(As Prepared for Delivery)

Video of Sen. Franken's Speech

Thank you to my fellow panelists for joining me here today and to the University of Minnesota for hosting this forum.

And thank you, Steve Kelley, for putting this all together. Steve and I were on the Blake wrestling team together. I wrestled in the 120-pound weight class my senior year. I know, it's hard to believe. And Steve was state champion in our division in the Unlimited weight class.

So, of the two of us, Steve is the only one who is still at his high school weight.

But, seriously, thank you, Steve, for putting this event together, and for your leadership.

---

Now, I'd like to start with a quote from the President. He said:

"Let us set as our national goal, in the spirit of Apollo, with the determination of the Manhattan Project, that by the end of this decade we will have developed the potential to meet our own energy needs without depending on any foreign energy sources."

The reference was to the Apollo program-John F. Kennedy's plan to beat the Soviets in the race to the moon. We had been in a heated competition in space since the Soviets launched Sputnik in 1957.

I was six years old in 1957. The race to space was on, and we were already behind. Not only that-the Soviets had nuclear weapons. So, we were terrified.

As I said, I was six when Sputnik was launched. My brother, Owen, was 11. My parents sat us down in our living room in Albert Lea and told us it was our job to study math and science to defeat the Soviets.

Now, I thought that was a lot of pressure to put on a six-year-old and an 11-year-old.

But we were obedient sons. And Owen and I studied math and science, and enjoyed it. My brother was the first in our family to go to college. He went to MIT and got a degree in physics. I was also very good at math and science, and tested well. And that got me into Harvard.

Now, I became a comedian, and my brother, a photojournalist. But my parents were right. Owen and I studied math and science. And we beat the Soviets.

America ended up winning the space race and getting a wave of innovations as a result-everything from transistors to hard plastics, innovations that spawned industries and still sustain jobs today.

And now here we are, facing another tremendous national challenge: transforming our energy portfolio from one that relies on foreign oil to one built on clean, local, American energy.

If we succeed, we can create jobs and build entire new industries while reducing costs for American consumers and protecting our environment. If we fail, we will allow other countries to steal that potential and find ourselves in an even deeper environmental and economic mess.

So I think the President was right on when he cast our energy challenge as a matter of national importance on par with things like the space race and the Manhattan Project.

Except, the President who said that was Richard Nixon. And when he called for energy independence, quote, "by the end of this decade," he was talking about the 1970s.

---

Recently, I took a seat on the Senate Energy Committee. And as I've gotten to work there, I've made it a point to spend time touring the state-meeting with entrepreneurs, community leaders, and innovators in clean energy and energy efficiency.

The good news is that Minnesota is way ahead of the country when it comes to this stuff. The bad news is that, even after decades of rhetoric, Washington is way behind the curve, and that means America is falling further and further behind the rest of the world.

Today, I want to talk about the gap between rhetoric and action that has paralyzed federal energy policy for decades. I want to talk about the gap between how people think about energy policy at the federal level and what we know about clean and renewable energy, and energy efficiency, here in Minnesota.

And I want to talk about why, if Minnesota is going to lead the world in these emerging industries, it first has to lead Washington to understand the potential it's squandering.

---

Okay. First, the depressing stuff.

Even before we were talking about the environmental and economic impact of our energy policy, we were talking about energy independence because it's dangerous to rely so heavily on foreign oil.

Every President since Nixon has talked about energy independence. In fact, not only is it a cliché to call for ending our dependence on foreign oil, it's a cliché to point out that it's a cliché.

Nobody thinks we should be more dependent on foreign oil. And yet, net imports continue to rise. In 1980, it was 6.4 million barrels per day. In 1990, it was 7.2 million barrels. In 2000, it was 10.4 million. And during the Bush administration, it got to be as high as 12.5 million barrels per day.

And, of course, much of that oil comes from countries the State Department calls "dangerous or unstable."

