“Welcome to the National Clean Energy Summit 4.0. I am pleased to be hosting this important event in Nevada again.

Thanks to new cohosts, the Clean Energy Project and MGM Resorts International, owner of today’s venue, the beautiful Aria Hotel.

Aria is part of City Center, the largest LEED Gold certified development in the world.

While I’m sure you noticed the luxury of this premier resort, what you may not have noticed were the efforts to save electricity, water and waste going on all around you all the time.

Last year alone, the environmentally conscious touches throughout Aria and MGM’s 14 other properties across the country saved:

• 140 million kilowatt hours of electricity
• 33 percent of the company’s waste
• 56,000 metric tons of carbon emissions and
• 200 million gallons of water

And MGM did it without most guests even noticing.

Las Vegas companies like MGM are not only leading the way in the service industry, but also setting an example for how to be good stewards of the environment.

Today thanks also go to our veteran sponsors, the Center for American Progress and the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, for their continued support.

UNLV has been a leader in clean energy research and development for decades. The University has showed the world not only how rich Southern Nevada’s solar resources are, but how best to unlock them.

For years, the solar arrays on Flamingo Road have been a signal that important work is going on here in Las Vegas.

Without UNLV’s leadership in the field and the work of their Center for Energy Research and the Solar Solutions Center, this event might not be possible.

Over the last three years, this summit has brought together the investors, innovators and policy makers who are moving our clean energy industry forward.

Today those leaders are joined once again by environmentalists, engaged citizens and students to talk about what we can do together to ensure this industry continues to grow and create good jobs for American workers.

Advanced energy technology – from new vehicles and smarter appliances to more efficient electric grids and cleaner power plants – have the power to change the way we live for the better.

It offers us a pathway to a more secure and independent America – one that isn’t dependent on oil from unstable regions of the world but rather embraces the American spirit of innovation.

It offers manufacturing and construction workers who have struggled to find jobs during these tough economic times a chance to get back to work building solar panels, transmission grids and high-speed trains.

This summit gives each of us a glimpse of our clean energy future.

It will also help us see why we need to build on our clean energy achievements, not surrender our leadership to other countries who have also made clean energy a top priority.

Today’s tradeshow curiosities will become the tools and gadgets we can’t live without tomorrow.

In fact, many of the technologies we have seen previewed during the last three National Clean Energy Summits have already changed the way we live. They have brought us cleaner air, given us more control over how we use energy and stabilized our energy bills – all while creating new jobs.

For all of us here today, the Future of Energy is now.

Some of the greatest minds of the industry are here to tell us why.

We’ll hear from Vice President Joe Biden. He’ll talk about several Nevada projects that are leading the way to a new energy frontier, and what the Administration is doing to ensure companies nationwide are following their footsteps to remain competitive.

Western governors and public policy leaders will explain what we can do at the regional level to advance clean energy development and secure the future of this industry.

Business leaders will tell us why clean energy innovation isn’t just good for the earth – it’s also good for our wallets. And that’s true whether you’re a consumer or a giant corporation.

Ray Mabus, secretary of the Navy, will discuss how clean energy can keep us safe by reducing our reliance on foreign oil. In addition to being the finest naval fighting force on earth, the U.S. Navy is doing its part to protect this nation by reducing its own use of fossil fuels while pioneering the next generation of biofuels.

And Energy Secretary Steven Chu will describe how the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act not only created and saved more than a million American jobs, but also spurred innovation in the energy technology field.

In Nevada alone, the department of energy invested over $1.7 billion through grants and assistance with financing to sustain the rapid growth of the clean energy economy despite a harsh economic downturn.

Secretary Chu will also tell us why it is crucial we build on this progress and continue breaking ground on technologies that will improve consumers’ lives and save them money at the same time.

Secretary Chu, the recipient of the 1997 Nobel Prize for Physics, knows what it takes to spur innovation. He holds 10 patents and has published more than 250 scientific and technical papers.

Before he was appointed to head the Department of Energy, he was director of the Lawrence Berkeley National Lab, where he led some of the nation’s brightest scientists in their pursuit of new renewable energy technologies.

Throughout his career, he has been a leader in the search for solutions to climate change and our global energy challenges.

