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gpo114.pdf | 200 | Mr. SHIMKUS. | And if I may, I would say in the statement you just said, of course, that 50 percent could be. I have no time, but I am happy to debate this as long as the chair would allow us to debate this. |
gpo114.pdf | 201 | Ms. BALDWIN. | Not much longer, but go ahead. |
gpo114.pdf | 202 | Mr. LYONS. | The IPCC report is based on a 90- to 95-percent confidence in the observations included in the report, and it includes scientists worldwide, including scientists from the United States. So as was discussed earlier, this is a matter of understanding risks and probabilities, but here there is a high probability in what t... |
gpo114.pdf | 203 | Ms. BALDWIN. | Ms. Goodman? |
gpo114.pdf | 204 | Ms. GOODMAN. | Thank you very much, Madam Chairman. Mr. Shimkus, I just wanted to clarify that I support continued and possibly increased reliance for our U.S. Navy. It has indeed been an essential source of power for our naval vessels. I would observer, however, that coal-to-liquids, unlike nuclear power, is not presently a carbon-f... |
gpo114.pdf | 205 | Mr. SHIMKUS. | If I may, Madam Chairman, if we went—with to- day's prices, that would free up $192 billions of additional revenue to do all of these things and all of this scientific movement into this ''new Manhattan project'' because it is going to be costly, and we have got to find the money to do that. |
gpo117.pdf | 0 | Mr. MCHENRY. | That might be a slight insult to Judy. She is much more attractive and a nicer lady. [laughter] |
gpo117.pdf | 1 | Mr. MCHENRY. | Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you for holding the hearing today. Obviously, Treasury and FinCEN are certainly vital in the United States to stop the money laundering and financing of terror. Law enforcement needs a quick dependable way to track the money involved in crimes, and financial institutions often serve as th... |
gpo117.pdf | 2 | Mr. PAULSEN. | Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I also want to thank you for holding today's hearing. I appreciate it. Financial institutions often serve as the first line of defense in detecting financial crimes and providing critical information to law enforcement, and the information that is provided to government organizations by FinCEN ... |
gpo117.pdf | 3 | Mr. THORSON. | Yes. There are a number of things that raising that threshold would allow us to do. Specifically, with regard to FinCEN, I would have to refer to our audit plan, and we can certainly provide that for you. The idea and why we requested the increase in the threshold was to free up some of the audit resources. Certainly, ... |
gpo117.pdf | 4 | Mr. FREIS. | Yes, Mr. Chairman. We have developed a process within FinCEN that is consistent with those recommendations, to work very closely with the supervisors of the financial institutions, so we do examine for problems in the filing of all our reports, not just SARs, and we follow up directly with the supervisor, and then the ... |
gpo117.pdf | 5 | Mr. THORSON. | First of all, we are very happy to see that and certainly accept FinCEN's explanations of the changes they have made. We obviously have not had a chance to look at that since then. I think all of us here have the same goal, and that is to do whatever we can do to increase the efficiency and effectiveness of FinCEN, as ... |
gpo117.pdf | 6 | Mr. FREIS. | I do not think it is a choice between the two, Mr. Chairman. I think our mission is to get information to law enforcement and increasing the quality is making that information more accessible to law enforcement. Ultimately, a large part of what I have tried to do in our dialogue with the financial industry is show them... |
gpo117.pdf | 7 | Mr. THORSON. | I think really both of those things but certainly the quality when you talk, for instance, IndyMac, one of the banks that we looked at after it failed, had an 86 percent error rate. Everybody has the desire to certainly improve on those kinds of things, and I think what Director Freis has been saying is they are addres... |
gpo117.pdf | 8 | Mr. PAULSEN. | Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I will ask just a couple of questions. First, I will go to you, Mr. Thorson, if I could. Probably the most interesting part of your testimony comes at the end where you address FinCEN's IT system. I would like to ask you three questions at once and you can tackle them altogether, I guess, more ... |
