[Congressional Record Volume 153, Number 20 (Thursday, February 1, 2007)]
[Senate]
[Pages S1532-S1533]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

      By Mr. KERRY (for himself and Ms. Snowe):
  S. 485. A bill to amend the Clean Air Act to establish an economy-
wide global warming pollution emission cap-and-trade program to assist 
the economy in transitioning to new clean energy technologies, to 
protect employees and affected communities, to protect companies and 
consumers from significant increases in energy costs, and for other 
purposes; to the Committee on Finance.
  Ms. SNOWE. Mr. President, I rise today to support the Global Warming 
Reduction Act of 2007. Senator Kerry and I are here today offering this 
legislation because the issue of global warming is no longer seriously 
open to skepticism. The preponderance of peer-reviewed scientific 
evidence is irrefutable and the cost of inaction incalculable. It is no 
longer a question of science--it is now a question of political will.
  I believe our bill offers a means by which anyone who is honestly 
committed to addressing global warming can vote to improve our 
environmental future while preserving our economy. We call for 65 
percent reductions of greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 for all major 
sectors of our society, and starting in 2010, we put these called-for 
emissions reductions on a downward glide path to make the reductions 
realistic yet aggressive. It takes a forward-looking, comprehensive, 
science-based approach to tackling this issue without putting a 
stranglehold on our economy. This is the right course at the right 
cost.
  While Congress fiddles, alpine glaciers and polar ice caps millions 
of years old are melting. Sea levels are rising globally. Manmade 
carbon dioxide levels and the average global temperature have increased 
at unprecedented levels over the past century--and are projected to 
increase up to 8.1 degrees Fahrenheit in the next 100 years. Meanwhile, 
the CO2 we continue to release today while we await 
meaningful action will remain in the atmosphere for at least a 
century--with concentrations rising in the coming decades. Just think--
CO2 emissions from Henry Ford's very first car are still in 
the atmosphere. Clearly, we can't afford to wait any longer.
  And it's not as though we aren't literally catapulting toward a 
consensus on at least the existence of the problem. We have a Federal 
agency, NOAA, reporting that 2006 was the warmest year since regular 
temperature records began in 1895 and the past nine years have been 
among the 25 warmest years on record for the contiguous U.S. Even 
though the President announced no new direct climate policy changes, he 
did state in his most recent State of the Union Address that we must 
confront the serious challenge of global climate change.
  Just last week, a coalition of ten major U.S. companies came together 
to form the U.S. Climate Action Partnership--Alcoa, BP America, 
Caterpillar, Duke Energy, DuPont, General Electric, FPL Group, Lehman 
Brothers, PG&E, and PNM Resources all have advocated for a mandatory 
carbon cap-and-trade system--as our bill provides. Even ExxonMobil, 
long skeptical on anthropogenic global warming, recently saw its CEO 
state that ``the risk [of climate change] is so great that it justifies 
taking action.''
  Two years ago, I became co-chair of the International Climate Change 
Taskforce, comprised of respected scientists, business leaders, and 
elected officials from eight industrialized and developing nations. The 
first and significant recommendation we published was to prevent global 
temperatures from rising above 3.6 degrees Fahrenheit in the next 
century--because science suggests that beyond this temperature increase 
there is a tipping point--a possible abrupt climate change that would 
have a catastrophic

[[Page S1533]]

effect on our ecosystems and our society.
  This bill would prevent us from reaching that tipping point with a 
required 65 percent reduction in CO2 emissions by 2050--a 
figure that is both rigorous and realistic. And it does so by both 
instituting the successful California emissions standards that have 
already been embraced by other States--including seven northeastern 
States like my home State of Maine--and that provide industry with 
predictability and uniformity . . . and also putting in place a 
flexible but mandatory carbon ``cap and trade'' system that uses the 
power of the ``invisible hand'' to reduce emissions more cost-
effectively for businesses.
  And to encourage greater investment in renewable energy, we also call 
for 20 percent of America's electricity to come from renewable sources 
by 2020. But at the same time we provide incentives for advanced 
technologies so that existing industries can actually make investments 
into cleaner infrastructure.
  Moreover, with the U.S. comprising only four percent of the world's 
population yet emitting 20 percent of the world's carbon dioxide, we 
think it's time our response to this crisis become proportional to our 
nation's contribution to the problem. And that's why our bill also 
urges the U.S. to return to the international negotiating table.
  Global warming is a comprehensive problem that demands the kind of 
comprehensive approach our bill provides--with measures to minimize the 
effects on our communities and our ecosystems that other bills 
acknowledge are inevitable but do not address. Ours is the only climate 
bill to be introduced that calls for research to assess the 
vulnerability of coral reefs to increased CO2 deposits, and 
of marine organisms throughout the marine food web. Our bill also calls 
for the creation of a ``vulnerability scorecard'' to provide 
communities with a yardstick for them to measure the potential impact 
of climate change and make informed decisions to minimize the impact.
  In the end, government leaders should make no mistake--the public 
understands the severity of the risk of inaction on this crucial issue, 
with half of voters reporting in a recent Zogby poll that concerns 
about global warming made a difference in who they voted for and 58 
percent said that combating global warming should be a high priority. 
So the truth is that elected officials ignore the public's concerns 
with global warming at their own peril--just as we ignore the danger to 
the detriment of our children and future generations.
  The opportunity to stop, and ultimately reverse, global climate 
change is not open-ended. The clock is ticking . . . and the cost of 
inaction continues to escalate. We recognize the major cause of global 
warming and we understand what a solution requires. Now we are 
compelled to muster the political will to make it happen--and the 
Kerry-Snowe bill provides a reasonable yet vigorous path to follow. 
Thank you.
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