---

And yet, just as dangerous as it is to be so vulnerable to global instability, it's even more dangerous to continue speeding towards an environmental catastrophe caused by global climate change.

Now, look. People are entitled to their own opinions. But 98 percent of climate scientists say that climate change is happening, and that it's man-made. Most of the other two percent work for coal companies, oil companies, or the Heritage Foundation. And then there's this one other guy. He's sincere, I think.

And even if people are entitled to their own opinions, they are not entitled to their own facts. And here are some facts.

The last decade was the warmest on record. Ocean temperatures and sea levels have risen, as has the acidity of the oceans. Coral reefs are dying. Arctic sea ice and glaciers are shrinking.

Let's say you went to a hundred doctors to find out if your diet was making you sick. Two of the doctors work for fast food restaurants, and they say you're just fine, but think you should eat more fries to keep your strength up.

But 98 of them say your diet is making you sick. And then they show you test results proving that you are gaining a dangerous amount of weight. They do this by putting you on a scale. And showing you pictures. They also perform tests showing that your arteries are clogged, and your cholesterol is the highest ever recorded in the history of man.

But even if you want to ignore the overwhelming and frankly terrifying environmental changes we're seeing, even if you want to pretend that 98 percent of climate scientists doesn't add up to a consensus worth respecting, even if the only thing you believe in in this life is that the American Petroleum Institute would never lie to you, you should still support building a renewable energy industry here in America for the sheer economic potential it will create.

---

In 2010, new investment in clean energy and energy efficiency totaled nearly a quarter trillion dollars around the world-a 30 percent increase over 2009. The International Energy Agency estimates that global energy investment between 2007 and 2050 could be $270 trillion.

Now, America has the best research labs, the best innovators, and the best manufacturing capacity in the world. That should be a market we own.

But we're losing this race. Before 2010, we were the world's most attractive country for renewable energy investment. But last year, China beat us. And this year, Germany's moving ahead of us, as well.

Remember that quarter trillion dollars? Twenty percent of it was invested in China.

Last year, China accounted for nearly half of all the new wind investment worldwide. And while China charges ahead, we're actually falling further behind. In 2010, we installed about half of the wind capacity we installed the year before.

Same thing with solar-China makes half of the solar panels in use around the world today.

So, yes, this is our Sputnik moment. Except, this time, the satellite is Chinese (and German, and South Korean, and Japanese, and Danish). They are getting way out ahead of us. And Washington doesn't seem all that excited about catching up.

---

So what the heck is wrong with us?

I haven't been in Washington very long, but I've noticed a few things.

First, the nice thing about being a big oil company in America is that you can buy a lot of campaign ads.

But don't get me wrong. Elected officials who aren't sure about this transition aren't just responding to lies and threats from big oil and coal companies. They're responding to legitimate concerns from their districts, from employers whose businesses-and workers whose jobs-rely on cheap, non-renewable energy.

Regulating greenhouse gases and subsidizing renewable energy might seem unfair to people whose jobs depend on coal-burning plants.

But here's what I would say. For years now-decades upon decades-we've subsidized the oil industry through tax breaks. And for centuries, we've subsidized coal, too, by not requiring the industry to pay for the damage done to the environment and to people's health and welfare.

This is 19th century energy we're subsidizing. And I think we should be using subsidies to lay the foundation for 21st century energy instead - because the world is moving forward with or without us, and the cost of catching up is only going to get higher the longer we wait.

That's another problem with Washington: people don't like focusing on long-term issues. And when we talk about clean energy and energy efficiency, it feels to many people like a long-term issue, like it's a lot of pain and cost now to avoid some potential environmental catastrophe or realize some economic benefit sometime in the future.
After all, this isn't the only challenge we're facing. There are many demands on our already-stretched budget, not to mention on the time and political capital of lawmakers.

And if you think of renewable energy and energy efficiency as being investments that only pay off in the future, it's easy to put off making those investments now.

