Transcripts For CSPAN2 Energy Secretary Perry Testifies At Oversight Hearing 20171012

And todays hearing is going to examine the department of Energy Management and Mission Priorities under the leadership of secretary rick perry. Im very pleased to welcome him this money for his first appearance before this subcommittee. D. O. E. Performs essential security missions. It plays a central role in ensuring that the nations Domestic Energy security. It performs challenging cleanup operations to address its vast environmental and Nuclear Waste liabilities, and it provides key energy data and support the foundational science and Technological Development to advance the benefits of all forms of energy and Energy Delivery to ensure the longterm security and prosperity of americans. Excess of these diverse missions requires sound management and robust secretarial authorities. Success also requires focused attention and Budget Resources to address the most pressing priorities in light of current and anticipated energy and security situations. In this context history will help the committee gain insight into the secretaries priorities regarding the department. It will help the secretary understand our perspective on priorities as lucius essential for d. O. E. s Mission Going forward. When it comes to Energy Policy key priorities include d. O. E. s role to ensure Energy Security, reliable supply delivery of energy, and the Strategic Value of our Domestic Energy resources and energy technologies. Changing Energy Landscape in the u. S. Has produced profound impacts on our National Security policies and its respective departmental missions should be oriented. Although we are in an era of Domestic Energy abundance, new threats to Energy Security have been growing and requiring more urgent attention. In the Previous Congress the committees work along these lines informed enactment of several bills to address emerging threats and update the departments Energy Policy and security priority. We enacted legislation to support modernizing to improve its Emergency Response capability that we enacted other provisions for d. O. E. To improve Emergency Preparedness for Energy Supply disruptions, protect Energy Infrastructure physical and cybersecurity and prioritize Energy Security and federal decisionmaking. We also lifted the 1970s the 1a export restrictions on crude oil. Continuing the skunks to the policies that enhance the delivery and supply of energy. We are taking a comprehensive look at electricity Market Structure in recent velvets and challenges for the way we generate, transport and consume electricity in the nation with an eye toward updating the relevant laws governing our electricity sector. With the able assistance of vice chair joe barton will be looking at just what is necessary to ensure d. O. E. Is positioned for new energy and security challenges, all of these efforts aimed to update the Nations Energy policies to ensure a more secure reliable and affordable energy. In recent weeks the secretary demonstrated du recent nationally relevant regarding Energy Security and reliability. The series of devastating hurricanes hitting texas, florida and puerto rico highlighted the vital nature of Robust Energy systems in the departments Emergency Response capabilities. From all accounts the departments are of the efforts well and i look forward to learning what more d. O. E. Could do to serve the interest of affected areas, particularly puerto rico. The secretary demonstrated he is willing to take action in the area of electricity market regulations. As you know this is an area the Energy Subcommittee is very engaged in with seven hearings under our belt including two last week. While i reserve judgment on the policy solution, the fact dissector stepped into this complicated debate reflects the current need to have a broader conversation about the function of the nations markets. Whether it be invented to the tax code or through federal and state and private policies mandate all have played complicated role in the marketdriven economic outcomes currently affecting the generational profile of the power grid reliability and resiliency are important attributes to begin the conversation but none of these issues can be addressed in a vacuum as economics, technology, security and how to address other externalities such as environmental attributes all will have a role to play. I look forward to working with d. O. E. And ferc as we can to oversee the process, the rise of cyber, the transformation of power generation, the regulatory challenges that continue to affect the availability of all energy, all require a strong voice our national Energy Policy. That is what congress envisioned for d. O. E. 40 years ago and it is still important today. Ideal to my friend and colleague of vice chair of the subcommittee, mr. Roche from illinois. Five minutes. [inaudible] switched parties overnight. [laughing] its the front page of political. The Ranking Member. I know he referred to be vice chair. No, i wouldnt switch parties. Just to be called a vice chair. Mr. Chairman, i want to thank you so much for holding this long overdue hearing on the department of energys missions in management priorities. Mr. Secretary, you have the distinction of being the first agency head of the Current Administration to actually come before this subcommittee. I also want to thank you for rating us grazing as with your presence here today. Mr. Chairman, as we know a Budget Proposal highlights the priorities within an agency, and i must say that i have many concerns with fy 2018 Budget Proposal put forth by this administration. For starters, there are devastating proposed cuts to some of the most important federal investment in clean Energy Programs, power grid operations, Nextgen Energy technologies, and cyber attack management on energy systems. The president s d. O. E. Budget proposal would slash Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy by 70 while eliminating the weather related assistance completely. Mr. Secretary, as as a former governor im sure you understand that getting rid of a benefit of so many lowincome families nationwide is a nonstarter for me, and many members of congress on both sides. Additionally, mr. Chairman, the vast Research Findings agency would also be terminated in the president s budget. It makes absolutely no sense to eliminate a program that is spurring Innovative Energy technologies in how we produce, store and consume energy. In fact, mr. Chairman, have led to 1. 8 billion in either funding and launched more than 50 new Companies Since its inception. Additionally, the office of science which buffett so 17 decrease from fy 17 levels, namely impacting the Worlds Largest single investment in basic research. Mr. Chairman, while i am concern regarding the diversity and leadership [inaudible] agency itself for that matter, i cannot support the cuts proposed in the president s budget. The Budget Proposal while cutting fossil Energy Research by more than half, even as the president alone supporters mr. Chairman, [inaudible] as the most recent illadvised it makes more sense to invest in the technologies of the future to create jobs at home also can be sold overseas. Mr. Chairman, i look forward to hearing secretary perrys vision for the 21st century grid, and if he the majority of stakeholders that we have heard from during our entire empowering american series. Many of these experts who represented industry, technology companies, rbos and consumer advocate groups all degree that Customer Behavior is a driving force in shaping with the grid will look like in the future. These consumer driven trends include greater access to data and more control over their energy use, greater demand for cleaner renewable sources of energy to compete both traditional fossil fuels and increase Battery Storage and demand response resources, more Energy Efficiency initiatives, as well as the demand for lower energy costs. So, mr. Chairman, i really look forward to engaging secretary very on his vision for this department that he once wanted to infamously abolish it and with that i just back the balance of my time. The time of the gentleman has expired. The chair will recognize the chairman of the full energy and Commerce Committee for an opening statement. Thank you, mr. Chairman. Mr. Secretary, welcome to the energy and Commerce Committee. We are delighted to have you here to share your thoughts and views with us and answer our questions and we appreciate your leadership. I understand d. O. E. Held a ceremony yesterday to celebrate its 40th birthday as a cabinet agency. I think you have to agree lots of change in this country and in the world since congress created the department of Energy Special interNational Security and Energy Security space where d. O. E. Provides medical functions for the country. While the domestic and International Energy posture substantially is different from what was in the 1970s, i do not believe the importance of d. O. E. s role serving the nation and Public Interest has diminished. This past august secretary perry joined me at an Energy Roundtable of local official and Energy Leaders at mcnary dam on the mighty Columbia River in oregon which produces power for the administration. Secretary perry could not leave without one of our famous watermelons which i know you enjoyed. The best in the world. I believe secretary perry also left with a greater appreciation of the tremendous zero carbon emitting power resource we have its helping grow the economy in oregon and throughout the northwest. I think you learn texas wasnt the only big open white space around the poses difficulties getting to as we crisscrossed the great northwest. The next day at the pleasure of the company the secretary to d. O. E. s Pacific Northwest National Laboratory and then to the hanford site just up the Columbia River from it on district oregon. A couple of observations from that visit are pertinent for today. First it was evident Abundant Energy was critical to the historical success of the industrial operations which built Nuclear Reactors and produced plutonium vital to winning world war ii and later maintain a Nations Nuclear deterrent program. Second, hanford and its cleanup operations led to advances of engineering practices, research and Development Programs and Scientific Activities that are necessary for the sites safe and secure operations. I was pleased to see the improvements being made in the cleanup. That is not always been the case and it seems like they are finally on track. These advances led to the development of a worldclass National Laboratory and today the Pacific Northwest national lab in collaboration in partnership with d. O. E. s 16 of the National Laboratories, they are spread out in remote places around the world, or the country, provide scientific and technical breakthroughs to meet our National Security and Energy Security needs from securing our elected great to advancing storage technologies. So as we examine the daily management priorities today, build on the work ive asked vice chairman barton to undertake with you to look at what a 21st Century Energy department should look like, we should keep in mind the benefits of the inexact nature of the departments nations, that these nations across the enterprise can be expensive and difficult to manage. It is the responsibility of the secretary and this committee and congress to ensure the department is appropriately aligned to perform these nations in a costeffective manner and to the maximum benefit of the taxpayer. Chairman upton is indicated the Energy Threats today are not the same as the threats from the 1970s but there remain significant. The opportunities do as well. This committee will work in the coming months and through this congress to ensure the Departments Organization and missions are lined with the Energy Security challenges of our generation. And as i said at my direction, the vice chairman, not the Vice President , has already started to facilitate incarnation with Energy Subcommittee work to ensure d. O. E. Resources are focused on the Core Missions of nuclear Energy Security, environmental remediation, Mission Enabling site and r d programs. The committee will be examining expired d. O. E. Authorizations, many of which expired over a decade ago to ensure more fully appropriate program alignment. I look forward to your testimony, and it would be helpful to both sides in our work in energy and Commerce Committee. I would also like to ask you to address the recent questions that have arisen regarding travel expenditures as part of your discussion with our community today. In closing i look for to working closely with d. O. E. And my colleagues as well as we introduce agency is positioned appropriate for the Energy Security challenges that lie ahead. Again we are delighted to have you here today, mr. Secretary, and ive enjoyed working with you long to wait and we look forward to your testimony and answers to our questions. With that i just back the balance of my time. The chair would recognize the Ranking Member of the energy and Commerce Committee, mr. Pallone for an opening statement. Thank you, mr. Chairman kind of welcome secretary perry to the committee. Were pleased to finally have you here after all, its now the middle of october and you actually are the first cabinet member weve had before so this year so i hope that this is the start of a trend. Mr. Secretary, there is a lot for us to discuss today, particularly a recent proposal to opt in competitive electricity markets by providing unduly preferential rates to call and of the baseload generation. The substance of that proposal has serious flaws in my opinion under the guise of a crisis of grid reliability this proposal props up coal and Nuclear Generation with the goal of protecting fuel secured plants that have 90 days of fuel stored onsite. The d. O. E. s own grid report issued earlier this year stated electricity markets and a quote currently function as designed to ensure reliability and minimize the shortterm costs of wholesale electricity. Furthermore recent study of major electricity found between 20122016 less than a a fraction of 1 were due to fuel supply problems. The majority of outages are caused by Severe Weather impacting the distribution system, a problem exacerbated by Climate Change. This leads me to question the motivation behind the proposal, and to that end im sending you a letter today asking for detailed accounting of the process used to develop this proposal including the records of meeting you and your staff had and the taxpayer funds spent developing a a proposal that ss directed at helping a selected group of favored energy sources. Its an ironic proposal considering that epa administrator pruitt stated as part of his announcement in rolling back the Clean Power Plan, and again the recording, that Regulatory Power should not be used by any regulatory body to pick winners and losers. Mr. Secretary, thats exactly what you are doing. You are distorting the market, damaging in private and delivering reverential treatment to favored industry. At the end of the day killing off competitive electricity markets just to save Generation Assets that are no longer economical would lead to higher prices for consumers. If you are truly concerned about reliability and resilience, then the discussion we need to have should center around the nearly 90 of u. S. Citizens in puerto rico and u. S. Virgin islands who are without power. The electricity grid in puerto rico and much of u. S. Virgin islands is badly damaged and we much rebuild them to be stronger and more recent get them before maria struck. We cant replace outdated or structure with the same materials and the same technology as we did after hurricane Standing Rock this is an opportunity to modernize the grade in these areas so more prepared for the next major storm that will inevitably strike. All of this requires congressional action and the federal government must not act puerto rico and the Virgin Islands can rebuild stronger. This morning after seeing the president s latest tweets on concern the president cindy does not understand the scope of the devastation in puerto rico and will follow through on his threats to remove feedback from the item but before it has recovered. And finally i know chairman weldon, walden mention this a little earlier, i continued to be concerned by the amount of money this administration is spending when it comes to noncommercial travel for members of the cabin and her staff to quinn reports first came to light regarding your colleagues at hhs in epa i asked the Inspector General if those agencies to conduct an investigation and they agreed and those investigations are taking place but today in light of the 50,000 you spend in taxpayer dollars for noncommercial travel, i make a similar request to the Energy Department Inspector General. This is a particular concern given the extreme budget cuts the Trump Administration propose for the upcoming fiscal year including successful programs that help