[Congressional Record Volume 155, Number 58 (Tuesday, April 21, 2009)]
[Senate]
[Pages S4471-S4481]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


                               Earth Day

  Mr. ALEXANDER. Madam President, tomorrow is Earth Day, and it is a 
good day to save our mountaintops. I live in east Tennessee, near the 
edge of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Millions of Americans 
visit us

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every year because of the natural beauty of our landscape. They do not 
come to Tennessee to see the smog, they do not come to Tennessee to see 
creeks polluted by mountaintop mining, and they don't come to Tennessee 
to see ridgetop wind turbines that are three times as tall as our 
University of Tennessee football stadium, which, with their 
transmission lines, would create a junkyard in the sky.
  The American landscape is a part of our environment. It is essential 
to the American character. From John Muir and Theodore Roosevelt to 
Lady Bird Johnson, generations of Americans have worked to protect the 
landscape. Some of the same groups that have worked hardest to protect 
the landscape are neglecting it in pursuit of remedies for climate 
change.
  I am working with three Democratic Members of Congress to try to 
protect the American landscape. The first is Senator Tom Carper of 
Delaware. He and I are introducing legislation to put stiffer controls 
on sulfur, nitrogen, and mercury emissions from coal plants. We have 
the technology to make the air cleaner, and we should be using it. 
There is no need to delay dealing with sulfur, nitrogen, and mercury 
while we figure out what to do about carbon.
  Secondly, Senator Cardin of Maryland and I have introduced 
legislation to ban the practice of blowing off the tops of mountains 
and dumping the waste in streams to mine coal. Coal is essential to our 
energy future. I hope we will reserve a Nobel Prize for the scientist 
who finds a way to deal with the carbon from existing coal plants. But 
we will create many more jobs by saving our mountaintops to attract 
tourists than we will by blowing them up to find coal, especially 
because our State produces less than 2 percent of the Nation's coal.
  Finally, Representative Heath Shuler of North Carolina and I hosted a 
forum in Knoxville highlighting the Tennessee Valley Authority and 
their choices for renewable energy. Conservation and nuclear power are 
realistic options for clean electricity for our region, and we should 
move ahead aggressively with both. But solar power, for the longer 
term; underwater river turbines in the Mississippi River; biomass, such 
as wood chips; and methane from landfills are all good choices for 
renewable electricity as well.
  On the other hand, the idea of polluting our landscape with 500-foot 
wind turbines and their transmission towers is preposterous. It makes 
no sense to destroy the environment in the name of saving the 
environment, especially since the wind only blows about 18 percent of 
the time at TVA's one wind farm. And much of that is at night, when TVA 
already has thousands of unused megawatts of electricity that we could 
be using. TVA should take the $60 million it is spending to buy about 5 
megawatts of unreliable wind power and instead buy 10 compact 
fluorescent light bulbs for every TVA household, which, if used, would 
save about 920 megawatts of reliable power--the equivalent of an entire 
nuclear plant.
  Senator Carper and I will host a roundtable this Thursday in the 
Capitol on our legislation to establish stiff standards for sulfur, 
nitrogen, and mercury. The Tennessee Valley Authority needs to go ahead 
and put sulfur, nitrogen, and mercury controls on all its large coal 
plants that it intends to keep open. But TVA actions alone will not be 
enough to give us clean air in the Great Smoky Mountains and in 
Tennessee. We need strong national standards, such as those in our 
legislation because so much of our dirty air blows in from coal 
powerplants in other States.
  During each of the 2-year Congresses in which I have been a Senator, 
I have introduced legislation to curb pollutants from coal plants, 
including carbon. Tomorrow is Earth Day and a good day to save our 
mountaintops. The way we should do that is to have stiffer controls for 
cleaner air, to ban mountaintop removal for coal mining, and to stop 
the practice of wasting ratepayer dollars for ridgetop wind turbines 
that destroy the landscape, which is also an essential part of the 
American environment.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Pennsylvania.
  Mr. CASEY. Madam President, I thank the Chair.
  (The remarks of Mr. Casey pertaining to the introduction of S. 839 
are located in today's Record under ``Statements on Introduced Bills 
and Joint Resolutions.'')
  Mr. CASEY. I yield the floor, and I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The bill clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. DURBIN. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent the order for 
the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  Mr. DURBIN. Madam President, in late February, President Obama made 
an announcement to thousands of marines in Camp Lejeune about bringing 
an end to the war in Iraq. After only 5 weeks in office, this President 
delivered on what I consider to be one of his most important campaign 
promises--to end this war once and for all.
  But amidst this historic position and with this change that is 
looming, the Senate unfortunately has delayed the confirmation of the 
United States Ambassador to Iraq. We have gone almost 2 months without 
an ambassador in Iraq. With more than 140,000 American military 
personnel literally risking their lives in that country, the Senate has 
refused to fill this vacancy and to send our highest ranking civil 
official to Iraq to work with our military for a peaceful conclusion to 
this war. It is unforgivable. It is inexcusable. It is a fact.
  Ambassador Hill, Christopher Hill, the man who has been nominated for 
this position, is a highly accomplished career diplomat. This is not a 
man who comes to this job without experience. He has served America for 
over three decades in some of the world's most difficult and 
challenging situations. Here is what President Obama said in nominating 
Christopher Hill to be our Ambassador:

