Editor's Note: Serious Materials CEO Kevin Surace addressed the U.S. House of Representatives' Democratic Caucus this morning at their annual issues conference and job summit. Saying that the next industrial revolution is dawning, Surace urged lawmakers to foster U.S. leadership of the new economy, outlined challenges and opportunities, and talked about what his firm doing to meet them.

He also disclosed that his company is participating in the energy efficiency overhaul of the Empire State Building. Serious Materials plans to transform the glass in all 6,500 windows of the historic building and convert them into super-insulated, high performance energy efficient windows. Surace's speech, which is posted on the Serious Materials blog, is reprinted here with permission.

Good Morning. I want to thank Chairman Larson, Madam Speaker, Anna Eshoo and all our California representatives, and all of you for the opportunity to be here with you today. It's an honor to have a chance to share some thoughts on re-energizing America through energy efficiency, job creation and economic growth.

I'm just one Silicon Valley CEO among many who are proud of our president, and enormously grateful for the courage shown by the Democratic Party for the leadership you have already shown on these issues. And your leadership will be needed again in 2010 to lay the groundwork to kickstart America onto a path of long-term prosperity and growth. My employees thank you, my kids thank you, and I thank you, from the bottom of my heart.

In the last few years, we have learned a lot about climate change, CO2, and environmental issues. But I am not here to talk about those today and, science aside; they will likely remain difficult political issues for the foreseeable future.

But energy efficiency is a whole different ballgame.

Everyone likes to save money. And every member of Congress wants to save their constituents money. When a private sector entrepreneur like me runs the numbers on energy efficiency, it turns out there are a lot of people who can be quickly employed, and there is a lot of money to be saved by Americans. Every dollar saved by a homeowner who does a retrofit is as good as a long-term tax cut. Every dollar saved by a small business (or large) is as good as a long-term tax cut.

Right now, today, we have technologies that only a few years ago made no sense, yet today have fast paybacks. This transcends red and blue, and is as purple as it gets.

Helping Small Business Helps the Economy in a Big Way

The venture community has already figured out that the low hanging fruit is energy efficiency.

Small business, the backbone of our economy, is stepping up to the challenge, creating products and services that will literally change the landscape of this country and economy. We must all thank small business entrepreneurs in America. They take the risks, employ the most people, and are making change the fastest.

The most purple thing we can do is help small businesses create jobs. Small business is the heart of America, everyone in this room knows that, and I'm almost certain you've all said it to your constituents; it cuts across urban and rural, progressive and conservative, young and old. Small business is the engine of job creation. So please, let's create those jobs.

I grew up in upstate New York, near Syracuse in the ’60s and early ‘70s. The first time I ever heard anything about energy efficiency was of course the 1973 Oil Embargo. I was in fourth grade and this became the topic everyone was talking about. We learned about the three-color flag system, odd/even days, reduced highway speeds, year-round daylight savings time, CAFÉ standards and the Weatherization Assistance Program. We turned off lights and wore sweaters. The government funded research in solar, wind, buildings and windows. And we educated our citizens on the value of conservation. Simply put, this country responded to the emergency as a nation, together.

By the 1980s, however, all was forgotten. While some of the government programs remained, all of us went back to our wasteful ways. Energy was cheap after all, and would likely stay that way. The Cold War was ending, the Middle East loved selling us oil, and coal was homegrown and really cheap. So let's face it, we lived it up for the better part of 30 years, and forgot all we had learned.

And while we lived it up, we began to lose jobs and lose our manufacturing base. After World War II, America manufactured nearly 50 percent of the world's goods. The whole world came to us to buy everything from elevators to tractors to electronics to pipes.

America: Wake Up!

This really hit home recently as I was touring the mechanical rooms of the Willis Towers (formerly Sears Tower) in Chicago. The tower is soon to undergo a huge energy retrofit, and the owners have looked at everything in the building, every way they can reduce energy consumption. So, of course all the chillers, motors, pumps, and heating systems are up for replacement.

In walking through these floors, I noticed that every piece of equipment had been made in America. All made in 1972, when they were installed. GE, Westinghouse and a host of other names ... all proudly stamped Made in America. The steel beams and some large equipment I am not sure anyone can identify: Still, all made here. We invented it, we made it, and we installed it, right here by our American workers. God, that made me proud.

However, just a short time later I had to swallow some of that pride. Listening to the owners as they were looking to buy new equipment to replace the older machines, they tried to find American-made replacements. However in most cases, they simply weren't available any longer. That is not a choice. And these building owners are very proudly American. But it doesn't matter. While we invented all those technologies, from big iron to big motors, we just don't make any of it here any longer.

In fact, while the world came to our door in 1950 to buy nearly everything, today we make less than 25 percent of the world's goods, and that is heading south, or should I say east, really quickly. When the latest statistics come out, we may be heading under 20 percent. And American manufacturing jobs lost the last few years may never come back. Companies from China and other countries simply have taken over.

This has caused huge ripples in our economy; including a jobless class of citizens, large trade imbalances and a soaring $12 trillion  debt.

Invent, Manufacture, Install

And how will we pay back that debt if no one buys anything from us? One of the fastest growing exports in the last decade was financial services. Do you think anyone wants our financial services any longer? I don't think so.

To pay back this debt, and create long term growth, we have to get back to core values in this country. Simply stated; invent, manufacture, install.

We are at a unique crossroads now as we head into 2010. We have the realization that we must conserve energy. Not just to address climate change, but to save money and create jobs. We're back to 1973, on the brink of crisis. Back then, it was forced on us; this time it is our choice. We can do nothing and wait until crisis truly forces our hand again. Or we can do everything to prevent it and come out on top creating jobs and a strong domestic economy.

As (Energy) Secretary (Steven) Chu and (Pulitzer Prize-winning author and New York Time columnist) Tom Friedman reminded us, China is charging ahead with new, clean technologies. They have a national directive to lead the world in energy and efficiency technologies. China missed the Industrial Revolution by more than 100 years. They missed the IT revolution by two decades. But they will not miss this next Industrial Revolution -- the energy economy.

Why? China cannot keep up with its own energy needs, so they're innovating, and manufacturing. And if they lead the world in this, as they have committed to do, we will be buying everything from them for the next 100 years. Let's not wait until it is too late. America: Wake up.

As a country, we have the opportunity to lead the world in energy efficiency and new technologies. Our buildings alone consume 40 percent of our nation's energy, much of that going right out the window. While most of you may think a dual pane window is energy efficient. Think again.

Dual pane windows were invented back in 1865. So in 1870, they were truly best of class. But I am thinking, 140 years later and we call that energy efficient?