesting finding all sorts of interesting efficiency improvements and everything. They said what has been really, really critical was that EPA was able to come in at a very, very senior level at executive vice president at a CEO level which made all the difference in terms of empowering their work as an employee within the company because they said that EPA was able to actually get the attention of their top management when many times people at other levels within the company were not able to sort of bring forward the value of their work with the same oomph. And so they really welcomed that which I thought was another very interesting testament to kind of the whole role that that important voluntary program has played over the years. Our next speaker on this panel is Steve Chalk who is at the Department of Energy where he is in the Office of Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency and Steve is the Deputy Assistant Secretary for Renewable Energy and there are many good things going on there too. Steve? Thank you very much Carol and thank you all for attending the technology showcase in Expo. I think a lot of the things you'll see out there have been sponsored by the Department of Energy. Our Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy is really the applied clean energy shop at DOE so it's everything except for nuclear and coal basically. And really our vision can be really summed up in three phases. Invented in America, that's the technology development we do. Made in America, that's the manufacturing push that we have. And then sold worldwide and a lot of the folks out there on the exhibit floor are really interested in the potential for worldwide sales and exporting their stuff. As Dan said, clean energy market is pretty big right now. Over $250 billion worldwide is spent in clean energy. So it's not just about energy security and environmental security. It's really about global competition. And countries like China of course are investing even more than we are and have very aggressive policies in this area. So I think you can see a lot of great ideas out there in the Expo. And we're making great progress too. In the last few years had gigawatt scale. That's really how we measure success. Are we hitting gigawatts, not kilowatts or megawatts? And we've been doing that on wind for several years. Now we're there in solar. This year over gigawatt, gigawatt and a half of solar installed in the United States. So the domestic market here is doing very, very well. We just need to manufacture more here and export that worldwide. So as the technology evolved, we look at what are the new challenges, how can the Department of Energy contribute? And really be, look at what can industry fund, since there is a lot of money being poured in the clean energy, we have to look at ourselves and say, well can our a little bit of money make a difference? Can we push it over the edge or is there a tipping point or something that's high risk that can totally change the game and make us more competitive? And so we have set up several grand challenges that we're talking about. Dan mentioned solar, it's really our sunshot initiative. This is a hit $1 a watt solar. So come down by basically a factor of three in utility scale where we are today. And this is not really just re-labeling programs. This is taking a fresh look at what's driving the solar cost. And when we established this grand challenge, we found out that it's not just about module efficiency or the module hardware. That things like soft cost for siting and permitting, customer acquisition, all of these were really driving the cost of solar. And in some cases, attributing to more than half of what a customer needs to pay in terms of installing solar. So we're addressing these issues. We're trying to spread best practices for local jurisdictions that have to site and permit solar energy. Of course we're trying to leapfrog and make big improvements in efficiency still because that will ripple out through the system. The system is more efficient. There's less balance of plant hardware and things like that. Less screws, not structural things that you need. That all lowers the cost of a PV system. They're being very aggressive there. In fact, we had a workshop last week. Secretary of Energy was personally involved. It's been actually two days at a workshop. Really challenging industry. One of the things that we can invest in to make solar cost-competitive with conventional technologies. So this whole idea is to make solar cost-competitive with conventional technologies like natural gas at five to six cents per kilowatt hour. So it would be very competitive there. WINS is another area we've been investing in. And again, we've had lots of success. We're really close on what we would call cost parity with conventional generation on land-based winds. And we need the production tax credit to get to that last piece to where people will decide to install wind plant versus other options. We're switching our strategy more to offshore wind. And Europe's been a little bit ahead of us in that game, but our offshore wind is much deeper. So we can't use the same technology. They basically monopile and drive a pole or a tower into the ground for offshore wind in Europe because the water is very shallow. That works. That would be cost-prohibitive in the United States because we're talking about much deeper water. So our program has launched a new effort and we'll be making awards this summer for floating platforms. You can think about how tricky that might be with all the wave action and wind action to have floating platforms that produce wind power offshore. Obviously, the big advantage here is that we can hit coastal cities where most of the people live in the United States and deliver power there. So that's a big advantage, something of a big initiative that we're starting. So there are some renewable electricity programs. We're also making great strides in our geothermal where we're concentrating on discovery of the resource, also enhanced geothermal, which has a big promise about 20, 30 years from now where we have renewable base load power almost anywhere in the United States, where today's geothermal, you think about the hot water or steam, you really are restricted to the western United States. So enhanced geothermal