[Congressional Record Volume 154, Number 89 (Monday, June 2, 2008)]
[Senate]
[Pages S4861-S4863]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                            CLIMATE SECURITY

  Mr. REID. Mr. President, there are lots of different stories around 
the country and around the world as to why people feel so strongly 
about the environment. My story I think is similar to others but just 
in a different context.
  As most everyone knows by now, I grew up in a little mining town in 
southern Nevada--very arid, no water anyplace around. Had it not been 
for the discovery of gold, there would have been no Searchlight. To get 
water in Searchlight, you had to go deep into the bowels of the earth--
500 feet, sometimes deeper than that.
  I didn't travel much at all as a boy. I was a teenager before I went 
50 miles to a place called Needles, CA. But three or four times during 
the time I was growing up, we would travel out of Searchlight right 
over the California border, about 20-some-odd miles from Searchlight, 
of course all on dirt roads, to see a freak of nature: these mountains, 
volcanic black mountains, out of the side of which gushed water. It was 
called Piute Springs, Fort Piute.
  The reason we called it Fort Piute is during the Civil War, the U.S. 
Government built a military outpost there. When I was a boy growing up, 
you could see these big rocks they had built and spent 8 or 9 months 
building this place, and it still had the holes where soldiers could 
stick out their guns.
  For a young boy, this was about as good as it gets--to go up into 
that fort and pretend you were one of the soldiers looking out one of 
those little windows. You had to stand on something they had down there 
to get high enough that you could do that. Even though that was a 
wonder, what was in that spring was even more wondrous. So in a place 
like Searchlight, where there was no water anyplace, and you could not 
grow trees--because it was rocky--even if you had water, gushing out of 
this mountain was a spring that ran for a couple of miles. As it came 
out of the mountain, it created all kinds of lush greenery. It is hard 
to comprehend, but even there--I read about them--they had lily pods, 
these big green things with flowers on them, floating around in the 
water. And they had these things--I don't know what they are called, 
but they are long and shaped like a hot dog; you break them open and 
white stuff comes out of them. I don't know what they are called, but 
you could see them, too.
  You could take a rock and throw it down in that ditch, which 
sometimes was half as deep as this room we are in--the Senate Chamber--
and it would sound like an airplane taking off. It was birds, birds--
hundreds and hundreds of birds.
  My wife was born in Southern California. I think it is no secret that 
she was never impressed with Searchlight when we were going to high 
school. When we went away to college and law school--back here is where 
we went to law school--I told her about that place. Without in any way 
prejudging her thoughts, I am confident she didn't believe what I was 
telling her about this lush place not far from Searchlight. It was the 
thing people dream of. But after we had children, I took her to Paiute 
Springs. What a disappointment. During the time I had been gone, people 
had vandalized the fort and knocked down most of the big rocks. The 
foundation was still there, but you were lucky to find it that high. 
They set fire to the trees. The water from the spring was still coming, 
but it had been trashed. There was garbage all over and it was such a 
disappointment. That is the day I became an environmentalist. We have 
to protect the wonders of nature, and Paiute Springs is a wonder. It is 
a freak of nature. How in the world in this arid volcanic rock 
formation up in those mountains could water possibly be coming out? I 
have focused on that, and we have spent taxpayer dollars in the last 
few years improving Paiute Springs, making it more accessible, and 
making needed repairs to the damage that has been done to it over these 
many years. There are wonderful stories about Paiute Springs. I guess 
that is why I feel so strongly about what we are doing here today.
  We are going to vote on a motion to invoke cloture on the motion to 
proceed to S. 3036, the Lieberman-Warner Climate Security Act. I have 
to say that I am stunned by my friend, the distinguished Republican 
leader, who said he was surprised we would move to