everyday americans. I know chairman walden mention it today but he also mentioned it at one of our markups earlier this week, that this investigation is something the committee will look into so i appreciate that, mr. Chairman. I appreciate what is to testify before our committee today and hope to work with you going forward. This type of hearing is critical to making our government work better and i hope we will see you here again and hope well see some of the other cabinet secretaries and Agency Representatives as well. Thank you. I yield back. Gentleman yields back. At this point we will welcome the secretaries testimony. It is made part of the record in its entirety and we will let you summarize it and fund that will do questions from the dais. So welcome again. Thank you. Thank you, mr. Chairman, Ranking Member rush, its my privilege to be in front of you and the other members of the committee. Im proud to be able to represent this administration in front of you, proud represent the department of energy. Been a couple of months since i appeared before congress and want to take this opportunity to highlight the progress that we made towards achieving our goals at d. O. E. Ill make every effort to be brief as we go forward in my oral comments, and respectfully request that my full remarks the insert into the record. Id like to start this way by mentioning how refreshing it is to see a subject Energy Policy that has so much bipartisan support in this congress. This commune has been a Strong Partner to the department of energy over the course of these and other four to working together with you to enhance our Energy Security and further our National Interest since taking office my priorities are d. O. E. Have focused on reorienting the department of energy on its Core Missions, ensuring america Energy Security, spurring innovation, enhancing National Security, and addressing the obligation of Legacy Management and Nuclear Waste. We are making solid progress towards these goals, that theres much to be done. There is a distinct role for congress to play in supporting our work, and i look forward to our ongoing cooperation. Our Work Together on energy and Security Policy is paramount for america to exert leadership necessary, both feel at home and abroad. Let me talk for a moment if i could about americas Energy Security. Americas economic and National Security depends on our Energy Security. We are putting the United States in a more stable and secure position to address the Domestic Energy needs by establishing reasonable and Reliable Energy policies. We realize that Energy Security begins at home. We have taken concerted steps to address use of insufficient action regarding grade resilience and reliability. The department addresses not only man may challenge to our reliability, that those of natural disasters as well. The department has played a Critical Role in the coordinated federal response to recent natural disasters. We had been an almost daily contact with our Industry Partners since Hurricane Harvey began to threaten the gulf coast, and that coordination continues through the day. We currently have more than two dozen technicians from d. O. E. In the Western Area Power Administration in the Virgin Islands. We will have almost 30 in puerto rico in the coming days. We will continue to support the work to restore power in the Virgin Islands and puerto rico. Not only are rededicated to our Recovery Efforts in the south and east but were also turning our focus to the west. We are working closely with our partners in california who are now facing some historic impacts with these recent wildfires. I would like to switch over and speak about innovation just a moment if i could, and d. O. E. s role in innovation and advancing science which is key part of our mission. As chairman walden mention, we had our 40th anniversary of the creation of d. O. E. Yesterday, 40 years of energy innovation, and thats a perfect description of what d. O. E. Has been doing since its inception in 1977. Energy security we americans enjoy and take for granted would not of been possible without american ingenuity. And clear focus on innovation. Leader rush, as you point in your remarks. Im very proud of the advancements that d. O. E. Research and development have spurred, and much of it from our National Labs system. Our National Labs put a distinctly american stamp on a last century of. In fact, nearly 1 3 of all nobel prizewinning work in the fields of physics and chemistry are d. O. E. Associated or sponsored. Thats a pretty impressive shell from my perspective of the investment that you all have made in the labs, in the previous years. Let me switch over to the National Security issue through nuclear science. And i want to touch just briefly what i think is an incredibly important issue facing our department today, and thats nuclear security. As a member of the National Security council i have a unique and a vital role in ensuring our nations security. And i undertake these responsibilities with the utmost gravity. For more than 70 years, the cornerstone of our National Security strategy has been a credible and reliable Nuclear Capability. This strategy assert the United States and our allies well. Our work on nonproliferation is equally important. The departments National Security, excuse me, National Nuclear Security Administration is a leader in our nations efforts to ensure Nuclear Weapons and materials do not fall into the hands of rogue regimes or terrorists. In short, we seek to deny Nuclear Capability to those who are not friendly to the United States, while reinforcing the america idea that we are a steadfast ally to peaceful nations. Let me shift over to the Legacy Management, if i may, and Nuclear Waste issue here the National Security Mission Comes with a final responsibility, and its the departments Environmental Management. Every secretary of energy upon confirmation has met with the size and the scope of the departments Cleanup Mission. It is staggering in its scope and in its size. It is our solemn obligation to clean up the environment a legacy of the weapons programs, the sites, the communities that helped us win world war ii and the cold war. My direct shipping to put d. O. E. On a final path to achieving the Cleanup Mission across our enterprise more safe, more streamlined, sooner, and at less cost to taxpayers. Theres more work to be done and we will need congress assistance in or to achieve our Environmental Management goals in streamlining state regulations. The department of energy, from my perspective, has another obligation, a moral obligation, to advanced solutions for the longterm disposal and storage of spent nuclear fuel and highlevel waste. The American People deserve a solution to this problem, and we can no longer kick the can down the road. I would like to commend this committee for the leadership on this issue. This committees iapetus and approval of a Nuclear Waste policy bill by an overwhelming, 49four about, stands as a clear example to the American People that we can Work Together and look forward to finally find a path forward. Mr. Chairman, if i may, to address chairman walden is issue of this travel issue that has cropped up and been in the media and what have you come and want to address it from straight on, as a former governor of a fairly goodsized entity, i totally understand the idea of having oversight on travel, to spend our money appropriately, thoughtfully, i was the Agricultural Commission of the state of texas for eight years. Southwest airlines does not go to dumas, texas, and so there are multiple ways you can get there here you can drive. Boy, it takes a while. I guess you could take the bus. I suppose you could even hitchhike. You could get there but you are not going to get much work done. And the point is, a lot of these jobs are different from the standpoint, and d. O. E. Is kind of unique in that sense. And when Leslie Groves was choosing the places to start National Labs and to do the manhattan project, he wanted to the place of the predifficult to get to. Hanford is one of those. And when you think about where our National Labs are in the places that ive been required to go and will continue to go to to do my job, and i might add during my confirmation hearing, and in front of senators and obviously going and speaking to a number of you, almost every number inviting me to come to the district, to come see what you have in your district, to see what you have in your district. And i obliged to do that. And so its going to require travel. One place i went, mr. Pallone, this is in the report that you have, i was, i was invited and accepted to go to a mine that is daily with Rare Earth Minerals in hazleton pennsylvania with another stop the next day to spend in its entirety of that day in portsmouth ohio with center, with the senator. The point is, its really difficult for us to have gotten their without taking that private aircraft to hazleton. I mean, you can get there. Im not going to tell you you cant, but to conduct the business, and i think we looked at this closely. Weve been thoughtful about how we did it. We havent, i mean, im a frequent flyer on Southwest Airlines and united. And the last time i was on united i think i was on seat attendee. In the. Theres nothing wrong with seat 10d to get a good place to be. Its about the same time as one a peer but the point is, i travel a lot to do my job. I do in a way that i think is thoughtful with the taxpayers in mind. I did it for 30 years as a house member, as in agriculture commissioner, as the Texas Governor and now as the second of energy. Im going to continue to do my job. Im going to make my commitment you to you that im going to try to do in the most thoughtful and the most reasonable way to do that, but realizing that from time to time if im going to be in those places and were going to be there in a timely fashion, we may have to do it in a way that does expend some taxpayer dollars. But i hope at the end of that process, they can look back and say you know what, these folks did a good job of extending our dollars and getting the job done. Done. And i think thats really the goal here. So let me just finish by saying to each of you, thank you for allowing me to, and inviting me to share my vision of what d. O. E. s opportunities are in the future. I look for to with every member of this committee. Gene green and ive been working together now for coming on long time, 35 years or so. And we will continue to be a partner with each of you as we find the places that we can serve the American People. And again, thank you for your, thank you for your service. Thank you for your standing up and saying that you are willing to sacrifice much to serve this country. Thank you, sir. Thank you, mr. Secretary we appreciate your testimony. At this point will engage in questions. Alternating between republicans and democrats for the short term here. So mr. Secretary, as you know the great resiliency and the notice of proposed rulemaking issued two weeks ago has attracted lots and lots of attention. In august d. O. E. Staff report recommended that traffic expedite its effort with the rto and isos to improve energy price formation. I have two quick questions. What prompted d. O. E. To act under section 403, and would be fair to say that d. O. E. Exercise its authority under section 43 because there is a level of urgency wasnt perhaps being addressed elsewhere . Mr. Chairman, the base reason that we asked for this, for ferc to take a look at this and to act is for years this has been kicked down the road, if you will. Mr. Olson has, in his time being in congress, has looked at this issue, as a number of you have. Pete and i, weve had this conversation about the resiliency, the reliability of our grid. I give you one example to those of you from the northeast, the idea, let me back up before i go into that. When im a great concerns as the governor of texas back some years ago, before we were making the transition to substantially more and cleaner generation of power, kind of in between the shale gas revolution and getting those plants built, we had some brownouts in dallas, texas, in Central Texas and parts of the state of texas. When it gets to be 108 degrees and her grandmother house loses electricity, there are some calling the governor going what in the hell are you doing . Or why have you taken care of this . One of the things as an elected official i never wanted to have to explain to somebody why we didnt have the vision to put into place a reliable and a resilient electrical power system. And we started working really hard, our grid and the state of texas and i think we put in place both the generation and the distribution payable to never have to have that call. And when the polar vortex came into the northeast back in 2014, and that event occurred, i dont think any of you want to stand up in front of your constituents and explain to people why the decision had to be on turn on lights on and keeping our family warm. And so making sure that there is a resiliency there, that there is that fuel on the ground, on the plant facility itself, i happen to think is really important. Not only from a personal security standpoint, the goodwill of your citizens, but also from a National Security point and those military bases that are in that part of the world. So with that as a background, mr. Chairman, i think having this conversation, and thats what i wanted to do, as i got into this and i started taking a look at it and grasping this issue better. I realized that one of the ways that we could have this National Discussion was to send this 403 forward to ferc for them to consider. Do you know what the timetable is going to be . I dont. I know they are an independent agency but i just speeding 60 days is i think. So the recent hurricanes, e rays the importance of Energy Security. We are all very, very troubled with whats happened. Earlier this year mr. Rush and i passed a by present bill, h. R. 3050, enhanced state Energy Planning and Emergency Preparedness act. The bill reauthorizes an Important Program that helps states prepare for hazards such as hurricanes. What has the state Energy Program and the state Energy Assurance planning played in the recent hurricane response efforts . Well, we learn something new in every disaster. That was one of my lessons as the government of the state of texas for 14 years, and we had a number of major events. None as impactful as harvey. I i dont believe they are in tt 14 year timeframe there was a storm of any greater consequence for florida and irma, and certainly what puerto rico and the Virgin Islands are facing today, but each of these we learned a new lesson in. And i think its important for the governors of the states to come forward working with our counterparts at fema, at the other agencies of government that are dealing with this, to give us new ideas and hopefully bring forward hears solutions, heres something you hadnt ever faced before. Puerto rico is a very, very unique challenge. Ill give you one example. When texas and florida, or any other state for that matter, you could preposition your utility. And just as an aside, each of you have Utility Companies in your districts. The men and women who volunteered and in many cases to go into harms way into texas, into florida, and preposition and going and get that electric power back on in record time. There were some 60,000 utility workers in florida. I hope you will pass on to them your Great Respect for the work that those utility workers and did. It was herculean from my perspective. But i think its really important for us to take these lessons learned, and then forward them so that the federal government can be more efficient as we deal with the next event that occurs. I know my time is expired so i will yield to the Ranking Member of the subcommittee. I just want to say that we intend to have a hearing in the next couple weeks as to the lessons that we may hopefully have learned based on those hurricanes, and yield to the Ranking Member of the subcommittee, mr. Rush. I want to thank you, mr. Chairman. Since the new issue including the subtitle quote premature retirement of fuel secure generation reliability and resiliency [inaudible] however, mr. Secretary, the study that was conducted by own agency indicated that diversity made the grid more reliable and a senior official testified in june stating that the state of reliability in north america remains strong and trendlines show continuing improvement yearoveryear, in the quote. Mr. Secretary, how did you arrive at the conclusion that [inaudible] somehow more reliable and resilient and other sources of generation and, therefore, should receive additional compensation . Mr. Rush, thank you. One of the things that i think is really important is that your Life Experiences kind of inform you about future events. And this is a great example of it, and i respect the ferc members of use, you know, i think their picture is one that is a snapshot of time. There are blue skies, the