is something that's really a big prize that we could end up with in 20 or 30 years and provide literally hundreds of gigawatts of power. And then we have excellent progress being made on our water power program. We have devices going to water into the water like wave devices, tidal devices, that are coming down the cost curve very quickly. Now I'll talk about our transportation effort. It's really getting about reducing our dependence on oil and obviously ethanol today. First generation is already making a big dent in that, 5% on an energy equivalent basis in terms of reducing our gasoline consumption. We have the cafe that Dan talked about that's also a near term effort. We have our second generation biofuels, cellulosic, where we use basically energy crops and different ways from forest products and things like that make cellulosic ethanol, which we're wrapping up where we feel like we're completing the R&D this year to make cellulosic ethanol cost competitive and we're funding some of the first commercial plants now. So we'll actually prove that out at a commercial scale over the next two years as we build out these first of a kind plants. We're switching our R&D strategy on cellulosic materials to make bio-based hydrocarbon materials. So this is diesel gasoline that are compatible with today's infrastructure. The other advantage of that is we can use those in planes and trains and trucks which don't use gasoline today. Ethanol is more suitable for the late duty. So that's an area that we're starting out now so we can make bio-based hydrocarbon materials like gasoline and diesel and the military can use those as well. And also we have another grand challenge that we're starting. In fact, we have a workshop in the motor city today called EV Everywhere where we're trying to reduce the incremental cost of electric vehicles so that consumers will buy these. We have a big program on reducing cost of batteries which is really the long pole in the tent. Also trying to reduce recharging times on electric vehicles and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles. Again, we think that's going to make a big difference over the next 10 years in combination with biofuels and CAFE in reducing our fuel use. And then the long term, we're still looking at hydrogen and fuel cells in terms of a longer term technology for completely reducing our dependence on oil and also reducing greenhouse gases. The last area I'll turn to is really the built environment. So I've talked about the renewable electricity transportation. Then our last area is how do we be more efficient in the built environment? And that's two ways. Again, another grand challenge and Dan mentioned that, better buildings where we have commitment of almost $2 billion by various players and we've recently had Starbucks and Staples join us and they're going to all told all of the companies and cities involved are going to retrofit and make more efficient buildings. We have Atlanta, Chicago, Houston, other cities all signed up because they have, of course, they have to use public funds for their public buildings. So the goal here is reduce energy use by 20% by 2020 and this program is making great strides. Similarly, we have a program for the industrial sector where we have companies like Alcoa, 3M, Briggs and Stratton all trying to reduce their manufacturing energy intensity and we're trying to reduce that by 25% over the next 10 years. So we feel like we're really making great progress and energy efficiency I saved for last because that's really the first place you want to go for energy savings because if you don't have to build that power plant in the first place, you're better off. So energy efficiency really I saved for last but is our number one priority in terms of addressing energy security and greenhouse gases. So with that, I'll wrap up and be glad to take any questions. Thank you, Carol. Thank you, Steve. We do have time for a few questions if anybody has any. Go ahead, George. My name is Ralph Allen. We work with the Mojito Tribe and the Mojito Development Corporation specifically on there for me and some of the scene over five and a half millions where we have collaborative space 30 megawatts of natural solar on the Silver River, 50 megawatts of human weight and very, very hard for us to get an audience with the department to seek the potential for funding of this opportunity. 60 megawatts of vitamins for Governor Rell and her department estimated that on just looking at population we can probably reach three portfolio standard goals in the City of New York on just several occasions. That's a new career card. Well, definitely give me your card after this and we'll talk. I know what Hagan's son for part of their casino was actually they're using fuel cells. I know that they've already had advancements in this area. Great. Well, I must say the Expo, the forum is all about connections and how all of these exciting things are all totally connected. Anyway, question here. Okay. Sure. Yeah, so our budget this year is about 1.8, 1.9 billion and I think the Senate mark is pretty consistent with that level. The House mark cuts us by 400 or 500 million. So that's going to if that were to hold up would have a devastating impact on our priorities and we think again the technologies that I talked about are very, very important for the U.S. to be competitive globally. Lots of countries recognize that this is not just about energy security and environmental security, but there's a huge economic opportunity here and especially related to manufacturing when we get into wind and solar and different technologies. So this would definitely have an impact on us meeting our priorities and the President over the last few years has consistently asked for about $2 billion for our programs. I think it ends up being kind of a question of being a little penny wise and pound foolish and I just wanted to comment briefly to that in the course of my work I end up talking to people in a lot of different governments and over and over we hear from them about how important policy is and that policy has made such a difference in terms of their countries and we also hear that at the state level from governors and state legislators and we hear that from companies all the time in terms of how critical policy is in both removing barriers