Made in a president ial bid about wanting to eliminate the Energy Department saying after being briefed on so many of the vital functions of the department of energy, i regret recommending its elimination. This is about three hours and 30 minutes. Good morning. Where did he go . Hes in the front row with his wife. Okay. Im looking for him. Good morning. The committee will come to order. Id like to welcome you all to our second cabinet level confirmation hearing of this inaugural week. Id like to start by thanking senator cornyn, our senior senator from texas for being here to speak on behalf of our nominee. Always good to have you before our committee and also our fellow committee member, senator manchin from West Virginia is prepared to also offer introductory remarks for our nominee. Governor perry, i would like to extend a warm welcome to you and to your family. Know that i appreciate your desire to serve, your willi willingness to become our next secretary of energy. Ive enjoyed the meeting that we had together learning more about your leadership as governor of the state of texas including your accomplishments in the area of energy and environment. I will withhold this morning in any reference to texas size versus alaska size. Weve had that discussion. You won. I won, yes. But in all seriousness, we know you are seeking to lead the department of energy at both an interesting time and a critical time. Doe has helped make our nation a Global Leader in research and development by supporting basic research, by encouraging scientific exploration and fostering innovation. At the heart of these efforts are Scientific Research funded by the department and 17 laboratories that deploy the greatest assess, the scientists who dedicate not just their careers but in so many cases they dedicate their lives to solving some of the toughest challenges that face our nation and really face the world. Im hopeful that if you are confirmed, governor perry, you will take a broad view of the importance of basic Scientific Research and pursue the circuit b ben significant benefits that result from it. Done right a good set of policies will provide us with more energy, reduce the amount of energy we use and the cost we pay for energy. In my view, those are the gui Guiding Principles for the department. I would encourage you, as you move forward to work with the rest of the administration to increase access to energy, make energy more affordable and continue to improve its environmental goals. Folks here at the committee know i have a set of principles pretty easy, affordable, accessible, clean, diverse and secure. Theres no acronym there. It is in alphabetical order so that we remember it all. You i sum it all up in one Bumper Sticker that says energy is good because i believe that and hope you believe that as well. If these are your goals, if we share the same outcome here i think we can greatly contribute to the prosperity of this country, our standard of living and to the health of our planet. I would also encourage you to insure the department of energy steps up to become an advocate of the council in our government. It seems in these past years we see other agencies that have been successful in taking resources off the table rega regardless of the longterm consequences for the American People. One of the Biggest Challenges facing the secretary of energy is the management of a large and complex organization with thousands of employees and tens of thousands of contractors. I do not subscribe to the view that only a scientist can manage other scientists. Instead, i think what we need is a good manager. We need a manager to manage all these scientists. One who acknowledges maybe i dont know everything in that space but being capable of organi organizing, setting direction, imposing accountability, making the greatest possible use of taxpayer dollars and reaching goals. Governor perry, as the longest serving governor of texas, you have considerable experience leading a big and very sophisticated enterprise. I believe that that will serve you well as secretary and look forward to hearing how you would carry that experience over to the department. If you are confirmed you will also find yourself in a position to make the department run more effectively. Secretary moniece, i think has made very Good Progress breaking down some of the silos that have historically trust frait tfrust department but i think we all know there is more that can be done. Offices must Work Together to utilize resources and reduce unnecessary duplication. I know in our conversation you made a commitment to travel to my state. Im sure that as you have visited with other members you have made similar commitments to them. I do appreciate your willingness to come to alaska to see my home state first hand. While the department of interior is usually the one that makes the headlines in alaska, the department of energy is also very important. Perhaps three key ways akin point out this morning. The first is what the department can do to help reduce extremely high energy costs in the state of alaska. Our energy costs are the greatest challenge facing our rural areas. Many of our communities are still reliant on diesel as their primary energy source. In many of the small interior communities, again, inaccessible by road, you get a barge twice a year, they may be experiencing fuel prices in the range of 9, 10 a gallon for their fuel. Its not sustainable. It simply does not work. Its a huge burden and what ultimately can happen is you have families who say, we cant live here. We cant stay in a village, a region we have