sunshiny, the winds blowing, the pipelines are caring gas. All those things are what we consider to be normal operating procedure, and in that scenario, our grid is fairly, well, its reliable and its resilient. But thats not the world that ive been asked to participate in is to oversee normalcy, to oversee the everyday Blue Sky Wind blowing scenario. What i think one of my roles is to think outside the box. And when we talk about baseload and we talk about, no one in the country was involved with developing wind energy in a greater way that i was while i was the governor of the state of texas. We created inside that state, helped develop more wind energy than is produced than five countries. And this happened during the 2000s. So my commitment to and alloftheabove Energy Strategy is not just some words and its not just theory. There is a real track record of how we help create diversity. I brought that to the department of energy. The president elect when asked did you come serve in this role knew that record of mind when making here. That wasnt going to change. Im still committed to and all l of the above. But the wind doesnt always below. The sun doesnt always shine. A Gas Pipelines dont always, i mean, they cant guarantee every day that that supply will be there. With all due respect, mr. Secretary, are you saying then that the chairman [inaudible] in the study that was completed came up with a separate conclusion . Are you saying youre feeling is, presents a Strong Enough rationale against the study . And you would take the position you are taking now . It seems like youre saying my gut feeling has more of a priority, rather than what experts have said. Is that, and i reaching the right conclusion here . I cant answer with definitive what the conclusion is, but i can tell you that i think its okay, you know, you and i might disagree from time to time on a particular position. But i hope what we can agree upon is that the 403 that i put forward was a way to kickstart a National Discussion about resiliency and about reliability of the grid. The best i can tell were pretty successful in doing that. We are having this conversation now that we really havent had in this country and to think its important for us to do. Were not always going to agree. Im not going to agree completely with the ferc chairman, but i hope that we can have this very thoughtful, respectful conversation about making sure that, no member of congress has to stand up in front of their constituents explaining to people why the electricity wasnt on, why do were not able to keep their constituents, you know, safe and countable in their homes because we didnt make the right decisions dealing with national Energy Policy to make sure that we have a broad alloftheabove Energy Strategy in this country. Yield back, mr. Chairman. Chairman would recognize the vice chair of the full committee, the gentleman from texas, mr. Barton, for five minutes. Well, thank you, mr. Chairman. Welcome, governor, sector, friend, head leader at texas a m. This is your first exposure i think to the house, first exposure to our committee. But what you will find out is those of us who have and are by our name will tend to be a little more friendly. Those that have a deep will be a little more frisky but we are all on your side. Yes, sir. We all want a good robust Energy Policy and Nuclear Policy for america now, ive got questions about policy since the chairman has asked me on a bipartisan basis to the together an Energy Department reauthorization bill and thats when going to focus on, i do want to this thing about travel to bed. How many times have you flown on charter flights as secretary of energy . One. One. And that was to hazleton, pennsylvania, is that correct . En route to portsmouth, ohio,. And that was at the request of a member of congress, is that not correct . Correct. And a number of the senate. Into your knowledge you violated no federal law. That is correct. And you fully disclosed it. To the appropriate sources within d. O. E. And the Accounting Department and all that. In addition i might say ran it through all the appropriate, historic ways to get that approval. You understand that generally we expect, just as we have to as members of congress, when we fly, when at all possible we fly commercials. You understand that, and i assume you understand that. Yes, sir. And ive been a good frequentflier. I happen to know that you and your sweet wife, anita, have played up. But yall have a place you go alone outside of austin, texas. On most weekends you like to go back to texas, is that not correct . Thats my goal. I cant say that every week and i didnt say every weekend. We had some international travel, cut into that from time to time but my goal is to go back just out of curiosity, when you go back to texas, what airline, how do you get from washington, d. C. To austin, texas . What airplane to use . I make Southwest Airlines pretty happy. Southwest airlines. Yes, sir. Thats the transparency airline. How many times do you think youve used southwest since you been the cabinet secretary . I have no idea. Im sure someone has a record of it. But more than one. More than one. Dozens of times, sir. I think we are okay if the Energy Secretary flies Southwest Airlines to texas and flies commercial when at all possible, but every now and then when youre going to hazleton or hanford, you know, sandia all the 17 National Laboratories that are out in remote places intentionally, if its expedient and doesnt violate federal law, on occasion you use a charter flight. And i think d. O. E. Has planed of their own. I dont know what the protocol for the cabinet sector you to use the planes within your own agency whether our government plaint under control, correct . That is correct. For instance, to get to hanford, i get next to chairman walden district commercial flight to seattle, and then from seattle down to hanford is a pretty good hike. Its on the very if a reporter wants to catch you catching a flight hes got a better shot at catching at the Southwest Airlines counter than at some i think they have multiple pictures of me on the drudge report that showed the Southwest Airlines reading the drudge report. Is okay to fly american. We will let you fly american, united. I mean, but. [talking over each other] ive been on all of those carriers as well. Mr. Chairman, i think the real key here is what i should with mr. Pallone is my intention will be to be as a sensitive to this as we can be. And i totally respect Congress Oversight capacity here and what have you. And what i would offer you, sir, if i think you sent a letter asking for the breakdown of the travel. And what i would like to do with your permission is direct the agency as well to look back at the previous secretaries travel in recent memory to look and see if our travel is pretty much in line with what look at secretary party jets, internationally. And do not do what she did, mr. Secretary. My time is expired. The time of the gentleman has expired. At least if he continued to fly southwest, no one will accuse you of line firstclass. Well, thats an argument that could be made. Hopefully he gets in boarding group one. Default on the transmission line. I blew it the responsibility to fully help the people of puerto rico and the u. S. Virgin islands as they worked to repair the damaged electricity grid and its important we remember that these are american citizens who are judging by the president streets this morning im not sure he fully grasp the fact because he seems to be talking about puerto rico as it were some foreign country of where they have the humanitarian aid. I know the deal he has on the ground. You stated in your written testimony that more than 2000 technicians from d. O. E. Are on the ground working to restore power. Three other administrations across the country in the new oscars is a d. O. E. Are models of how the federal government can be helpful in providing u. S. Citizens. Are there any technicians our staff from southeastern or southwestern power authorities of puerto rico and Virgin Islands . If not, are there any plans to employ additional personnel from these other pma is, sir . Certainly we are not interested in pushing people out just for the sake of pushing people out, just to check off a box that says we have people there, so i think a thoughtful approach to this, which im quite comfortable that we have a thoughtful approach to this. One of the things i will share with you as this is a really different disaster. As i shared with the committee in my previous remarks, every disaster is different in some way. Puerto rico is very, very different for a lot of reasons, the least of which is the electorate Utility Company in puerto rico was already in bankruptcy months before the storm ever had. The storm really complicated the issue. The point is that if god the corps of engineers for the first time in my memory and you may know better than me, but the first time in my memory that the corps of engineers has been pushed into place to get this rebuilt going. I also know that there are substantial amounts of private sector utilities that are ready, willing and able to go into puerto rico as well as the contracting process occurs to get the country back. From early on, we said this is not going to be late getting Texas Electricity back on her florida electricity back on. This is going to be a challenge. The commitment for this administration and certainly dob is to do this thoughtfully, look at it and make a decision about what is the best rebuild and improving the infrastructure they are so that when the next term comes and they will be annexed on some time that we dont have the same results. I just want to get to a second question. If you could get back for the chairman about whether or technicians are these other Power Marketing administrations. I wonder if theres some way to deploy them so that they are there. The second question i have an uncle through this quickly is that what goes to the notice of proposed rulemaking, Many Companies have been retiring or perching retiring at their Nuclear Fleet simply because it makes the most economic sense. There are marketplace dynamics that completely contradict the premise and the proposed rulemaking in the staff report on electricity markets are a liability issue does not support the basis. The details as to how this proposed rule would work, even though proposals are completely changing electricity markets operate. My question is do you have called the dob, youve relied on them to prepare a study that did not recommend the approach are now taking. What specific analysis or model did you have in the Information Administration prepared to determine the full impact before it was released . Im just concerned this data differs compared to the database used in august. To what extent did you take into consideration these other suggestions that seem to contradict your proposed rulemaking . Im not sure i consider them to be contradictory. I dont know whether or not from my perspective is the great study we put forward earlier in the year addresses the specificity of the event but im concerned about and i dont want to go back and beat this horse again. The polar vortex we had in 2014 that have the potential to be devastating to the northeast. The idea that those coal plants should be part of the next, i happen to think they should be. I can make the argument that if you lose those school in the northeast and the ability to have the power that they currently produce, you can never replace that or you can do it in certainly a timely way. And so, my point with this is i want to drive this conversation because as mr. Olson and i have discussed earlier, this has been talked about a lot. But there hasnt been any action. I want to try to put this country to take action so that we dont face that event in the future where peoples lives are put in jeopardy over the countrys National Security is jeopardized because we just refuse to buy into the concept that we needed a very diverse portfolio. That is really at the basis of this, mr. Pallone. I wanted this country to go through exactly what we are going through right now, which is an open, thoughtful conversation about our resiliency and liability. Mr. Chairman, and can i ask if he can get back to us within the analysis that they have the National Labs are Energy Information to prepare before their proposal was released. If they provide that for the record that would be great. Vice chair the subcommittee, mr. Olson for 10 minutes. I thank the chair. Howdy, governor perry. Im so sorry. Hard habit to break. Howdy, secretary perry. You come my friend had a very historic time. Power sources are changing rapidly. These changes you propose that ferc access the power source with a slight preference for nuclear or coal. You said you want to start the debate. Well, my friend, mission accomplished. The response for the friends across the country probably makes you feel like the idea of all aggies, colonel earl rudder, 1932, was fire coming down all around you. A friend of ours at a big energy firm in houston said, quote, the administration has declared war on natural gas, end quote. Attacks are coming that said you prefer government control over the free markets. We both know that the pio of [inaudible] for 30 years in austin, texas, theres been no bigger proponent than governor rick parry. U. S. Air governor thought outside of fort worth. As our governor, you make texas number one wind power in america in the world. The south texas power plant took a direct hit from Hurricane Harvey. Power kept flowing, but 90 miles north of day or come my district, the power plant has eight generators for coal, for natural gas to shut down all for coal because it cut the coal ill wet. Again, used in your whole life [inaudible] i ask you, you talk about the biggest problems you face. We progress with these changes. He said it very succinctly early on and that is for us to have this conversation which we are doing. I think the idea that there is a free market in electrical generation is not a bit of a fallacy, it is a fallacy. Every state regulating industry come in the we have the puc. There are different phases. There are different states of regulation. And each state has to decide which is the best one. Back in the late 1990s, in the late 90s we decided we were going to start the regulation of the Electrical Industry in the state of texas. What deregulation means his competition. The issue there is to let these companies be more competitive and less regulated by the government, State Government in this case. And so, in the Previous Administration i think it is fair to say that any particular philosophical favorite in the Energy Industry and they put their thumb on the scale. I think there is probably multidecade of either disregard or whatever. Im not going to sit here and tell you i know why the Nuclear Energy industry was disregarded the way that it was, but here is the challenge that we have in this country today on the nuclear side of things. If we are going to continue to be a leader in Nuclear Energy in the world, we have to support this industry in this country. The question, mr. Chairman, is do we have a National Security interest in the Nuclear Industry . I think the answer is yes, and if we do, we have to make sure we are supporting that industry because if we dont, if we lose our supply chain, if we lose our intellectual supply chain of bright scientists because they basically pushed the Nuclear Industry back, then we are going to lose our role as the leader when it comes to Nuclear Energy in the world and that is in turn going to affect our ability to address the weapons. These are all interconnected and i think making sure that we have in all of the above Energy Strategy, that it says free market as it can be, and pete. You are correct, but the idea that there is a free market in the Energy Industry is a fallacy. The gentlemans time has expired good one request for a dl as he appeared. This time its really expired now. The gentleman from california, mr. Mcnerney. Thank you, mr. Chairman. Thank you, mr. Secretary. Thank you for your interest in veteran issues. I do want to say that your budget proposes deep cuts in programs that care deeply about. Energy efficiency, energy reliability, science, innovative technology, Loan Guarantee your these programs they feel are necessary for economy and National Security. Let me ask you this. Do you think the Climate Change is anyway a threat threat to our nation . Yes, sir. I do. If i could go ahead and ask questions. Cosmic question. Yes. Okay, d. C. Relationship between the events weve had in Climate Change . Most likely. Yes, sir. Mr. Mcnerney, before we take a lot of time on this issue, let me just say that we are probably going to agree that it is happening. We are going to agree that its going to have an effect on the globe. I think where we may or may not agree is just how much of this is mans fault and are decisions that we are going to make here. I dont believe we need to be making