---

And that, folks, brings me to what Minnesota knows about renewable energy and energy efficiency that Washington still doesn't get. It's not just about the next century. It's about the jobs and industries we're missing out on right now. It's about the economic potential that we squander every day we aren't taking great leaps towards a renewable energy economy.

That's why Minnesota passed the nation's highest Renewable Energy Standard in 2007-and it's why Minnesota utilities are beating even the ambitious standard we've set. It's why we set the ambitious goal of getting 10 percent of our transportation fuel from ethanol and, when the rest of the country was slow to follow our lead, we just doubled our efforts-and our goal. It's why we're not waiting for federal biodiesel standards-we in Minnesota have established our own standard of 20 percent biodiesel by 2015.

And as I learned on my recent travels through the state, it's why big business and small farmers, research scientists and entrepreneurs, labor and environmental groups, people who care about the next century and people who care about the next fiscal quarter-all of them are working together to make Minnesota a world leader in clean energy.

There's a reason Minnesota gets it. We are smack in the middle of America's renewable energy belt.
And now that I've joined the Senate Energy Committee, I'm making it my job to ensure that it's Minnesota's voice that is heard when we talk about this issue.

---

Here in Minnesota, we know that the cheapest barrel of oil is the one you don't have to buy. But we also know that energy efficiency is a huge job creator.

Down in Faribault, SAGE Electrochromics has developed windows that harness the sun's energy to make buildings more efficient. When we think of our energy consumption, we think of cars-but 40 percent of our energy is consumed by buildings. And at SAGE, they've developed a process where they spray and then melt this plasma of molecular particles onto window glass.

In the summer, it darkens to block out UV light and keep the building cooler. In the winter, it becomes clear and doesn't block out anything. And they use photovoltaic cells to power the whole technology.

Cool, huh? Also: profitable! And thanks to a loan guarantee from the Department of Energy, this year SAGE will be building a new electrochromic glass manufacturing plant-adding 160 permanent new jobs and another 200 construction jobs in Southern Minnesota.

In Maple Grove, I attended the ribbon cutting for Great River Energy's new LEED-platinum headquarters-the first building in Minnesota to achieve this status. With rooftop solar photovoltaic panels, its own wind turbine, a state-of-the-art geothermal heating and cooling system, and even toilets that run on rainwater, they've cut their energy consumption in half and their water usage by two-thirds-savings that boost their bottom line.

I've also been to Elk River to meet Del Overholser, the president of ECONAR, which makes geothermal heat transfer pumps. Del had believed in geothermal his entire adult life, and it just wasn't taking off. But he kept at it, and eventually it started to become a little more popular, and Del started manufacturing heat pumps in Appleton, Minnesota.

Well, a few years ago, geothermal started taking off, and a company in Indianapolis wanted to buy him out and move the operation to Indiana. This was Del's big multi-million dollar payday. He got in his car and drove to Appleton to break it to his employees and, on his way, he decided he couldn't do it. So, when he got there, Del told them, "Never mind, I'm not selling."

Well, the whole time he's telling me this story, every couple minutes or so a bell goes off in his office. And when Del finished, I asked him, "Well, how's it going now?" And he said, "You hear those bells? They go off every time someone orders one of our systems."

"Best thing I ever did," he said, "was not sell that company."

You go around Minnesota, you see a whole lot of what we're doing right.

Take District Energy in St. Paul. They're using local Minnesota biomass to generate electricity in their power plant, capturing the waste heat, and redirecting it to heat and cool downtown St. Paul. They serve all four of St. Paul's hospitals and 80 percent of the downtown buildings. Their thermal innovations have brought representatives from dozens of countries to St. Paul to see how District Energy has managed to keep rates stable for years.

You know, when most people me and Steve's age think of energy efficiency, they think of Jimmy Carter telling us to put a sweater on and turn the thermostat to 55 in the winter and 85 in the summer.