While serving in the Obama Administration, he has made investment in clean energy a priority not only because it reduces our nation’s dependence on foreign oil and helps address climate change, but because it is the best way to create good-paying jobs that can never be shipped overseas.

And since his day job evidently doesn’t keep him busy enough, Secretary Chu also recently published scientific work on general relativity and single molecule biology and biophysics. In this crowd, I bet a few of you even know what that means.

It is my pleasure to introduce the Secretary of Energy Steven Chu.”

Washington, D.C.– Nevada Senator Harry Reid made the following remarks today on the Senate floor on Democrats’ efforts to cut the deficit and avert a default crisis. Below are his remarks as prepared for delivery:

There are some in the Republican Party who will not listen to the truth no matter who speaks it.

This is my opinion: if we allow this nation for the first time in its history to default on our national obligations, it will be not only a black mark on our reputation but also a massive financial disaster that will sweep the world into global depression.

But it is not my opinion alone. I have come to that belief by listening to the most respected voices in the business community. Default, they say, is a “risk our country must not take.”

And they’re not the only ones who believe that’s true.

The most respected bankers have also said it. JP Morgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon said default would be “catastrophic.”

Investors have said it. Bill Gross, one of the world’s largest mutual fund managers, sent us a warning yesterday. He said “There should be no question at all. The debt ceiling must be raised and not be held hostage by budget negotiations. Don’t mess with the debt ceiling, Washington.”

Economists have also said it. Ben Bernanke, appointed by President Bush as chairman of the Federal Reserve, has said default would be a “major crisis” that would send “shockwaves” through the world financial markets. And yesterday he said failure to avert default would mean “huge financial calamity.”

Even other Republicans have said it. This is what Speaker Boehner said in April: “Not raising the debt limit would have serious – very serious – implications for the worldwide economy and jobs here in America.”

And – perhaps most telling of all – all three credit rating agencies have already sent warning shots across our bow.

Last night Moody’s cautioned us that America’s AAA rating was already under review for downgrade – with three weeks left until we miss our first payment. They cited the “rising possibility” that we will default. And they said that we could lose this crucial rating – which saves every American money every day – even before we miss a payment.

Standard & Poor’s has told Congress and business leaders that even if the U.S. keeps paying creditors, but delays Social Security checks or veterans benefits, it may cut our rating.

And Fitch Ratings has said a default would “threaten the still fragile financial stability in the US and the world as a whole.”

So why are some Republicans in Congress still saying that a first-ever default on our nation’s financial obligations would be no big deal?

When every financial expert, investor, business leader and banker in the country – and even every reasonable member of your own political party – is telling you the consequence of default would be catastrophe, it’s time to start listening.

Why? Because default won’t just roil the financial markets, push interest rates higher and tank the stock markets. It will affect every American’s wallet as well. Here is what will happen.

Social Security checks and veterans benefits and paychecks to our troops would stop. Some of the most vulnerable Americans would be placed at risk. Our promise to the men and women who protected this nation so bravely – and those who protect it today – would be broken.

Payments on our national debt would stop. American investments and retirement accounts could be decimated. Millions of Americans could lose their jobs.

Interest rates would rise, not only for the government, but for ordinary Americans as well. Those Americans will pay more for their mortgages. They will pay more to use a credit card or buy a car or finance a university education.

They’ll even pay more for their electric bills, groceries and gas. The spike in interest rates and the damage to the U.S. dollar alone could cost the average American family more than $1,500.

It would be the most serious financial crisis this country has ever faced. And it would come at a time when our economy can least afford it.

And in the long run, it would wind up costing the government trillions – a fact Republicans shouting about the debt fail to mention. Every 1 percent increase in interest rates will cost the nation $1.3 trillion.

With so much at stake, even Speaker Boehner and Minority Leader McConnell seem to understand the seriousness of this situation. They’re willing to negotiate in good faith.

Meanwhile, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor has shown that he’s shouldn’t even be at the table. And Republicans agree.

One House Republican told Politico: “He lost a lot of credibility when he walked away from the table … It was childish.”

Another Republican said Cantor is putting himself first. He said this: “He’s all about Eric.”

The time for personal gain and political posturing is over. It’s time to put our economy and our country first.

The risks we face are simply too great. But don’t take my word for it. More than 300 respected business leaders wrote to Congress this week to make it clear how serious this crisis really is.