decisions that could put america at a very disadvantaged around the globe, making decisions that we think might have an impact on Climate Change. I was in the senate and one of the senators said, you know, Climate Change was 100 menthol. I dont believe that. I dont believe that Climate Change is 100 menthol. You know, are we having an impact on it . Absolutely. Can we make a difference . You bet. Stocks down 50 . We had 19 decrease in our Carbon Footprint at the same time we lead the nation in the production of job creation. So you can have Economic Growth and address your climate in a positive way. I hope that is what we all can work on together. We can. It seems to me that the risk of Climate Change is bigger than the risk of reducing carbon emissions. Theres a pretty good tradeoff in my mind about that. Let me go to the next question. In your remarks, you mentioned the d. O. E. Role in innovation, but your budget calls for a 16 reduction in finance. Can you explain that . Im going to give you a little higher level observation about budgets. I have been budget 1985 as a member of the Appropriations Committee in the statehouse. I was an agency head had for eight years and as the governor of texas for 14 years. The early part of every session and we only met 140 days every other year so its a really cool concept. But the governor put a budget forward. Generally, the budget governors excuse me, the governors budgets were pretty good doorstops. I am not saying that is how you all look at a president s budget, but i will tell you i know how this process works. Thank you for that observation. We had a hearing last week of Energy Producers and every single supplier said that the market should value their product fairly and that would give the best relationship to reliability and resiliency. Do you agree with that . In the mythical world, i would agree with that. In the real world, that is not the case. As ive shared with mr. Olson, i dont tank that you have this perfect free market world. We subsidize a lot of Different Energy sources. We subsidize wind energy, ethanol, solar. We subsidize oil and gas. And so, the idea the question is how do you make it as fair as you can . You know, we are probably going to argue about that. Chairman upton and i would probably have some disagreements about the perfect way to put a system in place and that is what we are doing here. That was really kind of medical with the four of three to get us talking about the whole idea in the understanding that we have subsidize the Energy Industry for a long time. I frankly dont have a problem with that. If the concept of the free market is youre not going to have any impact except the market. Supply and demand. I dont know if i want to bet my grandmother for someones grandmothers safety and security on whether the lights will come on totally and absolutely unregulated. Im interpreting this saying it should not be neutral in the real world. My time is up. Ferc ought to have an open conversation with all of us about how we make sure we can keep electricity is affordable and accessible as we can. At the same time making sure the greatest and plays so that if there is another polar vortex, if this whole climate issue of in these storms in all of this goes into your lineup of thought process here, we are probably going to have another one. And if we are, shouldnt it be our responsibility to make sure that when your constituents put the lights on, that they are not having to make a difference or decision between staying warm and having might. The gentlemans time has expired. The church recognize the gentleman from illinois, mr. Shimkus. Thank you, mr. Chairman. Secretary perry, let me start by thanking you in your words for the recent letter you sent me. I share your sentiment the federal governments inability to dispose nuclear race fairly but that might Impact Communities throughout our country and the federal government has a moral obligation to reach a solution to this dilemma. We are dancing that very solution as you mentioned in your opening statements. The full committee here passed out the policy act amendments of 2017 would devote a 494. I think my colleagues are working with me to move the bill. This legislation provides the tools to successfully complete the adjudication of the pending my sins, authorizes d. O. E. To pursue a temporary Storage Program of the Disposal Facility is completed, last the repository to host it to constructively partner with d. O. E. To mitigate potential impact and refund the Nuclear Waste to protect ratepayers to party paid over 40 billion to the federal treasury for this program. Do you support resumption of the licensing proceedings for Yucca Mountain repository currently with the reestablishment of the Nuclear Waste program as required by the Nuclear Waste policy act. I was sharing with mr. Mcnerney that we were talking about budget and the president s budgets and what have you and theyre certainly parts of the budget that i dont necessarily completely agree with. There were parts of my own budget when i was the governor that i didnt agree with completely at the end of the process. The point is i and your role in this, congress is very Important Role in the budgeting process and respect it and im going to work within it. The president s fy 18 budget request for funding to restart the Yucca Mountain licensing proceedings. This is a very important point that it is the licensing proceedings that this money is for. I support that. The most important priority now is for congress to appropriate the funding so we can reopen the Nuclear Waste program and finish the Yucca Mountain licensing. At the end of it, those that are against this comment they might find out through this process that they were right. They get to the end of the process were not going to know about. The sooner we receive the funding, the sooner the scientists and lawyers can get to work. In following up on obviously the authorization language that we passed through the committee, you think best for that. You are right. We went to fold track. Those in the media on the appropriation debate and also the authorization of power of the Program Forward should there be a successful decision. Are you encouraged by the language in the committees bill that will help the department of energy move forward indian around and the longterm come again solution is problem . 494 votes are pretty clear message, sir. As you know, all americans are paying the cost of the department of inaction on spent nuclear fuel. Since president obama weakly attempted to terminate the Yucca Mountain program, the overall taxpayer skyrocket from 12 million to 30 million. This is money we are spending that a lot of us dont talk about all the time. With another estimate that would show another significant increase. Scattered around the country while not working to disclose the material. What specific action do you propose to undertake and reduce these ballooning costs. One of the things that would be wise for us as a country and congress is a partner in this process is to find some alternatives, you know, whether it is at web, whether it is in west texas, whether it is something in nevada other than yucca, there are a number of places and maybe some states we havent even talked about or thought about yet. I just tank i dont want to get stuck that yucca is the only place you can go and if it doesnt happen, then we are going to sit here with 38 days, having highlevel Nuclear Waste in various places around in their state that are not secure, that have potential for disaster to occur, whether it is manmade or natural disaster. And so, that would be one of my observations and suggestions is that we really looked at as we go forward with this funding on the licensing of yucca, at the same time look at the alternatives that are out there because, mr. Chairman, you know this as well as anybody. We are going to require all of that space to handle this highlevel waste that we have in this country. Mr. Chairman, i know my times expired. Thats one of the benefits of the interim option in the legislation allows us to start consolidating and reducing multiple hundreds of locations down to the handful. I yield back. The chair recognizes mr. Peters for five minutes. Thank you so much, mr. Chairman for being here today. We met at san diego in our chamber of commerce if you years ago. I represent as you know from our visit to large innovation economy. I want to express concern about the things ive seen out of the budget. Maybe youve encouraged me by calling it a door stop, but specifically with respect to the advanced Research Project agency or her fate be common since it was created in 2009 has provided 1. 5 alien dollars in funding to 580 projects that have led to the formation of 56 companies on 60 projects with other Government Agencies including the department of defense and attract within 120 billion in additional privacy or investment. You indicated upfront innovation and energy was one of your goals. Why on earth would we be talking about the arena file . Mr. Peters, as i said in my remarks in front of the senate, i didnt write this budget and my job is to defend it, which from time to time is counter to what i think is good public policy. This happens to be one of those. As the governor of the state of texas and President Trump, president elect trump knew that winning a thing to take this job a history of working with the state of texas being involved with the emerging technologies and having a very thoughtful process in place with experts that with these technologies and then recommending to the Lieutenant Governor and the speaker in the case of ours whether or not these were places we wanted to invest to try to bring those technologies to commercialization. Thats a good thoughtful appropriate thing. Let me finish by saying that this is a good conversation to have. Do we have a structured properly . The congressman is working on the reviewer got the department. We can find some solutions where we push forward innovation for the government can identify new technologies, new innovation to make a real difference in peoples lives and help fund that. Is it exactly like structure . Ill engage in the conversation and debate, but i think its important for eyes to promote innovation. I give you a good example. Darpa was created to make sure america never gets surprised again in a conflict. Theyve thrown a lot of jello at the wall over there in some really good extraordinary things did about a thousand . No. Not a bank of america account for every one of our loans we made was a good moment we got our money back. Be smart about it. Have the right kind of oversight and the president would be supportive of having the right oversight and focus. I appreciate your comparison to darpa ee. That was the model and when the utilities came in here and ask specifically the federal role of securing in terms of greater efficiency and reliability, they said research. I would like to offer that is something you can navigate for. Youre absolutely right in that its happening at Idaho National lab. Weve got the great out there. We can go break things and not have to worry about it. The more difficult stuff happens outside. One of the questions about the all of the above Energy Strategy. And if thats something we should subsidize if we are subsidizing other energies . The answer in the broad sense is absolutely conservation plays a role. We been able to make a difference. If you can put processes in place to save energy, you certainly should do it. We can have the discussion and debate about how you do that, thats really the devils in the details. About how you do that. I do support the concept of conservation to make sense. How we do it, one of the things i learned as a governor is how do you incentivize people . We were able to clean up our air in texas so much partially by giving tax credits to people who are switching over from older earning diesel engines to newer more efficient ones and i really hope on the fleet. Rather than the subsidization that its not governments role, there may be some thoughtful ways to come up with incentives to get people to change. My time is up but the subsidies do so appears in the appears in aperture to recognize the gentleman from west virginia. Thank you, mr. Chairman. Sorry i was interrupted there for just a minute. Mr. Secretary, welcome. Its a delight you are here and im particularly appreciative appreciative of you continuing this discussion because we may have five or six hearings on this topic throughout the summer. And so it is really important for you to put a punctuation mark on this. For the record i guess i should say, i dont see any between you and me on this subject, particularly as it relates to reliability. I am 100 behind what your position is to give us a reliable grid system for this and im coming from that area of gas. 42 of all the gas produced in america comes from this region that i represent in utica gas shales. Im very concerned about the reliability of this. I want to build that. You talk a little bit about the polar vortex of 2014. I think people need to remember what the elements were late because of 2014 after that they came and testified before us that we came within one small power plant of having a blackout on the east coast talking about 500 megawatts, a small power plant. Since 24 team, weve had 34 coalfired power plants closed down. Weve tried to replace them with gas and wind another thing and that is to our credit to the Credit Credit of the Utility Companies. But your own analysis coming from staff and otherwise has said during the polar vortex, 22 of the power generating capacity in the market was lost during that period of time and 55 of that was in gas fired power plants. So i am concerned if we think we are going to give reliability simply switching over to gas when we found out theres some issues. Thats why were very supportive of you. I want us to see spend more Research Dollars on the ways that make us more reliable and ways we can have a 90 day supply on site to be able to do that. I am alarmed people are ignoring whats already here that we have is weve got the nuclear, which is by far the most dependable supply we have once you turn it on your good. So i am concerned also with the fact that people dont seem to recognize that 10 cents polar vortex that we still continue to have forced outages in our gas fired power plants and i think we have to do a better job trying to help them find ways that they dont have power outages. 