[[Page S4862]]

this bill now because it might have an impact on gas prices. We all 
know gas prices are awfully high. In fact, they have gone up more than 
250 percent since the Republicans took over the White House 7\1/2\ 
years ago.
  What the Republican leader didn't say is that the Energy Information 
Administration's projections for this climate bill might cause energy 
prices to increase over the next 25 years. He didn't mention that 
energy consumers will get an $800 billion tax cut to offset these 
gradual cost increases. I guess none of us should be surprised that the 
Republicans have actually already initiated a filibuster on a motion to 
proceed to this legislation.
  Now, they will say that later today we are all going to vote for it. 
If that is the case, we should have been on this bill now--we should be 
on it now. We should not have to wait until 30 hours after we vote 
tonight. I hope they will let us go to the bill in the morning. But if 
the past is prolog, then they are going to eat up and waste 30 hours--
30 hours that will start running this afternoon about 5:50, and will 
expire around midnight tomorrow night. This is what they have been 
doing for a year and almost six months.
  It is a disappointment that they are adding to their all-time record 
of filibusters, 71. This is too bad. My friend, the distinguished 
Republican leader, said this bill makes it so that we, the majority, 
are laughably--that is his word--out of touch. With so many Americans 
suffering the consequences of the Bush economy and so much work for 
Congress to do, that statement is unfortunate. Should we wait until 
Tuesday? Of course not. We should be legislating. If there are efforts 
made to improve the legislation, fine, let them do it.
  Blocking legislation, as they have done time and time again, is their 
right. But what is the point? What is the purpose? Who does wasting 30 
hours benefit?
  I hope that during the debate, Senators will keep their remarks 
focused on the legislation before us or any specific reasons they have 
for objecting to proceeding to the bill itself. This is not directly a 
debate on gas prices. We have tried to do some legislating on that and 
we have been thwarted at every possible step. How? With Republican 
filibusters.
  After the debate on the motion to proceed, of course, we will move to 
the bill. Senator Boxer will lay down a comprehensive substitute 
amendment with the full support of Senators Warner and Lieberman. The 
Senate will then proceed to the most comprehensive global warming 
legislation ever to come before any legislative body in the history of 
the world.
  During consideration of this legislation, Senators will debate many 
subjects. But beyond all specific points of contention, one fact is 
indisputable: Global warming is real and it is caused mainly by manmade 
pollution.
  The changes we see occurring all around us--drought, altered growing 
seasons, sea level rises, more intense precipitation and wildfires, 
storms that are shorter and more intense--are caused or worsened by the 
warming of the Earth.
  Over the course of human civilization, and growing faster and faster 
since the Industrial Revolution, we have burned billions upon billions 
of tons of fossil fuels and thrown the waste carbon into the 
atmosphere.
  We have taken carbon from the Earth and put it into the sky. That has 
caused the Earth to have a fever--a fever that is growing worse every 
day, not better. All of that excess carbon in the atmosphere far 
surpasses the atmosphere's natural ability to handle it.
  We know now, with great certainty, that this process has caused 
average global temperatures to rise. Nobody can dispute that. It is 
making oceans more acidic and altering planetary biochemistry.

