    [Senate Hearing 114-253]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]

                                                            S. Hrg. 114-253

                                BUSINESS MEETING

    =======================================================================

                                    MEETING

                                   before the

                                  COMMITTEE ON
                          ENVIRONMENT AND PUBLIC WORKS
                              UNITED STATES SENATE

                        ONE HUNDRED FOURTEENTH CONGRESS

                                 FIRST SESSION

                                   __________

                                JANUARY 21, 2015

                                   __________

      Printed for the use of the Committee on Environment and Public Works

    [GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]

           Available via the World Wide Web: http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys

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                   COMMITTEE ON ENVIRONMENT AND PUBLIC WORKS

                        ONE HUNDRED FOURTEENTH CONGRESS
                                 FIRST SESSION

                      JAMES M. INHOFE, Oklahoma, Chairman
    DAVID VITTER, Louisiana              BARBARA BOXER, California
    JOHN BARRASSO, Wyoming               THOMAS R. CARPER, Delaware
    SHELLEY MOORE CAPITO, West Virginia  BENJAMIN L. CARDIN, Maryland
    MIKE CRAPO, Idaho                    BERNARD SANDERS, Vermont
    JOHN BOOZMAN, Arkansas               SHELDON WHITEHOUSE, Rhode Island
    JEFF SESSIONS, Alabama               JEFF MERKLEY, Oregon
    ROGER WICKER, Mississippi            KIRSTEN GILLIBRAND, New York
    DEB FISCHER, Nebraska                CORY A. BOOKER, New Jersey
    MIKE ROUNDS, South Dakota            EDWARD J. MARKEY, Massachusetts
    DAN SULLIVAN, Alaska

                     Ryan Jackson, Majority Staff Director
                   Bettina Poirier, Democratic Staff Director

                                C O N T E N T S

                                  ----------
                                                                       Page

                                JANUARY 21, 2015
                               OPENING STATEMENTS

    Inhofe, Hon. James M., U.S. Senator from the State of Oklahoma...    21
    Boxer, Hon. Barbara, U.S. Senator from the State of California...    23

                                   LEGISLATION

    EPW Committee Resolution, Authorizing expenditures by the
      Committee on Environment and Public Works......................     4
    Text of the amendment by Senator Inhofe..........................    10
    Senate Committee Print, Rules Adopted February 14, 2013..........    13

                              ADDITIONAL MATERIAL

    Colloquy between Chairman Inhofe and Senator Boxer...............    27

                                BUSINESS MEETING

                                  ----------

                          WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 21, 2015

                                            U.S. Senate
                      Committee on Environment and Public Works
                                                        Washington, DC.
        Committee on Environment and Public Works Washington, DC.
        The full committee met, pursuant to notice, at 10:30 a.m.
    in room 406, Dirksen Senate Building, Hon. James Inhofe
    (chairman of the full committee) presiding.