       From his time in the Peace Corps to his work in Kosovo and 
     Korea, Ambassador Hill has been tested, and he has shown the 
     pragmatism and the skill that we need right now.

  In the former Yugoslavia, Ambassador Hill was at the center of 
negotiations for the Bosnia peace settlement. He was the first United 
States Ambassador to Macedonia, where he helped to build the basic 
institutions of democratic governance and civil society. As our 
Ambassador to South Korea, Christopher Hill worked with Korean 
officials and U.S. military leaders to develop and implement the most 
significant realignment of military posture in the region since the 
Korean war of the 1950s.
  Most recently, as Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and 
Pacific Affairs, Ambassador Christopher Hill worked with China, South 
Korea, Russia, and other nations to advance negotiations with North 
Korea over its nuclear program.
  Some have argued on the floor that Ambassador Hill did not adequately 
press the North Korean Government on its deplorable human rights 
record. But, in truth, Hill did address the North Korean human rights 
record, but he did so while following the President's request to keep 
denuclearization of the Korean peninsula at the forefront of his 
agenda.
  President Obama's plan to remove 140,000 troops from Iraq, including 
all combat forces by next summer, is a challenge. It is a challenge not 
only for our military but also on the diplomatic front. We will be 
working with the Iraqi Government throughout this transition to make 
certain we do everything in our power to have a meaningful handover of 
authority and a stable Iraq left behind. We are going to have 35- to 
50,000 transitional forces that will remain to train and advise Iraqi 
security forces, to conduct counterterrorism operations, and to protect 
American civilian and military personnel. Those transitional forces are 
scheduled to leave by the end of 2012. Is there anyone who believes we 
can accomplish this without having our best and brightest on the ground 
in Iraq? Is there any parent or spouse, relative, or friend of a 
service man or woman now risking their life in Iraq who does not 
believe we should have an ambassador on the ground? How can we explain 
to these soldiers that for 2 months, while Congress sits here wringing 
its hands, we have not sent an ambassador to Iraq?
  Yesterday, we were forced to have a cloture vote. A cloture vote 
basically

