Illinois Rep. Biggert Endorses Plug-In Partners at Regional PHEV Hearing
Jun 7, 2006 (From the CalCars-News archive)

House Science Committee Energy Subcommittee Chair
Judy Biggert is now holding regional hearings on
plug-in hybrids. Here's a report from a Nebraska
newspaper abotu her Illinois hearings. (For
pictures of her holding our "infrastructure
dongle" at our Washington trip, see <http://www.calcars.org/phevs-in-dc.html>.)

If you haven't signed up to endorse Plug-In
Partners, you have two ways to do it. The fun way
is to watch our 2-minute animation at
http://www.bettah.org> and click on the final
screen. Or follow Rep. Biggert's instructions below!

<http://www.swnebr.net/newspaper/cgi-bin/articles/articlearchiver.pl?158606>
Southwest Nebraska News - NE,USA
Subcommittee Examines Technology Advances that
may Strengthen U.S. Energy Security

NAPERVILLE, IL, June 5, 2006 ­ Energy
Subcommittee Chairman Judy Biggert (R-IL) today
held a field hearing in Naperville, Illinois to
examine advances in vehicle and fuel technology
that could strengthen U.S. energy security. She
was joined by Energy Subcommittee Ranking
Minority Member Michael Honda (D-CA) and Representative Daniel Lipinski (D-IL).

Testifying before the Subcommittee were: Dr.
Daniel Gibbs, President, General Biomass Company;
Mr. Philip G. Gott, Director for Automotive
Custom Solutions, Global Insight, an economic and
financial forecasting firm; Mr. Deron Lovaas,
Vehicles Campaign Director, Natural Resources
Defense Council; Mr. Jerome Hinkle, Vice
President for Policy and Government Affairs,
National Hydrogen Association; Dr. James F.
Miller, Manager of the Electrochemical Technology
Program, Argonne National Laboratory; and Mr. Al
Weverstad, Executive Director for Mobile
Emissions and Fuel Efficiency, General Motors Public Policy Center.

Chairman Biggert’s opening statement follows:

Good morning. I want to welcome everyone to this
Energy Subcommittee hearing. Today we are going
to examine how new technologies and advanced
fuels for passenger vehicles could help end our nation’s addiction to oil.

I want to thank my Ranking Member, Mr. Honda, for
traveling here from his home in the Silicon
Valley of California. I greatly appreciate the
time he has taken to come visit my favorite part
of Illinois. I also want to welcome my fellow
member of the Illinois delegation, Dr. Lipinski,
and thank him for joining us today.

I also want to thank our hosts, Mayor Pradel and
the citizens of Naperville, for opening their Municipal Center to us today.

Finally, I hope you all got a chance to look at
the advanced vehicles parked outside, many of
which run on alternative fuels. If you didn’t,
not to worry; they will still be there after this
hearing is over. We wouldn’t be able to peek
under the hood or kick the tires of these hybrid,
plug-in hybrid, and flex fuel vehicles today if
it weren’t for the good people at General Motors,
Argonne National Laboratory, the Illinois
Institute of Technology, and Northern Illinois University.

Transportation is always a major issue for
suburban communities, whether they are in my
district, Mr. Honda’s, or Mr. Lipinski’s. As a
matter of fact, it was better roads, inexpensive
vehicles, and cheap gasoline that allowed the suburbs to flourish.

We see that transportation and oil are becoming
increasingly important to the growing populations
in China and India. In addition, various studies
suggest that we have reached peak oil production,
or will very soon, meaning the gap between supply
and demand will only grow larger. This will give
countries with sizeable oil reserves, many of
which are hostile to the United States, and their
cartels even more opportunities to manipulate the global market for oil.

The bad news is that this confluence of factors
already is hitting the pocketbooks of American
families, with oil over $70 per barrel. The good
news is that there is nothing like a $3 gallon of
gasoline to get everyone thinking about new and
creative ways to make transportation more
affordable, less polluting, and less susceptible
to the vagaries of the world oil market.

More than anything else, Americans want to be
able to hop into their cars and go. Very few care
what makes their car go. They just want it to be
inexpensive and easy to get. Our interest today
is in retaining that convenience and minimizing
its cost ­ to our national security, to our
economic security, and to our environment, not to
mention to the family budget ­ through the use of research and technology.

We need to be working towards cars that can run
on whatever energy source is available at the
lowest cost: be it electricity, gasoline,
biofuel, hydrogen, or some combination of these.
In addition, we need to find ways to make these
diverse fuels readily available across the country.

Plug-in hybrids or hydrogen-powered fuel cells
would allow us to run our cars using renewable
sources such as solar and wind, other clean and
abundant sources like nuclear and even coal ­
preferably from power plants employing advanced
clean coal technologies that I hope will soon be
the norm. Flex fuel vehicles running on renewable
biofuels, such as ethanol and biodiesel made from
all kinds of plant material ­ not just corn ­ can
significantly decrease greenhouse gas emissions.
And as demand for biofuels increases, we can
simply grow more of the feedstock, whether that’s
corn, sugarcane, or switchgrass. And the benefit
of these advanced vehicle technologies and
alternative fuels will reduce our dependence upon imported sources of oil.

It is clear that both technical and market
obstacles remain to realizing the potential
benefits of all of the advanced vehicle
technologies or alternative fuels we will be
discussing. What are the technical or
cost-competitiveness issues with important
components, such as batteries fuel cells or power
electronics? What major hurdles stand in the way
of the production or distribution of advanced
biofuels? What technical challenges have not received sufficient attention?

Or are the hurdles non-technical? Do consumer
preferences or auto industry inertia present the
highest hurdles? What about infrastructure costs?

I want to give the City of Naperville credit for
focusing on this market or demand side of the
equation. As a founding member of the Plug-In
Partner Campaign, Naperville is one of 132 public
power utilities and 43 cities, counties, and
local governments that have made “soft” purchase
orders indicating a strong interest in buying
flexible fuel plug-in hybrid vehicles ­ if they
are manufactured. In one of these vehicles, the
average American, who drives between 25 and 30
miles a day, could complete his or her commute
and run some errands without burning drop of
gasoline. That’s good for energy security, not to mention the pocketbook.

As I see it, one of the most significant
potential benefits of the plug-in hybrid is that
they do not require a whole new “refueling”
infrastructure. To think that you could pull into
your garage at the end of the day and “fill ‘er
up” just by plugging your car into a regular,
120-volt socket in the garage is very appealing.
Imagine the convenience of recharging your car
just as you recharge your cell phone, blackberry,
or laptop every evening ­ by simply plugging it
in. The next morning, unplug it and you are ready to go.

The City of Naperville realized that the best way
to hasten the arrival of plug-in hybrids was to
commit to buying one. You can do the same thing.
Simply go to www.pluginpartners.com, click on the
“What You Can Do” tab, and fill in the Plug-In
Partners petition. Let the automakers know that
you’d be willing to pay a few thousand more
dollars to buy a vehicle that would be cheaper to
operate, cleaner, and could run on domestically produced electricity.

We are looking to you, our witnesses here today,
to help us identify the most significant
technical and market obstacles facing the
widespread availability of advanced vehicle
technologies and alternative fuels that will make
our cars less dependent upon imported oil. In
addition, we need your help determining what
steps the federal government can take to remove
those barriers, whether it’s through focused research or tax incentives.

Your input at this hearing is greatly appreciated
and we look forward to your expert advice, but
first I would like to recognize the ranking
member, Mr. Honda, for his opening statement. Mr. Honda.