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        Present: Senators Inhofe, Boxer, Barrasso, Capito, Crapo,
    Rounds, Sullivan, Wicker, Boozman, Whitehouse, Carper, Merkley,
    Booker, Merkley.
        Senator Boxer. Ladies and gentlemen of the committee, see
    this gavel? The last time it got transferred was 8 years ago
    and I had to fight Senator Inhofe for it. This time, I have to
    say, you and I are friends.
        Senator Inhofe. Of course.
        Senator Boxer. And if I was going to hand this gavel over
    to anyone, I am very happy that it is you.
        So I am going to hand that gavel to you, and when you
    recognize me I have some gifts for you, too.
        [Laughter.]
        Senator Inhofe. Oh, good. Well, let's do this. Let's start
    by bringing us to order. We will be in order. I will just go
    ahead and recognize you for your special awards.
        Senator Boxer. For the gift-giving, OK.
        Senator Inhofe. By the way, I remember the statement that
    she said that got everyone's attention was that elections have
    consequences, and I have the gavel.
        Senator Boxer. That is right.
        Senator Inhofe. Now, I have a picture of that that she
    presented to me, and it looks like you are just about to hit me
    with it.
        [Laughter.]
        Senator Boxer. Well, I have no intention of doing that. But
    I am glad you reminded everyone that I gleefully said when I
    got that gavel, elections have consequences. I was gleeful,
    today I am not so gleeful. But elections have consequences.
        So my first gift is this tee-shirt that says, Elections
    Have Consequences.
        [Laughter.]
        Senator Inhofe. That is great.
        Senator Boxer. That is my first gift.
        Now, Jim, I think everybody knows that we work well
    together. Everybody knows that we work well together on
    highways, infrastructure, and on a few other things. A few. But
    I wanted to say how much I look forward to working with you on
    the highway bill. Here is something for your grandkids.
        This truck symbolizes the jobs that we will create when we
    work successfully, 3 million. And 600,000 construction workers
    are still out of work since the recession. This is for you for
    your grandkids.
        And now we get a little more controversial. This is a very
    clean car. It is a Prius. And I don't know that it is your
    favorite model, but as we build our roads, we want to make sure
    we don't dirty the air.
        Senator Inhofe. And that is why I am using CNG in my car.
        Senator Boxer. Oh, all right. I am so proud of you.
        Senator Inhofe. Which is now in Oklahoma more expensive
    than regular gasoline, did you know that, Neil? It is.
        Senator Boxer. Well, this last gift is the most
    controversial gift. And it is for your grandkids, and it is a
    bicycle. And it is a reminder, when we take up the highway
    bill, to remember that 35 million Americans do use bicycles, a
    lot of them for work. I know it is a controversial issue, but I
    think your grandkids would enjoy this.
        And Jim, I mean it when I say, handing this gavel over to
    you, I am sad I am doing it, but I am so happy for you.
        Senator Inhofe. That is good, that is good.
        [Applause.]
        Senator Inhofe. There you go, thank you.
        All right. We do have some things that we always do, and
    that is we have to at some point have to have 11 people here to
    pass our resolutions. So if staff would remind me when the 11th
    one shows up, I would appreciate it and we will go ahead and
    get that done.
        We have some great new members on this committee. I look
    over and see my friend on the Democrat side. We have a lot of
    issues where we are working together, so we are looking forward
    to that. We have three of the new members of the U.S. Senate,
    Senator Rounds, Senator Sullivan and Senator Capito. They are
    all very interested in this committee. They made a special
    request to be on this committee. It is going to be joyful to
    get their input and the background they have. Senator Sullivan
    had experiences with many of the things that we deal with on
    this committee up in Alaska. So we will be doing that.
        So let me do this. A couple of things we will be doing is,
    the early bird rule, we have done that in the past. We have
    deviated from that in the past. We are going to be adhering to
    that.
        We also, I am going to make an effort, and I would like to
    have all of you think about this between now and the meeting of
    the 28th, a week from today when we have our highway meeting.
    We have Secretary Fox who is going to be here. And Secretary
    Ridley, I am not sure whether you are planning to be there for
    that one or not, but there will be a lot of people here.
        So I have felt that our opening statements, with as large
    as this committee is, uses up all of our time. In that
    particular committee hearing, we are going to have a bunch of
    Governors here, at least two that I know of, one from
    Connecticut is on a short term. So we are going to maybe talk
    about this between now and then. In the Senate Armed Services
    Committee, we have the ranking member and the chairman with
    opening statements and not the rest of them. So we are going to
    consider that.
        For today's purpose, I know that we are going to both have
    opening statements, Senator Boxer and myself. And we will open
    it up for hopefully fairly short opening statements from the
    other members.
        But right now I think we have 11 here, is that correct? So
    if it is all right, I am going to go ahead and skip over to the
    two things that we have to do today in conjunction with
    business. One is to call up the EPW Committee Resolution which
    funds the committee through February 2017 in three financial
    periods. Those financial periods are between March and
    September, then October to October, then October to February.
    Not that that is significant, but this is the way we have
    divided it up before. Everyone already has this, and I would
    ask that we would approve that report.
        [The text of the resolution follows:]

