Kerry calls on Congress to bridge partisan divide, forge clean energy policy

With congressional business largely on hold following the Jan. 8 shooting of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, D-Ariz., and the deaths of six people at her "Congress on Your Corner" event in Tucson, Ariz., Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., called on Democrats and Republicans to work together on energy policy and other issues of national importance.

"Our thoughts are with Congresswoman Giffords and the families of all the victims. We pray for her full recovery, even as a nation mourns the loss of innocent life in such a senseless act," Kerry said Jan. 11 at the Center for American Progress in Washington, D.C. "In the wake of this weekend's tragedy, Speaker [of the House John] Boehner was right to suspend the House's usual business. The question now is whether we're all going to suspend and then end business as usual in the United States Capitol."

Kerry urged lawmakers not to allow partisan divisions to block efforts aimed at forging an energy policy that will allow the U.S. to compete globally. "The decisions we make — or fail to make — in this decade on new energy sources, on education, infrastructure, technology and research, all of which are going to produce the jobs of the future, and our decisions on deficits and entitlements will without doubt determine whether the United States will continue to lead the world or be left to follow in the wake of others," he said.

Arguing that green energy presents an economic opportunity of "extraordinary proportions," Kerry said the U.S. is allowing other countries to take a global lead in clean energy technologies. "The current energy economy is a $6 trillion market with 4 billion users," with the possibility of growing to 9 billion users in the next 30 years, he said. "And the fastest-growing segment of that is green energy, projected at $2.3 trillion in 2020. Yet, as of today, without different policy decisions by us, most of this investment will be in Asia and not the United States," he noted.

While China accounted for only 5% of the world's solar panel production two years ago, Kerry said, that the nation now "boasts the world's largest solar panel manufacturing industry, exporting about 95% of its production to countries including the United States. We invented the technology but China is reaping the rewards."

China is poised to outspend the U.S. "3 to 1 on public clean-energy projects over the next several years," Kerry said, noting that the Chinese installed 36% of the global market share in wind energy in 2009 and surpassed the U.S. as the fastest-growing market. "Today, only $45 million of the $7 billion green investments fund that Deutsche Bank manages is from the United States," he said. "Simply put, because we are asleep, the investments are going elsewhere."

Kerry touted clean energy jobs as ones that should not be exported. "Now is the moment for America to reach for the brass energy ring — to go for the moon here on earth by building our new energy future — and, in doing so, create millions of steady, higher-paying jobs at every level of the economy. Make no mistake — jobs that produce energy in America are jobs that stay in America," he said. "The amount of work to be done here is just stunning. It is the work of many lifetimes. And it must begin now."

Kerry argued that it is possible to hold ideologically distinct positions and yet forge agreements on issues of great importance to the U.S. "There's a bipartisan consensus just waiting to lift our country and our future if senators are willing to sit down and forge it and make it real. If we're willing to stop talking past each other, to stop substituting sound bites for substance. If we're willing finally to pull ourselves out of an ideological cement of our own mixing."

In addition, Kerry warned that the filibuster has been used far too frequently in the past two sessions of Congress. There used to be about 20 filibusters a year in the eras of Presidents Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan, he said. In contrast, the filibuster was used 136 times in the 111th Congress of 2009-2010. "That's not how the founders intended the Senate to work. And that's not how our country can afford the Senate not to work," he warned.

"So, in this time of crisis and mourning, in this time of challenge and opportunity, we need to commit to reaching across the aisle, as colleagues did before us, to unite to do the exceptional things that will keep America exceptional for generations to come," Kerry concluded.