Learning about alternative energy in an outdoor classroom

ODESSA — Senator Coons spoke at the opening of the Appoquinimink School District Outdoor Classroom on Friday, May 20th. Chris joined Governor Markell, Appoquinimink School District Superintendent Tony Marchio, and students for the dedication of Delaware’s first renewable energy classroom. 

The outdoor classroom is designed to teach students in grades K-12 about alternative energy sources. It is equipped with solar roof panels, a photo voltaic solar tree, a windmill and radiant floor heating.  Hands-on lessons taught in the outdoor classroom will enable students to gain a further understanding of energy conservation, the economic and environmental effects of energy use, and renewable energy technologies. 

Chris noted how important it is to teach our children about alternative energy in a way that goes beyond the textbook. “Your generation is inheriting complicated environmental challenges,” Chris said to the students there. “You are fortunate to have access to a place like this outdoor classroom where you can learn to not only be good stewards of the environment but also gain first-hand, in depth knowledge of emerging jobs in these cutting-edge technologies.”

Dover job fair draws more than 1,100

DOVER — Senator Coons teamed up with Senator Tom Carper and U.S. Representative John Carney to host a job fair in Kent County at Delaware Technical and Community College. More than 1,100 jobseekers connected with 80 employers from across Delaware.

For Chris, it’s all about creating jobs.  “I look forward to hearing from folks who made connections at the job fair, turned them into interviews and, ultimately, job offers.  With 35,000 Delawareans still looking for work, we still have a lot more to do.  Jobs remain my top priority.”

The delegation was joined at the job fair by Governor Jack Markell and Dover Mayor Carleton Carey, Sr.

Chris hosted a similar job fair in Wilmington in April.  Working together, the Congressional delegation will hold another fair in Georgetown later this year.

Senator Coons dedicates garden for families of the fallen

DOVER — Senator Coons was at Dover Air Force Base Tuesday to help dedicate the Memorial Garden for the Fallen, a carefully groomed outdoor space adjacent to the building where fallen service members’ families await their loved ones’ arrival back on American soil.

“May this be ever like that prophetic garden, to bring strength and comfort to those who come here in their darkest hour,” Senator Coons said in a ceremony dedicating the garden. “May it be a place where they can feel the strength of our support and the peace of healing.”

The garden itself was planned and tended by the Delaware Federation of Garden Clubs, which raised funds for the project on its own.

Read more on WHYY Newsworks and in the Daily Times.

Honoring our fallen heroes

As we pause this Memorial Day to honor service members who have made the ultimate sacrifice in the protection of our freedoms, we remember that every generation of this great country has borne heroes who have answered the call to defend her. Too many have given their lives in the process.

Annie and I pray every night for the hundreds of Delawareans currently still serving in harm’s way.

As we reflect on those who have sacrificed so much, today I will participate in the Wilmington Memorial Day Parade and the Delaware Commission of Veterans Affairs Memorial Day Service at Memorial Bridge Plaza in New Castle.

Both of these events are open to the public. The Memorial Day Bridge event starts at 10:30 am and the parade kickoff is at 6:00 pm at Woodlawn & Delaware Avenue.

Senator Coons offers support for DoE Office of Science

Senator Coons today joined several of his colleagues in signing onto a letter to the Senate Energy and Water (E&W) Appropriations Committee in support of the Department of Energy’s (DOE) Office of Science.

“The DOE Office of Science has been integral to the development of several innovative technologies,” Senator Coons said, “including MRI machines and PET scans, leading supercomputing research, new composite materials for military hardware and motor vehicles, medical and industrial isotopes, drop-in biofuel technologies, DNA sequencing technologies, more aerodynamic and fuel efficient long-haul trucks, electric vehicle battery technology, an artificial retina, newer and safer nuclear reactor designs, 3-D models of pathogens for vaccine development, tools to manufacture nanomaterials, and better sensors and detectors for biological, chemical, and radioactive materials.”

The DOE Office of Science also supports a first-rate workforce of research scientists, engineers, and support personnel who work as teams on long-term solutions to some of the nation’s greatest challenges. Moreover, it plays a unique and critical role in the education of the next generation of American scientific talent, including thousands of graduate students and postdoctoral researchers at hundreds of U.S. institutions who depend upon DOE Office of Science support and facilities for their research and training. For Fiscal Year 2010, the Office of Science funded 17 research projects at The University of Delaware totaling nearly $4 million.

