[Congressional Record Volume 155, Number 82 (Wednesday, June 3, 2009)]
[Senate]
[Pages S6025-S6026]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                     NOMINATION OF REGINA McCARTHY

  Mr. LAUTENBERG. Mr. President, I rise today to speak in support of 
Regina McCarthy, President Obama's nominee to be Assistant 
Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency for Air and 
Radiation. Ms. McCarthy has decades of experience administering 
environmental programs at the state level under both Democratic and 
Republican administrations. Her qualifications are unquestionable, and 
her confirmation will help move our country toward a safer environment 
and a healthier economy.
  We are at a critical point in the history of our Nation and indeed 
our planet. New science appears seemingly every month showing the 
danger posed by climate change. Already this year, new peer-reviewed 
studies revealed that the Arctic will likely be ice-free in the summer 
as early as 2012-- not 2050, as predicted by the Nobel Prize-winning 
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change--IPCC--in 2007. Another peer-
reviewed study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 
showed that global emissions, if they continue at current rates, would 
increase global temperatures by 12 degrees Fahrenheit by the end of the 
century. This is on the extreme high end of temperature projections by 
the IPCC. Finally, two new studies found that ice melt from Antarctica 
and Greenland will likely raise sea levels by five to six feet by the 
end of the century, far above the two feet predicted by the IPCC, which 
did not consider melting from those two sources.
  Regina McCarthy will be on the front lines of our Nation's battle to 
stabilize the climate. The office she will manage is responsible for 
improving air quality and reducing the greenhouse gas emissions that 
cause global warming.
  Congress must act quickly to place strong, science-based limits on 
emissions, and force polluters to pay to clean up the damage they have 
done to our environment and our health. We must do so in a way that 
creates jobs, allows businesses and individuals to save money through 
efficiency, and pulls the country out of this recession and into a 
clean energy future.
  The coal and oil industries are powerful, and are spending billions 
of dollars fighting the science and fighting any policies that would 
break their stranglehold on our Nation's energy policy. In the first 3 
months of this year alone, the oil and gas industry spent $37.3 million 
to lobby the Federal Government. That is money that could be going 
toward cleaning up their operations. Instead it goes toward impeding 
our progress toward a clean energy jobs bill to stop climate change.
  Despite those obstacles, the House has reported legislation out of 
committee and we are working toward a bill in the Environment and 
Public Works Committee. However, as Congress works toward comprehensive 
legislation, our planet cannot afford to wait to begin reducing 
emissions. That's why President Obama's EPA recently found that 
greenhouse gases are pollutants under the Clean Air Act. This will 
allow the EPA to use existing authority to regulate some of the largest 
sources of greenhouse gases, such as power plants, refineries, and 
automobiles.
  Just as the EPA does not use the Clean Air Act to regulate small 
sources of air pollution such as residential buildings, churches, or 
hospitals for pollutants like smog and soot, it will not regulate these 
sources for greenhouse gases. Our economy grew rapidly as we 
dramatically reduced emissions of air pollutants under the Clean Air 
Act, and I am certain we can use the Clean Air Act to reduce greenhouse 
gases while creating clean energy jobs and reviving our economy.

[[Page S6026]]

  Ms. McCarthy is supremely qualified to succeed in that task. 
Throughout her 25 years of experience at the State level, she has 
proven to be practical and intelligent in her approach to protecting 
the environment. She most recently served as the commissioner for the 
Connecticut Department of Environmental Protection--DEP--and was 
appointed to this post by Republican Governor M. Jodi Rell in December 
2004. Prior to serving in this capacity, Ms. McCarthy worked on 
environmental issues for 20 years at the State and local level in 
Massachusetts. She served as the deputy secretary of operations for the 
Massachusetts Office of Commonwealth Development, a ``super 
Secretariat'' that coordinates policies and programs of that state's 
environmental, transportation, energy and housing agencies. She was 
appointed to this position by then-Governor Mitt Romney.
  Ms. McCarthy is known for her active role as Connecticut DEP 
commissioner in promoting the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, RGGI, 
a cooperative initiative by 10 Northeastern States, including New 
Jersey, to implement a cap-and-trade program for greenhouse gas 
emissions from powerplants. That experience will serve her well when 
she is tasked with implementing the climate legislation that Congress 
must--and will--pass.
  Our planet cannot wait any longer for lower emissions from cars and 
power plants, American workers cannot wait any longer for clean energy 
jobs, and our economy cannot wait any longer for the technological 
innovations and improved efficiency that will lay the groundwork for 
lasting, sustainable prosperity. Confirming Regina McCarthy will let 
her get to work cleaning up our environment, and we in the Senate will 
begin the work of passing a bill that makes polluters pay, creates 
clean energy jobs, and revives our economy.

                          ____________________