But if you've ever been inside a LEED school or a LEED office building, you know that it's just the opposite. These are gorgeous buildings-and great places to go to school or work. People just love them. And they make people healthier-I was at a LEED school in Elk River where kids were missing fewer days due to asthma. Energy efficiency is win-win.

---

Meanwhile, Minnesota continues to take the lead on developing energy sources that aren't just clean and efficient, but also local.

If North Dakota is the Saudi Arabia of wind, we've got to be at least the Kuwait. And just as oil-wealthy nations would be insane not to tap into their resources, Minnesota is tapping into ours.

I spent a day out at the University of Minnesota-Morris, where they've built two wind turbines that supply power to nearly every building on campus. They've also built a biomass gasification plant.

And other schools are catching on, too-like Mesabi Range College, and Bemidji State. Students in their wind technology programs have been getting jobs before they even graduate.

Meanwhile, in Luverne, I visited the headquarters of MINWIND and learned about 15 community wind projects that allow farmers and land owners to own a financial stake in clean energy production, so the money stays in the local community and generates more economic development.

And in LeSueur, labor is getting on board, as IBEW Local 343 members are training on a practice tower, getting ready to fill the Minnesota wind energy jobs of tomorrow. I went in the thing.
They strapped me in a harness and I went up partway. And then I said, "Okay, I get the idea."

That's the thing about building wind farms in rural communities-at a time when rural communities are losing their young people, wind creates jobs that can only be filled by young people. Someone has to go up to the top and service these turbines. And you know what? I can't do that anymore. And neither can Steve.

Out in Willmar, they told me they've decided to rely on local energy to cut costs at a time when every rural community's budget is stretched. They own two wind turbines. Public buildings use geothermal heating systems. There's a municipal corn cob combustion project. They're working on developing a small solar farm. They're taking West Central Minnesota's natural resources and using them to strengthen the rural economy.

And in Fergus Falls, I toured Ottertail Ag Enterprises. They're building a 55 million-gallon per year ethanol plant, relying on Minnesota corn-but also Minnesota investors.

---

Now, a word about ethanol. I think we all know that if we're going to get to a higher ethanol mandate-and we should-then we simply can't produce enough corn to do it. And I hear some people argue against even our current use of corn in ethanol.

So let me say this. Corn ethanol is a transition to cellulosic ethanol-and cellulosic is happening. The first commercial-scale cellulosic plant is starting construction this year in Emmetsburg, Iowa. And when we are using wood wastes and grasses and crop residues that don't compete with food, I want it to be happening here in Minnesota.

Let me give you an example. Just last week, I was up in Isanti at Ever Cat Fuels. The company was started because scientists from the U and Augsburg developed a revolutionary process for producing biodiesel. And they use oil from all kinds of feedstocks, including-and this is very significant-the seed oil of inedible plants.

The promise of this process blew me away, just like I was blown away back in 2007 when I first saw the windows at SAGE.

---

We are closing in on a new generation of biofuels. And that's why, as we go into the FY2012 budget fight, I'm pushing for robust funding in agriculture R&D to develop the feedstocks and processes to produce advanced biofuels in a sustainable way.

And that's why, along with Senator Amy Klobuchar (whose staff is here today), I'm a cosponsor of Tom Harkin's Biofuels Market Expansion Act, which would invest in ethanol infrastructure and position our automobile fleet for the transition to cellulosic ethanol.

At a time when around 70 percent of the oil we import goes to transportation, imported oil is responsible for more than half of our country's trade deficit, and we're paying four bucks a gallon for gas, this legislation would make renewable fuel pipelines and other infrastructure eligible for loan guarantees and grant programs-and it would require that half of all large gas stations have blender pumps that blend higher grades of ethanol by the year 2020.

As you may know, the EPA recently approved the use of E-15 in cars built since 2001. And the auto industry is now telling us that there's no reason that, in the near future, every car that runs on gasoline can't use E-30 or maybe E-40.

Meanwhile, Minnesota is the country's leader in small and community wind projects. And I'm working with Senator Tester to introduce legislation in the coming weeks that's going to make it easier for communities to come together and build wind projects.

