[Congressional Record Volume 162, Number 144 (Thursday, September 22, 2016)]
[Senate]
[Pages S5984-S5987]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                             CLIMATE CHANGE

  Mr. MERKLEY. Mr. President, today I rise to address an issue vital to 
the future of our country and to the future of our planet: climate 
change.
  When President Kennedy told the Nation that we would land a man on 
the Moon by the end of the 1960s, he said:

       We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do other 
     things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard 
     . . . because that challenge is one that we are willing to 
     accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one which we 
     intend to win.

  It was an ambitious goal--one that many believed was beyond reach. 
The technology was not all in place. But on July 20, 1969, America and 
the entire world watched Neil Armstrong take one giant leap for mankind 
and become the first human to walk on the Moon. It was a powerful 
moment. We achieved President Kennedy's vision. We accomplished the 
improbable. We accomplished what many people thought was impossible 
because America and the American people are known for overcoming great 
challenges and achieving the impossible and because we set an ambitious 
goal that inspired us to push past the limits of what we had previously 
thought achievable. Now we have to do it again.
  But whether we are looking out to the Moon or out to the stars, we 
have to focus here on spaceship Earth and save our planet from 
catastrophic climate change. We have to move quickly because to save 
our planet--our beautiful, blue-green planet--we have to keep it from 
warming more than 2 degrees Celsius, which is 3.6 degrees Fahrenheit. 
The planet has already warmed nearly 1 degree Celsius since we started 
burning fossil fuels, and we are running out of time.
  Moreover, despite growing attention and growing concern around the 
world, humankind's production of global warming gas is still increasing 
rather than decreasing. We are in a race against time, and at this 
moment, we are losing that race.
  We need immediate, bold action. That is why in the upcoming months I 
will introduce a plan that challenges our Nation to transition to 100 
percent clean and renewable energy by the year 2050--a plan referred to 
as 100 by 50. The 100 by 50 plan will set a goal of having no more than 
50 percent of our country's energy come from fossil fuels by 2030 and a 
complete phaseout of energy from fossil fuels by the year 2050.
  There will be those who, as with President Kennedy's challenge, will 
say that is beyond reach, but we already have in hand the vast majority 
of the technology needed to meet this challenge. We need market 
incentives that will dramatically accelerate the introduction and 
deployment of these technologies. We need a continued effort to improve 
the affordability and efficiency of these technologies. Like going to 
the Moon, this has to be a challenge that our generation is willing to 
accept, unwilling to postpone, and that we intend to win.
  Climate change is here, and it is already having devastating impacts 
on our world. We can observe climate change in many different ways, 
through temperature readings of the planet, through the measuring of 
carbon dioxide which drives temperature increases, and we can see it 
through the changing, damaging facts on the ground, from glaciers to 
fire seasons, to droughts, to rising sea levels.
  Consider this. Since May of 2015, each and every month has set a new 
temperature record--the hottest May of 2015, hotter than any May ever 
recorded; June of 2015, hotter than any June ever recorded; July of 
2015, hotter than any July ever recorded and so forth, 16 months in a 
row. As NASA has recently announced, August of this year, 2016, has 
tied July of this year, 2016, as the hottest month ever recorded, not 
just the hottest July, not

[[Page S5985]]

