Still running while youre putting in a whole new system speed well, im that we have had discussions and i think thats one of the reasons that the epa gave us, among others, a consultative role is a plant needs more times to retrofit under the mat standard. Even if you give them more time to retrofit, there will be downtime during the retrofit. So going to issues of electrical generation not existing in certain areas. The gentlemans time has expired. Im very sorry to say, youre not going to be the last person to ask questions. [inaudible] mr. Chairman . May i make an inquiry a few . I didnt get asked everything i wanted to, but i did know what had already been asked. What you asked to leave the record over a couple of weeks if we may direct questions . Absolutely. Yeah, we will have about the natural gas sector and Electricity Sector that no thank you mr. Chairman. Ir we will have it open for ten days and work with you to get the questions to the commissioners. At this time i recognize the gentleman from new york for five minutes. Thank you, mr. Chairman. I wont take five minutes. I was here before and i had to run out. I just have one question. I would like to focus on the champlain express. Im sure you are aware that i and others have spoken out in favor of closing the Nuclear Power plant in new york. Im not opposed to Nuclear Power and i never spoke a word about closing the plan until after september 11 i learned one of the planes that hit the towers flew over the power plant which is about 10 miles out of my district. I believe and so does the governor and all of the elected officials and the surrounding area and members of congress who have represented the area we think it presents one of the serious environmental threats facing the metropolitan region. New york is no longer needing to face the threats because the Champlain Hudson power wouldve the liver of thousand megawatts per hour to the metropolitan region and the implementation of the Champlain HudsonPower Express of the new torque electric grid would be increased and new yorkers would no longer have to live with the dangers in their own backyard. Its obviously a benefit to new york and the safety of new yorkers is all of our concern. Given the great benefits of the project ipv6 important that it is implemented in a timely manner. My question is to plan for the postindian point new york. I am sure we have to make sure we have sufficiently reliable safe energy to replace the facility because when some of us said that it should be closed, people came back with what are you going to do to replace it so i believe the line provides a portion of that energy and i would like to hear from any of you regarding the status of the project. Thank you mr. Congressman. I delete about a year ago in the past year they issued an order in proving the marketbased rates further lie in that order no one sought a rehearing of the orders of its final so we did the rates making and i believe the siding of the wine is being done in new york state so i dont think we have anything open on the line right now but we got out the order that they needed for the rate. Congressman, i think it points to the fact that the transmission is such a Good Technology because it can solve a multitude of challenges going forward. So again, i want to stay positive on the need for more transmission investment. This has regional benefits to implement in the country. I think to echo my colleagues comment, when weve dealt with the line as a merging transmission line i think its a great example of the wealth and abundance of high electric facilities and possibilities coming down from canada that have a lot of the longterm needs with the emissions were no emissions but also the transmission would be key to nick that happened. A second come as you talk about the Nuclear Facility im very sensitive to the decisions of new yorkers about that plant. We are all facing a close down at the plant in california. Just a heads up, replacing those large facilities in the huge urban centers is going to require other infrastructure to replace it so we are going to need support and developers are going to need support for building the infrastructure for the generation facilities. That isnt easy to do in todays environment. I would conquer with my colleagues. Thank you mr. Chairman. I might comment on this you refer to the closing of the Nuclear Plant in Southern California and california is a 33 renewable mandate and i was talking to one of the ceos of one of the major utilities out there and as they build new transmission lines to bring in Renewable Power to where they need it, they are getting in some instances specific instructions relating to some going underground on the transmission lines which raises a lot of technical issues and the ceo informed me that in the mileage that they are going underground is costing his utility 100 million a mile. So you know, we are talking about some costly situations in some cases. At this time i would recognize the gentleman from texas for five minutes. Thank the chair for your patience. I will take only a maximum of four hours and four minutes on my time. Chairwoman lafleur, commissioner moeller and clark, welcome, happy holidays. I have one question on the tax credit and start with you in the sugar. As you know the next ten years some wind turbine orders will get tax credit hours for every hour they run. This tax credit was designed to kickstart