D. JAMES BAKER

BIOGRAPHY

8/13/97

Dr. D. James Baker is Administrator of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and Under Secretary for Oceans and Atmosphere at the U.S. Department of Commerce. In this position, he is responsible for the National Weather Service; the National Environmental Satellite, Data, and Information Service; the National Marine Fisheries Service; the National Ocean Service; and NOAA's Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research. He serves as the United States Commissioner to the International Whaling Commission.

He also serves as a Co-Chair of the Committee on Environment and Natural Resources of the National Science and Technology Council and as an ex-officio member of the President's Council on Sustainable Development. He is Co-Chair of the Environmental Working Group and Vice Chair of the Space Committee of the U.S.-Russian Joint Commission on Economic and Technological Cooperation; and Vice Chair of the Science and Technology Committee of the U.S.-South Africa Binational Commission. He served as Chair of Coastal America from 1992 to early 1995 and as Acting Chair of the Council on Environmental Quality from November 1993 to February 1994.

He previously served as President of Joint Oceanographic Institutions Incorporated; as Dean of the College of Ocean and Fishery Sciences at the University of Washington; as a Group Leader for Deep-Sea Physics at NOAA's Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory; as an Associate Professor at Harvard University; and as a Research Associate at the University of Rhode Island.

He is author of the book Planet Earth-The View from Space, published by Harvard University Press in 1990, and has written extensively on climate, oceanography, and space technology issues. He is a fellow of the American Meteorological Society and of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. He has served on numerous

advisory committees for the Administration, the National Academy of Sciences, and

Chairman CALVERT. Thank you.

Mr. Reicher, go ahead.

TESTIMONY OF HON. DAN W. REICHER, ASSISTANT SECRETARY FOR ENERGY EFFICIENCY AND RENEWABLE ENERGY, U.S. DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY

Mr. REICHER. Thank you, Mr. Chairman and members of the Subcommittee. I appreciate the opportunity to testify before you today to discuss the Department of Energy's climate change technology initiative budget request.

Mr. Chairman, most of the programs included in the CCTI request address a variety of policy objectives, including reducing our dependence on foreign oil, cutting the Nation's energy bill, improving the competitiveness of U.S. industry and improving air quality in our cities. This comprehensive, clean energy approach can allow us to grow the economy while improving the environment, especially in addressing the threat of climate change.

The President's fiscal year 2001 budget for DOE includes $1,169,000 in funding for CCTI programs. Five DOE offices contribute to this effort: my office, the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy; the Fossil office, the Office of Science, the Office of Nuclear Energy and the Energy Information Administration. Funding for the CCTI covers the four major sectors of the economy contributing to carbon emissions: buildings, transportation, industry and electricity generation; as well as carbon sequestration. I would like to emphasize, Mr. Chairman, that most of DOE's CCTI efforts are expansions of existing programs that historically have enjoyed bipartisan Congressional support. The request from my office supports the CCTI by developing under our Interior appropriations technologies and practices that are cutting building energy use substantially, improving productivity and heavy energy, putting a new generation of fuel efficient cars and trucks on the road, and slashing the Federal Government's own energy use.

And with our energy and water appropriations funding, we are rapidly cutting the costs and improving the reliability of a broad range of renewable energy and storage technologies. And we're achieving great success. The cost of electricity from wind energy has dropped from 35 to 40 cents per kilowatt hour in 1980 to 4 to 5 cents per kilowatt hour today, making it the fastest growing electricity source in the world today.

Homes in our Building America programs use 30 to 50 percent less energy than conventional homes with little or no added cost. The Federal Energy Management Program leverages $2 in net savings for taxpayers for every $1 invested. And the partnership for a new generation of vehicles is on track to meet its goal of an 80 mile per gallon, production ready, affordable, five to six passenger sedan in 2004. I'll speak more to these points at our hearing before you tomorrow.

The Office of Fossil Energy maintains three program elements that will contribute significantly to lower greenhouse gas emissions. Related to Mr. Costello's interest, the funding request for more efficient power plants is intended to help develop, by 2015, power systems that will produce electricity from natural gas at more than 75 percent efficiency, and produce electricity from coal

at more than 60 percent efficiency. These systems will be approximately 50 percent more efficient than today's state of the art technologies, and are amenable to CO2 sequestration.

The Natural Gas Exploration and Production Program is developing technologies to reduce the cost of finding and producing natural gas, the fossil fuel with the lowest CO2 emission per unit of energy. DOE's Office of Fossil and Science jointly support the Administration's climate change technology initiative through carbon sequestration efforts for both capture and control systems associated with advanced power cycles, as well as approaches to enhance natural sinks for greenhouse gases.

Further, the Office of Science's fiscal year 2001 budget request proposes to enhance the underlying science base for transportation, industry and electricity sectors, with maximum impact for carbon management.