just the hottest August, not just the hottest months of the year but 
the two hottest months ever recorded on our planet. To put that into 
context, global temperatures in August were almost a full degree 
Celsius above the 20th century average, well on the way to reaching 
that 2-degree threshold that scientists refer to as a threshold for 
catastrophic consequences. It isn't that catastrophic consequences 
start just when we reach 2 degrees. We can already see the facts on the 
ground, and we can already see the carbon dioxide that is driving 
temperature is continuing to rise steadily.
  We know carbon dioxide pollution that is spewing into the air from 
burning fossil fuels is driving those temperatures. That is because, as 
we burn more fossil fuel and emit more carbon dioxide, the carbon 
dioxide traps the heat on our planet's surface and global temperatures 
rise higher and higher. You can see that pattern going back hundreds 
and thousands of years. You can also see it just looking at the time 
from 1959 until now.
  We have increased substantially the amount of carbon dioxide from 320 
parts per million to now we have broken 400 parts per million. During 
that time, temperatures have risen steadily just copying that carbon 
dioxide level, just as it has over hundreds of thousands of years 
before.
  What we also see is that in this black line, which are the carbon 
dioxide levels, we see the slope is going upward, meaning that the rate 
of humankind pollution is increasing, not decreasing. Not so long ago, 
scientists said we must curtail the pollution of the planet at 350 
parts per million. That is down here, 350 parts. We are no longer 
there. We passed that level quite a while ago in the late 1980s, and 
here we are at 400, steadily going up.
  So we see it in the temperatures, the hottest months ever on record 
for 16 months in a row, we see it in the carbon dioxide, but we can see 
it wherever we travel in this country through the facts on the ground.
  Take my home State of Oregon. Our fire season is now 60 days longer 
than it was 40 years ago, with ever greater acreage being burned. Just 
this summer, we saw two wildfires--the Cherry Road and Rail Fires--burn 
more than 100 square miles of land. Another example, warmer winter 
months failing to kill the pine beetles, magnifying their destructive 
infestations. On the coast of Oregon, we see the rising acidity of the 
Pacific Ocean, the level 30 percent higher than it was before we 
started burning coal, gas, and oil 150 years ago. That was before the 
industrial revolution. It is making it much harder for the oyster to be 
able to reproduce and to form shells in those first few days of life.
  Now, we may wonder, what does ocean acidity have to do with global 
warming? Here is the situation. The carbon dioxide we are putting into 
the air--much of it is being absorbed by the ocean. The amount that is 
left is the amount you saw on the chart just a moment ago, but the 
amount the ocean absorbs becomes carbonic acid. The ocean is so vast, 
it is almost unimaginable that there could be enough carbon dioxide 
that we are putting into the air to be absorbed by the ocean to create 
carbonic acid to create this acidity level, but that is exactly what 
has happened. If the shells of our oysters are being affected, what 
else is being affected in the food chain? For example, what about the 
impact on coral reefs?
  Obviously, it is not just Oregon that is feeling the impact. Every 
State we go to, we can find an impact of facts on the ground. We see 
communities all along the East Coast, from Key West and Miami to 
Wilmington, NC, Annapolis, New York, experiencing sunny-day flooding 
because of rising sea levels. We have watched the glaciers of Glacier 
National Park dwindle from 150 in 1910 to just 25 today.
  As with the pine beetles, warmer weather is great for ticks, and out-
of-control tick populations are killing moose in Minnesota and New 
Hampshire. The lobsters of Maine are moving north. That is not all. It 
is like the 10 plagues in ancient Egypt--more devastating droughts, 
more powerful floods, fiercer storms. It is a direct assault on rural 
America, a direct assault on our fishing, forestry, and farming, and 
that matters. It matters for rural America and it matters for urban 
America.
  Our Earth is changing at lightning speed right before our eyes. We 
can evaluate this change through temperature records. We can evaluate 
it through the recording of carbon dioxide levels. We can evaluate it 
through the facts on the ground, and it is all going to get much worse, 
year by year.
  So there is no time to wait. To save our planet, we must move 
quickly. We must move forward to end the burning of fossil fuels and to 
do so in a short period of time. We must completely transform our 
energy system.
  In the first half of 2016, roughly 60 percent of our Nation's total 
energy output came from burning fossil fuel. The good news there is, we 
already have made a significant reduction, if you will, of the total 
energy picture. There is a lot of clean and renewable energy we are 
producing, but we have so much further to go.
  On these bar charts, what we are seeing in red is the amount of 
energy in different sectors: residential, commercial, industrial, and 
transportation in the generation of electricity. The red is what is 
being produced by fossil fuels, and the green represents what is being 
produced by clean or renewable energy. These red bars have to go. We 
need to transform them completely and do so to the green bar, renewable 
and clean energy, by 2050.
  This goal is achievable, but it is going to take enormous political 
courage. Those vested deeply in the fossil fuel economy will--for their 
personal profit, their company's profit--try to hold on to the fossil 
fuel energy economy. It will not matter to them that they are 
destroying the planet, but it should certainly matter to every single 
Senator who serves in the U.S. Senate and every Member of the House. We 
are responsible. We are responsible to take on this challenge.
  The first thing we should do, because it is a fabulously effective 
tool, is put a fee on carbon. A fee on carbon drives our economy to 
eliminate carbon in the most cost-effective ways, unleashing a torrent 
of technology, the development of technology in the best possible, 
cost-effective way to turn these red bars into green bars.
  We have seen this work before. We applied this strategy to sulfur 
dioxide, and the result was that with less expense and less time than 
anyone imagined, we were able to tackle that problem, and what works 
for sulfur dioxide works for carbon dioxide. The impact on the price of 
carbon will be immediate and substantial. One of the reasons is, we 
already have significant, powerful technologies that will be mobilized 
by such a carbon fee.
  Let's examine some of the major energy sectors, starting with 
electricity. The potential electricity we could generate in the United 
States from just wind and solar is over 120 times the amount of 
electricity currently generated from fossil fuels. This is the amount 
of energy currently generated in electricity from fossil fuels. This 
large green sphere is the potential energy--the theoretical potential 
energy--from solar and wind. So we have a lot to work with.
  Here is more good news. Solar and wind energy has grown increasingly 
affordable in recent years. For instance, photovoltaic solar panels 
produced electricity at 39 cents per kilowatt hour in 2009. That is up 
here. In 2014, it was 8 cents per kilowatt hour, an almost fivefold 
reduction. We see in communities and cities all across the country, 
businesses and homes with solar panels on their rooftops. We start to 
see businesses putting up arrays, not just on rooftops but sometimes in 
their yards. Those declining costs matter. If you put a carbon fee on 
top of it, you drive that deployment.
  Over the same period, the cost of wind was cut by more than half, 
from 14 cents per kilowatt hour to 6 cents per kilowatt hour. In the 2 
years since the 2014 numbers, the story has continued to be one of 
declining costs. Those declining costs, together with Federal tax 
credits, have resulted in a rapid growth in wind and solar energy 
deployment.
  Let's take a look at the solar side. We have on the red line the 
declining cost per kilowatt hour of solar energy and on the blue bars 
the increasing deployment of solar energy. That is pretty dramatic, 
rapid drops in costs, rapid increase in deployment.

