[Congressional Record Volume 160, Number 84 (Monday, June 2, 2014)]
[Senate]
[Pages S3333-S3335]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                             Climate Change

  Mrs. BOXER. Mr. President, in this work we do so many issues need to 
be discussed. One of them I have tried to discuss, along with several 
colleagues, is this incredible threat to our planet caused by climate 
change. I have participated with my colleagues, Senator Whitehouse, 
Senator Markey, Senator Cardin, and many others, in all-night speeches 
and in hearings.
  I am so proud to be the chairman of the environment committee. It was 
many years ago when I took the gavel to become the chairman that I 
started to really get involved in the details and in the science and in 
the predictions of scientists as to what could happen. We came very 
close to doing something important here in the Senate, but we faced a 
filibuster, and although the House passed a very important bill years 
ago, we couldn't get it done. We fell six votes short.
  At the time, the press said to me: What are you going to do? Are you 
going to do nothing about this? No, I said. Actually, the most popular 
law that has ever been passed--I believe it; I haven't taken a poll on 
it, but I can tell my colleagues from looking at studies that the Clean 
Air Act covers all kinds of pollution, including carbon pollution. I 
said that even though we weren't able to have a cap-and-trade system 
which would put a price on carbon and let people get permits and trade 
them, I felt that was a good way to work in a capitalistic society, and 
we didn't go there. I said we have the Clean Air Act. Once an 
endangerment finding is made--it was started during the Bush 
administration and completed during the Obama administration--we know 
the President has full authority to act, with or without the deniers 
here in the Senate and in the House.
  Now, 40 percent of all the carbon is emitted by powerplants, so 
powerplants are a very important part of the

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problem we have to address. We already know the President and the 
Congress worked together to reduce the pollution coming out of our cars 
by passing very important fuel economy measures. But this is really the 
largest problem--those powerplants and the dangerous carbon.
  The President understands and looks at his kids and he knows if they 
are going to have a world in which they can thrive, we have to do 
something about this problem, and we can't just put our heads in the 
sand and say the scientists are wrong. Let's not be like the deniers 
who said smoking didn't cause cancer. Ninety-seven percent of 
scientists said it did; 3 percent said it didn't. The tobacco lobby 
went on the side of the bad guys and, for years, we had to fight and 
prod and push. Guess what happened? People got sick and a lot of them 
died because there was basically a coverup by the tobacco industry.
  We are facing a similar situation. The big special interests are 
trying to tell the American people: Don't worry about this climate 
change. It is no big deal. Well, here is the great news: The President 
has stepped forward. He has taken on carbon pollution from powerplants.
  Under current law there is no limit to the amount of carbon pollution 
that can be released into the air from powerplants. The President's 
carbon pollution reduction plan is going to change all that. It will 
protect public health. It will save thousands of lives. It will avoid 
up to 6,600 premature deaths, 150,000 asthma attacks, 3,300 heart 
attacks, 2,800 hospital admissions, and 490,000 missed days at school 
and work will be prevented. Those benefits will kick in.
  Here is what is important about that. When we clean up the carbon, we 
protect the air quality. That is why the President went to a hospital 
when he announced this. That is why 70 percent of the people--
including, as I recall, a huge majority of Americans--support 
regulating carbon from powerplants and they are even willing to pay for 
it. A lopsided and bipartisan majority of Americans support Federal 
limits on greenhouse gas emissions according to this new poll. Fully 70 
percent say the Federal Government should require limits to greenhouse 
gases from existing plants. What is so interesting: 57 percent of 
Republicans support it, 76 percent of Independents, and 79 percent of 
Democrats. So this is a plan whose time has come.