94 of all the outages in a gas fired power plant, 94 about the outages come from gas power plant spirit of a better job. In the timeframe that is left for you, and if we have in the next couple months in this country, in my be subjected under the circumstances . I am not sure. I want to paint that picture and unduly scare the people of this country. I think we need to be responsible. I think we need to be really mature in the conversations that we have with the people of this country. I go back to either one and if you do have to stand up in front of your constituents and try to explain to them why they did not have power, whether its 108degree day in dallas, texas, substantially below freezing day in new york city. And i think any of us really know in our heart if you havent diversified portfolio, youll be able to serve better than if you have limited. We saw that back in texas in the early 2000 when gas went to 14. Mr. Secretary, dont you think of ferc were to fall through, dont you think wed have a better outcome . I do, but thats why were having this conversation here. I do want to have on both sides of this and to have a very robust and open conversation. But i am very comfortable that having this diverse portfolio of energy, of hydro, coal, nuclear, wind, solar, bio makes abundant good sense. Now do i think we have to subsidize all of them from the federal level . Some grand scheme . No i dont. I look your wind and solar kind of flickr look at my kids. You know, i supported them through their growing years. Once they got out of college, they are kind of on their own. We did that with wind and solar. We subsidize those and they become very, very good at what they do and they have innovation that allowed them to become incredibly efficient. So, the idea that we need to be subsidizing going forward. Unfortunately, mr. Secretary the gentlemans time has expired. Thank you, mr. Chairman. Secretary, welcome. You and i have known each other since the 80s and if elected the state legislator is a democrat. In our younger years, we played basketball together, just like i did with shearman shimkus. Our subcommittee hears that a number of hearings over the last few months and it seems like every panel we have, they talk about how texas got it right. Other states ought to look at. You were governor when we created basically a free market system with the wind power, natural gas we only have two Nuclear Power plants in our state. Let me read you a call from her nomination. Unwillingness to develop natural gas in shale formation reduces Carbon Footprint, but we truly advocate all the above strategy in your time as governor. Texas took the National League in wind energy development. Texas is still one of the leading state when it comes to empowering many policies are responsible for that. My concern and ill quote my colleague, congressman shimkus as well as the chairman of the subcommittee on environmental economy. Our fundamental questions about what constitutes the base load power plant. Perry and his request laid out of having 90 days onsite. During harvey, our coal plants in texas had to switch to natural gas because it was underwater and when i did get out from under it couldnt be used. We can have a conversation of power sources. Our natural gas plants continue. In fact, Nuclear Plant continued to function. Thats my concern predicting that with your new effort youre getting the system and not doing a freemarket program. Let me go to our National Coverage now. As governor of texas, our electricity follows 40 natural gas from a 20 coal, a liver nuclear, 12 for wind sources. Compare that to overall sources in a generation for a country last year, u. S. Got 34 of electricity or natural gas, 30 from 20 from nuclear, 15 renewables including wind, solar and hydro. Thats why i question your internal d. O. E. Report from july , quote, the system is more reliable due to better planning, market discipline and better operating rules and standards. Why do you find theres now immediate reliability crisis that needs to be addressed in extremely short 45 day Comment Period because we got so much touched on in her own committee about the liability of being an issue in why do we need to do this . Mr. Green, thank you here let me address your first question about the issue of coal and its been impacted by floodwaters in this case. We learn something new in every disaster. Ill give you one example. You remember when we did, and i think it was hayek, we did a big flow on interstate 45, actually actually only have about 15 seconds left and i have one more question. Learn something new every time i know suggested the cool folks learn something new this time and how they store coal is one of those. I dont consider that to be anything other than the bit of a diversion for them to look at. What was your last question . Well, let me go to another one, though. It seems like we are socializing now by this effort you are trying to do common set of the free market system is the cheapest supplier could be nuclear because those plans than 30 years and even extended. Right now, natural gas is cheapest we can get with wind and so we are using all we can with that. It seems like you are putting your finger on the scale and not doing what weve done in texas for the last 15 years or so to try and let freemarket deal with it. Like i said, i dont have enough time, but the chair will let you answer that. I will briefly give you the same answer i gave. Apart for those of us in texas to talk fast. Yes, sir. I understand. A key as there is no such thing as a free market in the Energy Industry. Do you agree that theres a freemarket . I dont. Not even in texas. We had the prius, government picking winners and losers every day by regulations and what have you. Im think im at least honest enough to say not that youre not. When the inner product. I have the right to challenge you for my electricity in my home. The person who delivers that can also use whatever Power Generator they have. So that is the free market we have. The competition side of it, jeanne, you know me im all about the competition because that is what we did. We deregulated the market and the competition came. The idea is we have administration before on the scale i think youll agree that he liked green energy. That is where the subsidization came. Thats where they pushed down. I happen to think because there is in 2005 by the gave a pretty good speech here we found it all. There wasnt any more. Taking a snapchat in time right now, 13, 14 mcf of gas today substantially less than that. I dont know what its going to be five years down the road. One of my responsibilities is to look over and see what the future is. Again, we have to make decisions to make sure we have a diversified for folio so that if the wind was blowing, the sun could shine in, if the Gas Transmission line is corrupted in some way, if theres still people who are going to get power. The gentlemans time has expired. Mr. Harper. Thank you, mr. Chairman. Mr. Secretary, thank you and welcome. Always an honor to have you here. Youve been a breath of fresh air as you look at the way we are doing the policy and study those rules, having the foresight to we thank you for your efforts. They are spent on operation not cavities to fund the Capital Asset Construction Projects needed to support operational at duties. While theres a lot of focus on how they spend to the treatment plant, we are not convinced theres enough attention to ensure operational spending results in cleanup and thus reduce future taxpayer costs. Can you talk about your plan. That was one of the reasons i wanted to go out to chairman waldens request of the senators from washington and washington state. And see firsthand, historically theres been some decisions made that werent in the best interest of taxpayers, not in the best interest of a timely cleanup. I think what we are seeing out there in the pitcher vacation planned and it appears and are moving forward in appropriate ways both budget wise and timewise to be able to get that plan out. I have encouraged them to even be ahead of schedule, that that would be a very good thing. I am confident that in some of these really big projects in on the cleanup side, that we are making progress in as you rightfully stated, as we speed these processes up, we save substantial amounts of dollars going forward. Your Environmental Management office recently performed a 45 day review of operations. Can you speak to whether that will produce more effective cleanup . It will. Whether it is out at portsmouth, which i was there about two weeks ago in week out with back online by new mexico and they are again taking shipments. Weve got the chromium issue at oak ridge. Theirs is making progress. Savanna river is making progress on their tank waste out there which is the largest environmental risk at that site. This is a Monumental Task as youve talked about. The amount of money and the amount of time that they are talking about here is pretty stunning. I want to talk for just a minute that we have left. Our laboratories, you visited a number of of those during your tenure. The departments National Laboratories developed an outgrowth of the manhattan project. That is the federal research framework. Over the last decade, congressionally chartered expert panelist genio reports nongovernment organizations have noted the least continued micromanagement to say that perhaps they hampered innovation result in an efficient processes. What is your perspective on how to deal these system is currently operating and what steps you might initiate to enable the last executing of Energy Security and the innovation mission. Its a balancing act that goes on between management at the top of an agency than 100,000 contractors versus allowing for laboratories complete and total freedom to go to whatever they want to do. Hopefully my experience as ceo of a fairly large entity, as a matter of fact, one larger than du weep for 14 years informed me about how you put good, thoughtful, capable men and women into positions of management and free them to go manage and to make the right decision. That is what you can expect out of me because thats what my history has been. So if we have a lab thats having some challenges and most had some challenges over the last couple of years and we are addressing those. By and large, my approach is going to be higher really good people. Are timeless. The freedom to go do what the people of this country jemez times expired. We have another 45 minutes, hours worth of question to quote you. If you shorten your answer we can get down the road. You and i can go have texas barbecue, blue bell ice cream. I will quit filibustering. Im going to remind you that without im going to recognize my good friend from pennsylvania, mr. Doyle. Thank you, mr. Chairman. Mr. Secretary, welcome. I would note that many of your responses to the questions regarding the polar vortex. Pjm, which is in my area responded to that crisis with new rules to address those capacity issues. And while i dont think the rules are necessarily perfect, but theres many different levers to pull here for smaller treats them what your direct them to do on of three. I would also like to point out that this committee has held eight hearings on markets and reliability. We have actually been having the conversation that you claim to be starting. Reporting last week you claim that the 43 you sent to ferc wasnt a direct hit. You said you were hoping to have a conversation and you said that many times today in this hearing. However, it includes phrases like the Commission Must act now. The secretary of his direct teen the commission and the secretary is requiring the commission. The document contains the word must both times and i just want to point out that the comment. Is extremely short and could fundamentally reshape or destroyed many of the electricity very, very quickly. So it seems to me that your quotes in front of this committee today and the document that you sent ferc seems to be at odds. So which is that, mr. Secretary . Is this a directive to do this or is it a conversation . Both. So its a directive then . My words are what my words are. I dont back off. What you are saying here today seem to be at odds. Which one is it . We cant have a conversation and i think they must act. Weve kicked this can down the road as long as we need to. Do you think there are any what youre proposing in this for a three is rather asked dream. He talked about putting fingers on the scale. You are putting a heavy finger on the scale here in this for a three. If you claim to be in all of the above Energy Person as im, this is going to result in major disruption in the electricity are we in conversation mode or have you been given a direct to a ferc to do something about a conversation up front . I think you are wrong and one thing you said. Ive been running many things you said. Ive done it in front of 4 Million People in a debate setting. That was when i could just remember them. The point is i hope nobody thinks that i take credit for starting this conversation. Chairman olson excuse me. Youre forgiven for that. This has been discussed for a long time. Again, i dont want the folks in pennsylvania in your district to be calling you up insane congressman doyle, why our rto made these adjustments. Were pretty confident about our capacity in pennsylvania. You are good at filibustering. I want to ask some questions. Secretary perry, europe predecessor released the report of the quadrennial Energy Review finding the short run markets may not provide longterm investments in an appropriately configured capacity. I do think that is an issue. Also, resource valuations continue the social values such as enhancing resilience into resource where it an investment decisionmaking. The increased importance to overall greater liability may require adjustment to Market Mechanisms to enable federal valuations. I think nuclear is to have better valuations than it has to date. I want to ask you, do you think there are any better alternative options that should be examined instead of no ferc . Ive no idea theres better options. Thats one of the reasons the one on this conversation is to bring us up and discuss them. Im not saying that my letter to ferc is the beall endall, but it is obviously been very successful in the conversation going. The chair now recognizes the gentleman from ohio. Thank you, mr. Chairman. Secretary, thank you for being with us. Like you, i believe in promoting american Energy Security and that means Energy Policy in the United States and id like to thank you for your recent actions about energy they expend markets. Id like to focus on a couple of items of legislation ive been working on. In addition to the mandatory efficiency standards, there is also a volunteer program called energy star that identifies as those applying above the federal efficiency standards by allowing them to care the energy star label. This allows consumers and appliances to easily identify which models saved the most energy. In 2009, the Obama Administration shifted illegal for the voluntary program in the d. O. E. To the epa. Many have complained epa is the wrong agency to handle what is fundamentally an Energy Program. Mr. Secretary, do you believe the Energy Star Program is one that should be led by the d. O. E. For the epa . From a scientific standpoint, that question answers itself to the National Labs that have the scientific ability to look at these programs and actually analyze them in a scientific way reside over d. O. E. Thank you. Given that d. O. E. Has been applying for 30 years, do you also believe your agency and not the epa has the relevant expertise in the standard you just said, asking would you also support legislation that would clearly make the d. O. E. The lead agency on the Energy Star Program . That is going to be your call, but it makes abundant sense to me that is going to be a good spot for it to reside in. Thank you. Mr. Secretary, i appreciate your previous words of support. In january, the highest highs house passed the Development Act by a voice vote. This legislation will help pave the way for american innovators, engineers and entrepreneurs to design, develop license and ultimately deploy the next generation subnuclear reactor technology. The department of energy plays an Important Role supporting these technologies in addition to appropriately coordinating with the nrc to assure that those technologies will navigate the rigorous approval process. Mr. Secretary, what is your vision for d. O. E. Advanced Technology Programs and how do you plan to ensure appropriate alignment with the nrc on those advanced reactor industry today is because weve been losing that race, if you will. We dont want to get to the point in the globe we are the only people have the technology, that have the supply chain capability are the russians, the chinese and or the koreans. That is a concern to buy that were headed that direction in this country today because of the lack of support for the Nuclear Power industry. The national lab has a substantial project, hopefully we can see the funding go forward on those small modular reactors, and that ten years down the road people will look back and say we made the right decisions about focusing on advanced reactors and that the country is better served in america. Takes its rightful place. In fact, is the lead on innovation and supply chain and the brain power in the nuclear side of the equation. Thank you very much. And mr. Chairman, i yield back the balance of my time. You are the first one to actually yield time so we appreciate it. Gentlelady from florida, ms. Castor, his record recognition five minutes. Welcome, mr. Secretary, i wont ask you about puerto rico because would never in the u. S. Virgin islands because an history of america weve never seen an electric grid devastated to the extent that we have after Hurricane Maria and as of right now 84 of customers of puerto rico are without power and the u. S. Virgin islands figure stands at 86 . St. Thomas 80 . 