[[Page S5986]]

  We see the same thing in wind. On wind power, we see declining costs 
occurring here, and we see increased deployment since the year 2000. In 
the early 2000s, I was traveling the State, talking to folks interested 
in running for the Oregon State Legislature. In the very first trip I 
took, I was traveling in the area and saw the first big wind turbines 
being deployed on the plateau east of the Cascades. Then 6 months 
later, 1 year later, 2 years later, there was a huge increase in 
deployment of wind turbines, mimicking what we see on this chart right 
here.
  Here is a fascinating number. In the first quarter--this is the first 
3 months of this year--96 percent of the new electricity-generating 
capacity has come from wind and solar. That is a stunning number. Most 
people think the new generation capacity is coming from natural gas 
because it has dropped so much in cost, but 96 percent in the first 3 
months of this year came from wind and solar.
  If we make a national commitment to these and other clean, renewable 
sources, such as geothermal and wave energy, we can absolutely achieve 
100 percent green electrons--clean, renewable electrons by 2050, 
eliminating fossil fuels in the generation of electricity.
  This decision is not without challenges, just as the journey to the 
Moon was not without challenges. Most significantly, we have to match 
the supply of the variable solar and wind energy to the demand for 
electricity. As we know, for solar and wind to generate electricity, 
the Sun has to shine and the wind has to blow, but there are a number 
of ways we can tackle this challenge.
  One answer is to shift demand through peak load pricing, encouraging 
consumers, for example, to shift flexible consumption, such as drying 
your clothes, to match the supply. We change the time of day we use our 
dryer. Another possibility is to increase the grid of electricity from 
one region where there is excess supply to another region where there 
is excess demand. A third answer is to store electricity, which can be 
accomplished through quite a variety of technologies. To name a few, 
you can store energy in a liquid salt solution at high-temperature 
solar projects. You can use pump storage, where you pump water up a 
hill and then you run it back down through turbines. You can use 
battery storage. By investing in these strategies, the elimination of 
fossil fuels in the generation of electricity is within our grasp.