gpo117.pdf | 9 | Mr. THORSON. | With the number of questions, I would like to provide you a very accurate answer, and I will do that in writing. One thing you mentioned was how do we implement this or how does FinCEN successfully implement that. I just would give you the answer I would give you on any major program, whether it is FinCEN or DOD. In th... |
gpo117.pdf | 10 | Mr. PAULSEN. | Thank you. Mr. Freis, let me just follow up. As I mentioned earlier in my opening statement, FinCEN's mission and work to help safeguard the financial system and aid our law enforcement community is important. I support that certainly as we all do. As I mentioned in my opening statement, I am interested in FinCEN's ong... |
gpo117.pdf | 11 | Mr. FREIS. | Yes, indeed. The modernization is designed to address some of the issues that you mentioned and some of the issues that are in the GAO reports. Very consistent with what Mr. Thorson just said, the most important aspect in going to a big project, a big investment like this, is appropriate planning. We have been planning... |
gpo117.pdf | 12 | Mr. PAULSEN. | Thank you. My time is just wrapping up now. Mr. Thorson, if you have some follow-up in written form, I think that would be very helpful as well. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Chairman MOORE OF KANSAS. Thank you. The Chair at this time recognizes Mr. Lynch for 5 minutes, sir. |
gpo117.pdf | 13 | Mr. LYNCH. | Thank you again, Mr. Chairman. Director Freis, and this actually applies to Mr. Thorson as well, in this tight budget environment, it is not likely that we are going to see any increases for staffing. Director Freis, how many folks do you have handling your whole operation right now? |
gpo117.pdf | 14 | Mr. FREIS. | We have 325 people as of today. |
gpo117.pdf | 15 | Mr. LYNCH. | You are handling a global operation, trying to interface with governments all over the world. I have seen you do that. You have 300 domestic law enforcement agencies that you have to deal with. Now, we have just added some more responsibility with respect to these financial institutions that we want you to interface wi... |
gpo117.pdf | 16 | Mr. FREIS. | We appreciate your support and we certainly appreciate the direction from the Congress in helping us to prioritize the funding that we have received for the IT modernization. It is a critical aspect. When I look back at our statutory mission, what Congress laid out for us, more than half of it talks about our IT manage... |
gpo117.pdf | 17 | Mr. LYNCH. | Director, I appreciate that. I have more meter maids in my city than you have folks to handle your responsibility around the world. You have far greater responsibility, with all due respect to my meter maids, they do a wonderful job as well. It is just trying to match the resources to the job that needs to be done. Unl... |
gpo117.pdf | 18 | Mr. FREIS. | Certainly, the IT can be a force multiplier, but most of what we are doing in terms of the IT modernization, one of the core pillars of it, is moving away from paper and manual processing to leveraging that electronically. Right now, the people who are doing that manual processing are IRS employees. We, as the Treasury... |
gpo117.pdf | 19 | Mr. LYNCH. | Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Chairman MOORE OF KANSAS. I want to thank our witnesses for testifying here today, Mr. Freis and Mr. Thorson, Inspector General Thorson. Thank you both for testifying. If you have any additional comments to make, please make those in writing and submit them. I will excuse you at this time and c... |
gpo117.pdf | 20 | Ms. LARENCE. | Yes. We think that involving law enforcement in setting the criteria would help, but then also making sure FinCEN is transparent about that criteria. We do not argue that law enforcement should call all the shots because law enforcement itself recognizes that FinCEN brings particular expertise to the table because they... |
gpo117.pdf | 21 | Mr. HILLMAN. | Similar to the last panel, I believe that both of the actions that you are calling for are essential for FinCEN in achieving its mission. It must work with other regulators and other depository institutions in accomplishing its mission. It must serve law enforcement in meeting its terrorist financing and other financia... |