Support for the DOE Office of Science is consistent with Chris’ leadership in using the best possible science to solve the nation’s most pressing problems and to boost the U.S. innovation economy to compete in the 21st century.

The Senator’s week ahead schedule: May 30 to June 5

Monday, May 30 at 10:30 a.m. – The Senator will speak at the Memorial Day Bridge Plaza Service. Memorial Bridge Plaza, Delaware Memorial Bridge, New Castle, DE.

Monday, May 30 at 6:00 p.m. — The Senator will attend the Wilmington Memorial Day Parade. Kickoff: Woodlawn & Delaware Avenue, Wilmington, DE.

Tuesday, May 31 at 9:00 a.m. — The Senator will join Senator Carper and Representative Carney in hosting a job fair at Delaware Technical and Community College in Dover. More than 70 employers are scheduled to attend. Del Tech Conference Center, 100 Campus Drive, Dover, DE.

Tuesday, May 31 at 11:00 a.m. — The Senator will speak at the DAFB Memorial Garden for the Fallen Dedication Ceremony. This is event is a dedication ceremony for the new Memorial Garden they have installed at the Center for Families of the Fallen. Dover Air Force Base, Dover, DE.

In his capacity as chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Subcommittee on Africa, Senator Coons and Ranking Member Senator Johnny Isakson (R-Ga.) will visit Nigeria, Benin and Ghana from June 1 to June 5. For security reasons, we are unable to disclose the times and specific locations of the Senators’ travel during his CODEL.

Video: Why Chris voted against the four-year Patriot Act extension

Senator Coons spoke on the floor this afternoon about why he was voting against the four-year renewal of the PATRIOT Act. In the moments before this video clip begins, Chris asked for unanimous consent to extend the law for one month to allow for additional debate without the provisions of PATRIOT lapsing.

He didn’t have enough time to deliver his full remarks, but entered them into the record. You can read them here.

Senator Coons hosts discussion on clean energy innovation and sustainability

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.  

Race to the Top-Early Learning Challenge will help ensure our students are prepared for grade school

Senator Coons today praised the President’s new Race to the Top-Early Learning Challenge, which allocates $500 million in state-level competitive grants that helps states improve and expand access to early education. The program was launched today at a press conference with U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan and U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius.

The Race to the Top-Early Learning Challenge will reward states that develop comprehensive plans for transforming their early learning systems with better coordination, clearer learning standards, and meaningful workforce development. States applying for challenge grants will be encouraged to increase access to quality early learning programs for low income and disadvantaged children, design integrated and transparent systems that align their early care and education programs, bolster training and support for the early learning workforce, create robust evaluation systems to document and share effective practices and successful programs, and help parents make informed decisions about care for their children.

Chris is no stranger to the positive impact early learning programs have on students’ overall educational achievement, earlier this month he joined Senators Bob Casey (D-Pa.), Patty Murray (D-Wash.), and Al Franken (D-Minn.) on a letter to Secretary Duncan and Sebelius urging them to implement the type of grant program described in the bill. The full letter can be read below.

Senator Coons was also an original cosponsor of the Supporting State Systems of Early Learning Act (S. 470) that would create a similar grant program.

New batch of Correspondence from the Commute!

Senator Coons has recorded 12 more video responses to constituents’ letters as part of his Correspondence from the Commute series!

We did a double-batch this month since the schedule didn’t work out for us to do videos in April. (Here are the videos from February and March.) These videos were recorded on the 6:25 am Northeast Regional from Wilmington to Washington last Wednesday.

• Andrew from Hockessin about improving our economy
• Lowell from Wilmington about tax subsidies for oil companies
• Jay from Magnolia about rising gas prices
• Henry from Hockessin about helping veterans find jobs
• Dom from Greenwood and his students about legislation, food, sports and parks
• Margaret from Wilmington about education reform
• Mary from Felton about adult education
• Leslie from Wilmington about increasing public safety communications networks
• Patrick from Wilmington about the national budget
• William from New Castle about privatizing Medicare
• Zoe from Wilmington about funding for the NIH
• Leslie from Wilmington about the budget