[Congressional Record Volume 161, Number 98 (Thursday, June 18, 2015)]
[Senate]
[Pages S4257-S4258]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                   PAPAL ENCYCLICAL ON CLIMATE CHANGE

  Mr. MARKEY. Mr. President, today, Pope Francis released a historic 
encyclical--a message to the world to preserve the planet from climate 
change and environmental degradation. In giving us his message to 
protect what he calls ``our common home,'' Pope Francis has also given 
us a common goal--we must act now to stop climate change.
  Pope Francis's encyclical calls all people of conscience to examine 
our own lives, our relationships to people and the planet, and our duty 
to take action. The Pope's message is clear: Mankind created the 
problem of climate change and now mankind must solve it.
  Pope Francis delivered this message to the world, but the world needs 
America to lead.
  As the wealthiest Nation in the world and one of its largest 
pollution emitters, it is our economic and moral responsibility to act 
now. There is time to avoid the worst effects of climate change, but we 
must act now.
  Global temperatures are warming, glaciers are melting, sea levels are 
rising, extreme downpours and weather events are increasing, the ocean 
is becoming more acidic. Last year was the warmest year ever recorded, 
and it is the poorest and the most vulnerable in developing nations who 
have suffered the most from the developed world's pollution. By 
reducing U.S. carbon pollution, the United States can be a leader, not 
a laggard, in answering Pope Francis's call.
  Climate change deniers may be the doubting Thomases of the 21st 
century, but there is no doubting the science anymore when national 
academies of sciences across the globe, including the Vatican's, all 
agree that burning fossil fuels is changing the Earth's climate.
  So to all of the critics of Pope Francis's message, let's stop 
denying the science and let's start deploying the solutions. Let's 
deploy more wind and solar energy and renew tax breaks for these 
projects. Let's make our cars and trucks even more fuel efficient. 
Let's fully implement and defend President Obama's Clean Power Plan 
that will reduce carbon pollution from America's powerplants.
  The United States can be the leader in the clean energy revolution to 
reduce the pollution imperiling this planet, and then we can partner 
with other nations to share this technology and protect the most 
vulnerable. The United States has the technological imperative to lead 
on clean energy. We have the economic imperative to engage in massive 
job creation that will make it possible to save all of creation. We 
have the moral responsibility to protect our planet for future 
generations.
  The Pope has given us the guidance--the moral guidance--in his 
encyclical, and we know, ultimately, science and technology will be the 
answer to our prayers. But the leadership must begin here. This cannot 
happen without leadership from the U.S. Senate, from the United States 
of America. If we want to see more solar and wind deployed in our 
country, then we must put the tax credits on the books that incentivize 
the private sector and individuals across the country to deploy it.
  Last year, there were 5,000 new megawatts of solar installed in the 
United States. That is twice as much as has been deployed in the whole 
history of the United States up until 5 years ago. This year, there is 
going to be 7,500 new megawatts of solar installed in the United 
States. That is triple the whole history of the United States up until 
5 years ago. Next year, there is going to be 10,000 new megawatts of 
solar installed in the United States. That is four times as much as had 
ever been deployed in the whole history of our country cumulatively. So 
this is a revolution that is absolutely helping to transform the way in 
which we generate electricity in the United States.
  The same thing is true for wind. Wind is expanding at the same exact 
pace, in terms of generating sources of electricity from a place that 
has always been there, using God's energy in order to provide 
electricity for American homes and businesses.
  What is happening in both areas? Well, the Republican Senate has 
allowed the wind tax breaks to already expire. Already they have 
expired. The solar tax breaks expire at the end of next year. We have 
no agreement, no signal that this Senate is sending to the investors 
and solar consumers across the country that solar will be given any 
incentives past the end of next year.
  Similarly, we have seen a dramatic increase in the fuel economy 
standards of the vehicles which we drive. In fact, much of the problem 
we have in finding a source of revenues for a robust transportation 
bill comes from the fact that people are now consuming less gasoline in 
their much more fuel-efficient cars since President Obama took the 
authority--by the way, which this Senate gave to him in 2007--to 
dramatically increase the fuel economy standards for those vehicles. We 
have to go all the way up to the 54.5 miles per gallon which the 
President has proposed. That will dramatically reduce greenhouse gases.
  And we must ensure that the President's clean power rules, which he 
is going to promulgate within the next month, stay on the books. There 
are already those in the Senate who are saying they are going to try to 
vitiate, to overturn, to make impossible the implementation of those 
powerplant rules which will keep the greenhouse gases coming out of 
coal-burning plants--especially across our country--to a minimum, to 
reduce by 30 percent the amount of greenhouse gases, carbon, that comes 
out of powerplants generating electricity in our country by the year 
2030. We can do this. We are a technological power. The Pope, the 
world, they look to us.
  They say to us: President Kennedy challenged the Nation to put a man 
on the Moon in 8 years in order to say to the Soviet Union that we 
would not allow them to dominate outer space, and in 8 years our 
country invented new metals, invented new propulsion systems, returned 
that crew from the Moon safely. And we, with our American flag, said we 
are going to use outer space for peaceful purposes. Well, the flag that 
flew on the Moon is now in the Capitol. That is the return on 
investment in science and technology in the United States to help the 
rest of the world ensure that outer space would be used for peaceful 
purposes.
  The rest of the world expects us to be able to invent new 
technologies, new batteries, solar, wind, geothermal, energy 
efficiency, vehicles, metals that