80 . In st. Croix 100 . And st. Johns, and even after hurricanes, and harvey so widespread outages in florida and texas and the gulf coast, yesterday we had a break from the department of Homeland Security feedback, and army corps of engineers and they they said that current law the stafford act all we can do right now is do some repairs. We cannot do what we need to do to build a modern resilient dread in puerto rico and the Virgin Islands, yet there are a lot of by person discussions. Its not contained in this emergency supplemental to begin that are change with the stafford access. Weve got to protect the taxpayer. We cannot just rebuild what was there before. Weve got to build according to National Laboratory research, your group at d. O. E. Oftentimes planning and conversations dont cost anything, or not much at all. Could you go specifically into what conversations you had already with the army corps of engineers, bondholders, what is your plan to build a more distributive grid with modern technology that is that our fingertips . You have just pointed out the real challenge that this country faces in dealing with the territory and the citizens of puerto rico. That is already a country that had smitty they are americans. Its not a country. Can you do get since the time is limited. Thats what i call it a territory. I apologize for saying country but the territory has a a challenge in front of it already because of the oversight i know that. I just want to, can you say specifically what conversations you had and what weve had many conversations about how to deal with this. The challenges are real. I cant tell you that there are any quick and Fast Solutions at rebuilding the back toward people have power right there is number one goal, getting that power back on. Is there an interagency meeting at d. O. E. Or in washington to speedy we have interagency meetings all the time. Specifically on speedy yes, about this issue. Okay. Well, the entire committee and everyone would benefit if you could report back on come with greater detail and specificity so that we can be as helpful as possible. I have to say its so disheartening to see President Trump state this morning that we cannot keep fema come military and for spiders in puerto rico forever. I hope this doesnt echo across the administration and the great folks at the department of energy, and the congress. I hope instead that Vice President pence state would prevail that we will be with our fellow citizens every step of the way. So on the grid resiliency crisis role for a consensus is for me very quickly that this is a very misguided effort. Its not based on science. I know you said before we can maybe, we dont know in our hearts are made we can find it in our hearts. Fortunately, when it comes to electricity market would have to rely on what we feel. We have a very best scientists and analysts. In fact, right there in the department of energy in your own august grid study they said that the grid right now is reliable, its strong, its actually more reliable than ever. We also rely on the north American Electric reliability corporation, nerc. They said recently that u. S. Power system reliability is strong. So theres really, it just is no rational basis for this new ferc roll your kinder through as quickly as possible. And i am concerned especially that the whole discussion about how much is going to cost consumers and businesses all across the country is been shortcircuited. We have experts you last week the city we are looking at multibilliondollar Cost Increases on our neighbors back home. So what is the Department Plan to actually hear from these consumer groups that stand up for our neighbors . We hear about from special interests and lobbyists in washington, but how do you in your role of representing everyone the time of the gentleman has expired. These massive Cost Increases appear to be on speedy the sector can answer the question but the time is expired. Ms. Castor, if the request, if the letter to ferc is what you say does they wont go far with it. The chair recognizes the gentleman from illinois. Thank you, mr. Chairman. Mr. Secretary, thank you for being you. Thank you for your service and im really excited you are in the position you are, thank you for all the good work you were doing. I think nuclear has been talked about a lot. Im going to touch on and i have another question. You mention the decline of the domestic base in terms of being able, International Competition with nuclear. I think thats an important point to reiterate is the fact weve always been really the world leader in nuclear and thus help for my National Security perspective, too, in terms of nuclear nonproliferation, writing the rules of the road. Thats a base we are losing. I was heartened to hear your mention of that and the fact that is essential not just to the economy, not just to grid reliability, not just to electricity but to National Security. Thats a very important thing. I also support, i also want to thank you for being supportive of the smart reforms at the nrc. Mr. Doyle and i have the nuke act which i think is a lot of support and is really appreciate all that pic is of vital part of our economy. Illinois gets a significant power of its energy from nuclear and the country gets a very significant amount of that. Since it has been hammered a lot, you would ask you, in the Energy Independence and speedy act of 2007 the bureau was created at the state department. It is giving the states its own energy office. Theres no requirement for state to consult or collaborate with the d. O. E. And even though d. O. E. Has forward technological expertise on Energy Matters and especially nuclear matters, can you describe how d. O. E. And state were together on Energy Policy, and can you provide areas that may be improved . I cant. Okay. Because . I am not aware that they even have an Energy Effort over there. But if they did you would think they would have contacted us. And if they have not aware of it. That makes sense, wouldnt it . Can you talking about maybe a role when it comes to things like lng exports and blunting the Russian Energy weapon in Eastern Europe and pushing back against blackmail that the russians can use against our allies . And ill try to be brief here. Youve done a good job of basically laying out the facts. United states is blessed after the revolution of being able to produce. We are a net exports of lng as of this year. I believe in two years will be the next exporter of all u. S. Energy. That is an incredible blessing. To be able to use that for americas best interest, from a weapons standpoint, if you will. You think about that Russia Uses Energy as a weapon, then America Needs to have the largest arsenal. And so our ability to deliver lng to you, whether its a country ukraine along with coal to poland, to european union. This is a powerful diplomatic tool of which we need to use wisely to support our allies and he to send a message to those that would use energy as a weapon, that we will not be, we will not be allowed to be pushed back with it and were going to support our allies. I thank you for that and i think its a very important point. As i actually think the Energy Revolution in this country borders miraculous. Ten years ago we thought we always be reliant on middle east energy, and would find basically today that we have way more that we have that and we can access a fourth swing price. Blunting Energy Weapons not just rush but from all over. I want to thank you, mr. Secretary, for your service, for being here, spending her time and i will use back 50 seconds to the chairman. We got a good tradition started. Well go to mr. Sarbanes of maryland for five minutes. Im going to break the tradition. Thank thank you, mr. Secretary,r being here. The u. S. Intelligence community as you know i think has taught a definitive conclusion that Russian Hackers were in a string with our elections last year, and i know the president and if a number of people within the administration are resisting that conclusion still. But i want to talk to you about the potential exposure with respect to our grid and our Energy Security that is posed by hackers, by russian attacks, Cyber Attacks. Do you agree that the grid is at risk from Cyber Attacks by Russian Hackers or other hackers for that matter . Yes. And ill note the back and 2015 the Congress Approved the fixing americas surface transportation act, the fast act. Act. There was a bipartisan bill. There were provisions included that chairman upton put in there that expanded d. O. E. s authority to counter cybersecurity threats. And those provisions actually designate your department as the lead agency for Energy Sector cybersecurity. So id like to, maybe you could speak for just a minute or so about what actions you are taking as the lead agency with respect to these Cyber Threats to our Energy Security and our grid to give us some confidence that this is getting the attention it deserves. Over the past year, the departments worked with the entire Energy Sector with the National Labs come with the federal agencies that are involved with this, with the industry specific to develop a comprehensive strategy and a plan for the Energy Sector cybersecurity. The strategy for the Energy Sector is to leverage Strong Partnerships with the private sector. Weve got three labs that specifically, their role is called cyber corps. Their role is to focus on the cybersecurity issues which with the private sector to strengthen todays Cyber Systems and Risk Management capabilities. And i might add to develop Innovative Solutions for tomorrow. Appreciate that. I would also appreciate, maybe we can get this arranged, i know the traffic you agree to breathe members of this subcommittee on efforts to address the report of symantec, for example, that describes these potential Cyber Attacks that are happening or the ones that are happening right now. Would you also agree to pull together a briefing of the members of the subcommittee on the reports weve heard of of these russian link hackers targeting the electric grid . Is that something would be willing to do . Yes, sir. We will try to make that happen. I want to switch gears quick. I have two minutes left. I want to go back to the travel situation, not to beat a dead horse but because actually i have see i see an opportunity here given your willingness to address this up front. I didnt sharing this task force force. Where releasing a report today called trumps highflying cabinet, which details what i i see is kind of a culture of entitlement among many of the cabinet members in terms of using these private jets at public expense to kind of jet around the country in ways that i think are offensive to the average person out there. You have spoken to the critique that your agency has a seat and youve received with to that, and i appreciate that, and had to sit in the context of the report, that the conduct that you have been criticized for is not as egregious as most of the rest. That may be damning you with praise or perhaps in the length of the ethical blind, the one eyed man is king, or Something Like that. But i did want to speak to the fact that i think and the last couple of days the acting head of the office of government ethics sent a memo around to agency heads. Did you receive this memo which talks about the role of Agency Leaders in promoting an Ethical Culture . Is that something you are familiar with . I dont know. We will look and see. I commend it to you. Says among other things the choices you make in the work that you would do have profound effects upon our nation and its citizens, the citizens deserve to have confidence, and every other government. Im greekamerican. I always invoke my greek heritage. It was an ancient greek philosopher who wandered around the daytime with a lantern looking for the honest man. You could be the honest man. You could start a cultural revolution within the administration that says were going to Pay Attention to ethics. I encourage you did yet i of thank you for your testimony. The time of the gentleman has expired. The chair now recognizes mr. Griffith of virginia for five minutes. Take you very much. Its never a bad thing to be compared perhaps with i think i was a veiled kopelman and look forward it to you striving to meet that challenge. I have to tell you, i think youre doing a good job explaining things this morning and i agree with most everything that you said, take lantus agri with your proposed rule related to making sure that we have those the systems available tht have fewer onsite, coal and nuclear. Those facilities are resilient in cases of emergencies like we have with the polar vortex a few zika. Its almost like we have forgotten that natural gas while it never completely shut down, the price went from three to 4. 100 cubic feet or 1000 cubic feet to over 100 and many places many places had to shut down jobs et cetera because they couldnt afford to pay that price. Because supply didnt keep up with demand and a think its important we remember that and i think you are doing to make sure things are there are very important. As you said to congressman doyle, pretty confident, just wont get it. If something happens its owing to be, folks looking you say why did you do something . I appreciate you trying to do something in advance of the problem. Earlier this week the epa minister announced the proposed repeal of the Clean Power Plan. The role represented an unprecedented intrusion into the states control over their Energy Policy threatens to raise rates, in fact, grid reliability as well as harm Energy Intensive and trade exposed industries. Under this rule the epa was basically establishing the nations de facto Energy Policy. Yes or no . Would you agree thats your job at department of energy . To establish the nations Energy Policy. Yes. Thank you. Well, let me yes, working with congress. I appreciate that. As secretary with you commit to challenging other federal agencies if their rules and regulations raise energy prices, limit Energy Production or otherwise impact the department of energy prerogatives in national Energy Policy, yes or no . Yes. Thank you for in addition to the Clean Power Plan the past administration epa issued standards for new power plants that typically mandated Carbon Capture sequestration coal generation even though as the committees over that shows the technology was not yet truly viable for commercial power generation. Yet the previous epa failed ford with an unworkable rule. I think dob has the appropriate expertise to collaborate with the epa on Technology Decisions affecting the Energy Sector. Would you agree with me on that, yes or no . Yes. What role, i will budget and however you want to come what role do you see for the d. O. E. To ensure future epa rulemaking reflect appropriate assessment of the two commercial viability of technology . Theres a good working relationship between the cabinet members and their agencies. And i think you bring a good point that we dont work in silos, and then we should be looking for partners in different places so that, number one, we are not duplicating something thats going on in another agency. But theres also some synergy that can come from the unlucky one example and excuse me for diverting, but the department of energy stand up an office of Veterans Health and were working with the va come with health and Human Services and with the dod through darpa and mr. Mcnerney who has been a strong advocate for the va and for the veterans in particular, not necessarily va but for the veterans. And thats a great example of how we can talk to each other, courtney with each other and come up with a better product for for the people of this country, whether its on innovation, on Energy Policy or for that matter how we take care of our veterans. That was when the problems one of the frustrations i had with Prior Administration is i would agree with the department of energy even in the Prior Administration but the actions of the epa prevent us from getting places. When they push and when Technology Like Carbon Capture and sequestration which are not against them lets make sure its viable, basically tabled a lot of other things like one of my favorite chemical looping to the ub was putting money into which i i encourage you to continue to do. At the same type epa wasnt looking in that direction at a think they created a situation where we had two different agencies going in different directions. I would encourage you to work with your colleagues and lets all wrote in the same direction we get more done for the people of the United States. Thank you for being here and without mr. Chairman, i just back. Of gentleman yields back. The chair recognizes distinguished gentleman from vermont, mr. Welch. Thank you, mr. Secretary. When the areas of bipartisan effort has been on Performance Contracting. And i know you have made some remarks, that is a promising area because it doesnt burden on regulations that its not regulatory dependent very much in partnership with the private sector. You are going to be developing or the administration as an executive order that would be released in the coming weeks, and i just want to really make sure that you will do everything you can to make certain that the Performance Contracting is in bed in it. That something colleagues on this committee have worked on. Mr. Mulvaney when he was on work on it. Just some reassurance on that. Yes, sir. You can expect both myself, and i think other members of the cabinet, along certainly with mick will you set some goals, targets . We had significant ambitious target in the Obama Administration. We need a target to reach. I dont know whether they will be numerical targets or not, but certainly the concept and we will push forward the speedy i like to followup with the administration on that and i think a lot of us would like to Work Together with you on it. The second thing, mr. A lot of was asking about energy star, and again many of us have our support for that and theres this question about whether there should be some changes in your department has some responsibility for epa has some responsibility. What are the responsibilities in the epa that would not be done if, in fact, everything was turned over to d. O. E. . Well, im not sure there would be anything that would be lacking. You have jurisdiction over others. What do you have jurisdiction over . My jurisdiction, if you all consulted in the department of energy, what would get discarded and im not sure if it were necessary discard other than a lot of bureaucracy. I did it on the bureaucracy, less is better. Im with you on that but functions that have to be performed that now are done by the epa with respect to maintaining the Energy Star Program. My question is how would your agency meet those requirements . Any requirement the required the scientific, scientific look where you are taking in, thats going to be d. O. E. Heres what i will ask. Bipartisan energy star want to make it stronger it is going to be discussion about having it all be done in one place versus two, weve got to make certain the integrity of the program is maintained. Id like to work with you on that, okay . Mr. Welch, heres how i will finally address this. You make the rules and we will follow the instructions of congress. All right. Thank you. With a gentleman yield just sure. Were going to do a d. O. E. Reauthorization bill and were trying to make it bipartisan. And if that happens, your suggestions will be seriously considered from this side. I appreciate. Thank you very much. Another issue here is your proposed rule that was going to focus on coal in nuclear, i get that, but its extensive according to studies, about 809, to 3. 