2026 Congressional Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency EXPO: Rep. Dave Min (D-Calif.)

And uh first I just want to start off by thanking the bipartisan House and Senate Renewable Energy and Efficiency Energy Efficiency Caucuses for serving as honorary co-hosts, uh as well as the EESI for not just the panel you're hosting today and the programming, but all the work you're doing in trying to push through on uh clean energy moving forward. And um I know that particularly right now it feels like energy issues are stuck, that we're not making any progress, and that in fact we are losing out to the Chinese right now. And I've talked to uh many companies and stakeholders in my district in Orange County, and I represent uh and maybe not the the headquarters of a lot of folks, but we do have a a pretty big footprint of renewable energy, uh of solar, of batteries, uh and and everyone I talk to uh believes that um the tax credits, the decisions to to reverse some of the things in the IRA have hurt us in our competitiveness vis-à-vis China. Uh but at the same time, looking ahead to where we can try to build and move forward, I do think there's some encouraging developments from my perspective. Uh and I should say as a freshman member of Congress, my perspective uh I I'll just add the caveat, you get what you pay for here, which is nothing. Um but I I I do just want to point out that uh I I think there's very clear bipartisan consensus that we need more energy. And I know that the other side of the aisle, I'm a Democrat, but I know the other side of the aisle has talked a lot about an all-of-the-above approach. Uh but if we truly want to have an all-of-the-above approach, it does mean that we need to re-emphasize clean energy. For a lot of reasons. One, that's where the job growth of the future's going to be. And it if if you don't believe that, obviously you look at what China, Germany, and other countries around the world are doing. Uh they see this as both a national security issue, uh but really also an economic security issue. Uh how do you have an abundance of energy? Uh and at this point I do think the economics are clear. Uh clean energy is if not cheaper already than oil and gas, uh is going to be very soon with the innovations that continue to compound in efficiency of solar and wind of battery technology. We are I think at that point where and it's faster than I think a lot of us thought was going to happen. But but that is something that we can see clearly see happening and I think as I said yesterday at the seek panel, five years ago you would not have imagined have imagined this happening anytime soon. But it may be the case that we don't necessarily need tax credits at this point to make projects pencil out. We may need tax credits to be competitive with the Chinese, but from the perspective of individual homeowners, of renters, I I think the economics are there to try to invest in energy efficiency, but also in new renewables. So I think that's one point of consensus that we need more energy and if we're thinking without our partisan blinders on, I think clean energy has to be a big part of that for a lot of reasons. I think the proliferation of data centers and this is something that really was not on I think anybody's radar back in 2024, but which is quickly becoming a central political issue. That is also something that I think is going to drive demand for energy moving forward. So you know, these are all I think things we can build upon as we try to transition towards how we can advance our energy priorities. I should add that um before getting into politics, I was a banking law professor at UC Irvine. Once upon a time, I was at the Center for American Progress here in Washington working on their housing finance agenda, GSE reform package. I led that a bipartisan effort to try to create a plan on what to do with the GSEs. And I actually think there's a ton of potential here if we follow the advice of Rod Tidwell from the movie Jerry Maguire, show me the money. If we look at funding mechanisms and I was just talking to someone earlier today about this, getting solar panels, I just decided last year uh I would try to get so additional solar panels. We got a second electric car last year. Uh you know, we are using more energy cuz I got three young kids who are now teenagers and uh they are using a lot more energy, using a lot more devices. Uh so, we decided to get additional solar panels and a battery. And we got that in like on 12/29 right before the tax credits expired, got that 30% off uh the rebate. Um but, we had to put like $30,000 for that. Uh there's not a lot of families in America that can do that. Uh but, this is a this is a no-brainer. I mean, when before we Iran war, we did the math and it penciled out after maybe 9, 10 years, we break even. And after that, everything would be net positive. With the Iran war, it's maybe more like 5 or 6 years and you know, if assuming that these types of uh increased oil and gas prices continue, uh my neighbors are paying something like $400 in monthly electric bills. Uh that is outrageous, but that is it it again, assuming it comes down a little bit, but not all the way, uh the economics of this all pencil out. So, I think there's a lot of potential in thinking about ways that we can use things like mortgage finance. Uh why is it the case that we can't use have home equity loans for solar panels, for batteries, for things like that? That may not need a rebate and if you think about the math and I think someone pointed this out at the SEEK panel I was at yesterday, if you lower your utility prices by $50 a month and the increase in your mortgage is maybe $10 a month, uh on a monthly basis, that really pencils out. So, thinking about innovative ways to maybe use the GSEs or private mortgage finance uh might make some sense. Thinking about insurance. Uh the other piece of this is um whether it's um traditional uh property casualty