[[Page S4258]]

will dramatically reduce the amount of pollution we are sending up into 
the world but simultaneously spread these technologies across the 
planet.
  In the 1990s, we invented new digital technologies. It was first just 
a very plain phone, but no one had one in their pocket until 1995 and 
1996 because the phone was the size of a brick and it cost 50 cents a 
minute. No one had one. It was too expensive. But then this Congress 
moved over 200 megahertz of spectrum. It incentivized the private 
sector to begin to move. Within 3 years, everyone had one of these 
phones in their pocket. Within another 8 years, it moved to a 
smartphone because we had begun the revolution. Where was the 
smartphone invented? Right here in the United States.
  Let's take Africa, for example. Twenty years ago did anyone believe 
that 700 million people in Africa would have a wireless device in their 
pocket? No. Why do they? Because the United States invented--the United 
States put the policies on the books that generated this revolution. 
They skipped telephone poles. They went right to wireless, right to 
cell phone towers. We did that. We gave the leadership.
  That is leading to a lot of economic development in Africa and in 
continents around this world. We have to do the same thing in energy 
technology. They can envision a day where they bypass having to put 
wires down the street for electricity as well and solar panels could be 
on their roofs, providing electricity to power their cell phones, their 
refrigerators, their stoves, their air-conditioning.
  We can do this. We have the capacity to do it, but we have to set our 
mind to doing it because there is an economic incentive for us. Oh, 
yes, there is a national security incentive for us. Oh, yes, we can 
tell the Middle East we don't need their oil anymore than we need their 
sand. We are going to provide our own power, and we are going to give 
other countries in the world the capacity to produce their own power. 
But we can do it as well because it is a moral imperative, because 
God's Earth, his creation is, in fact, now in jeopardy.
  We have to be the leaders. We have to answer this moral cause. We 
cannot say we can't do it. We can't say we can't invent our way out of 
this potential catastrophe for the entire planet. The Pope is calling 
upon us to be the world's leader, morally and economically. We can do 
it.
  Today is an important day, I think a watershed moment. I am a 
Catholic. The Pope is a Jesuit who is trained as a chemist. For those 
who say the Pope has no business talking about climate, he is a 
chemist. There are many people who say: Well, I don't have a view on 
climate because I am not a scientist.
  The Pope is a scientist. He has looked at the evidence. He has asked 
the Vatican academy of arts and sciences to study this issue. They have 
come back with their conclusions. Man is creating the problem and 
mankind now must solve the problem, but it is those who have created 
the pollution that the greatest responsibility falls.
  You cannot preach temperance from a barstool. You cannot tell people 
to reduce what they are doing--smoking or drinking or engaging in 
dangerous activities--if you, too, are engaging in them. The leadership 
must come from this Chamber. The leadership must come from the United 
States of America. Pope Francis's message must resonate throughout this 
Chamber in the months and years ahead. If we do it, we will have been 
doing--as President Kennedy said in his inaugural address--truly God's 
work here on Earth.
  I yield back the remainder of my time.
  Mr. President, I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The senior assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. McCAIN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for 
the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.

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