“A great nation — like a great company — has to be relied upon to pay its debts when they become due,” they said. “This is a Main Street not Wall Street issue.”

Democrats are listening. It’s time for the irresponsible voices in the Republican Party that continue to deny the truth of this crisis to start listening as well.

Washington, D.C.– Nevada Senator Harry Reid made the following remarks today on Democrats’ efforts to cut the deficit and avert a catastrophic default crisis. Below are his remarks as prepared for delivery:

Sometimes it can be hard to find common ground in Washington. But there is one thing on which Republicans and Democrats agree: it is absolutely necessary that Congress prevent a catastrophic default on the nation’s debt that would put our economy in grave danger.

I have said it. So have many of my Republican colleagues. And now the business community is shouting it.

This week, business leaders wrote to Congress and the White House to ask us, please, to put our differences aside and avert a default crisis before it’s too late. Literally hundreds of CEOs – including executives from some of the nation’s largest companies and most respected business groups – signed the letter.

“This is a risk our country must not take,” they wrote.

They said if we don’t reach a deal soon, the stock market will be in “disarray.” We all know we can’t afford that right now. Our economy is already struggling to stay on a course to recovery.

U.S. Chamber of Commerce President Tom Donahue, who signed the letter, also said this week that a default would have “dire consequences for our economy, our markets, and Main Street Americans.”

Business leaders are begging us to do the right thing, and do it quickly.

That’s why I was shocked to hear the Speaker of the House say yesterday that averting a default crisis was President Obama’s problem.

That’s not what he said a few months ago when he urged us to “deal with this like adults.” And it wasn’t what he said when President George W. Bush raised the debt ceiling seven times, increasing the limit by $4 trillion.

In fact, when the Speaker voted to increase the debt limit by nearly $1 trillion in 2003, he didn’t demand it be accompanied by massive spending cuts. Instead, a Republican Congress approved hundreds of billions of dollars in tax breaks for the wealthy. They were paid for with borrowed money and contributed to our massive debt.

Congress has raised the debt limit 89 times since it was created in 1939, two-thirds of those times under Republican presidents.

Ronald Reagan asked Congress to raise the limit 18 times, twice as many as any other president. Republicans never claimed then that the issue was the President’s problem alone.

For Republicans to claim now that the deficit is a problem only for the President or Democrats in Congress is just plain irresponsible.

It’s even more irresponsible considering Bush, with the help of Republicans in Congress, nearly doubled the debt while he was President. That’s more than any other president in history.

This problem belongs to all of us in Congress. And it will take all of us working together – political party aside – to make a deal possible.

Theodore Hesburgh, President of the University of Notre Dame for 35 years, said this about making difficult decisions: “You don’t make decisions because they are easy; you don’t make them because they are cheap; you don’t make them because they’re popular; you make them because they’re right.”

It is time for Republicans and Democrats to get together and do what’s right for this nation.

I am glad to hear that the Republican Leader has come forward with a backstop proposal to address the debt limit. I am still studying it and discussing it with Senators.

But I am heartened by what I read. This is a serious proposal. And I commend the Republican Leader for coming forward.

I believe that the Republican Leader’s proposal, combined with ideas he and I have been discussing to force a vote on deficit reduction proposals, could go a long way toward resolving the impasse in which we find ourselves.

In the meantime, this afternoon, Congressional Leadership will again meet with the President and his senior advisors to try to advance our discussions.

Democrats realize finding common ground isn’t always easy. If it were, we would have hammered out an agreement long ago. But reducing the deficit and getting our fiscal house in order is too important to quit when the going gets tough.

I am confident that we will find a way to get this done. We simply cannot allow our country for the first time in its history to fail to pay its bills. The risks to our economy are too great not to.

America’s business leaders put it this way: “Now is the time for our political leaders to put aside partisan differences and act in the nation’s best interests. It is time to pull together rather than pull apart.”

I urge my Republican colleagues to remember this: we are not opponents squaring off across the field. We are all on the same team, with the same goal in mind. But if the catcher doesn’t take the field, it doesn’t matter how good the pitcher’s fastball is. The team doesn’t stand a chance.

It’s time each and every one of us in Congress remembered that. In the words of American business leaders, “It’s time to pull together rather than pull apart.”