insurance, uh a lot of households across America now are facing an insurability problem. And it certainly in my district in California because of the proliferation of wildfire risk, uh more and more insurers have exited the California market. It's made it harder and harder for those of us who own homes to get insurance. Uh why is it the case that we are not rethinking our insurance models and reinsurance models uh to account for mitigation efforts. Why is it the case that we're not using federal financing mechanisms to think about ways to promote and incentivize energy efficiency which lowers homeowner costs, which makes homeowners less likely to default on their mortgages. This is a win-win-win for everybody. So, I think these are the types of things that we need to be thinking about as we think about the clean energy portfolio, particularly as it relates to the residential space. Obviously, there's a lot we also can do on energy efficiency standards, including not reversing those standards going forward. But, these are standards energy efficiency technologies have saved Americans $800 billion in energy costs every year. Continuing to try to promote energy efficiency while also promoting more renewables, I think will drive down the cost curve for households and businesses as far as energy. And maybe allow for accommodation. There may be a deal to be struck with the AI driven data centers. I know in talking with some of my colleagues that AI is very open to cutting deals on creating new energy, putting more electric transmission on the grid if they're allowed to have more data centers. And this is obviously going to be a hot button issue. And I don't know where we're going to end up falling on this, but but I think there is a consensus that we need more energy and that there are people out there that were willing to potentially pay a premium for that. So, I think there's a lot of options. I don't know what that means moving forward. Obviously, my party's in the minority right now, but I do think we need to be prepared for with some real answers on how we're going to drive down costs in 2027 and beyond. And I do think a big part of that lies with the work you all are doing in trying to get more clean energy on the grid. So, with that, thank you very much for having me and appreciate >> Thank you. I think you might have time for a question. Is that true? Is there If there's a question Oh, we do have a question in the audience. Megan, would you please bring the mic back? Thank you. >> Thanks. >> Hi, my name is Arjun Mishra. I'm with Menlo Group Strategies. So, you make a really good point about how there is a really urgent short-term need for more energy. We have the competitiveness angle against China and we also have the affordability lens. More is better, but a lot of the previous talkers here have been mentioning permitting as a massive issue and barrier for more renewable energy to come onto the grid. Um obviously, this is all within a time crunch. If we want to be able to, you know, go about and talk about that China lens, we need to build this quickly and that's why a lot of people and experts are talking about the proliferation of natural gas in regard to that. The thing about that is that infrastructure lasts. If we build that infrastructure, we're not just going to get rid of it in 10 years after we have the proliferation of new energy, despite the fact that we're going to keep on building more data centers that will use it. But, we're going to have to still use that natural that natural gas because, I mean, there're going to be economies that are reliant on it. What do you think that we can do in the short term, in the next 1 to 2 years in legislative cycles that can sort of tackle that issue while, you know, meeting this time crunch, but also addressing these needs of, you know, we're dealing with a climate change issue and we're dealing with a portability issue. >> That's a really great question and it actually fits in nicely to build that I should have mentioned I did I authored when I was in the state Senate in California. Uh that was SB 1221. It was a first-in-the-nation type bill. We worked closely with the IOU's and others to develop a framework for them to phase out aging natural gas infrastructure on a pilot basis and they could we we could allow up to 25 pilots in the first few years where utility companies that determine that it was cheaper to just move to all electric could transition out of their natural gas infrastructure if they had a majority of the homeowners in in or owners in a particular neighborhood agree to do that, right? And and so they could get out of their duty to serve obligations and move to all electric. And as part of that, you know, if you pencil out the math on this, replacing the natural gas infrastructure that's aging is very very costly. And in talking with the IOUs, what we learned is that it would actually be cheaper for them to give free electric appliances to everybody in those neighborhoods and move in everybody to an all electric framework than to replace the natural gas infrastructure. So this is like a a virtuous circle potentially and I think that we're hoping that that will be a proof of concept for IOUs around the nation to do this because it is very expensive and and yes, the IOUs are guaranteed a rate of return, but at the end of the day, homeowners just want to pay less, right? And and as we think ahead 5 years, 10 years, 20 years, natural gas is going to cost a lot more than electric. And so we should be trying to phase people over to electric as quickly as possible. And so whether it's SB 1221 or other frameworks, we have to think about how we do a managed transition so we're still providing the energy that we need in the short term while moving over to the cheaper forms of energy in the longer run. Thank you very much. >> Thank you so much. Appreciate it. >> Really great to see you. >> Likewise, thank you. >> Thank you, Representative Irwin.