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        Senator Inhofe. All in favor say aye.
        [Chorus of ayes.]
        Senator Inhofe. Opposed, no.
        [No audible response.]
        Senator Inhofe. The ayes have it and it is adopted.
        The second one is the first Inhofe amendment, and that is
    the amendment to the committee rules, that is Amendment No. 1.
    This amendment is a technical change to Rule 2(a) concerning
    quorums. In previous Congresses, the committee had 18 members
    and a quorum was one-third. In this Congress, we have 20
    members, so the amendment simply updates the rule to require 7
    members to meet. I would ask for that approval.
        [The text of the amendment by Senator Inhofe follows:]

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        Senator Boxer. Second.
        Senator Inhofe. All in favor, say aye.
        [Chorus of ayes.]
        Senator Inhofe. Opposed, no.
        [No audible response.]
        Senator Inhofe. The ayes have it and we have adopted that.
        The third one doesn't require a change but it is what we
    want to do, this is more in the way of an announcement. We are
    going to go back to the way we were 8 years ago when I chaired
    this committee. We have four subcommittees. Then we increased
    it to five when we lost our majority on the Republican side.
    Now we are going to go back to four. Originally served, we had
    these same four committees.
        Those subcommittees will be Transportation and
    Infrastructure, and that will be chaired by Senator Vitter. The
    second one is Clean Air and Nuclear Safety. That will be
    chaired by Senator Capito. The third is Waste Management and
    Regulation Oversight. That will be chaired by Senator Rounds.
    And the last one is Fisheries, Wildlife and Water, chaired by
    Senator Sullivan.
        The interesting thing here is that three of the four
    subcommittees are chaired by people who are brand new, the
    newly elected ones. So we will great new input and also great
    new talent.
        With that, let me just go ahead do an opening statement.
        Senator Boxer. Mr. Chairman, before you move to that, we
    had gone over colloquy. Would this be the appropriate time to
    do it?
        Senator Inhofe. Sure. Am I a part of this colloquy?
        Senator Boxer. A big part. You keep saying, ``That's
    correct.''
        [Laughter.]
        Senator Boxer. And I may change what I ask you.
        [Laughter.]
        Senator Boxer. I am sure you have seen this.
        Senator Inhofe. OK, that is fine.
        Senator Boxer. I also want to thank the new members for
    choosing this committee. I am excited to be working with you.
    Really, we do have, in this committee, the opportunity to work
    across party lines on some things. On other things, we will go
    toe to toe and it won't be happy. It won't be happy for you.
        Senator Inhofe. I believe Senator Booker is the first, you
    just got on this committee?
        Senator Boxer. No, he was here.
        Senator Inhofe. Do you have any new members on your side?
        Senator Boxer. No.
        Senator Inhofe. They have all been there before, OK.
        Senator Boxer. That is right.
        Senator Inhofe. Good.
        Senator Boxer. So let me just again welcome the new
    members.
        Mr. Chairman, it is my understanding that in keeping with
    the practice of the committee, you and the subcommittee
    chairmen will make every effort to consult with me and the
    subcommittee ranking members prior to announcing a committee or
    subcommittee hearing and prior to setting the agenda for a
    committee or subcommittee meeting.
        Senator Inhofe. That is correct.
        Senator Boxer. And further, Mr. Chairman, it is my
    understanding that in keeping with our committee practice, you
    and the subcommittee chairmen will make every effort to provide
    me and the subcommittee ranking member opportunity for topic
    and schedule consultation at least 2 weeks prior to any
    hearing.
        Senator Inhofe. That is correct.
        Senator Boxer. And again in keeping with our practice, the
    chairman and ranking members will strive to attain a balance of
    interests of the majority and minority in selecting the
    witnesses for hearings.
        Senator Inhofe. Yes, we will make that effort.
        Senator Boxer. All right.
        Senator Inhofe. I would like to ask for a motion to approve
    the rules as amended.
        Senator Boxer. So moved.
        Senator Inhofe. Second?
        Senator Rounds. Seconded.
        Senator Inhofe. All those in favor, say aye.
        [Chorus of ayes.]
        Senator Inhofe. Opposed, no.
        [No audible response.]
        Senator Inhofe. The ayes have it.
        [The Senate Committee Print, Rules Adopted February 14,
    2013 follows.]