2 billion per year. This isnt exactly your area of concern, but its the concern many of us on the committee including mr. Mckenna and mr. Griffith. The coal miners have been hammered, and they have lost their health care, and we took steps in congress to address that, but they have lost their pension, and if were talking now about spending 800 million3. 2 billion a year for the coal companies, but we dont address the pensions that these miners have earned going into those mines day in and day out, many of them for 30 years, the pensions are like 540 bucks a year, wheres the justice in that . Mr. Welch, what of the things i can share with you is that if whatever reason the companies that are still being able to hang on by their literal fingernails to wonder, then the pensions that those companies have come the healthcare that those companies are putting forward today was just exacerbate this problem even more. But thats not the main reason were talking about what were doing with the 403. The main frequent talk but this thing with 403 403 is for the resiliency and reliability of the grid. The time of the gentleman has expired. Thank you. The chair recognizes the gentleman from ohio, mr. Johnso johnson. Mr. Secretary, thank you for being here today. We call to several titles, mr. Secretary, governor. A lot of folks dont realize the long before that you wore another title. You were an engemann, and as an air force veteran i want to thank you for your service and a look forward to working with you to advance your concern for our nations use and are veterans. Thats important. As you know, mr. Secretary, eastern and Southeastern Ohio is blessed with a wealth of resources, Energy Resources on the abundance of coal, oil and gas, and Critical Nuclear technologies. And it truly has every major resource to supply our state and our nation with the energy that we need. So we are wellpositioned to advance the idea of Energy Dominance and making the appellation corridor or all that i know you and the president and administration all that it want us to be. I look for to working closely and following closely ferc work regarding your recent request relating to the power markets. These are complex issues surrounding the power markets and ferc been looking at these power issues, power price issue for some time now, especially with an eye toward grid stability, and i think encouraging the commissions were in that regard and on those issues is very helpful. I also want to thank you for your recent visit to ohio. As you know, hiked in his home to a skilled workforce. You talked about workforce in your comments today. That workforce being capable of operating critical domestic uranium enrichment technology. And the cleanup efforts underway at the former portsmouth gaseous diffusion plant is equally important to repurpose that property, to make it another job creator for southern ohio. I look for to working with you on those issues specifically insuring that america has a a domestic enrichment capability to meet our National Security needs along with keeping the cleanup operation on track. Now, mr. Secretary, like to discuss energy exports. As President Trump has made that a clear priority with his Energy Dominance agenda, encouraging exports, whether thats coal, natural gas or Nuclear Technology is crucially to ensuring these industries remain a vital component of our domestic economy, along with strengthening our geopolitical ties. And i dont have to remind you that d. O. E. Plays a Critical Role in the vitality of americas Civil Nuclear Industries Engagement and International Commerce through what is known as the part 810 process. Energy and commerce this committee has long recognized the economic and National Security value of a strong american president , presence in these foreign markets pick the Previous Administration initiated some targeted process reforms which i understand are still being implemented. So do you, mr. Secretary, of knowledge the critical importance of maintaining our american presence in international, civilian, nuclear markets, and will you provide your commitment to implement a further efficiencies in the part 810 approval process . Yes, sir. Okay, great. Additionally, under your leadership d. O. E. , and we talked a little about this, you partially answer this question already. Under your leadership d. O. E. Has approved multiple lng export applications. In your view what should congress due to ensure that u. S. Cultivates and maintains a leadership role in lng exports . And other any barriers to lng exports that should be addressed and we focus on . Obviously the ability for the United States to be a leader and exporting lng, jobs, the Economic Impact that it has certainly in your area of the state where you are sitting on top of, i suppose youre part of the state that still has part of the marsalis and all of it. Underneath that. And so coming from a state that has been blessed with an extraordinary amount of gas, other areas, and it may be places who we dont even know yet that we might innovate. I go back ten years ago there was a guy making a pretty good living giving the peak oil speech. We found it all and we didnt, well, maybe maybe not. But the point of being able to send that gas around the world as i said earlier, i wont repeat all that but its incredibly important from a domestic economic standpoint and from a global National Security standpoint. The time of the gentleman has expired. Thank you, mr. Secretary. And thank you, mr. Chairman for i yelled back. We want to recognize the gentleman from new york. Thank you, mr. Chair. Thank you mr. Secretary, for joining us. Are you asked about the arpae program. Just want to understand your answer clearly. Do you oppose the elimination of the program . Im sorry, which broken . Arpae. No, sir. I hope i particle in my remarks that it think the arpae program has its place. Does it need to be restructured and chairman barton and i and are in a conversation about that in this particular point in time. Is it called arpae, Something Else . Ill let you do you disagree it should that be eliminated . Heres what i agree with. I agree that innovation is the real lifeblood of this country and government does have a role in making sure that Technology Gets to the commercialization and government plays a point in that. At the Beneficial Program to districts like might add epitope that we would groat, not reduce or eliminate it. He excluded many numbers have both substantive and process concerns with your recent notice of proposed rulemaking. It was reported you said the Obama Administration had its thumb on the scale of Energy Markets to the detriment of baseload industries. Can you provide examples of what you mean by that . Yes, sir. What a meat is theres clear what i mean by that, administration get elected and elections have consequences and for eight years president obama wasnt the president of the United States and he had a clear philosophical spanish examples come examples so we can get right to that. Yes, sir. Whether it was putting money into clean Energy Programs, whether it was putting money into bad restrict sometimes they dashed on could suggest to you celinda was a good idea. Maybe that one wasnt the place. So its about using good, processes for it the reason i created when us back in the state of texas speediest examples. Examples. I just gave you one. Others. Whether, the clean energy across the board, and speedy are you talking about renewables . On talking about clean energy. Ill tell you what i will do, ill try to get jealous of all of those programs and do that. Okay. Did it include renewables . If you consider Battery Technology a renewable, yes, i guess of what. But Renewable Power itself . Im not sure what you, what you mean by investment tax credits or production tax credits. Are you upset with that . Is that a thumb on the scale . Im not upset with him. I think its a conversation we need to have so the speedy is it example of what you mean about the thumb on the scale . Im talking about when you are sending clear messages through, whether its the epa or whether its through the d. O. E. , that these other programs, these are the places that we want the administration to expand dollars. Ill be more than happy to try to get you a list of speedy so where with a part of that in . Had they been used as a way to influence the market . Yes. Within not passed by congress . That doesnt everything that congress does i agree with. Okay. You are crediting, or pointing the finger at the Obama Administration but i would suggest that they were reauthorized by this congress, congress in 2015, when your party was in control. But if you can get us a list, all right. Do you agree with the d. O. E. Assessment that Distribution Systems are responsible for over 90 of total electric power interruptions . Asked the question speedy rather than lack of generation. Do you agree with that report . That 90 of of interruptions were caused by Distribution Systems rather than a lack of generation. I dont know the details of the report about all the ways that it was studied. I think the idea to be making a black or white yes or no decision on that question is let me ask this then. What factors did you consider when deciding that it would be more Cost Effective to support specific types of generation to enhance reliability rather than shooting right at improving infrastructure . I think the Cost Effective argument on this is secondary to whether or not the lights are going to come on. And i think its really important for did you measure cost to the consumer when you did these . Because speediest that would be the last question. The time of the gentleman has expired. I think you take cost into account, but when it comes to whats the cost of freedom . What does it cost to build isis and to keep america free . Unless youre a want to just put at straight out on the free market and say okay, whoever can build the cheapest Delivery System here to keep america free, thats the same argument i make on my businesses and manufacture upset about the cost to them for your proposal. Im concerned about a citizen thats calling you up and saying why did you not address this issue when we had the opportunity to in 2017. Electricity in my house is not on. My family is freezing. Mr. Bill florez, five minute minutes. Mr. Secretary, great to see you. Im thrilled that President Trump picked at texas aggie to serve in your position. Its honor to have you here today. Ill give an example that you can use to respond to questions like the one you just had when you were badgered a few minutes ago. Australia had a large black at the start out as a weather induced incident of what the quickly found out is they had an imbalance in their grid. He didnt have sufficient baseload capacity to back up there when capacity and as result several Million People were without power for quite a long period of time. So thats something that you can use to talk about what you were trying to prevent with your order to ferc that i think would be helpful. Id like to move onto nafta for a minute. As you know nafta has created Robust Energy Trading Market between the u. S. , mexico and canada. And a particular folly liberalization and privatization on the Energy Business without a huge increase in energy flows across the border particularly between texas and northern mexico. This has resulted in a trade surplus to the United States or for the benefit of the United States. I am concern the u. S. Trade representative is making proposal with regard to nafta that would shortcircuit those gains that we had interns are billy to export energy to mexico. So i was going to ask my question is of this, are you with administration dicta with the u. S. Trade representative about making sure we get nafta 2. 0 done correctly so that we have a Robust Energy market with mexico and canada . We are, and ive been in direct contact with my counterpart in mexico as well as jim carr, my counterpart in canada. And just come with going to have a trilateral meeting in houston the 13th through the 15th of november to discuss this and other issues, particularly in north american Energy Strategy. We think its really important that, actually western hemispheric but in particular north America Region is attached to the hip as we can be and supporting each other and developing an Energy Strategy that will take care of us. Particularly and please tutor you will stay engaged in the process because i think its important for United States as a whole and in texas in particular i would like the approach of Energy Dominance that you and the administration have adopted and is has huge chill political applications as the United States becomes energy secure. A great example is lithuania. They have a ship called the independence. Independent. Imagine that name, independent. They use it to liquefy lng that is imported from around the world but take it from the United States. That has changed with the way from being dependent on russian gas to being an ad net Energy Supplier to its baltic neighbors. I think that its huge implications geopolitically. I appreciate your efforts with the administration to promote this idea of Energy Dominance. But moving on, how is this new age of energy allowed us to position ourselves as a Global Energy superpower . The short answer is, in the next 24 months u. S. Will be a Net Energy Exporter in totality. Thats both crude and, which chairman barton carried that piece of legislation, and im sure you supported it, but allowing us to be the economically, thats as powerful as you, then that you political side of that when it comes to supporting our adolescent giving them some options to other sources of energy. Its going to speak volumes about americas role in global issues going forward. I had a couple of other questions i will submit for the record in the interest of time but but i do have one final question. Recently the house passed h. R. 2910 which is one of my pieces of legislation called promoting interagency coordination for the b of natural Gas Pipelines act which improves ferc role in the permitting process. Do you agree it would help to have one Agency Acting as the lead agency for the purpose of coordinating they varies Environmental Review for pipeline construction . I will put on my previous hat as a former governor of texas. It would make abundant good sense to always keeping the peoples needs and the Safety Environmental issues paramount, but divine more efficient, effective, streamlined ways to permit projects is going to help this was nothing we did in the state of texas that sent a more powerful meshes for Economic Development than having a stable permitting and regulatory climate. Thats great. Thank you for being here today. Its great to have you as our lead cabinet with this. The time of the gentleman has expired. We recognize the gentleman from iowa, mr. Love sac. Great to have you, secretary. Im glad youre here. Ive learned a lot on the end of the dice here. I get to listen to a lot of questions into the answers. First of all thank you for your service and your commitment to veterans. Ive a couple of marine chua, one will be deployed any minute now to kuwait so thank very much. I appreciate it. I like which is at the outset that our National Security depends upon our Energy Security. There still question about that. Whether were talking oil imports or whatever the case may be so i do appreciate that. You talked about diversity including wind, solar, upright of, the all the above approach. Im from iowa and while in the aggregate texas does have more Wind Energy Output that i would does, percentage wise as you mention, texas but 12 , i what is up 37 . Great job. Moving up all the time. In your confirmation hearing you said adequate if confirmed i will advocate of about energy at all forms and that sort includes renewables unquote. But then last week bp administrator