  As the amount of carbon we put into the atmosphere continues to rise, 
the risk to our planet and way of life grows more and more dangerous.
  Nevada is the driest State in the Union. Las Vegas' average yearly 
rainfall is 4 inches. My hometown of Searchlight--approximately 60 
miles away--is a regular ``rain forest'' with 8 inches a year.
  Our entire country and our entire planet face many risks due to 
global warming. But for arid States such as Nevada and the desert 
Southwest, the risk perhaps is the greatest.
  The upper Colorado region saw better than average rainfall last year. 
We have been in at least a 10-year drought. This is the water that goes 
into the Colorado River. It is called the upper Colorado region. Last 
year, even though it was average rainfall, or a little above, not a 
single drop of that moisture got into the river. It all evaporated 
beforehand.
  Nevada, like the entire West, is already seeing increased wildfires. 
Longer summers result in more dried-out fuels, which allow fires to 
ignite easier and spread faster. The wildfire season in the West is now 
78 days longer than it was three decades ago. During that 78 extra 
days, there was more lightning, and the fuel is drier. The average 
duration of fires covering more than 2,500 acres has risen five times 
over. A fire of 2,500 acres is no big deal anymore. It used to be.
  The world's leading climate researchers have concluded that if 
greenhouse gases continue to increase, the Southwest region faces 
longer and more intense droughts; still larger, more intense wildfires; 
more winter and spring flooding but reduced summer and fall runoff, 
with rivers in these seasons reduced to a trickle; more intense 
precipitation and storms when it rains, resulting in an increased flood 
risk; and longer and intense heat, with a correspondingly adverse 
impact on public health, particularly on the elderly.
  I have focused only on the Southwest, but this is the way it is all 
over the country. I know more about the Southwest.
  Hundreds, if not thousands, of American scientists tell us that the 
United States must begin making significant reductions by 2015 and 
reduce our emissions by 80 to 90 percent by 2050 if we hope to restore 
balance to the global climate system. That won't be easy. It could be 
the most significant challenge the world has ever faced.
  Not every expert agrees on the quickest and most cost-effective path 
to get there, but all agree that the one thing we cannot afford is 
delay.
  The bill before us is a positive and critical first step in a journey 
that will require innovation and cooperation both here and abroad.
  This legislation addresses enormous challenges we face with long-term 
solutions that we leave our children, their children, and generations 
to come with a healthier, more livable planet.
  The bill now before us does more than simply bring us closer to the 
worthy goal of protecting our environment. At a time Americans are 
losing their jobs and struggling to compete in the global marketplace, 
the Boxer-Warner-Lieberman bill is also about creating a new and 
powerful economic engine. It is about creating hundreds of thousands, 
if not millions, of high-paying permanent and sustainable jobs in our 
country. These jobs cannot be exported. It is about restoring our 
country's place as a global leader in technology and innovation. It is 
about ending our addiction to oil and our reliance on unfriendly, 
unstable regions from which it is imported.
  Today we consume 21 million barrels of oil every day. That goes on 
tomorrow, the whole week, every week of the month, and every month of 
the year. That oil costs our Nation $2.7 billion each day. That is what 
we are paying for this oil. We import 65 percent or more of the oil we 
use. We are spending about a trillion dollars every year, which goes 
straight into the pockets of countries that don't have our best 
interests at heart--and that is an understatement.
  The bill is also about creating a clean energy revolution by capping 
carbon pollution. A dwindling few continue to insist that global 
warming is a hoax--their word, not mine--and that it is not manmade, or 
that we should sit on our hands, stand by the status quo and wait for 
more evidence. They say let the marketplace take care of it. The 
marketplace has dug this hole we are in now and we are stuck in the 
hole. The marketplace has no roadmap to dig us out of this hole. These 
same people would have insisted in years past that cigarettes are 
OK; smoking or chewing is fine; there is no need to put seatbelts in 
cars; people have the right to make their own decisions; you don't need 
motorcycle helmets; certainly there is no reason to have speed limits 
anyplace at any time. These alarmists' and naysayers' time has passed.

[[Page S4863]]