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says: Stop talking, Senators, and get down to business. Make a decision 
once in a while.
  Do you know what the vote was yesterday? It was 73 to 17. That means 
that not only the 57 Democrats who are here but at least 16 of the 
Republicans joined us and said: Let's get this moving.
  How do we find ourselves in this position where the President wants 
to send the most important civil representative of our Government to a 
nation where American soldiers' lives are at risk and the Senate wrings 
its hands and says: Well, maybe we ought to wait a few days; maybe we 
ought to wait a few weeks; maybe we ought to let this sit over the 
Easter recess while we eat our Peeps and jellybeans. I do not buy that. 
This is a critical decision for America's security interests. Sending a 
diplomat of the skill of Christopher Hill is absolutely essential to 
protect America's interests, to protect the interests of servicemen, to 
make certain we have an ongoing relationship with the Iraqis, so that 
our service men and women can come home safely and Iraq will be stable 
and safe itself afterward. There is no reason to delay this 1 minute 
more. We should vote on Christopher Hill's nomination immediately. Why 
are we denying this? Why are we delaying this when 73 Senators 
yesterday said: Do it. That is enough. There are enough Senators to get 
this job done.
  President Obama stated a clear goal here: ending our combat mission 
in Iraq by August 31, 2010. When the combat mission ends, the United 
States will still leave behind in Iraq the largest American Embassy in 
the world, where we will maintain a diplomatic mission to help a 
country still struggling to build stability and democracy. Is there 
anyone who questions whether we need an ambassador to be in that 
Embassy? Shouldn't that person have been there weeks ago instead of 
being delayed by the other side in the Senate?
  I do not deny to any Senator the right to speak, express their 
concerns or reservations about any appointment. I do not deny to any 
committee of this Senate the opportunity to have a hearing, which 
Ambassador Hill did have. All of that happened in the regular order. At 
the end of the day yesterday, 73 Democratic and Republican Senators 
said: Get on with it. Still, we languish over this nomination at this 
very moment. The military leaders, American military leaders of Iraq, 
have been begging this Senate to do its job and send an ambassador who 
can complement the fine work of General Odierno in Iraq. We continue to 
delay.
  The President's plan for Iraq is measured and thoughtful and will 
bring a resolution to this war. It sends a message to the Iraqi 
political leadership that they have to take responsibility for their 
own future. It takes into consideration the concerns and 
recommendations of the senior military leaders regarding the time for 
the drawdown and the manner in which it will be implemented. It frees 
resources for the real battle against al-Qaida in Afghanistan, which 
was the source of the 9/11 attacks. It includes comprehensive 
diplomatic engagement with all of the countries of the region not only 
on the future of Iraq but on other important regional challenges. It 
begins to put an end to the extraordinary cost to America and American 
families in terms of lives and dollars that the Iraqi war has entailed.
  Our military men and women have served heroically in Iraq. I have 
been there to visit them. I have been several times in my home State to 
see our Guard units take off and join the conflict. I have been there 
to welcome them home, attended the funerals. We could not ask for 
anything more. They have given us so much, and they continue to do so 
as we meet in the safety of the Senate Chamber here in the Capitol. 
More than 4,200 Americans have been killed, 165 from my home State of 
Illinois. When the war started, I said I would write a note to the 
families who lost soldiers from my State. Little did I dream that years 
later I would still be signing those notes, as I did yesterday. 
Thousands have suffered serious physical and psychological injuries. 
That is the real cost of this war. Civilian experts in and out of the 
Government have also served with distinction and paid with their lives. 
Thousands of innocent Iraqis have died. I have seen firsthand the 
dangerously hard work our soldiers face.
  We owe them gratitude and admiration, but we also owe them our best 
efforts to make certain we bring this war in Iraq to an end in the best 
possible way. President Obama has the strategy, but to implement this 
strategy we need an experienced ambassador in Iraq without any further 
delay.
  I wonder what would have happened under the previous administration 
if the Democrats had held up a key appointment of an ambassador to Iraq 
in the midst of a war. Well, I can tell you what would have happened: 
The rightwing radio would have gone crazy, talking about endangering 
American servicemen by not filling this critical position. We would 
have speeches on the floor about shirking our responsibility and that 
we cannot go home for a break until we send a full complement of our 
best and brightest to represent America in Iraq. I can almost predict 
that would have happened if we had been so shortsighted under the 
previous administration as to hold back a career diplomat such as 
Christopher Hill.
  Well, it has happened here, and it is happened for too long. It is 
unforgivable. It is inexcusable. Members have had plenty of time to 
give their speeches, to express their concerns, even to vote no, which 
is their right to do if they believe this man is not the right person 
for the job. But it is time for us to get on with this important 
mission. We owe it to those men and women who are risking their lives 
in Iraq. We owe it to all who have served there and to the American 
people who have sustained this war, as expensive as it has been in 
terms of life and costs. It is time for us to stop wasting time. It is 
time for us to fill this position and send Christopher Hill to be the 
U.S. Ambassador to Iraq.
  Mr. DURBIN. Madam President, I yield the floor.

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