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                OPENING STATEMENT OF HON. JAMES INHOFE,
                U.S. SENATOR FROM THE STATE OF OKLAHOMA

        Senator Inhofe. Well, first of all, we have already
    welcomed the new members. Senator Boxer and I have a long
    history of working together, particularly in the areas that she
    mentioned on highways. That is going to be our thing coming
    right out of the chute, the first thing we do.
        In fact, our first hearing will be a week from today, the
    28th. And it will be a hearing on highways. We are going to
    have Secretary Fox, which has been a good appointment. I have
    enjoyed working with him. He is going to be here with, I
    believe four Governors. So we will look forward to that. That
    is going to be a very significant one.
        It is one of the things we have to do. We have had some
    great progress that we have made. We had a lot of objection on
    the Republican side last time we had our 27-month bill that we
    had. That was a problem. And I had a hard time explaining to
    some of the Republicans that the conservative position is to
    pass a highway reauthorization bill. Because the only
    alternative to that is to have short-term extensions. And as
    Secretary Ridley will say, it costs us about 30 percent off the
    top in order to have those short-terms, and you can't get any
    reforms. The reforms that we had in the bill, the 27-month
    bill, I was very appreciative of Senator Boxer in going along
    with some of the streamlining aspects that really were very
    favorable. So that is what we are going to be doing.
        On water, the oversight is going to be started as early as
    February 4th, when this committee will hold a joint hearing
    with the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee on
    the EPA's Waters of the United States proposed rule. This is
    very significant. Probably this is singled out by the farmers,
    through their organizations like the Farmers Union and the
    National Farm Bureau, as being the most significant thing to
    farmers. I have talked to each of our new members about this.
    They all are fully aware of the problems there.
        On climate, another top priority we will be conducting
    rigorous oversight of the EPA regulations. I strongly believe
    the President's misguided agenda on climate change has led to
    an onslaught of new regulations that is endangering the future
    of job creation, energy independence and reliability of the
    power grid. We will be talking about that today and I
    understand we are going to have some amendments today.
        As we approach the oversight of the President's climate
    action bill, it is important for the committee to note that the
    Nation's gross, since 1970, this is significant, nobody ever
    talks about this, the Nation's gross domestic product has
    increased by 234 percent. The miles Americans have traveled has
    increased by 168 percent. The population has increased by 54
    percent. This is all since 1970.
        And also since 1970, according to the EPA, emissions from
    pollutants such as SOx and NOx and PM
    have decreased by 68 percent. So think about the success of
    that. I can remember when the amendments, back in 1989, I guess
    it was, they were the amendments, and Senator Boxer and I were
    both original co-sponsors of the amendments to the Clean Air
    Act that has been so successful. So that was a good start.
        So despite this success, they are talking about the