renewables. And yes yet, it lives on the spe way and being a major part of the grid. At least 12 in my state of texas capacity. But some markets have seen prices as low as negative 41 per megawatt hour as operators get the credit and run whether that power is needed or not. Granted that is an extreme example, but they can settle a lawsuit taxpayers make them whole. That moves markets back home on the new Power Construction in texas that Public Utility Commission chairwoman nelson has said and this is a quote for the market distortion is caused by the Renewable Energy incentives one of the primary causes this distortion makes it difficult for other generation types to cover the cost and discourages investment in the new generati generation. And while the ptc isnt the only driver of the market distortion, it is a significant force. So starting with you, commissioner. Do you agree that incentives for the Renewable Energy markets . Congressman, i think all subsidies distort markets. Chairwoman lafleur, any comment . In a pure market there would be no tax subsidies, but many of the resources in the market have tax subsidies of one sort or another that are not taken into account in the marketplace. Commissioner, you are up. To echo the comments i agree any tax implication is going to affect and open marketplace. Having said that, i am concerned that some of the Nuclear Facilities that have been closing were looking at retiring because of the pricing is a concern for me because the longterm stability of those with baseload fuel and plans in the system is important. We need those. Commissioner clark. I would agree for the reasons that you have identified created is a decision for congress to make. But clearly it does have a market distorting impact especially in very wind rich parts of the country and certain times of the day. One final question. Following on my colleagues from mr. Green blank question about the grid of liability passed in congress. Is everyone still agree that its bad policy to trap companies between two different regulators with different goals during the power crisis . Chairwoman lafleur. I think its the policy and i supported you are talking about the choice though. I supported the basic principle that if the doe orders you to run you shouldnt face sanctions for that in that limited instance. You strongly support the concept especially with what we are hearing about in the midwest and to some extent tax commissioner norris . I would conquer and ive been supportive isupported in the pa. The though that you and congressman doyle have sponsored. Thank you. Im 41 seconds early. Yeah, thank you very much. We appreciate that. Well, that concludes todays hearing. I would like to ask is lafleur one additional question. Recently, it was brought to my attention that ferc has jurisdiction over lake of ozarks about tearing down some houses and then after the grand lake in oklahoma. Would you be able to identify for the committee the name of the individual at ferc that would have up to date information on the authority and jurisdiction that you all have over these leaks in which hydropower is being produced . Not right now, but later. Absolutely. And without objection and hopefully youve all seen this, we have a letter from the American Public power association, a statement that they would like to insert into the record without objection. So thats entered and we will keep the record open for ten days because as mr. Hall and others said there are additional questions we would like to submit to you all. But i want to thank you for coming up today and visiting with us and for the exchange that we had and thank all of you for what you are doing and continue to do in addressing these important issues. With that, that will conclude todays hearing. Thank you. Live picture here of a u. S. Capitol where the house and senate are both out today. The flags are flying at half staff in remembrance of the South African president Nelson Mandela who passed away yesterday. Reports say he will be buried at december 14. A number of president s and lawmakers issued president s posted on the website, go to cspan. Org. The u. S. Economy added 203,000 jobs last month in the Unemployment Rate fell to seventh that is the lowest since november of 2008 and exceeds analysts predictions. The department releasing figures earlier today. House Speaker John Boehner released a number on the jobless number and said in part the report includes positive signs that should discourage the calls for more emergency government stimulus and instead with the economy needs is more progrowth solutions to get the government out of the way. Begins when out at the end of the Year Unless Congress oks the extension. Yesterday the Democratic Steering Committee held a hearing about the issue and heard from several people who face the loss of unemployment checks. Here is a part of that meeting. I have worked my entire adult life having had three jobs i whole career. And ive never been on employed until now. As soon as i lost my job, i immediately began my furious search for employment and began navigating the world of online board, job boards and diligently networking. My goal was to place my resume in the hands of everyone i knew. I have spent the majority of my waking hours looking for work. During this time, i was able to support myself because i received those vital Unemployment Insurance benefits. I not only was looking for jobs