  This plan will also create tens of thousands of jobs as we move to a 
clean energy economy. By reducing carbon pollution, we can avert the 
most calamitous impacts of climate change, such as rising sea levels, 
dangerous heat waves, and economic disruption. If we do not act, we 
could see a 10-degree Fahrenheit rise in temperature, and that is 
disastrous, really, for all of our States.
  I have been so privileged to work on the Senate Climate Action Task 
Force. What is interesting is that I have listened to people from all 
over the country talk about what this climate change means in their 
States. Coastal States have a certain set of problems, inland States, 
agricultural States, and there are the forest fires that are burning 
out of control. I hope people will watch the documentary ``Years of 
Living Dangerously.'' It is really a wake-up call if you have not 
already awakened to this problem. It is happening all over the world--
fires that do not stop, droughts that the Defense Department is telling 
us are a real problem.
  Do you know how the House of Representatives deals with climate 
change? They pass a bill that says the Defense Department cannot act on 
what they have already said, which is that climate change is a real, 
serious threat multiplier. They actually said now it could be a cause 
of conflict. Before they said it was a threat multiplier. Now they say 
it is actually a--they use the word ``catalyst'' for conflict. But the 
House does not like that, so they just said: It shall be so. We will 
not talk about this anymore. Stamp my foot--no. Disregard 97 percent of 
the scientists.
  Here is the thing I like about the President's proposal: It is 
respectful of States' roles. It allows major flexibility. Every State 
is going to have its own plan. Some States may say: Coal-fired plants, 
you can clean up a little bit. We will get a little savings there. But 
we will also do some energy efficiency so you do not have to burn as 
much coal. This is what is envisioned.
  Eventually, we are going to see lower prices for our folks. They say 
in about 15 years we are going to see an 8-percent decrease. Let me say 
that again. It is going to shrink electricity bills roughly 8 percent, 
and that is going to happen because we are going to have increased 
energy efficiency and reduced demand.
  So this poll is very clear. People want action. And the Clean Air Act 
is very clear.
  I think it is important to note that under George Bush we wasted 8 
years because they kept saying carbon pollution was not covered in the 
Clean Air Act. But we had some very smart attorneys who went up there--
and one of them is sitting here--who said: No, no, no. Just read it. If 
you read it, you will see.
  Thank goodness the Supreme Court ruled and said that absolutely 
greenhouse gas emissions can be regulated if there is an endangerment 
finding. And there certainly was that. So the Clean Air Act has a 
proven track record.
  I will close with this. To those people who are in denial, I say: 
Wake up because it is not about you; it is about your kids and your 
grandkids and their kids. So get out of that phase because you are 
hurting people--innocent people. This is your time to do something--not 
to walk away.
  For those people who say: Oh, the environment, that is not an 
important issue to the people--no. It is a big deal. Every time my 
friends here try to repeal parts of the Clean Air Act, I come to the 
floor with colleagues. We have stopped them. The House voted 90 times 
with these terrible riders. We have stopped them every time. Eighty 
percent of the people support the Clean Air Act. We have to protect our 
families.
  We have seen a country that has thrown the environment under the bus. 
Now they say they are changing, but let's see what a country looks 
like--instead of listening to my words, let's look at a photo. As shown 
in this picture, this is what life is like in some Chinese provinces. 
They do not care about the environment. They do what some of my friends 
say: Oh, repeal this--they do not even have these laws to repeal. They 
do not care. Just develop, just develop, just develop. Do not pay 
attention. Do not worry about best technologies. Just throw the 
environment under the bus.
  Well, guess what. These people are being thrown under the bus. They 
cannot breathe. And if you cannot breathe, you cannot work. So even 
China--they are learning they have to do something to clean up their 
environment.
  But we cannot look like this in the future. I am just telling you. 
People think, oh, an exaggeration. I had one of my Republican 
colleagues walk out on me in a hearing because I showed this picture. 
They said: We do not want this.
  I am not saying they want it. I am saying that if you repeal all the 
provisions of the Clean Air Act that they are trying to repeal--and 
they want, by the way, to stop us from this rule--that is what is going 
to happen, not that they want it to happen. Of course they do not want 
it to happen. They do not think it is going to happen. But this has 
happened because in China, like us, they have a very big economy, and 
they are expanding. We want to expand, but we have to do it in a clean 
way.
  So the people of my home State of California get this. They get this. 
The oil companies came in and they put millions of dollars to try to 
get us to repeal our cap-and-trade system and our rules and our laws. 
People said: No, no, no, we are not going there with you, Big Oil. 
Clean up your act.
  My mother used to say: Clean up your room. The room they are 
polluting belongs to everybody. It is the atmosphere. We all have to 
clean it up. This is not something we take a pass on. This is the 
planet Earth itself. Somebody said the other day--some scientist--that 
the Earth will survive. It will look a lot different. The water will be 
different. This will be different. There will not be the same things 
growing and forests will be elsewhere. But what about the people? Well, 
that was not a good story.
  It is up to us. We have a lot on our shoulders. We really do. I am 
not saying it is easy. Nothing is easy. My dad

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used to say: Nothing good comes easy. It is true. We have to try to 
figure it out.
  But I want to say to this President tonight how proud I am that he 
has stepped up to the plate. All the screaming and the denials and the 
yelling and the rest and the special interests, which my colleague 
Senator Whitehouse says has a barricade of lies around the Capitol--and 
he is just looking at his daughters and he is looking at all the young 
people he meets, and he is saying: You know what, I have to do 
something. And he is looking at the military. He is looking at them and 
he is thinking: I am being told--he is saying--by the Department of 
Defense that climate change is making this an unstable world.
  Actually, there is a very strong case to be made that was made in a 
documentary that a lot of the cause of the Syrian war started out with 
the farmers rebelling and revolting because they cannot deal with what 
is happening to their lives--the farmers.
  So whether it is climate change or taking care of our veterans or all 
the other things facing us--the violence--we have a lot on our plate. I 
just hope we can step up to the plate, with the best of intentions, 
work across party lines, do our best, stop playing politics. President 
Obama says one thing. It does not matter what he says, the other side 
is all over it. How could that be? How could every single thing a 
person says be controversial? Sometimes I think if the President said 
``Good morning,'' one of the Republicans would say ``It is not; how 
dare you say it is a good morning?'' That is what it is getting to. We 
have to put that aside. We are only here for a short amount of time, 
and we have to do our best to solve the problems the American people 
face.
  So I took a long time tonight because I feel there are so many things 
out there that I am so privileged to be able to talk about and, more 
important, I can do something about. So I hope our colleagues will come 
together on these topics and we can make some progress for the good of 
the American people.
  I yield the floor and suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Ms. WARREN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for 
the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.