[Congressional Record Volume 159, Number 92 (Tuesday, June 25, 2013)]
[House]
[Page H3997]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                 PRESIDENT OBAMA'S CLIMATE ACTION PLAN

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Oregon (Mr. DeFazio) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. DeFAZIO. Last Thursday, Speaker Boehner called President Obama 
``absolutely crazy'' for moving forward with rules to reduce greenhouse 
gas emissions from power plants that cause global warming.
  What I think is absolutely crazy is the Republicans' constant denial 
of the overwhelming scientific consensus that climate change is real 
and human activity is largely responsible. I think it's absolutely 
crazy that the Republicans voted more than 50 times in the last 
Congress to block action on climate change.
  In March, I talked about a new peer-reviewed report from Oregon State 
and Harvard that looked at temperatures over the last 11,300 years; and 
they found that over the last 100 years, coinciding with the widespread 
use of fossil fuels and turbines, et cetera, that we have seen more 
temperature increase than over the previous 11,000 years; 100 years 
versus 11,000 years.
  Last month I came to the floor again to talk about a new NOAA report. 
Oceans are warming, fish stocks, many commercial fish stocks are moving 
north. Other things, which aren't capable of moving, are deteriorating 
in stocks.
  And then, on the west coast, we've had shellfish failures due to 
ocean acidification; and the shellfish, of course, are only an 
indication of what might happen to the rest of the food chain in the 
oceans.
  No one denies the acidification is due to the CO2 in the 
atmosphere. But the Do-Nothing Republican Congress just shrugs and says 
there's nothing to do.
  But, unlike the Republicans, President Obama accepts the science; and 
in about 2 hours, the President will release a plan to combat climate 
change here at home and lay out steps for working with some of the 
world's largest polluters, including India and China, to reduce 
emissions abroad.
  The details aren't all out yet, but the President's proposing to do 
something that I said we should do 5 years ago, that is, use the 
regulatory powers of the Clean Air Act to regulate new and existing 
power plants. That's responsible for almost 40 percent of our 
greenhouse gas emissions.
  We can make a huge dent in our emissions by moving forward on 
responsible, flexible efficiency standards for coal and natural gas 
plants.
  As the administration moves forward, it should take a close look at 
the climate plan outlined by the Natural Resources Defense Council. 
Their plan has two key elements: set State-specific emission rates to 
reflect the diversity of the Nation's electricity sector, and give 
power plant operators broad flexibility to meet those standards in the 
most cost-effective way through a range of existing technologies.
  The standard for every State would be an overall emission rate 
average of all the fossil fuel plants, and individual plants could emit 
at a higher or lower rate. Each covered plant with an emission rate 
above the State standard could meet the target by retrofitting a more 
efficient boiler, installing carbon capture, or it could burn a mixture 
of coal and cleaner fuels such as gas and/or biomass.
  The plan would allow for the owners of multiple power plants to 
average emissions rates of their plants and meet the required emission 
rate on average by running coal plants less often, increasing 
generation from cleaner sources, or integrating more renewable 
resources. Such an approach, that is both flexible and State-based, is 
exactly what makes the Clean Water Act one of our most successful 
environmental and public health statutes in history.
  Mr. Speaker, it's time to listen to scientists. Get serious about 
climate change. The evidence is in. The President has a plan. The 
Supreme Court has given him the authority to regulate. The only 
question now is whether the Republican leadership in the House of 
Representatives will listen and act.

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