in my field, or always for jobs at the same salary level. I am smart enough to know that most likely, i would be changing careers and taking a pay cut. I applied for everything and anything. Eventually, i began applying for Entry Level Call Center jobs, jobs that would have resulted in a 30,000dollar a year pay cut or to put this another way, a 42 reduction in my pay. That was monday of this week. In a box on the floor by my desk i have a stack of job application receipts, job descriptions, research and various forms of my resume and cover letters. This stack is 2 feet tall and i know because i measured it. In addition, my Online Network connections have literally gone viral. My regular state unemployment benefit ended in early november and i immediately began receiving federal emergency Unemployment Compensation. I wouldnt have been able to pay my mortgage and i would have been at risk of losing my beloved little house. I was raised by my mother, a single parent. We never owned a home that we lived in apartments. So im especially proud of my home and i know that my deceased mother would have been proud to know that she raised me right. I am somebody. I own a home. Now in the eighth month of my job search, i am happy to say that i have secured a job just three days ago. [applause] again, that was monday. And although my job pays much less than i was making, it is a good job with a livable wage, and for that im very grateful. Without Unemployment Insurance and the federal emergency benefits, i would have not been able to sustain myself in my job search. So, for me, these programs have done what they are supposed to do. They kept me in my home. I could still buy groceries and pay my bills. My anxiety was kept to a manageable level and i was able to keep sending out applications and going on interviews. If i had not been fortunate in finding this job, i would have faced the year end cutoff of federal emergency Unemployment Compensation benefits absent congressional action. For millions, that would be devastating. For me, it could have meant the loss of my beloved home. I am so relieved and grateful that i wont have to face that now. But i know millions of others are at the same risk that i was just two days ago, again, monday. I am here on their behalf pleading with congress to renew the federal emergency Unemployment Compensation program for 2014 and please, give the other 1. 3 million americans a fighting chance to become reemployed. I am an emergency Unemployment Compensation success story. Wont you please allow this to be americas story . Thank you. [applause] the entire meeting of the house to the critics during committee on Unemployment Benefits can be seen going to back as smallBusiness Owners told the House Committee on wednesday its costing time and money which has slowed down hiring. At the hearing focused on the part that requires an employer to provide Health Insurance if they owned multiple businesses with a total of 50 fulltime employees. Acting Small BusinessCommittee ChairChris Collins testifies. Good afternoon. I called this meeting to order. As we are all well aware of the Health Care Law acquires businesses that employ 50 or more fulltime or fulltime equivalent employees to offer Health Insurance or pay an employer mandate penalty for tax. A critical issue is the definition of employee. But equally important is the issue of which and how many employees are attributed to the business. The answer may be simple for one business with a single owner. However when an individual shares ownership of multiple entities or when a business has multiple owners, the answer is less clear. Today we will examine the process of determining whether businesses are considered a single or multiple entities under the Health Care Law, which requires Business Owners to aggregate employees and could suggest the business from the obamacare employer mandate. According to the National Federation of independent business, 39 of Small Businesses with 20 or more employees at least 10 of one or more other businesses. To determine if the threshold of 50 or more employees has been met in these situations the Health Care Law utilizes the Internal Revenue service code, controlled Growth Business aggregation rules which are complex and confusing even for most experts. Some experts have suggested that most smallBusiness Owners could not interpret these rules without the guidance and the related cost of a Tax Specialist. Despite the Administration Promises to Health Care Law would help Small Businesses, each week seems to bring entrepreneurs more bad news, more costly regulations, more uncertainty and less incentive to grow their business and create jobs. A recent u. S. Chamber of Commerce InternationalFranchise Association survey found 53 of smallBusiness Owners believe the law would have a negative impact on their business. In a challenging economy, many smallBusiness Owners are simply not hiring or are reducing workers hours to avoid employer mandate. Thank you to this outstanding panel of witnesses have taken time to their busy schedules to be here today i now work yielded to the Ranking Member for her opening statements. Small businesses are the backbone of the economy that in the past, Health Care Costs and declining coverage have hindered smallBusiness Owners and their employees. This has hampered the nations powers and held back Small Businesses. In fact, the chairman mentioned that u. S. Chamb