And that means we need to build the transmission lines to carry power from Montana and Minnesota to other parts of the country-and the smart grid that can make the system work.

We also need to be smarter in the way we use energy. District Energy might be the largest facility of its kind in North America, but it's unbelievable that we're not doing this in every city around the country. China's building cities from the ground up and putting in district energy systems. Last year I introduced a bill with Kit Bond, a Republican from Missouri, that creates incentives to build more of these systems around the country, and I'll be introducing it again this year.

---

I could go on. But the point is that Minnesota profits handsomely from using its resources-not just wind and agriculture and the next generation of biofuels, but entrepreneurship and innovation and investment-to meet its energy needs.

And even though Washington may be moving slowly, I'm committed to providing our state with the tools to keep racing ahead.

But if we're going to realize the full potential of renewable energy and energy efficiency here in Minnesota, we have to break the logjam that has crippled our efforts to move our energy policy forward at the federal level.

We need to jumpstart the American renewable energy industry and give a boost to Minnesota by building a market for renewable energy.

That means a national energy standard to give renewable energy industries the certainty they need to invest in new wind farms and biomass projects.

Now, the President has set a goal of 80 percent "clean" energy by 2035. And I think it's important here to be clear on the difference between clean and renewable energy.

When some people talk about "clean energy," they include nuclear-because it has a negligible carbon footprint-and, often, efficient natural gas-because it burns cleaner than coal. Some even talk about including coal, if you can sequester and store the CO2. And if you did include those, achieving an 80 percent clean energy standard would not be all that difficult.

So we have to be careful. We can't let a so-called "clean energy standard" destroy incentives to invest in real renewables like solar, wind, geothermal, hydroelectric, and biomass.

We have a renewable 25 by '25 standard here in Minnesota. I want to see a national standard of 35 percent renewables by 2035 as part of the overall 80 percent clean energy goal.

Minnesota has the renewables that can help the country meet that goal. But we need to build infrastructure. We need to make it easier for renewable energy projects to access financing. We need to boost our manufacturing of renewable energy technology through expanding incentives like the advanced manufacturing tax credits that expired last year. And we need incentives to retrofit our homes and commercial buildings-it creates jobs and saves our families and businesses money.

And we need to make sure that we don't start from behind when it comes to the next important innovations. And that means a robust investment in research and development.

If America doesn't provide an incubator for emerging technologies, they'll emerge somewhere else, instead. And when those industries grow, and create jobs, Americans won't be the ones filling them.

---

Minnesota can lead this debate by talking about how our own ambitious renewable energy standard built a market that our entrepreneurs and producers are rushing to fill. We can talk about how well our public and private investments in renewable energy and energy efficiency technologies have already paid off.

We can set an example with the coalitions of academics, farmers, business leaders, environmentalists, labor leaders, and policymakers we've built, the kind I've been visiting with.

And we can all play a role in convincing Washington to catch up with us.

Minnesota economists can produce reports on the benefit to our state from our early investments in renewable energy and energy efficiency. The business community can use its influence to make the case that a federal commitment to supporting these emerging technologies can mean jobs-not in the far-off future, but now, when we need them most.

And as Minnesota's representative on the Energy Committee, I can bring our voice to Washington-and, even better, I can bring Washington to Minnesota.
I have a commitment from the Department of Energy to join Minnesota stakeholders at a summit my office is putting together for later this year. We will all have a lot to talk about.

We all have a lot to gain if we can finally realize the ambition we've fostered for forty years and make our energy policy cleaner, cheaper, safer, and smarter. But no one has more to gain than Minnesotans. And no one has a bigger stake in the debate.

That's why I couldn't be more excited to join the Senate Energy Committee. And it's why I look forward to working with this incredible coalition to keep our state at the front of the pack-in the next year, the next decade, and the next century.

When Steve and I are dead.

Thank you.