and trying to level the playing field creating the environment in which these kinds of technologies and opportunities and innovation can indeed thrive. So it's really important to kind of make sure that we all understand how all of these things indeed are connected. Kate, other questions? Back here. The Weatherization Assistance Program has led the country in terms of efficiency for over 30 years. I wonder what's being done to help educate the Congress so that the program can begin to get back on its feet again after being cut 40% this year? Do you want to take it first? Yeah, I would say that program has performed very very well. We've had literally dozens and dozens of IG inspections and there's always isolated cases of problems but program has performed very well. The request had, because the Recovery Act investment was so large it was $5 billion and it took a few years to get all of those homes done and weatherized. The requests have been down a little bit because we still had the recovery money left over. So as we go forward and Recovery Acts wind down then we have to look at what's the right steady state investment from here forward? Yeah, and I think that most of that money has all been spent and my understanding is too that now a lot of states are really looking at significant layoffs because there has been a tremendous amount almost a million homes or about a million homes that have been weatherized through the program and it's been it's really made a significant difference so that hopefully we'll see that this whole investment in infrastructure that happened through the recovery will be able to still continue in terms of all of the people that have been trained, all of the training equipment that has been out there, which has really played an enormous role across the country and in terms of helping build a really trained infrastructure as well that we should all feel I think good about, at least from everything that I've been hearing from people across the country on this. Other questions? Uh-huh. Why do you think you're a CAD workloader state policy? I actually don't know the specifics but I lived in Europe when I was a kid and many homes were much smaller, family sizes were smaller, you had a smaller space to put the washer in and therefore you may not have had room to have the top loader so there may have been a variety of things that went into it they were available in the US but I don't think they were available in the sense that if a regular family grew up as a family with five kids my mother probably would have looked for the larger version of it. But I see many people in the audience nodding as I said those things so there may be a lot of collective knowledge in this room on that. I think that was a huge issue both in terms of driving European policy and what companies were doing was because energy has always been so much more expensive in Europe and so they have paid much more attention to it much sooner than what we have since they were always so dependent upon energy imports for so long and I've really been trying to aggressively change that picture. Any other questions? Go ahead. I work in the solar industry and one of the things that we're seeing is that a lot of residential clients want the choice to how to even produce their electricity where the electricity comes from and they face simple barriers like HOAs we tell them that they can put solar panels on their house and they will is there an effort at this point for consideration of nation-wide to take that power away from the HOAs so that we can drive this industry forward? Sure, so I want to repeat the question. Yeah, go ahead and why don't you repeat the question and explain HOAs? I think the questioner said there's folks like homeowners associations that are very resistant to solar and you need lots of permission and that slows things down and really impedes motivation I think of folks that want to adopt solar. So that's our whole idea with Sunshot is taking a look at some of these what we call soft cost and so our vision is that it be no harder to put up solar than say get a new hot water heater where you get a new hot water heater and that might be too simplistic of an example but you just have a plumber come out and hook it up there's really no permitting you need and so forth the plumber's license and everything all of that's automatic so we've thought a lot about this so it's about the permissions but it's also can we make this like a hot water heater or a TV set you take out of a box so we've recently had a solicitation called plug and play and you can envision that when you buy a new computer and you plug it in these days and you virtually have to do nothing else can we get solar to be like something that's a plug and play technology so we've been thinking about well you just have to wire it right up to your meter your meter already has an interface maybe you don't even need roof penetrations and have folks come out and inspect the roof and things like that so we've thought a lot about how to do that recognizing we have to do this much because we don't have authority over local jurisdictions so what we feel like we can do is come up with new designs come up with best practices because a lot of jurisdictions around the U.S. are wrestling with this issue now and we have last year made an award the five regions of the country to look at these types of issues and have the people at the regional level and the local government level to help solve some of these issues and spread those best practices the satellite issue for a set of reasons HOA is another set of authority to say they can't look it up but eventually it will retain the national issue in the future so I think it's more at that level it's more established that it's more important to HOA you have technology addressing that as well there's something called building integrated solar where the solar panels actually look like the shingles on the roof so there's different ways to address that that we're looking at very carefully any last word from any of you that something burning that you also want to add well then I would very much like to thank you all for being here and for the leadership that you all are doing in terms of great programs and it's terribly, terribly important and thank you very, very much and thank you all