gpo117.pdf | 22 | Ms. LARENCE. | Clearly, the law enforcement community found direct access to the data itself the most important service that FinCEN can provide, so I would argue that is where FinCEN would need to put its priorities. Chairman MOORE OF KANSAS. Thank you. Starting with you, Mr. Hillman, has FinCEN been responsive to GAO's recommendatio... |
gpo117.pdf | 23 | Mr. HILLMAN. | One of the major areas we found in our report on the SAR activities was that their forms revision process was not a collaborative process. They had made changes to that form and many individuals within the law enforcement community, specifically SAR review teams in other High Intensity Financial Crime Areas (HIFCA) had... |
gpo117.pdf | 24 | Mr. PAULSEN. | Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Maybe I will start with level of budgetary funding provided to FinCEN? Do they have adequate resources to effectively carry out their mission? |
gpo117.pdf | 25 | Mr. HILLMAN. | We really have not looked at the resources that edge the unenviable task that it has in achieving its multiple mission responsibilities, relying on the limited resources it does have and the other regulators at its disposal. Given that environment, that just puts a premium on ensuring effective collaboration and coordi... |
gpo117.pdf | 26 | Mr. PAULSEN. | How important is it from your perspective for FinCEN to complete its SAR form revision process and how often do you think such a review or changes should take place in the future, given the changing nature of the financial system and of financial crimes? |
gpo117.pdf | 27 | Mr. HILLMAN. | They are required by law—from the Paperwork Reduction Act—to review their forms process every 3 years. They generally look at those forms a little bit ahead of that schedule to ensure they can complete that review in a timely fashion. I believe they are doing a diligent job in looking at their forms revisions. What we ... |
gpo117.pdf | 28 | Mr. PAULSEN. | Ms. Larence, as you probably know, FinCEN issued a report on fraud in the mortgage market well before the bubble collapsed. It was virtually ignored by the law enforcement community. Should FinCEN be held responsible for reports and information that are simply not used by law enforcement? Do you have any suggestions on... |
gpo117.pdf | 29 | Ms. LARENCE. | In talking with some of the FBI agents and liaisons, I think they felt like FinCEN brought a different perspective to that issue than the FBI could. The FBI has access to different information and takes a case perspective. They thought FinCEN could bring value but they would have liked to have maybe collaborated with F... |
gpo117.pdf | 30 | Mr. PAULSEN. | Regarding GAO's recommendation that FinCEN establish a process to inform law enforcement about the availability of completed analytical products, the December 2009 report indicated that FinCEN was not inclined to share certain products completed for one customer with other law enforcement agencies due to confidentialit... |
gpo117.pdf | 31 | Ms. LARENCE. | A couple of things. They do follow what they call the third party rule. That is, they would ask the originating agency if they could have permission to share, and how extensively could they share, those products. What we heard from law enforcement was they would just like to even know that the product existed, and that... |
gpo117.pdf | 32 | Mr. PAULSEN. | Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Chairman MOORE OF KANSAS. Thank you, sir. The Chair recognizes Mr. Lynch for 5 minutes. |
gpo117.pdf | 33 | Mr. LYNCH. | Thank you again, Mr. Chairman. Let me ask both of you. We are talking a lot about FinCEN's responsibility to interact and collaborate with law enforcement. That is just one-third of what their mission is. They also have a mission with 325 employees, they have 300 law enforcement agencies, then they have every single re... |
gpo117.pdf | 34 | Mr. HILLMAN. | That actually was not the scope of our review in looking at SARs and SAR revisions, but it is clear FinCEN has a daunting responsibility with the resources that it has. It continues to put a premium on proper guidance and forms to the other regulators and depository institutions that supports its activities. In the rec... |
