Subject: HRC @ Clean Energy Summit
From: Dan Schwerin <[email-masked]>
To: John Podesta <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 3 Sep 2014 20:31:43 +0000

John, I hope I’ve caught you in time.  Below and attached is our draft for Nevada.  Would love your feedback.
Thanks!
Dan

HILLARY RODHAM CLINTON
REMARKS AT NATIONAL CLEAN ENERGY SUMMIT
LAS VEGAS, NV
THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 4, 2014

Thank you, Harry, for that generous introduction and for leading the way here in Nevada and for our country toward a clean energy future.

I also want to thank the Center for American Progress, the Clean Energy Project, MGM Resorts International, and the University of Nevada, Las Vegas for making this event possible.  I’m particularly pleased to see so many business leaders here today.  This kind of all-hands-on-deck partnership – from government, business, academia, and the not-for-profit sector – is exactly what it’s going to take to make real progress on our energy and climate challenges.

And, as Harry and others have explained so well here, this is one of the most sweeping, urgent, and consequential challenges we face as a nation and a world.

The data is unforgiving, no matter what the deniers say.  Sea levels are rising.  Ice caps are melting.  Storms, droughts and wildfires are wreaking havoc.  Thirteen of the top fourteen warmest years have all come since 2000.

This July, scientists found levels of carbon dioxide in our atmosphere not seen in millions of years.

The threat is real.

But so is the opportunity.

If we come together to make the hard choices -- and make smart investments in infrastructure, technology and environmental protection, America can be the clean energy superpower for the 21st century.

Just look at what’s happening in Nevada, thanks in large part to the leadership of Harry Reid.

This state has quintupled its renewable energy capacity since 2008.  In the past four years, more than $5.5 billion have been invested here in clean energy production and infrastructure.

Harry helped bring together a broad coalition, including major casino companies, local tribal leaders, and environmental groups, to replace one of the nation’s dirtiest coal plant with five utility-scale solar projects now under construction.

Nevada is now one of the leaders in the nation in solar energy capacity per person.

The state has more geothermal projects under development than any other.

The “One-Nevada Transmission Line” has created new markets for renewable energy and hundreds of jobs.

And on average, clean energy jobs in Nevada pay higher wages -- thousands of dollars a year higher.  That means more Nevada families making it into the middle class and more families staying in the middle class.

This is the promise of a clean energy future.  A future where we move past the old false choice between protecting our environment and growing our economy and instead do both.

Again, Senator Reid has led the way.  In the Senate, he has worked with Democrats and Republicans alike and championed legislation such as the Energy Independence and Security Act, which led to new fuel economy standards for vehicles for the first time in 30 years.

He provided crucial support for President Obama’s efforts to cut carbon pollution from power plants, which will spur billions of dollars in private clean energy investment, improve air quality and respiratory health, and make a measurable dent in harmful emissions.

And Harry understands we need to do even more.  Because while we can all be proud that domestic electricity generation from wind, solar, and geothermal more than doubled between 2009 and 2013, we still have a long way to go.

China and other competitors are already racing ahead with big bets on renewables.  We cannot afford to cede leadership in this area.  Our economic recovery, our efforts against climate change, and our strategic position in the world all will improve if we can build a safe bridge to a clean energy economy.

Part of that bridge will certainly come from natural gas.  There are challenges here, to be sure, but the boom in domestic gas production is an exciting example of American innovation changing the game.  If we do this right, it can be good for both our environment and our economy.

Gas is cleaner than coal… expanding production is creating tens of thousands of new jobs... and lower costs are helping give the United States a big competitive advantage in energy-intensive industries.  We’re also reducing our dependence on foreign oil and freeing up supplies elsewhere to help our European allies lessen their dependence on Russian energy.

To capitalize on this boom, we have to face head on the legitimate environmental concerns about some new extraction practices and their impact on local water, soil, and air supplies.  Methane leaks in the production and transportation of natural gas are particularly worrisome.  So it’s crucial that we put in place smart regulations and enforce them, including not drilling when the risks are too high.

And to make sure natural gas really is an effective bridge fuel, we need to keep moving forward on renewables and a clean energy future.