    significant greenhouse gas regulation package scheduled for
    this summer. As proposed, EPA's regulations would raise energy
    prices, destroy jobs and impose billions of dollars in costs.
        I always go back to the statement that we had when the
    first designee or the first nomination that the President made,
    President Obama, was to the EPA, Lisa Jackson. I recall sitting
    right here in this room with her as a witness and saying, Madam
    Administrator, if we were to pass some of the cap and trade
    bills that we are talking about today, or the regulations that
    would bring us cap and trade, would this have a reduction in
    overall CO2 emissions. She said, no, it wouldn't,
    because this isn't where the problem is. The problem is in
    China, it is in India, it is in Mexico. And you could carry
    that argument out further and say if we reduce them here, and
    our jobs are chased offshore, you could have the result of
    increasing, not decreasing, CO2 emissions.
        The Wall Street Journal in June called the proposal when it
    came out, just came out from the Administration, ``a huge
    indirect tax and wealth redistribution scheme that the EPA is
    imposing by fiat will profoundly touch every American.''
        NERA agrees, by the way, you quote them quote often. In its
    October analysis, it is a non-partisan economic analysis firm,
    it projects that the costs to comply with EPA's plan would be
    $479 billion. We know of course that that is one of the main
    reasons, that was the wake-up call back in 2002, when everyone
    kind of thought, well, global warming must be real, therefore
    everyone thought that was the fast ticket to the White House,
    to introduce a bill for cap and trade, until they found out
    what the cost was going to be.
        At that time, it was the Charles Rivers Associates, MIT,
    the Wharton School and others that came out with cost ranges as
    to what it would cost for cap and trade. The range was always
    between $300 billion and $400 billion a year. That is when
    people started looking at the science and realizing there was
    another side to it.
        So NAAQS, we are going to be talking about NAAQS right now
    with the proposal, of those NAAQS that will have the effect of
    placing over 600 counties in non-attainment. Everyone of my 77
    counties in Oklahoma would be out of attainment. The TSCA, we
    know we have been working on that for quite a while and we will
    be working on that bill. Endangered species, finally, for the
    first time in a long while we will place a focus on needed
    oversight for implement of the Endangered Species Act.
        So that, along with nuclear, we are going to be very busy
    on this committee.
        In closing, I want to briefly review and get into the
    record the three guiding principles this committee will follow
    when conducting oversight and reporting legislation from this
    committee. These are the same ones that we put in in 2003 when
    I became chairman of this committee 12 years ago this day. No.
    1 is, does the proposal make the bureaucracy more efficient,
    effective and accountable? No. 2, is the proposal fiscally
    responsible, based on sound science, and do we know the true
    benefits and costs to American consumers? And No. 3, finally,
    how does the proposal affect property owners, local communities
    and taxpayers?
        So those are what the guiding principles will be as we have
    had in the past.
        Senator Boxer.

