[Congressional Record Volume 164, Number 120 (Tuesday, July 17, 2018)]
[Senate]
[Pages S4998-S4999]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
Nomination of Brett Kavanaugh
Ms. SMITH. Mr. President, I rise today to express my strong concern
about Judge Brett Kavanaugh's nomination to the Supreme Court. In
particular, I want to discuss today his troubling record on the
environment and what that means for people's health.
Judge Kavanaugh has demonstrated that he simply doesn't believe that
existing law allows new environmental threats to be addressed via any
sort of regulation. I am talking about existing law designed to protect
human health and our environment.
When you take a look at Judge Kavanaugh's record, one thing becomes
abundantly clear: Judge Kavanaugh has tried to weaken Clean Air Act
protections even though the act controls pollutants such as smog and
carbon monoxide, which contribute to asthma, heart attacks, and even
premature deaths. They put our health at risk.
In a 2012 case, Judge Kavanaugh authored an opinion that found the
EPA had exceeded its authority when the Agency directed upwind States
to literally stop blowing smoke onto their downwind neighbors. The good
news is that the Supreme Court was more sensible than Judge Kavanaugh.
Justices Kennedy and Roberts joined four others in a 6-to-2 decision to
overturn Judge Kavanaugh's lower court ruling. Writing for the
majority, Justice Ginsburg found that the EPA does have the power to
act to protect people's health. I agree with the Supreme Court's 2012
decision, and so do most Americans. An April 2018 poll found that 75
percent of Americans support even stricter limits on smog.
What Judge Kavanaugh particularly doesn't like is that the Clean Air
Act specifically gives the Environmental Protection Agency the right--
the duty, even--to regulate new pollutants that threaten people's
health. He has objected to using the law to establish new programs to
reduce mercury--a potent toxin that harms developing brains. In 2014,
Judge Kavanaugh lashed out at tough standards for mercury--a toxin that
has been found to harm children's development.
Judge Kavanaugh's narrow view of the Clean Air Act could be extremely
damaging to our efforts to address climate change by regulating
greenhouse gases. Although the act does not mention greenhouse gases by
name, the Supreme Court has held that the EPA does have the power to
regulate them. In fact, the Court held that the act requires the EPA to
address any air pollutants that are found to endanger human health. But
Judge Kavanaugh still seems to have a problem with adding new
pollutants to that list. This is even though Judge Kavanaugh claims to
believe what virtually every scientist tells us: that manmade climate
change is real and is an enormous threat to our planet and to our
health. But merely accepting climate science is too low a bar because
even if Judge Kavanaugh believes in the urgent challenge of climate
change, he doesn't seem to believe there is an urgent need to address
it, as his record demonstrates.
Over the next few decades, the Supreme Court will have many
opportunities to weigh in on how our government can work to protect our
environment, particularly regarding climate change.
And the stakes are high: Scientists tell us that in order to avoid
dangerous global warming, we must reduce our carbon dioxide emissions
to zero sometime between 2050 and 2065. But in 2018, global carbon
emissions are still increasing, not decreasing.
At the same time, President Trump is attempting to backpedal on every
commitment our country has made toward fighting global warming. He is
pulling us out of the Paris climate agreement. He is pulling back the
Clean Power Plan. He is looking for ways to force utilities to keep
expensive coal plants online--a move that would cost Americans billions
of dollars in increased electricity bills.
All of these moves will hurt the environment and harm the health of
Americans, and in each case, Judge Kavanaugh's record shows that he is
likely to act as nothing but an enabler.
My State of Minnesota is already experiencing the cost of climate
change. The rains in Minnesota are growing more intense, leading to
increased damage from flooding. As our winters grow milder and our
summers warmer, plant and human diseases are spreading. Many scientists
predict that the forests in my State will retreat rapidly, leaving
Minnesota looking like Kansas by the end of this century.
But it does not need to be all bad news. A rapid transition to
emissions-free energy sources is necessary to avoid the worst effects
of climate change, but this change will bring economic opportunity to
our country. We just need to rise to the challenge. In Minnesota, wind
and solar and biofuels are already potent drivers of job growth.
If Judge Kavanaugh succeeds in overturning the Federal obligation to
reduce greenhouse gas emissions, the clean energy transition in our
country will certainly slow. We will lose the competitive advantage to
China and other economic rivals in the race to develop the technology
and innovations of an affordable, clean energy future.
[[Page S4999]]
Right now, we have a President who pushes coal and fossil fuels
which, unless their carbon dioxide emissions are captured, must become
the energy sources of the past. President Trump's energy policy is
backward-looking and puts our economic competitiveness at risk. But
presidents serve only for a term or two, which brings us back again to
Judge Kavanaugh.
Hopefully, we will be able to recover from the backward environmental
policies of the Trump administration. But Supreme Court Justices serve
for life, so we cannot afford a Justice who is hostile to our
environment and to human health. We cannot afford a Justice who rejects
actions to fight climate change. We just don't have the time.
Thank you.
I yield the floor.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from South Carolina.