pruitt attacked this provision by saying he would like to see been eliminated. And i quote what he said, secretary pruett, again, i would do away with these incentives that we give to wind and solar. You know that the production tax credit for wind come the investment tax credit for solar have really driven billions of dollars into Rural America in particular underrepresented 24 4 counties in southeast i would. I visited a new wind farm that midamerica was putting up recently. Its help consumers of course save money, create all these new jobs. Just a very simple question, yes or no. Do you agree with mr. Pruitt of the cut in these programs these incentives are getting to wind and solar . I can give you a yes or no. I continue, referring back to to what i said about my children. There is a place for these subsidies as we build innovation and we commercialize it. Theres some point that you say youre on your own, you can stand or fall on the market. I would suggest to you that both the solar and wind energy is approaching that very mature stage. You cant, on one hand, say we are this clear delivery of the baseload of energy, but we need to be, continue to be treated like we were we were not that mature. Finding the balance and finding the right time to say you are mature enough, out the door spins i will say america is hurting bigtime and these investment tax credits for solar, for wind, sosa been very, very wonderful for Rural America, for our farmers and for clean Renewable Energy and also for making sure that we are secure. The Energy Sector, and that is National Defense as far as im concerned. I really was hoping you can cod give me a yes or no weather you agree with circuitry pruitt or not. I would like to mention renewable fuel standard if i could. Again i think its about 25 of oil we import and i think half of that comes from an airy were my stepson is being deployed as we speak. It was very disappointing i think for a number of us in states that really do produce a lot of ethanol and biodiesel, especially when it comes to ethanol. It was a very, very disheartening for us to see that the volumes were reduced when it comes to ethanol with respect to the epas proposal for next year. And this was a bipartisan concern. Without a senators from speak out about this. They are republican. Im the only democrat in the state of iowa. We are united on this. I guess i want to ask you do you believe there is a real commitment from this administration for the renewable fuel standard, or are our fears confirmed that this administration is backing off of that commitment . I would refer you to the remarks the president has made about iowa in iowa corn growers and ethanol. Hes made it abundantly clear to me, i cant speak about any of the other cabinet members but hes made abundantly clear to me that he is supportive of it. I can just say this, the president has said a lot of things on a lot of different issues and theyre not always consistent from daytoday, minute to minute or month to month so that is why we have a lot of concerns about the commitment of the administration for the renewable fuel fuel standard. I will leave that i argumeno some other folks. The you have that commitment . Exporting American Energy is where our focus needs to be. I do believe, no offense but it do believe we have to make sure were not still dependent upon energy being brought in from the outside. The time of the gentleman has expired. Thank you, mr. Secretary. We have about three more members and weve got lunch in my office which is like 30 seconds if you and your staff have a chance, come down and eat essence we get to the i know you are on a tight schedule but i think its texas barbecue so i might be worth coming by. The gentleman of north dakota, mr. Kramer for five minutes. Thank you, mr. Chairman. Im from the very north tip of the texas. Im the only member, its hard sometimes to be among all these texans who sticks closer together but im proud to be part of the same cold i suppose you could say. I cannot tell you how much i appreciate you being here and how refreshing you are to listen to, mr. Secretary. Its impressive and about the fact that you have taken center stage on all things energy, realizing there are lots of other agencies that energy nexus clearly but you are providing real leadership and appreciative. I especially appreciate the references earlier to the ports of the intellectual value chain of all things new. I dont think that can be overstated so thank you for that and for the fact that we have acquiesced as a country much of our leadership on nuclear including enrichment of uranium. So thank you for that. I want to focus a little bit back and say thank you for your leadership on searching for which you properly compensate the inherently more reliable most reliable sources of baseload electricity. I never cease to be amazed by how little regard to is for having lights on 24 hours a day, 3065 days a days a year around you. Sometimes i worry, mr. Secretary, it will require a a crisis of some people to remember how important coal and nuclear arctic thank you for focusing on that. Its entirely appropriate for ferc to take a look at this and give it appropriate value. I find it offensive some people suggest youre putting the thumb on the skin when the round is you are just rebalancing the scale. Thumb on the scale. When have people been, son aware manipulate markets. The whole idea of our deal was to manipulate markets. Thats why we have our deal. Its not free market. From the subsidies through the tax code to d. O. E. Grants and loan programs all the way to public and states have mandates based on portfolio standards. Those are all manipulations of markets. Your responsibility is right, make sure the lights stay on. I appreciate that focus. Im going to ask a couple of questions and they dont need you to answer them today but im hoping you can get back to me on it. In the proposed grid resides the pricing rule resources subject to state regulations are excluded. Id like to get an explanation as to why. And im wondering if what you meant on the source of the dont participate in a ferc regular wholesale market. In north dakota where i was once an energy regulator, we, all of our utilities are virtually, they are either under regulation or they are under regulation by their ownership in case of the Rural Electric cooperatives but they are subject to great regulations i want them to be afforded the same economic benefits as an emergency generator. Thats one area id like to explore with you later. I wonder about the 90 day fuel supply, and a silly because in north dakota all of our generators are at, although one small one literally coexisted in the coal mine it so. While they may have a 30 day higher next to the plant, the plant is next to the coal mine and theres an 800 years up like her, wondering if theres not some adjustment that could be made to understand that. With my remaining minute and a half i want, i need to address something thats been set a couple of times by my friends and the other side of the elder they have referenced nerc. I pulled up some comments from the nerc folks specifically the ceo regarding the concerns that were raised with your order. Im just going to quote a couple things. Higher reliance on natural gas exposes electric generation and fuel supply and delivery full abilities, particularly during extreme weather conditions. This is from nerc. Maintaining fuel diversity and secured he provides best for resilience. Quote premature retirements of fuel secure baseload generating stations reduces resilience to fuel supply disruptions. This is not just simply your heart speaking. This is your experience speaking and this is nerc ceo speaking. Another direct quote, coalfired and Nuclear Generation have the added benefits of High Availability rates low forced outages and secured onsite fuel. Many months of onsite fuel allow these units to operate in a manner independent of supply chain disruptions. You are entirely appropriate and right to challenge ferc with his last we let emotions dictate our policy. With that as my time runs out thank you for your service and the look forward to following up on the rest of these. The time of the gentleman has expired. Last but not least the gentleman from michigan mr. Walberg for five minutes. Thank you, mr. Chairman. I assume the invitation for lunch in your office goes for us, to that estate to the end. Excuse me. As i i was just asking [laughing] i was hoping the invitation to lunch was a clear for us as well. Well, sure. Especially since we stayed until the end. We may have to do the loaves and the fishes are all the members who are here include my good friend bobby rush outcome to come to my office and we will speedy you are taking my time right now, but [laughing] reset the clock. Thank you. Mr. Secretary, thank you for being here, and those of us who sit this far into the dais oftentimes difficult to sit this far into the dais but you been very refreshing today. The fact of your canned a your willingness to not let issues like Climate Change, like the issues of regulatory concerns get in the way of a full understanding that we still have to do what we have to do for our people. We can debate all these issues and they certainly have debate but in the end went to provide the power to keep the lights on and keep grandma and me warm as well and my house. Thank you for that and also appreciate your humility even admitting mistakes that i sat next to the morning after those mistakes at a breakfast of supporters of you, and appreciate the fact that you are here right now. Thank you for your work. I represent a district in michigan that has all of the above in Energy Production, and use. We make things that go into Renewable Power and ship those around the country. We have the largest coalfired plant in north america sitting in lake erie in my district. We have the license that discourages me that right now the license is a fair, utility is not really thinking about using it at this point in time because of economics and politics. So id like your comments on that. Appreciate your position that you laid out so far on Nuclear Energy and how it relates to our entire life here in the United States and security. What what about that . I mean, should we hold these plans in advance . Are they going to have the opportunity for Nuclear Power to be used and to be competitive . Or do we just have a license and assume that its uncertain . I think its, thank you, sir. Its important to talk about Nuclear Energy as part of our portfolio. It doesnt play a more Important Role than fossil fuel or wind or the others. I think having a healthy, having the centers all be healthy is really important. I dont think anyone would argue right now that Nuclear Energy is healthy. Its not. Its not because of the Regulatory Burden thats been put on place, the political burden thats been put on place, in place, and i think for our future security, both Energy Security and our National Security, to have that industry be healthy is very important. That means having a supply line, both the products that go into those, the hardware, if you will, and intellectual capital that come from the young men and women who are going to University Pipeline at this particular point in time to be nuclear engineers, et cetera. So whats next . I think is one of the important questions. Just like looking over the horizon and seeing the future of may maybe not too clearly because its opaque in a lot of ways when it comes to trying to decide or know whats going to happen from a weather phenomena when we talk about what its important for us to have that solid, resilient grid. But the same is true on the nuclear side. Look over the horizon to see whats new. Thats what your National Labs are involved with, and partnering with the private sector so that, whether its small modular reactors. When you think about the challenges mr. Rush. Net in puerto rico today, it would seem to me that if we had a small, i conquered a small modular reactors that we couldve airlifted down there and to plug in and to make a difference, maybe thats the kind of planning we need to be talking about as a country. And its not just in an island environment like the citizens of puerto rico find themselves, but any host of different ways, whether its, you know, events around the world where america can participate. Your staff is holding up three fingers. Not that you ever had to waiton the senate before. If theres anything you all can do you got three and probably 10 or 12 waiting to be confirmed. I dont know what the numbers are. The gentleman from illinois for one brief question. The office of Economic Impact and diversity, but as we increase diversity in the Energy Sector, what is the segment of that office under your administration . Office of Economic Impact and diversity. Mister rice, its there and the will of this committee and the will of the congress is going to be, im going to take my instructions from you. And from the members of this committee and from the senate. It is there, i would suggest that it is functioning properly and will continue to get the intention and the respect that it should. Mister tucker, we thank you, all members have 10 days to submit questions for the record. This hearing is adjourned. [overlapping conversation]. [overlapping conversation] this oversight hearing with Energy Secretary rick perry is available on our website, cspan. Org. Coming up on one of the topics today, the pittsburgh postgazette is reporting dow chemical and Us Steel Corporation are standing with environmentalists in opposing Energy Department plan that would reward nuclear and coalfired power plants, adding reliability to the nations power grid by pressuring the administration to ship more, more about that in the pittsburgh postgazettes website. Today is a look at the north korea and us house, a house Homeland Security subcommittee will hear testimony from private security and policy specialists and recommend ways a security , Cyber Threats and nuclear terrorism. While coverage begins at 2 pm eastern online cspan. Org or listen with the cspan radio. cspan3, the reading with press secretary tara sanders starts, scheduled for 1 30. If you questions about the nomination of a security director, live coverage is scheduled for 1 30 eastern. Incidentally, president ial will introduce a nominee this afternoon at 2 30, Associated Press reporting is deputy chief of staff, nielsen have the nominee. He served as chief of staff when he was rector of dhs, moved to the right white house when the president surveyed his chief of staff. Announcement starting at 2 30 eastern also on cspan3. And political reporting on a speech by House Speaker paul ryan who did cover the event. Poltico writing that speaker ryan urged conservatives to unite to push tax reform legislation across the finish line. Kolkata together at the Heritage Foundation day after a right leaning group to manage Senate Majority leader Mitch Mcconnell vacate their leadership post because they failed to deliver tax legislation and other conservative priorities. Orion this morning talking about the goals of tax reform. Where we are right now,. I dont know how many legislators today are not always in when the senate. And how many times do you pass something and just goes over and sits onhis desk. Youve got more than 100 items sitting over there. Maybe 274. Were going to get busier until christmas. Weve got, its just that important. So we are actually on track for the house passage budget resolution, the senate got out of their committee. They will get that done and pass the conference report and the ways and means will put their bill out. Got a redline and budget. Then they put their bill out and it will go to markup on the floor. We will get it over to the senate in november and then the senate will process it and that will give us time to get this done into law so point is to get it done this year. He wants to wake up on new years day with a new tax reform because we got new taxes in the beginning of 2016. That means its a good year where we can get, i fundamentally believe we can hit at least a three percent economy in 2018, the difference between a two percent economy and three percent is in higher wages, bigger paychecks, no takehome pay and opportunities abound. It is that big of a difference and thats why we have to get done now we can have a good 2018. Those remarks on our website, cspan. Org, also there therepublican tax reform plan. And watch briefings and house and Senate Floor Speeches on the issue, all available at cspan. Org. A short time ago President Trump signed an order to expand access to healthcare insurance by allowing plans to be sold across state lines. Secretary Anthony Costa stopped by the event and president has introduced the president , starting with his remarks on the release of American Families held by the town and for five years. [applause] good morning. President trump and his administration are committed to ensuring hardworking americans have access to affordable healthcare