               OPENING STATEMENT OF HON. BARBARA BOXER,
               U.S. SENATOR FROM THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA

        Senator Boxer. Thank you so much, Mr. Chairman.
        I really appreciate your proving the point that clean air
    regulation works. You lauded the Clean Air Act Amendments of
    1990. It is important to go back and look at the record, the
    polluters predicted a disaster. But George Herbert Walker Bush
    signed those, and we have had huge growth since then. And in
    the 1970's that you mentioned, Richard Nixon signed it.
        So cleaning up the environment in the past has always been
    a bipartisan effort. Let's face facts: it has changed. The very
    things that you are saying about the disaster of the climate
    change plan of the President, they echo those words of the
    polluters back then. And I have to say, we did get 56 votes
    when all is said and done for our cap and trade, but it did
    fail. And I know you were glad, because you do believe it would
    be terrible for America.
        I disagree strongly, because I come from a State that has
    an incredible climate change program. And we are thriving. And
    our budgets are balanced. And everybody is excited to partake.
    When the polluters came in, the oil companies, and tried to
    overturn the cap and trade system, the voters said, no, we like
    it, we like clean air, it is important.
        I want to point out, we will continue to argue about this
    and I am so respectful of your views, and I ask that you be
    respectful of mine. Ninety-eight percent of the scientists are
    now saying the following. We now face a choice between an
    unpleasant planet, unpleasant planet, and an uninhabitable
    planet. And I will tell you, we won't be around in 56 years
    unless there is a miracle. And it is going to be our great
    grandkids, our grandkids.
        I just want the record to show that sitting back and
    saying, we are not going to do anything on this because, a, it
    is a hoax, which makes no sense to me, and b, it is going to
    cost us jobs, which makes no sense to me, given the record of
    environmental regulation, I just think it is sad to be on that
    side of the coin. We will continue to push on this side. Now,
    that is the controversy.
        On the infrastructure, Mr. Chairman, there is very little
    distance between us. We may argue around the edges, and that is
    fine, we will compromise on those things. But I am going to
    work with you as hard as I can, because as you know, I
    announced that I won't be running in 2016. What I want to do is
    have a legacy of working with you on infrastructure. I think we
    can bring everybody together on this committee and in the
    Senate. So I am going to work my heart out with you on that.
        I want to put up a cautionary note here. Your wonderful
    people are here from your State to celebrate with you today.
    And they know that this uncertainty that we are facing with the
    Highway Trust Fund is dangerous for our businesses and
    dangerous for our workers. I am very concerned that the whole
    Trust Fund expires in three and a half months or so. We know
    how long it takes to get one of these bills done. You and I had
    agreed on the last bill, Senator Vitter did as well, Senator
    Carper, all of us working together. So we have a place to
    start.
        And I want to urge you, and I think it is, all the things
    that you outlined are very important issues, I have no problem
    with that. I think it is going to be exciting, some of the
    issues that you are bringing up. Not necessarily
    uncontroversial but important that we do them. But nothing
    could be more important. Do you know there are still 600,000
    construction workers that haven't been working since the great
    recession? That is down from 2 million.
        So we have done well here in what we have done on the
    Highway Bill. I am a little bit concerned about the House,
    every time I try to see where they are coming from. That is why
    I so value Senator Capito being here, because she knows how to
    work with the House people, because she just came from there. I
    am a little concerned that they don't sense that urgency and
    that they are looking for more and more of these short-term
    extensions. The only way for us to take a stand against that
    philosophy is to pass a bill here.
        So I would urge you to take the bill that we passed out of
    here the last time, make some changes. I will work with you on
    it, others will. And let's get going, because really, we all
    care about jobs, both sides of the aisle. There is no
    disagreement.
        And I think on this committee we all know we want a bill.
    So whereas everything else you talked about is a bit more
    controversial, the infrastructure is not. I am excited to work
    with you on that highway bill.
        And again, Mr. Chairman, congratulations, and I really look
    forward to our ongoing work together.
        Senator Inhofe. Let me just respond to one thing. And I am
    not going to make a habit of this, but let me allay your fears
    about the House. Because after we had that bill vote in the
    Senate, that day I went over and requested an audience with the
    T&I Republicans, 33 of them. I explained to them the same thing
    I just said here, what the conservative position was. Every one
    of the 33 voted for it. So I think the House is going to be
    very cooperative.
        Senator Boxer. I hope so.
        Senator Inhofe. OK, we are going to follow the early bird
