SCHUMER, GILLIBRAND URGE DEPT. OF ENERGY TO AWARD $70M TO ROCHESTER INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY TO LEAD NEW CLEAN ENERGY MANUFACTURING INSTITUTE; SENATORS SAY RIT IS UNIQUELY SUITED TO HEAD PROJECT FOCUSED ON SPURRING INNOVATION & CREATING CLEAN, HIGH-TECH JOBS
RIT-Led Sustainable Manufacturing Innovation Alliance Is Poised To Develop New, Critical, Environmentally Sustainable Technologies In Order To Reduce Waste & Emissions In Manufacturing Industry
Project Aims To Deliver 50% Increase in US Manufacturing Sales and Spur The Next-Generation Recycling and Manufacturing Workforce – Senators Urge DOE To Award Critical $70M To Make Institute A Reality
Schumer, Gillibrand to DOE: As A Center Of Clean Energy Technology and Manufacturing Innovation, RIT Is A Natural Home For The New Institute
U.S. Senators Charles E. Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand today urged the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) to select a national consortium led by the Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) as its new Clean Energy Manufacturing Innovation Institute (CEMII) site. In a letter to Secretary of Energy Ernest Moniz, Schumer and Gillibrand said that RIT is uniquely suited to serve as the new home of the CEMII and the Reducing Embodied-Energy and Decreasing Emissions (REMADE) in Materials Manufacturing (REMADE) center. The REMADE project would provide the RIT-led consortium with $70 million in federal funding over five years, that will be matched 1:1. Schumer and Gillibrand said the combined $140 million investment would allow RIT to help pioneer the kinds of solutions that would improve the U.S. manufacturing industry by reducing net-energy costs, waste materials and emissions, as well as help grow new, clean tech and clean energy jobs.
“RIT is leading the country and the world in revolutionizing the manufacturing sector. As a global center of clean energy technology and business innovation, Rochester is uniquely qualified to host the Department of Energy’s next Clean Energy Manufacturing Innovation Institute,” said Senator Schumer. “This project would bring a wealth of resources to Upstate New York and spur the type of clean energy innovation we need to energize American manufacturing, create jobs and grow middle-class incomes. No institution is better prepared to take on such a critical task than RIT, and I am committed to keeping up the fight on behalf of this proposal and to bringing this funding home to Rochester.”
“The Rochester Institute of Technology is one of the most innovative institutions in the country and an ideal place for this significant federal investment,” said Senator Gillibrand a member of the Environment and Public Works Committee. “RIT is leading the way in energy research, and these federal funds would give RIT tools and support to continue its groundbreaking research. The new Clean Energy Manufacturing Innovation Institute site would help create a sustainable, clean energy sector in New York that drives our manufacturing industry.”
The RIT-led consortium – the Sustainable Manufacturing Innovation Alliance (SMIA) – consists of more than one hundred research universities, national laboratories, and industrial partners. The project aims to increase sales for the U.S. manufacturing industry by 50 percent, to $21.5 billion, while also creating a next-generation recycling and manufacturing workforce in New York and across the country. Schumer and Gillibrand said bringing this hub of clean energy innovation to New York State would allow the consortium to leverage existing capabilities in New York and across the nation to create new clean tech opportunities to help U.S. manufacturers expand and compete.
Schumer and Gillibrand pointed to RIT’s Golisano Institute of Sustainability (GIS) as evidence of its long track record of transferring new innovations from the laboratory into the marketplace, where they are now being applied to manufacturing and efficiency challenges across the country. They said that RIT is particularly well positioned to deploy critical new technologies due to its large network of industrial partners. These manufacturers will dramatically reduce their energy consumption and carbon emissions as a result of the new institute’s work on reusing, recycling, and remanufacturing industrial materials. The Senators argued these advances will address a major national challenge in combating greenhouse gas emissions while boosting American manufacturers’ competitiveness on a global scale.
In 2014, Schumer and Gillibrand sponsored the Revitalize American Manufacturing and Innovation Act. This legislation established the National Network of Manufacturing and Innovation, publicly known as Manufacturing USA. This network joins public and private funding to accelerate manufacturing innovation and revitalize critical industrial centers, including those across Upstate New York. The network has established or announced nine manufacturing innovation institutes and plans to establish six additional institutes by 2017.
A copy of Senator Schumer and Senator Gillibrand’s initial letter to the Secretary of Energy appears below:
Dear Secretary Moniz,
We are pleased to write in support of the application submitted by a Rochester Institute of Technology-led (RIT) national consortium, the Sustainable Manufacturing Innovation Alliance, to establish the U.S. Department of Energy’s next national manufacturing institute: the Clean Energy Manufacturing Innovation Institute (CEMII) for Reducing Embodied-Energy and Decreasing Emissions (REMADE) in Materials Manufacturing. RIT has long been a recognized global leader for its work in fostering and developing new manufacturing methods and practices that help industry make products more efficiently and more sustainably while using less energy.
As global competition and resource scarcity increases, U.S. manufacturers will look for new solutions to help them reduce the cost of raw materials, energy, water, and more by becoming more efficient and sustainable. The mission of the REMADE institute is to not only pioneer these solutions to make U.S. manufacturing better by reducing net-energy costs and reducing costly manufacturing waste materials and emissions, but to also grow new clean tech and clean energy industry and jobs.
RIT is uniquely suited to lead this institute and achieve its mission. RIT has a strong demonstrated track record of working with industry, military, government, and others to deliver results and savings by innovating new sustainable manufacturing methods. Spearheaded through its Golisano Institute of Sustainability (GIS), RIT has shown it can transfer research out of its labs and classrooms and apply it in real-life industrial manufacturing plants, many of which are producing more sustainable products today thanks to RIT’s work.
RIT, together with the more than one hundred research universities, national labs, and industrial partners like Xerox and Caterpillar that make up the Sustainable Manufacturing Innovation Alliance (SMIA) are positioned to develop new technologies that when employed by Institute members during its first five years of operations can achieve new manufacturing efficiencies by reducing manufacturing material waste, increasing remanufacturing applications, and boosting material recycling. The aim will be a 50% increase in sales for the U.S. manufacturing industry to $21.5 billion and the creation of a next-generation recycling and manufacturing workforce.
Based in New York State, the Institute HUB led by RIT through the SMIA can best leverage existing capabilities in New York and across the nation to create new clean energy and clean tech opportunities to help our U.S. manufacturers expand and compete.
Again, we strongly support this application and appreciate your consideration. Manufacturing is the backbone of our economy and we thank you in advance for your work and leadership to help it grow.
Sincerely,
Charles E. Schumer
United States Senator
Kirsten Gillibrand
United States Senator
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