[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 139 (Wednesday, October 7, 1998)]
[Senate]
[Pages S11680-S11681]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                              OZONE LAYER

  Mr. BUMPERS. Mr. President, my time left in the Senate is very brief. 
I have--I don't know--3, 4, at the most 5 days left of active duty on 
the Senate floor. I read a story in the paper this morning that gives 
me some satisfaction at least about some of the things I have done 
since I came here.
  As I have said on the floor many times, there isn't anything as 
gratifying to a Senator as being able to stand on the floor and say, 
``I told you so.''
  When I first came here, I had read a story in some science magazine 
about two young physicists at the University of California at Irvine 
who had developed a theory that chlorofluorocarbons--a gas, normally 
found in aerosols and freon, which we use in our air conditioners and 
refrigerators--that these chlorofluorocarbons that we sprayed on our 
hair in the morning were wafting up into the stratosphere over a period 
of 12 to 15 years and destroying the ozone layer.
  Before I came to the Senate, I thought ``ozone'' was a town in 
Johnson County, AR, which indeed it is. As a matter of fact I spoke at 
the high school graduation at Ozone last year. Nevertheless, this 
theory about something we were doing rather mindlessly that had almost 
cataclysmic consequences for the future intrigued me.
  I had been put on the Space Committee when I came here. I did not ask 
for the Space Committee--it was a spacey committee. We abolished it a 
couple years after I came here, but I asked the chairman, Senator Moss 
of Utah, if I could hold some hearings on this theory and invite some 
atmospheric scientists to come in and testify. And he said, ``I have no 
objection to that.'' Just ad hoc hearings. I certainly was not chairman 
of the subcommittee or anything else. I had just gotten here. He said, 
``I don't mind you doing that, but you need to get a Republican to sit 
with you in these hearings.'' So I recruited my good friend, Senator 
Domenici, from New Mexico.
  Senator Domenici and I held nine hearings over a period of about 6 
months. We had the best atmospheric scientists in the United States 
coming in and testifying--Dr. Rowland and Dr. Molina.
  In those hearings, we probably had an average of 15 people in the 
audience. We had a television camera show up only once. When we 
finished, Senator Domenici did not feel quite as strongly as I did 
about abolishing the manufacturing of CFCs immediately, and so Senator 
Packwood and I took it on and brought it to the floor of the Senate to 
abolish the manufacturing of CFCs.
  The chemical lobbyists in that lobby, through that door, were so 
thick I could hardly get to the floor to vote. And as I recall, we got 
a whopping 33 votes. I was arguing that if we were to cut off all 
manufacturing of CFCs right now, we still had 12 to 15 years of damage 
coming because that is how long it took from the time you sprayed your 
hair the morning we voted for it to get there and start destroying 
ozone.
  You know all the arguments: This is untested; unproved; and we need 
to ``study'' it. That is the way you kill things around here--study it. 
And so that is the end of the story in 1975.
  In 1985, the National Academy of Sciences, who we had assigned to do 
the study--10 years later--discovered that there was a developing hole 
in the

[[Page S11681]]

ozone layer over Antarctica. And almost every year since then that 
ozone hole has grown bigger and bigger and bigger. We have phased out 
the manufacturing of CFCs--we do not use it anymore to spray our hair 
with; and we have substitutes for air-conditioning and refrigeration. 
Nevertheless, if you saw the Post this morning, the current estimates 
are that the ozone hole is deeper and wider than it has ever been, and 
has been growing almost every year since 1975 when we first discovered 
it.
  The good news is, while scientists were shocked by the size of the 
ozone hole in their current study, they still believe that it can be 
stabilized by the year 2050. Well, let's hope so, because if it isn't, 
we can anticipate 300,000 additional cases of skin cancer.
  I ask unanimous consent for 1 additional minute.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  Mr. BUMPERS. The ozone layer protects us from the ultraviolet rays of 
the Sun. The hole that we have already caused is going to cause 
thousands and thousands of cases of skin cancer before we even begin to 
stabilize the ozone layer.
  Mr. President, I tell that little story with some satisfaction, 
because I daresay there are not many Senators who fought as many losing 
battles in the U.S. Senate as I have. So the only reason I tell that 
story is to let people know that sometimes when you cast unpopular 
votes you will be proven right. A lot of Senators get beat before they 
ever get a chance to be proven right.
  I voted against more constitutional amendments than any Senator in 
the U.S. Senate. I am proud of every one of them. Rest assured, if they 
bring the flag desecration amendment up again, I will be happy to vote 
against that, too, for reasons I will not belabor now.
  I see my good friend from Nevada wanting to speak. And I want to 
follow him on the matter pending before the Senate.
  I yield the floor.
  Mr. REID addressed the Chair.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Nevada.
  Mr. REID. I ask unanimous consent to speak as in morning business.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  Mr. REID. I say to my friend from Arkansas, the mere fact that you 
lose the vote on the floor does not mean that you lose the issue. And I 
say to my friend, I have been on the floor on the Senator's side, 
joining him on a number of causes which we have won and which we have 
lost; and I have been his adversary on a number of issues. I only wish 
that everyone had the Senator's demeanor, his ability and his sense of 
fairness. We would be a much better Senate, a much better country.
  Mr. BUMPERS. I thank the Senator for his comments.

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