Mr. Chairman, the fiscal year 2001 budget also proposes funding for DOE's Nuclear Energy Plant Optimization program. In coordination with private sector partners, NEPO develops technology to manage the long-term effects of nuclear plant aging and improves overall plant reliability and productivity, thereby ensuring that current nuclear plants can continue to deliver adequate and affordable energy supplies up to and beyond their initial 40 year license period.

Related to CCTI is DOE's work to develop the next generation of nuclear reactors under the nuclear energy research initiative. In addition to the CCTI, the Department's request proposes a $122 million contribution to the USGCRP, and Dr. Baker has already discussed this program.

Mr. Chairman, there are three other elements of DOE's budget request that will help the Nation meet CCTI related goals. First, the Department proposes funding for fiscal year 2001 in programs comprising a new international clean energy initiative to accelerate the development and deployment of clean energy technologies around the globe. This multi-agency effort will work to open competitive markets, remove market barriers to clean energy technologies in developing and transition countries, and provide new incentives for clean energy technology, innovation and export.

Second, the budget proposes $174,000,000 for programs to accelerate the development and use of biobased technologies which convert crops, trees, grasses, agricultural and forest residues and other biomass into fuels, power, chemicals and other products. Biomass, a renewable alternative to oil and other traditional fuels, represents a tremendous and largely untapped domestic resource for our energy future.

The biobased products initiative, which supports executive order 13134, and has a goal of tripling U.S. use of biobased products and bioenergy by 2010, will increase the viability of alternative energy sources, help meet environmental challenges like climate change, and diversify and strengthen the Nation's farm economy. Also, it is directly responsive to Mr. Lugar's bioenergy bill, which was adopted by the full Senate last week.

Third, the budget proposes $191,000,000 for programs that facilitate energy efficiency investments at the State and local level. DOE's weatherization assistance program provides energy con

servation services to low income Americans, reducing energy costs for consumers, improving health and safety and also reducing carbon emissions. More than 4 million homes, Mr. Chairman, have been weatherized in the United States.

This year's appropriation would weatherize an additional 76,000 of the more than 25 million low income homes still eligible. And the State energy program provides grants that enable States to tailor energy efficiency programs to meet local needs and leverage non-Federal resources.

In conclusion, Mr. Chairman, as we enter a new millennium, one of the U.S. Department of Energy's critical missions will be to advance clean energy technologies. These technologies are clearly a major answer to the challenge of climate change, and, as I have emphasized, help meet several other key national goals. While the promise of clean energy technologies is clear, an increased commitment by both the public and private sectors is needed to realize the full benefits of our investment. We look forward to working with you to increase that commitment.

Thank you.

[The biography of Mr. Reicher follows:]

Dan W. Reicher was nominated by President Clinton and confirmed by the U.S. Senate as Assistant Secretary of Energy for Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy in 1997. He also serves as the DepartmentsEnvironmental Executive under Presidential Executive Order 13101 and as a member of the executive board of the White House Climate Change Task Force. Prior to these positions he was DOE Chief of Staff (1996–1997), Senior Policy Advisor to Energy Secretary Federico Peña (1997), Assistant Secretary of Energy for Policy (Acting) (1995-96), and Deputy Chief of Staff and Counselor to Energy Secretary Hazel R. O'Leary (1993-95). Mr. Reicher was also a member of the Clinton-Gore Transition Team (1992-93).

Mr. Reicher has more than 29 years of experience in environmental and energy policy and law. From 1985 to 1992 be was an attorney with the Natural Resources Defense Council where he focused primarily dh Federal environmental, energy, and defense programs. He was also a staff member of President Carter's Commission on the Accident at Three Mile Island and worked in the Haïardous Waste Section of the U.S. Department of Justice. He was an Assistant Attorney General in Massachusetts where he focused on environmental and energy matters and a law Merk to U.S. District Court Judge David Nelson in Boston. Mr. Reicher also served as a member of the National Academy of Sciences Board on Radioactive Waste Managerßeßt, an adjunct professor of law at the University of Maryland Law School, and an instructörän the Stanford in Washington program.

At DOE, Mr. Reicher has been engaged in policy and management in many areas, including energy efficiency, renewable energy, climate change, electric utility restructuring, clean air, environmental clemap, nuclear waste management, nuclear nonproliferation, and land conservation. He has also been involved with the Department's international energy, environmental and security programs.

Mr. Reicher is a graduate ofStanford Law School (J.D. 1983) and Dartmouth College (B.A. in Biology 1979) and mse studied at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government. Mr. Reicher's articles have appeared in such publications as the New York Times, the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, and the Stanford Law Review. He co-edited a book entitled Controlling the Atom in the 21" Century (Westview Press) and was an author of the environmental law treatise Sustainable Environmental Law (West Publishing).

In 1985, Mr. Reicher was a member of the first expedition on record to kayak the Yangtze River in China and, in 1977 the first expedition to navigate the entire 1888-mile Rio Grande. He is married to Carole L. Parker, a consultant in the Office of Environmental Security, U.S. Department & Defense. Carole and Dan have a young daughter, Haley Katherine Reicher.

August 1999

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