been in for a thousand years because the energy costs are driving them away. So they leave their villagings and they go to town, anchorage, fairbanks, but it really is not the right choice. I think our challenge should be to help them find those energy soluti solutions. This is where i think we in alaska can offer a great deal of opportunity. We have been innovative. Innovative because of necessity. We have a lot to share, we think, with the rest of the country, in terms of demonstr e demonstrating how we can how we can find Energy Solutions very locally. We have more microgrids and more to talk about in that microgrid space than anyone else in the anywhere else in the country. So i ask you to use that expertise. I think the department of energy has great opportunity to partner with communities and organizations not only in alaska, but around the country, to develop real solution, particularly with Renewable Energy that can help reduce our energy costs. Ive told you i think alaska can be that proving ground. We look at it and say, if youve got new technologies that make sense somewhere else we can pretty much guarantee that theyll make sense in alaska, and then were the beneficiary because we see the reduced costs. I want to see the department make a much greater effort to capitalize that in Going Forward. The second way the department can help alaska is bring our stranded natural gas to market. Last year, the department granted a conditional export license to the alaska gas line project. But we have to continue receiving good strong support and timely approvals from the federal government if the project is going to succeed. Finally, the department of energy can help alaska commercialize more of its vast resource base. The office of fossil energy has focused almost exclusively on the analysis of fuels in recent years but its mission is supposed to be considerably broader than that. A renewed focus on methane hydrates and other resources could lead to new breakthroughs and boost our Nations Energy security along into the future. I do think it is important to recognize this committee, which has a reputation of working collaboratively in a good bipartisan way, senator cantwell and i, along with our colleagues have been able to move the ball forward on some very Important Energy issues. Weve been able to do that in part with the department of energy because weve had a good relationship, positive relationship with the current secretary of energy, ernie moniece. I think he has done well as secretary. While i didnt always agree with him, it was a working relationship that was solid and there was good respect. I hope in that respect you will follow his lead there, working with us, making yourself available to us, whether to testify here, to just keep in contact, stay in touch, generally be responsive to our members here. If you can do that, i think youll be on the right track and well Work Together as we seek to maintain Americas Energy leadership. I thank you for being here this morning and your willingness to serve and i now turn to Ranking Member cantwell. Thank you, madam chair. Welcome, governor perry, welcome to your family. Congratulations on your nomination. In case you may have forgotten, you once called for the aboli abolishment of this agency. I suspect that now, having had a chance to learn about the of this department you have a very different opinion. The department, as the chair just pointed out, plays an essential role in protecting our National Security, economic security, Energy Security and Environmental Security and its wide ranging Mission Impacts almost every aspect of our lives. The department of energy is a science and technology pow powerhouse and unrivaled as network of laboratories and certainly helping us with our u. S. Manufacturing base stay competitive. The department of energy has helped make the United States a world leader in clean energy and energy officialsy technology and there are now more people working in installing solar panels in the country than working in coal and gas extraction. We have maintained the Nuclear Deterrent and led Science Technology development and managed Nuclear Weapons complex such as hanned for and help us win world war ii and the cold w war. So it is very important we talk today about our steadfast determination on cleanup and ill get to more. The National Security to evolve the department of energy has to evolve as the quadrant review was done by the Obama Administration, secretary moniece, cybersecurity and Emergency Responses are critical just as the advanced Research Agency helped us in the internet it is time now to help us in the wired economy of the future and making sure it is well prote protected. It will be the job of the next Energy Secretary to be a good overseer of these enterprises, to maintain the achievements of the past 40 years and help the u. S. In its increasing competitive global marketplace on Energy Technologies and protect against growing threats of cyber securities. Leading our National Labs is going to be a critical aspect of this leadership and leading the r d is paramount. It is our job today to consider how well you will do that job. So like many of my colleagues, i am deeply concerned the things you have said in the past about Climate Science, and we will get into that in more detail. I believe Climate Change is real an happening now and due to human activity. Nasa revealed yesterday that 2016 was the warmest on record. In the arctic where warming is happening than any place on earth, the melting of sea ice is at an all time high. How do we know all of this . Because