Today tax incentives for alternative energy investments are unpredictable at best, while generous subsidies for fossil fuel are easy to come by.  In fact, the world spends more than $500 billion dollars subsidizing fossil fuel every year, bloating budgets and creating incentives against innovation and progress.  We can do better.

We can create a positive environment for private-sector innovation and risk-taking, with targeted tax incentives, a commitment to research and development, and policies that encourage rather than undercut the transition to clean, renewable sources of energy.

We can invest in the infrastructure of the future, including next-generation power plants to produce electricity more cleanly, smarter grids to deliver it more effectively, and greener buildings to use it more efficiently.

At this point, we know a lot about what actually works.

Take the Clinton Climate Initiative, which my husband started some years ago through our Foundation.  We’re working with private and public sector partners to reduce carbon emissions, improve energy efficiency, and spur investments in green construction, including through some innovative new financing tools.

Our Home Energy Affordable Loan program works a little like a 401k or Health Savings Account, saving families as much as $500 a year in utility expenses.  And the return on investment is up to about 23 percent.

When we helped retrofit the Empire State Building, with 2.8 million square feet of office space, 275 jobs were created over two years and the building’s annual energy consumption dropped by 38 percent, worth roughly $4.4 million a year.

And that’s just the beginning of what’s possible.  Good ideas are everywhere you look.

Jessica Matthews and Julia Silverman, two students at Harvard, created a soccer ball that harnesses kinetic energy with every kick and can power a lamp for three hours from just 30 minutes of play.  They brought it to the Clinton Global Initiative and blew everyone away.  The ball is now being used in six countries where soccer is universal but electricity is not.

If two college students can figure out a way to light up entire communities, imagine what we can do as a country if we roll up our sleeves and get to work?

Rumor has it that Apple will soon unveil their iPhone 6.  When they do, millions of Americans will rush to get their hands on this latest prize of 21st century technology.  Yet, when they plug their shiny new devices into the wall, they’ll be relying on an electrical grid that was built in the 1950s and still uses technology from the ‘60s and ‘70s.

We can do better.

With a true 21st century smart grid, we could time our dishwashers or air conditioners to turn on when demand for power is less and costs are lower.  We could manage stresses on the grid, cutting peak demand to avoid blackouts – which research shows occur about 285 percent more often today than in 1984 and cost our businesses billions of dollars a year.

If the public and private sectors put aside politics and come together to get this done, we could do it before the iPhone 7 comes out.

All of this work at home is crucial to what we want to achieve abroad.  Because America’s ability to lead the world on climate and energy hinges on our commitment to act ourselves.  No country will fall in line just because we tell them to.  They need to see us taking significant steps of our own.

I know first-hand how hard it is to mobilize progress on a global scale.  But there’s no way to tackle this challenge without it.

When President Obama and I went to Copenhagen in 2009 for a global climate change conference, we ran into a brick wall of opposition from countries like China, which has become the world’s largest carbon emitter but resists any kind of agreement that would obligate them to do something about it.

We had to literally crash a secret meeting between the Chinese, Indians, Brazilians and South Africans to force the issue.  I’ll never forget watching the President gliding by flustered Chinese security guards and the look on their faces when we finally sat down at the table.

But our persistence paid off.  Thanks to the agreement we hammered out there, for the first time all major economies, developed and developing alike, agreed to make national commitments to curb carbon emissions through 2020 and report transparently on their mitigation efforts.  That was just a start, but it provided a foundation to build on.

Next year world leaders will return to the negotiating table in Paris with the hope of achieving an even stronger agreement applicable to all.

It will be another opportunity for American leadership.  A chance to show the world that we’re serious about meeting this challenge.  That we can still do big things in this country.

So going forward, we all need to step up.  Not just our government, but our private sector, our civil society, our research institutions and universities, our families and communities — all of us.

I know we can do better.  When we work together, our capacity for progress is nearly limitless.

Let’s make America the clean energy superpower our world needs.

Let’s leave our children – and, yes, our grandchildren – a healthy and sustainable future.

Let’s get to work.

Thank you.

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