gpo117.pdf | 35 | Mr. LYNCH. | Right now, it seems like FinCEN is going out to these different agencies. They went out to California and they have been working closely with the FBI. Ironically, the FBI has put as many resources into analyzing the information provided by FinCEN than we have provided FinCEN to actually develop the data and provide the... |
gpo117.pdf | 36 | Ms. LARENCE. | We tried very hard to be able to help answer that question, at least in terms of the work they are providing to law enforcement, through the Analysis and Liaison Division. FinCEN needs to be able to demonstrate this is what we are doing with the resources that we have right now in terms of supporting the law enforcemen... |
gpo117.pdf | 37 | Mr. LYNCH. | Let me ask, in your reports and in your analysis in looking at this, is FinCEN bringing in—you would think that one way we might be able to close that gap is to sort of bring in the law enforcement people, do a number of seminars on the financial analysis products that they have. I know there is outreach. I am not so s... |
gpo117.pdf | 38 | Ms. LARENCE. | I think they have some existing channels that they can use more effectively. They have a bi-monthly roundtable with law enforcement. They have changed the agenda already where they are better publicizing the products and they are using the roundtable to solicit ideas from law enforcement about the kinds of issues and a... |
gpo117.pdf | 39 | Mr. LYNCH. | Thank you. Thank you both. I yield back. Chairman MOORE OF KANSAS. Thank you. I understand that Ranking Member Judy Biggert is on her way. If Mr. Paulsen has any additional questions, he can go ahead at this time until she arrives. |
gpo117.pdf | 40 | Mr. PAULSEN. | Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Just a couple of followup questions for Mr. Hillman, if I could. As you know, the suspicious activity report, the SAR report filings continue to increase. However, the quality of SAR filings continues to be an issue in depository institutions. Officials have commented they would like clear guid... |
gpo117.pdf | 41 | Mr. HILLMAN. | This is one area that has been a continual concern on the part of depository institutions, concern that they do not know exactly how law enforcement is using this data, not knowing how exactly how to satisfy those needs. We have found, however, that FinCEN has done a number of things to improve communication and coordi... |
gpo117.pdf | 42 | Mr. PAULSEN. | One more question. In the past, financial industry officials have expressed concerns about the extent to which law enforcement agencies use suspicious activity reports and whether the effort put into filing them is actually helping law enforcement investigations. Just again a quick follow-up, because I think you had a ... |
gpo117.pdf | 43 | Mr. HILLMAN. | Absolutely. FinCEN, law enforcement, and financial institution regulators are each taking steps to ensure they are using quality information that is available from SARs. FinCEN, as we previously discussed, has produced various nonpublic analytical products and they have also pushed out bulk downloads of their SAR data ... |
gpo117.pdf | 44 | Mr. PAULSEN. | Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Chairman MOORE OF KANSAS. Thank you, Mr. Paulsen, for your questions. Now I recognize for 5 minutes for questions the ranking member of the subcommittee, my colleague and friend from Illinois, Ranking Member Judy Biggert. |
gpo117.pdf | 45 | Mrs. BIGGERT. | Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. Thank you for giving me the opportunity to ask questions. I, unfortunately, have been in a markup all day. We still have eight amendments to go. I had quite a few amendments. It usually does not last this long. Chairman MOORE OF KANSAS. We are glad you are here. |
gpo117.pdf | 46 | Mrs. BIGGERT. | My first question would be, what are the answers to addressing FinCEN's shortcomings and what does FinCEN need to do their job and to do it well? Is it new authority? Resources? Is it a set timeframe to update information systems? Briefly. |
gpo117.pdf | 47 | Mr. HILLMAN. | I will take the issue on the information systems. I believe that is one of the significant challenges facing this organization at the time. They have had a dismal record in the past in establishing robust and successful information technology modernization initiatives, and they are undergoing one now as we speak. The a... |
