Senator Coons hosted a luncheon today in the historic Kennedy Caucus Room of the Russell Senate Office Building to discuss clean energy innovation and sustainability. Organized in cooperation with the American Chemical Society and the American Institute of Chemical Engineers, the luncheon featured researchers discussing carbon capture technologies, nuclear power, and renewables. Today’s luncheon was the first of two; in June a second discussion will be held focusing on clean energy innovation.
Chris opened the discussion with his observation that a century ago windmills dotted the American landscape and those in rural communities routinely lived in houses constructed from natural and composted materials. He recalled a photograph of his grandmother as an infant in front of her family’s sod house in rural Wyoming, comparing it to new green home designs today that incorporate sod and composted soils. For much of the past hundred years, Chris noted, we as a society failed to recognize the negative implications of our industrial development on health, the environment, and on sustainability.
Praising Administration efforts to encourage and invest in broad-based research, development, and innovation in clean energy, Chris called on policymakers to take a long view when approaching this issue. We won’t be able to meet our energy and environmental challenges without a strong program of research in science and engineering, and this is why Department of Energy programs like ARPA-E, Innovation Hubs, and Energy Frontier Research Centers are so important and worthwhile ventures.
A member of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee and the Budget Committee, Chris has been a vocal advocate of expanding and creating new tax credits for small businesses conducting innovative research, including research into clean energy technologies.
To learn more about Chris’s energy priorities and his work on the Energy and Natural Resources Committee, click here.
The American Chemical Society is a Congressionally-chartered, independent membership organization representing professionals at all degree levels and in all fields of chemistry. The American Institute of Chemical Engineers is a professional organization for chemicals engineers with 40,000 members and student chapters at universities around the world.