    rule. The first one to show up, who will be No. 1, is Senator
    Capito.
        Senator Capito. Mr. Chairman and Ranking Member, it is
    wonderful to be on the committee, and an honor to serve. I have
    no real opening statement, except I am very appreciative of the
    areas that we are going to be looking at. Obviously there are
    heavy impacts, different impacts in a State like mine, such as
    West Virginia and California. I am very thrilled to be chairing
    the subcommittee as well, I appreciate that.
        Just as a mote of interest, I am not the only native West
    Virginian on the committee. My compatriot, Senator Carper, was
    born in West Virginia.
        Senator Carper. Haven't been there since Saturday.
        [Laughter.]
        Senator Capito. Yes, your aunt, I think you told me you
    were going to your aunt's funeral. So with that, I would just
    say thank you very much, I think it is going to be a great
    couple of years and I appreciate the opportunity to serve.
    Thank you.
        Senator Inhofe. Thank you.
        Senator Booker.
        Senator Booker. Three things. One, I want to congratulate
    Senator Inhofe, with your gavel. I really look forward to
    working with you. I am glad that we have some history already
    working together, and I think there is so much space, as you
    said, for bipartisan agreement. There is urgency for it.
        No. 2, I want to say to Senator Boxer, my heart aches, not
    just about the passing of the gavel, but more importantly about
    your announcement that this will be your last 2 years in the
    U.S. Senate. I will savor every single day I get a chance to
    serve with you.
        Then finally, I want to say to Senator Inhofe, I think it
    is really, really good that you are eliminating opening
    statements.
        [Laughter.]
        Senator Inhofe. Thank you very much.
        Senator Rounds.
        Senator Rounds. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I would simply
    say, brevity is critical and I will yield my time.
        Senator Inhofe. Good. We appreciate that.
        Senator Carper.
        Senator Carper. Thanks, Mr. Chairman. Congratulations on
    assuming the leadership of this committee again. I look forward
    to working with you. The four of us served together in the
    House a few years ago, and it is great to be able to serve with
    each of you again in these roles.
        I am happy to welcome our new Senator from West Virginia. I
    was driving to West Virginia on the way to the funeral
    Saturday, Shelley, and it was just a beautiful, sunshiny day.
    Abundant sunshine, blue skies. We were driving through West
    Virginia, and it says Wild and Wonderful. I think, boy, what a
    glorious place. Happy to be here, happy to be home with my
    family.
        To all the new members, welcome. We are happy for you to
    join us.
        The message for me coming out of the election was that
    folks in our States want us to work together, they want us to
    make progress on real issues and they want us to strengthen the
    economic recovery. As both Senator Inhofe and Senator Boxer
    have said, one of the best ways to strengthen the economic
    recovery is to come to agreement on a robust, fulsome
    transportation investment program for our Nation.
        And as Democrats, a lot of times we think about other
    people who could be working to build roads, highways, bridges,
    transit systems. As Barbara said, 600,000 or 700,000 is a lot
    of people who would love to be back working. There real
    benefit, though, from us coming to agreement not only on the
    authorization but also on the funding for the bill, which I
    will be working on as a member of the Finance Committee with a
    number of you, but the real payoff comes from our ability to
    just in time economy, to be able to move goods and products
    throughout our Country, throughout our Nation and to export
    markets as well. That is one of the reasons why we get the real
    GDP growth from transportation investment. So I am anxious to
    work with you on that.
        One of my takeaways from the President last night is there
    are a bunch of areas where we actually have some agreement, a
    bunch of areas where we have some agreement. What Mike Enzi
    likes to say, he has this 80-20 rule. He says, we agree on 80
    percent of the stuff, we disagree on 20 percent of the stuff.
    Let's focus on the 80 percent that we agree on and we will come
    back to the other 20 percent some other time.
        Not everybody agreed with George Herbert Walker Bush some
    20 years ago, over 20 years ago, when he was President. He came
    up with this idea of a cap and trade system to address the
    emissions of sulfur dioxide. Cap and trade, since I first heard
    about it, I thought, well, what is this?
        But actually he pushed it hard, and I ended up thinking,
    maybe that makes sense, we ought to try it. And there were
    people who said, this will create havoc in the economy, this
    will never work. And it turned out, we ended up meeting our
    reduction goals in sulfur dioxide in half the time, half the
    time it was for gas and at about less than half the cost.
        So let's keep that in mind. Sometimes we might want to be
    dismissive of new ideas. That is just an old idea that actually
    worked pretty well not that long ago.
        Thank you.
        Senator Inhofe. Good. Any other comments?
        We are adjourned.
        [Whereupon, at 10:58 a.m., the meeting was adjourned.]
        [Additional material submitted for the record follows.]

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