gpo117.pdf | 48 | Ms. LARENCE. | In terms of the issues that we looked at, these are not new findings. FinCEN had several internal studies starting in 2005, 2006, and 2008. FinCEN knows what it needs to do. It just needs to do it. It needs to track it to make sure the changes are effective. It needs to hold itself accountable with law enforcement for ... |
gpo117.pdf | 49 | Mrs. BIGGERT. | Do you think Congress should set a timeline or a certain time when they should complete—outline the specific goals? I know the same situation is really in HUD, every year we ask them if they have their information system up and running and the technology, and it just keeps delaying and delaying. How can Congress get th... |
gpo117.pdf | 50 | Mr. HILLMAN. | I believe that it would be important for Congress to request a plan from FinCEN as to how it intends to successfully modernize its information technology, and then to request periodic progress reports on their activities. In that way, there would be some very important oversight from the Congress in ensuring that FinCE... |
gpo117.pdf | 51 | Ms. LARENCE. | We noticed in the most recent work on proposed regulatory changes that FinCEN collaborated very well with the law enforcement agencies within DHS, in part because Congress directed them to do that through statute. It is pretty clear that if Congress gave support and incentives such as setting recurring timeframes and h... |
gpo117.pdf | 52 | Mrs. BIGGERT. | I think in the first panel, Director Freis said we have been planning for 31⁄2 years and now they restarted the planning process. How much time do you think it would take them to complete the process of updating their technology? |
gpo117.pdf | 53 | Mr. HILLMAN. | With their current technology efforts, the staff within FinCEN, when we were updating the status of our recommendations for this hearing, were reluctant to share with us any timeframes for completing any individual efforts, but suggested that the total modernization effort was likely not to be completed until 2014. |
gpo117.pdf | 54 | Mrs. BIGGERT. | Does law enforcement find FinCEN more or less relevant now that agencies can access and analyze the Bank Secrecy Act data on their own? |
gpo117.pdf | 55 | Ms. LARENCE. | What we found in our review is that kind of casespecific tactical support the agencies are now doing themselves, so they did not really need FinCEN to do that for them. They did recognize that FinCEN had valuable expertise, again, because FinCEN understood industry, regulators, and law enforcement. They do think FinCEN... |
gpo117.pdf | 56 | Mrs. BIGGERT. | Do you think law enforcement really needs these complex analyses? |
gpo117.pdf | 57 | Ms. LARENCE. | I think they find them very helpful, if they are timely and useful. What we heard is if FinCEN involved law enforcement in helping to again define what to pursue in those analyses and also get them involved on ongoing reviews, that would help the information to meet law enforcement's needs and be more relevant than it ... |
gpo117.pdf | 58 | Mrs. BIGGERT. | Do you see some of the agencies, law enforcement agencies, need FinCEN more to help them conduct their investigations and prosecutions than others? |
gpo117.pdf | 59 | Ms. LARENCE. | We did note that they have now more than 300 potential law enforcement customers. These range from some of the five biggest players, such as the DEA, the FBI, and ICE, down to smaller State law enforcement agencies, and to some extent, even local law enforcement agencies. These agencies are going to need a variety of s... |
gpo117.pdf | 60 | Mrs. BIGGERT. | Thank you. Thank you both for being here. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I yield back. Chairman MOORE OF KANSAS. My thanks to the distinguished lady from Illinois. Again, I want to thank our witnesses for their testimony this afternoon. Today's hearing was helpful in improving our understanding of the challenges facing FinCE... |
gpo120.pdf | 0 | Mr. SENSENBRENNER. | Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. Today's hearing will focus on the plight of those who are in the path of nature. From the coastlines of the Gulf of Mexico to erosion in Alaska to rising seas around the Maldives, these problems are real and threaten real people. And like many on this panel, I have concern for those p... |