the department of energy does the research. We want to make sure the Climate Science in the arctic is not just something the department of energy in its National Laboratories and University Partners are doing but that people understand its not just an economic pursuit but we need the information for persistent decisi decisions. The nature and pace have serious impacts on the department of defense and investments and infrastructure we need to stand up in the arctic. We are i know my chair would agree with this, we are an arctic nation. That means that this part of the world is going to be covet eed many nations. Its shipping lanes, its trade routes, its defense issues are going to be central. As senator murkowski could also tell you the implication for arctic communities and their way of life is also impacted. In my state alone, our fisheries industry and the shellfish industry were almost devastated by ocean acidification. So the department of energys scientific horsepower is key to understanding these trends, so i hope you can understand there is widespread anxiety about president elect trumps intention to dismantle Scientific Capabilities or simply just starve these resources. We hope that you, governor perry, will be someone who understands and believes in the Science Mission of this agency and will lead it to the best of your abilities. Mission innovation, which is the priority of this agency and continuing to move forward on Renewable Energy is also critically important. Almost 2 million americans work in Energy Efficiency alone dr e driving double digit savings to consumers by these advancements. Our quad rant review estimates we need 1. 5 million new energy jobs by 2030, which will be grid modernization and clean energy related. So what we have seen through the innovation that has happened through sandia, inrel, lawrence, berkeley, many private sector individuals the cost of so lore has dropped 64 since 2008 which caused solar energy to lead all new forms of energy and installation in the u. S. We have seen energy fish sin buildings give back billions to consumers in savings. More than 115,000 electric vehicles were sold in 2016 doubling the amount of 2012. And the doubling of the dervs office helped bring down the cost of Better Research on battery technology. All of these innovations rely on important investments made by the department of energy and the labs that support them. The choice before us, in my opinion, governor perry, is pretty clear. The Trump Administration can either cling to the fossil fuel industry in the past or lead innovations that will be the lead technologies in the world and put the u. S. At a clear leadership position. I hope you will understand these missions are so important. Along with that is also the mission of Nuclear Waste cleanup, which is between 10 and 15 of the agencys budget. The science and technology that underpins our ability to clean up here is critically important, as well as protect us against nonproliferation. As i mentioned earlier, the annual review could not be more clear on the urgency of cybersecurity. In light of recent relvations about russian hacking, the secretary of energy needs to take very seriously the threats to this nation in our electricity grid. We are becoming more and more and more a wired economy. My constituents spend night and days developing new technolo technologies. They deserve a president and an Energy Secretary who are going to take the threats of russian hacking seriously and defend us against them. I hope that we can go into more detail and questions about this. But i want to make sure that you understand that the past Energy Secretary is leaving you with a road map for cybersecurity. I hope you will take it and provide the leadership that our nation needs to stop our vulnerabilities against something so important as protecting the innovation economy of the future for incessant attacks by foreign entities. With that and on behalf of the 15,000 washington workers that work at han ford and pnl labs, i hope you will take what we said here about science and innovation and investment very seriously. I look forward to asking you questions and again, congratulations on being nominated for this persistent agency. Thank you. Thank you, senator cantwell. At this time, we will ask senator cornyn to provide his introduction of the nominee, and when senator cornyn has completed his comments well turn to you, senator manchin, and then we will proceed to hear from governor perry. Welcome, senator cornyn. Thank you, chairman murkowski and Ranking Member cantwell and colleagues, thank you for holding this hearing to consider the nomination of my friend, governor rick perry, to be secretary of the department of energy and to provide me the opportunity of introducing him. I want to also introduce his wife, anita, who is here today. He has is extended family including some of his adopted family with him today. I will let him introduce the rest of them. I got to know my wife, sandy and i got to know them when we were running for office in 1990. Its been a few years now. Rick had already served in the air force and legislature before being elected agricultural commissioner in texas, i got elected to the Texas Supreme Court the same year. And then rick assumed the office of governor of the state of texas becoming, as noted, the longest serving governor in our state, serving in Public Office alongside someone that long gives you a chance to assess their character and abilities. Im here to say i know governor perry to be a tremendous leader of the highest caliber and dedicated Public Servant committed