[Congressional Record Volume 154, Number 84 (Wednesday, May 21, 2008)]
[Senate]
[Pages S4614-S4615]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
SOLUTIONS TO CLIMATE CHANGE
Mr. BARRASSO. Mr. President, earlier this spring, I introduced
legislation to address the challenge of how to deal with greenhouse
gases. The bill is called the Greenhouse Gas Emissions Atmospheric
Removal Act, or the GEAR Act.
Members of this body have discussed various proposals to regulate the
output of greenhouse gases. Some advocate doing it through a cap-and-
trade approach. Others have advocated a carbon tax. Such proposals are
aimed at limiting future carbon output into the atmosphere. Many
proposals have been introduced and debated using this approach of
dealing with carbon output.
We want to protect our environment and we want a strong economy. The
way to have both is by thinking anew and acting anew. It is time to use
our untapped human potential and the American spirit to develop the
technologies we need.
The Senate will soon be debating climate legislation. I believe we
should identify solutions through imagination, innovation, and
invention, not through limits.
It is my hope and my goal that the GEAR Act will foster the kind of
solutions that we need to address the concerns about climate change.
Recently, there was a very thoughtful editorial which was printed in
``Wyoming Agriculture,'' which is published by the Wyoming Farm Bureau
Federation.
The editorial was written by Ken Hamilton. Ken is the executive vice
president of the Wyoming Farm Bureau. I believe he does a terrific job
of summing up the feelings of Wyoming people on the need to find
practical ``real'' solutions to climate change.
I recommend it to my colleagues and ask unanimous consent that it be
printed in the Record.
Ther being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in
the Record as follows:
You Can't Have Your Cake And Eat It Too
(By Ken Hamilton, WyFB Executive Vice President)
One of the first little sayings you probably heard when you
were growing up was that you can't have your cake and eat it
too. Generally everyone will agree that this is self evident,
but that doesn't stop Americans (and probably people in other
countries) from always trying to have it both ways.
This is never more evident than the actions surrounding
global warming. We are continually being bombarded by
pronouncements about man caused global warming (it's hovering
around 4 degrees with a 25 mph breeze blowing as I write
this). When I was discussing this global warming issue with a
friend, he said what people need to do is stop arguing with
the activists over whether there is man caused global warming
and start asking them what their solutions are going to be.
The more I thought about it the more I realized the whole
global warming debate is absent any discussion of real
solutions. We hear vague pronouncements about a greenhouse
gas tax, but not much else. And none have enough details to
fully analyze what the impact will be on people. There are
numerous shows on television where people are talking about
reducing their ``carbon footprint'', but most of these
solutions revolve around still living the lifestyle you want
while feeling good about using a material someone has
pronounced as ``green.''
For instance, one of the new ``green'' materials for
flooring in houses now is bamboo. Why someone feels this is
greener than oak or pine is beyond me, but nevertheless
apparently it is. The interesting thing is that while
everyone is talking green, they are busy building a house
that's twice the square footage of a generation ago. Our
grandparents lived in a house where one or two rooms had heat
part of the time. In today's modern homes there is heat
running to every room, plus a television set in half of them,
a minimum two-car garage (heated of course) and appliances
that grandma couldn't even dream about. All of these, of
course have some ``green'' marketing gimmick attached to
them, so, you guessed it, people can live in even bigger
houses while feeling good about doing their part.
But if meaningful curbs in greenhouse gases must occur as
they profess, then there shouldn't be houses with two-car
garages. You don't find those sorts of things in third world
countries where the people's carbon footprint is less than
here. Dishwashers must go as well as washing machines,
dryers, and central heating. In third world countries where
they don't have such a big carbon footprint, health clubs are
not needed, nor are double ovens.
Arnold Schwarzenegger, who is in a panic over global
warming, should stop driving around in his Humvee. In fact,
to adequately address this issue, he should stop driving
period.
But we don't see any of this happening and probably won't
in the future. The people worried about global warming are
still driving to work every day. They come home to heated and
air conditioned homes, turn on
[[Page S4615]]
their 42-inch flat panel television while getting their meal
delivered by a college freshman in a fuel-efficient \3/4\-ton
four-wheel drive vehicle so they don't have to crank up one
of those double ovens and hear the latest news about climate
change. Recently a weather event caused a power outage in
Arnold's state and not once did I hear him say, ``thank
goodness, now we can start to do something meaningful about
man caused global warming.''
Politicians and proponents of global warming only want to
personally do something about global warming if it doesn't
mean a cold house in the winter or a hot one in the summer.
Health clubs will still be needed because people won't walk
to work and will need to get some exercise somewhere. And
pine forests will grow old, die and burn while folks feel
good about their bamboo floors. Thinking all along that they
are getting their cake and eating it too.
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