gpo120.pdf | 1 | The CHAIRMAN. | The gentleman's time has expired. The chair recognizes the gentleman from Oregon, Mr. Blumenauer. |
gpo120.pdf | 2 | Mr. BLUMENAUER. | Thank you, Mr. Chairman. And I do appreciate what my friend from Wisconsin talked about. I do think we are interested in breakthrough technologies to the extent that they are available. But the irony is that we don't have to wait for breakthrough technologies. We know what to do in smartinez on DSKB9S0YB1PROD with HEAR... |
gpo120.pdf | 3 | The CHAIRMAN. | Great. The gentleman's time has expired. The gentlelady from California, Ms. Solis, is recognized. |
gpo120.pdf | 4 | Ms. SOLIS. | Thank you, Mr. Chairman. And I want to also welcome our witnesses this morning. I think it is highly important that we hear from underrepresented communities and communities of color because for many, many years the environmental movement hasn't always brought about the concerns of our communities. And therefore, I thi... |
gpo120.pdf | 5 | The CHAIRMAN. | The gentlelady's time has expired. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from Missouri, Mr. Cleaver. |
gpo120.pdf | 6 | Mr. CLEAVER. | Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I really appreciate this hearing for some very personal reasons. I spent my teenage years growing up in Wichita Falls, Texas. I lived at 818 Gerald. I want to be very specific. And I didn't know that there was such a thing as living a great distance from what we called at the time the cesspool,... |
gpo120.pdf | 7 | The CHAIRMAN. | I thank the gentleman from Missouri very much. smartinez on DSKB9S0YB1PROD with HEARING And we will now turn to our very distinguished panel. And our first witness, Martin Luther King, III. He is the Chairman and CEO of Realizing the Dream, Inc. Through the work of his new organization, he is working to restore and rev... |
gpo120.pdf | 8 | The CHAIRMAN. | Thank you, Mr. King, very much. [The information follows:] smartinez on DSKB9S0YB1PROD with HEARING smartinez on DSKB9S0YB1PROD with HEARING Insert offset folio 26 here 58148A.003 smartinez on DSKB9S0YB1PROD with HEARING Insert offset folio 27 here 58148A.004 smartinez on DSKB9S0YB1PROD with HEARING Insert offset folio... |
gpo120.pdf | 9 | The CHAIRMAN. | Our second witness is Dr. Eileen Gauna, who is a law professor at the University of New Mexico with a focus on environmental law, environmental justice, administrative law, and energy and property. She is one of the country's foremost experts on environmental justice and has written about and worked extensively on the ... |
gpo120.pdf | 10 | The CHAIRMAN. | Professor, if you could try to sum up. |
gpo120.pdf | 11 | Ms. GAUNA. | I am finishing up. It is our ethical duty to do all we possibly can to roll back and avoid climate change. It is our ethical duty not to do so on the backs of heavily impacted and vulnerable communities. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Sorry for running over. |
gpo120.pdf | 12 | The CHAIRMAN. | Thank you, Professor, very much. [The information follows:] smartinez on DSKB9S0YB1PROD with HEARING smartinez on DSKB9S0YB1PROD with HEARING Insert offset folio 35 here 58148A.006 smartinez on DSKB9S0YB1PROD with HEARING Insert offset folio 36 here 58148A.007 smartinez on DSKB9S0YB1PROD with HEARING Insert offset foli... |
gpo120.pdf | 13 | The CHAIRMAN. | Our next witness is Mr. Mike Williams. Mr. Williams is a member of the Yupiaq Tribe from Akiak, Alaska and Iditarod race musher. Throughout his life he has strived to protect the livelihood and culture of Native villages across Alaska. Currently he is vice chairman of both the Akiak Native community and the Alaska Inte... |
gpo120.pdf | 14 | The CHAIRMAN. | Thank you, Mr. Williams, very much. [The information follows:] smartinez on DSKB9S0YB1PROD with HEARING smartinez on DSKB9S0YB1PROD with HEARING Insert offset folio 44 here 58148A.010 smartinez on DSKB9S0YB1PROD with HEARING Insert offset folio 45 here 58148A.011 smartinez on DSKB9S0YB1PROD with HEARING Insert offset f... |
gpo120.pdf | 15 | The CHAIRMAN. | And our final witness is Mr. Amjad Abdulla, who is Assistant Director General of the Ministry of Environment, Energy and Water for the Republic of Maldives. As Assistant Director General, he has brought to light many of the effects of global warming on his country and is actively working with the United Nations to find... |