  Let's turn to transportation. Fossil fuels have dominated the 
transportation sector for a century, but that is changing. One change 
is the greater deployment and use of mass transit, light rail, 
streetcars, bicycles, and pedestrian transit. These investments get 
people out of fossil fuel cars. That trend continues, and we should 
encourage it.
  Another strategy is electrify the cars themselves. We have seen 
tremendous progress in the electric car market thanks to falling prices 
and growing consumer demand. Today there are approximately 500,000 
plug-in vehicles driving on our roads. You can see how that really 
started in 2010, and here we are 6 years later at half a million cars, 
with a steady upward growth. Electric vehicles are far more viable 
today than they were in 2010 because the most expensive component of an 
electric vehicle is the battery, and the price of batteries--lithium 
ion batteries--has been plunging, dropping fourfold since 2008 to less 
than $300 per kilowatt hour.
  We have also seen other parts of the transportation industry adopt 
electricity into their fleets. Mack Trucks, for example, has developed 
an electric hybrid garbage truck. Proterra, an innovator in heavy-duty 
electric transport, recently unveiled an electric bus that can travel 
350 miles on a single charge. They are developing a recharging capacity 
that can recharge a bus faster than you can put diesel into a diesel 
bus tank.
  What about aviation? How do we transition our airlines from fossil 
fuels? Well, biofuels are a piece of the puzzle. United Airlines has 
started using a mixture of 30 percent biofuel and 70 percent 
traditional jet fuel for flights from Los Angeles to San Francisco. 
JetBlue just announced a 10-year contract to buy 350 million gallons of 
renewable biofuels to mix into its fuel supply. That will account for 
about 20 percent of its annual fuel use at Kennedy International 
Airport. Other airlines, including Lufthansa and Virgin Atlantic, are 
embracing biofuels.
  Let's think a little bit about long-haul trucking, which currently 
runs virtually universally on diesel. It is a big challenge. Biodiesel 
can play a role here, as it does in aviation. A few years ago, Poland 
Springs switched to a 5-percent biodiesel blend for its fleet of 
tractor trailers and tanker trucks. The company estimates that not only 
did it reduce its annual carbon emissions by 1.8 million pounds in the 
first 2 years, but it saved about $70,000 in fuel costs. That is a 
pretty substantial incentive.
  As more and more firms seek to replace fossil diesel with biodiesel, 
production has surged, increasing from 343 million gallons in 2010 to 
1.2 billion gallons in 2014. But while the production and use of 
biodiesel is growing, we don't anticipate that it will be a complete 
answer. The production of biofuel has challenges of its own, including 
a potential disruption of food agriculture.
  We have to keep developing and looking at a variety of technologies, 
possibly including, for example, the development of hydrogen fuel 
cells. Nikola Motor, an electric truck startup in Salt Lake City, 
announced plans at the end of last month for its upcoming Nikola One 
big rigs to run on custom-made hydrogen electric fuel cells. These 
trucks are going to be designed to travel 1,200 miles between hydrogen 
fill-ups.
  If hydrogen does become viable along established routes for trucking, 
we will need to generate a lot of hydrogen, and we can do that from 
electricity, putting the green electrons to work in this challenge and 
establishing a fuel deployment infrastructure.
  What about residential and commercial heating? About one-fifth of all 
natural gas is used to heat homes and water in residences. Both of 
these objectives can be accomplished through electrification. The good 
news here is that heat pumps, powered by green electrons, can be cost-
competitive with gas heating in most climates, even at today's very low 
natural gas prices.
  Replacing the use of natural gas in the commercial and industrial 
sectors will be more challenging, especially industrial manufacturing. 
Electrification will help. Conservation will help. They will be part of 
the solution. In some cases, there may not be a solution. There may not 
be a viable answer. We will need to employ carbon offsets to reach net 
zero generation of carbon dioxide from the burning of fossil fuels.
  So there are pieces of this puzzle we will have to figure out. Just 
as our predecessors in the space program did not have all of the 
answers when they set out on a mission to put a man on the Moon, we 
don't have all of the answers now, but we have a lot. With the 
diligence and determination that has characterized the American spirit, 
we will find more answers and we can reach these goals.
  We have so much of the technology in hand to propel ourselves into 
the 100-by-50 vision, but we need political courage. We need commitment 
as a nation. We need to take responsibility because we are the first 
generation feeling the impact of the disruptive ravages of climate 
change, and we are the last generation that can do something about it. 
And we do so, driving a rapid transition from a fossil fuel-based 
energy economy to a clean renewable one.
  One thing is certain: It is going to mean a lot of new jobs. That is 
pretty exciting. There is going to be a lot of innovation. That is 
pretty exciting. Already more than 2.5 million Americans go off to work 
every day in the clean and renewable energy industry. Some 414,000 are 
employed in renewable generation, such as solar and wind. In just the 
past 6 years, the solar industry alone has added 115,000 jobs. Another 
170,000 are employed in advanced vehicles, working to move the 
automotive industry further toward hybrid and electric vehicle 
technology. Imagine how many more jobs we will create if we truly 
commit and invest in clean and renewable technologies. Imagine what a 
boon it will be to our economy to be the leader in these industries, 
selling and exporting the technology and the products that we develop 
around the world.