  Some say it is even cheaper to do nothing. Said a different way, they 
claim this is an entirely earthly cycle. Just wait and all will be 
well; our great Earth will correct it.
  Some say we should wait until developing nations, such as China and 
India, take the lead. We heard the Republican leader say: Let them 
lead, not us. I say the United States, the greatest Nation in the 
history of the world, is obligated to lead, not to follow, on this most 
important issue of our time and perhaps of all time.
  President Bush says: Let's bide our time until 2025. Is it cheaper to 
do nothing? Of course not. It is the opposite. The longer we wait, the 
more it will cost to solve this very difficult problem.
  The Climate Security Act, the bill before us today, will cut taxes by 
$800 billion and finance the transition to clean alternative fuels by 
making polluters pay.
  Let me talk a little bit about the sponsors of this legislation. This 
is bipartisan legislation. This is not some wild idea somebody came up 
with that sounds good. It is an idea where the two sponsors, Lieberman-
Warner, a Democrat and a Republican, members of the Environment and 
Public Works Committee, got together and said: We need to do something 
about this situation.
  They both have records for integrity and advocacy that are in the 
best keeping of the Senate. I don't always agree with Senator 
Lieberman. As everyone knows, I think he has been wrong on the war, and 
I have told him that. Senator Warner and I have disagreed on issues in 
the past. But I have great respect for both these fine legislators. 
Senator Warner is a man who has made a difference in his 29\1/2\ years 
in the Senate. His advocacy is making a difference. So I admire and 
respect Senators Lieberman and Warner for their work on this 
legislation.
  I talked about this legislation cutting taxes by $800 billion, and it 
finances the transition to clean alternative fuels by making polluters 
pay.
  While we are investing in renewable fuels and renewing our 
environment, we will be investing in an entirely new industry--a high-
tech, ``green collar'' economy--that will create jobs and develop the 
great companies of today and tomorrow.
  Hundreds of thousands of new jobs in renewable energy have already 
been created by foresighted investors who see the need for clean energy 
that does not contribute to global warming. Millions more jobs can be 
created with the enactment of a strong cap-and-trade system that is in 
this legislation.
  My State, Nevada, the Commonwealth of Virginia, the State of 
Alabama--those Senators present--are blessed with all kinds of good 
things in the environment. Specifically, though, Nevada, and most of 
our Nation, is blessed with an abundance of renewable energy resources 
that far exceed anything we would ever hope to get from fossil fuels.
  Take, for example, solar energy. In the West, it is tremendously 
abundant. In most all of our country, it is abundant. It is on the 
verge of tremendous cost and efficiency breakthroughs.
  It is not as if it has not been done in other places. Look what some 
of the Scandinavian countries have done with wind. They don't have a 
lot of Sun, but they have lots of wind, and they are creating huge 
numbers of jobs and lots of energy with their windmills.
  There are people in the Midwestern part of the United States today 
who are farmers who are making more money from their windmills on their 
farms than they are from the crops they grow.
  Solar energy, abundant in Nevada and the West, is on the verge of 
tremendous cost and efficiency breakthroughs. Geothermal energy can be 
found in Nevada, California, New Mexico, and other parts of the West. 
Wells can be drilled that harness the steam coming from the ground and 
turn it into productive energy. Wind energy can be effectively 
harnessed all across America.
  We can break down the last barriers to the success of solar by 
enacting an effective cap-and-trade system that will level the playing 
field with dirty, polluting energy. We have to win the battle against 
dirty, polluting energy. Should we, as some say, wait for China and 
India to act? Of course not. Since when does America let other 
countries lead the way? It is our responsibility to forge the path 
other nations will follow. But beyond our moral responsibility is a 
tremendous opportunity for the green gold rush to take place here at 
home.
  Should we wait until 2025, as President Bush would have us do? I 
don't think so. By 2025, our window of opportunity may well be closed. 
That is what the scientists tell us. The tipping point the scientists 
fear--the time at which the environmental impact of global warming 
becomes severe and irreversible--may have been reached by then, and our 
chance to create millions of new jobs, catalyze technology development, 
and keep investment in America will surely be lost. We must move 
forward. The path of delay, the path of wait and see--the chosen path 
of Bush and Cheney--ends in certain failure.
  Let's withdraw our focus from oil and focus instead on solar, wind, 
geothermal, and biomass energies. We must not settle for failure. For 
7\1/2\ years of the Bush administration we have come to expect it. We 
need to do better.
  The Boxer-Warner-Lieberman bill is bipartisan in the truest sense. 
What better opportunity than to show the American people and the world 
the Senate is ready to move beyond partisanship to do the right thing. 
A time will come not far from now when a future generation will look 
back on us today. They will know what we know--that today global 
warming is real. Did we take the opportunity, did we accept the 
challenge to do something about it? That is what future generations are 
going to look back on. It is upon us to act now. We have to do it. The 
opportunity is here and we have to take it. That the future of our 
planet, our economy, and our security depend on choices we make now is 
without question.
  I hope all my colleagues, Democrats and Republicans, will make 
responsible decisions now to make future generations safe, secure, 
prosperous, and proud.
  I will finally say, my friend, the distinguished Republican leader, 
in citing his authority for doing nothing, said to read Charles 
Krauthammer. Everyone knows Charles Krauthammer is one of the most 
conservative columnists in America. The Wall Street Journal is not a 
sufficient authority to overrule the vast majority of scientists in 
America today--in the world today.
  We are behind. Other countries are ahead of us. Great Britain and 
other countries around the world have done much more than we have done. 
We have a responsibility. Our Earth, I repeat, has a fever. The fever 
is going up, not down, and we have to bring that fever down. This 
legislation is our start to making our Earth well.

                          ____________________