gpo120.pdf | 16 | Mr. BLUMENAUER [presiding]. | Mr. Abdulla, could you summarize? |
gpo120.pdf | 17 | Mr. ABDULLA. | Our political system needs to encourage greater incentives for investment in clean technologies and public regulations to support innovation. have looked for signs of progress, but too often we have seen a lack of leadership at the international level. We believe this trend is changing. In 2007, we see the signs of ren... |
gpo120.pdf | 18 | Mr. BLUMENAUER [presiding]. | Thank you, Mr. Abdulla. Our Chairman has stepped away. He had about two dozen guests here. He will be back in a moment and asked that we proceed. I would just note that we are going to be facing a vote pretty soon. So I would like to just move quickly. I would just ask one question, and then turn to my colleagues. faci... |
gpo120.pdf | 19 | Mr. WILLIAMS. | Right now we are at the crossroads, and many of the communities like Shishmaref is falling into the Bering Sea, and I think for some village of Newtok is currently planning to move into a higher ground, and that, I think, is one way of retreating from falling into the sea. And that is the only thing that is occurring. ... |
gpo120.pdf | 20 | Mr. BLUMENAUER. | Thank you very much. |
gpo120.pdf | 21 | Mrs. BLACKBURN. | Thank you, sir. I want to welcome all of our witnesses before us today. it has been instructive. you, if I may. The wind turbines that are being installed in Alaska, where is the money coming from for those? Do you know? |
gpo120.pdf | 22 | Mr. WILLIAMS. | I think the money is coming from Congress, and those, you know, the energy costs, are tremendous in Alaska. In my community the price of gasoline is $7. But the wind programs in Kotzebue in Tooksok Bay have really reduced the 50-cents-perhour—per-kilowatt-hour problem that we are facing in the very poor communities, th... |
gpo120.pdf | 23 | Mrs. BLACKBURN. | Let me ask you this also. So on the wind turbines you are depending on government grants for that. But let me ask you about transporting renewable energy to some of these rural and isolated areas. What solutions do you propose? Or do you all have any solutions that you are proposing for transporting renewable fuels int... |
gpo120.pdf | 24 | Mr. WILLIAMS. | I think shipping right now is the way to go, you know, because we don't have any roads in our areas. And there is no other way to get to those communities. So barges and shipping through waterways. smartinez on DSKB9S0YB1PROD with HEARING |
gpo120.pdf | 25 | Mrs. BLACKBURN. | All right. I want to go to page 3 of your testimony. You talk there about NativeSUN Solar, which provides installation, maintenance, technical support for the photovoltaic systems. They have installed hundreds of systems on the Navajo and the Hopi Reservations. What is the cost per kilowatt hour for solar energy in Ala... |
gpo120.pdf | 26 | Mr. WILLIAMS. | Yes. I have—I don't have current data on the Navajo and Hopi per kilowatt hour, but in my community, per kilowatt hour to pay for our electricity ranges from 50 cents to 70 cents per kilowatt hour in our communities in Alaska. |
gpo120.pdf | 27 | Mrs. BLACKBURN. | Okay. And then for the solar, can you get that number for me? |
gpo120.pdf | 28 | Mr. WILLIAMS. | Right now in Alaska, I think the wind power is more viable. And the solar energy—in the wintertime when there is 24 hours of no solar, we don't see the sun up North for 24 hours for 6 months. It is pretty hard to get that to retrieve the solar energy. |
gpo120.pdf | 29 | Mrs. BLACKBURN. | Now, on the wind power, let me just ask you one follow-on. Has the environmental community expressed any concern over the wind turbines and the harmful effects for birds? Have you had resistance there? |
gpo120.pdf | 30 | Mr. WILLIAMS. | We have discussed that issue, but we have taken a look. And I come from the most populated migratory bird area in the world. And we have had those wind turbines going and have seen no effect on our migratory birds. |
gpo120.pdf | 31 | Mrs. BLACKBURN. | Thank you. |
gpo120.pdf | 32 | Mr. ABDULLA. | For the sea level, we have had a record of 15 years, and it shows about a millimeter of rise per year in sea level. And to this magnitude, even a small millimeter of the sea level, it speeds up the wind-generated waves, and it sort of leads to flooding more frequently. |
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