  As we head into this exciting frontier, we have an obligation to do 
right

[[Page S5987]]

by all the American workers, the men and women who rely on jobs in 
fossil fuel industries to provide for their families. We need to make 
sure they have the support and the training and the help to transition 
to work in the new industries. We need to make sure no worker in the 
fossil fuel world is left behind.
  These are the basic elements of the 100-by-50 plan I will be 
introducing to move our country from fossil fuel to clean renewable 
energy:
  One. Adopt a price on carbon to put our markets to work on this 
mission.
  Two. Utilize energy conservation--virtually always the most cost-
effective strategy.
  Three. Convert all electricity generation from fossil fuel electrons 
to green electrons.
  Four. Shift as many uses as possible from the fossil fuel energy 
world to the electric energy world, including various applications in 
transportation and home and business heating.
  Five. Sustain substantial investments in research and development to 
improve current technologies and develop new ones.
  Finally, for the most difficult challenges, we may consider utilizing 
carefully constructed carbon offsets to reach net zero fossil fuels.
  Fellow citizens, colleagues here in the Chamber, we need a bold plan 
to save our beautiful, blue-green planet from the ravages of global 
warming. This 100-by-50 is that plan--completely overhauling our energy 
system over the next three and a half decades, eliminating carbon 
dioxide from the burning of fossil fuels by 2050.
  By leading this fight, America will benefit from all of the 
technological innovation it generates. By leading this fight, America 
will generate good-paying jobs. By leading this fight, America will 
have the moral standing to pull together the nations of the world onto 
a parallel path. America must lead this charge. We are the only Nation 
that can. We have the best scientific and technical minds in the world.
  The American people have the courage to take on big challenges. By 
leading this fight, America will bring together the nations of the 
world. Working together, we will save our planet. The world needs to 
act, and to act now, to tackle the devastating impacts of climate 
change. It cannot wait. But they will need our example--a national 
commitment to revolutionizing our energy sector to spur them to action, 
to set an example, to work in cooperation.
  Daniel Burnham, the great American architect, once said:

       Make no little plans; they have no magic to stir men's 
     blood and probably will themselves not be realized. Make big 
     plans; aim high in hope and work.

  We need to stir our blood and our hearts and our minds and our souls 
to this great challenge. We need to do everything in our power, 
utilizing every tool at our disposal. We are in a very real race 
against time, and it is a race in which we are behind but a race we 
must not lose. That is our responsibility. That is our moral obligation 
to our children and their children and their children's children.
  Some will say this can't be done, but I say to them and I say to you: 
Do not bet against America. We conquered the electron and harnessed 
electricity. We beat gravity to soar above the clouds. We cured 
diseases, invented the telephone, the television, and the Internet. 
When President Kennedy called us into action, we, America, traveled to 
the Moon. When we commit ourselves, there is nothing American ingenuity 
cannot accomplish. We will find the answers. We will achieve the 
impossible. At this moment, let's embrace the urgency of this mission 
and determine to act immediately and to act boldly.
  Fellow Americans, colleagues, let's join together and set ourselves 
and our Nation and, through our leadership, the world's community of 
nations on a course to make this giant leap for mankind.
  I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Cassidy). The clerk will call the roll.
  The bill clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order 
for the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.

                          ____________________