[Congressional Record Volume 165, Number 36 (Wednesday, February 27, 2019)]
[Senate]
[Pages S1507-S1508]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                    Nomination of Andrew R. Wheeler

  Ms. STABENOW. Mr. President, I rise today to speak about a vote that 
we will be having in just a few minutes on the process of moving Andrew 
Wheeler forward as the EPA Administrator.
  This is not a time for talk; it is not time for theoretical debates. 
This is certainly not the time for an EPA Administrator who, during his 
time at the EPA, has ignored climate scientists, rolled back climate 
regulations, and taken action that will lead to more carbon pollution.
  Instead, this is a time for bold, decisive action. We need to act 
today because life on our planet depends on it. The fate of our Nation 
depends on it. Our children's and grandchildren's futures depend on it.
  For those reasons, I cannot support Andrew Wheeler for the critical 
position of EPA Administrator.
  Climate change is real. In fact, it is more than real. It is an 
existential crisis, and it is already having real impact on Michigan 
families and Michigan's economy.
  Some call it global warming. Katharine Hayhoe, a climate scientist 
from Texas Tech, has a better term. She call calls it ``global 
weirding.'' Ask anybody in Michigan. Things have been weird.
  Our lakes are heating up. In fact, Lake Superior is getting about 2 
degrees warmer each decade. That could make the lake a happy home for 
invasive species, like sea lamprey.
  As the waters warm, these parasites grow and kill off more trout and 
salmon and other fish that are key to the Great Lakes' $8 billion 
recreational fishing industry. It is believed that warmer temperatures 
contributed to algal blooms on the lake last summer.
  Other changes we are seeing are life-threatening.
  Thanks to the polar vortex in January, Michigan experienced 
temperatures colder than Antarctica. Scientists believe that climate 
change has caused the jet stream to become wobbly--that is a technical 
term, ``wobbly''--pushing dangerously frigid air south.
  Folks say: Well, how can it be global warming when we see the polar 
vortex? It is about what is happening to destabilize the atmosphere and 
the planet and the changes that are occurring.
  Last weekend, a bomb cyclone hit my State, leaving tens of thousands 
of Michigan residents without power.
  We are having to come up with new terms. I had never heard of a bomb 
cyclone--60-mile-an-hour winds, ripping up homes and farms and 
roadways.
  The intensity of what is happening is incredible. The travel was so 
treacherous in Otsego County that all roads were closed--all of the 
roads were closed. Even drivers on Interstate 75 were getting stuck in 
drifts. That is our major highway.
  We can't link any specific storm to climate change. However, we do 
know that overall climate change is making storms more intense. They 
are longer. They are more intense. They are happening more frequently 
with more intensity.
  Last summer in Houghton County, more than 5\1/2\ inches of rain fell 
in 6 hours. It caused at least $100 million in damage to 
infrastructure, and a 12-year-old-boy died when the basement of his 
home collapsed.
  Our climate is changing, but you don't have to take my word for it. 
Just ask insurance company executives. Their companies paid out a 
record $135 billion--billion dollars--from natural disasters in 2017 
alone. That is almost three times as much as the historic annual 
average, and their projections show it getting worse.
  We need to take action on climate change. While it is not widely 
recognized, I want to speak about something positive that we have done, 
and that was last year's farm bill.
  As you know, the farm bill passed the Senate with a vote of 87 to 
13--the most votes in history. While the bill was historic for a number 
of reasons, one of those is that it includes the most ambitious Federal 
climate-smart agricultural and forestry policies to date, working with 
farmers and ranchers as partners.
  It helps farmers implement climate-smart policies by revamping USDA 
conservation programs to prioritize investments in soil carbon 
sequestration, incentivizing the planting of cover crops, and expanding 
USDA support for farmer participation in carbon markets.
  It also invests in the Rural Energy for America Program, which helps 
farmers and rural small businesses install renewable energy systems and 
creates a joint USDA-Department of Energy education grant program to 
drive carbon capture projects across rural America.
  We must also protect forests and farmland, which serve as vital 
carbon sinks that hold carbon rather than releasing it and making the 
destabilization even worse.
  The farm bill amends the popular Healthy Forests Reserve Program to 
prioritize carbon sequestration practices programs and discourage the 
development of forestland. It authorizes new programs to restore 
national forest landscapes, protect carbon-rich, old-growth trees, and 
prevent uncharacteristic wildfires and their emissions. It establishes 
a landmark soil health demonstration trial to keep carbon in the ground 
and promote healthy and productive farmland.
  I am proud of what we did. It was done with the partnership of 
farmers and ranchers, and I have to say that our farmers understand the 
importance of protecting our land--their land--air, and water, I think, 
as much as, if not more than anyone else. No one's business is more 
impacted by severe and erratic weather than our farmers. They are 
caught right in the middle of it, and I appreciate their working with 
us to be part of the solution.
  I am also working with my colleagues on policies to ensure that the 
United States, not China, is the global leader on advanced 
transportation technologies like electric and hydrogen vehicles.
  Meanwhile, Andrew Wheeler and the Trump administration are upending 
fuel economy and carbon regulations in a way that hurts the auto 
industry, consumers, and our environment. We need to invest more in 
renewable energy and the research that is making it more affordable all 
the time.
  Electric utilities in Michigan have committed to dramatically 
increase renewable electricity, reduce carbon emissions by 80 percent, 
and stop burning coal.
  Meanwhile, Andrew Wheeler and the Trump administration have rolled 
back the historic Clean Power Plan.
  I am proud of the fact that Michigan utilities are moving forward 
anyway because they know it is the right thing and they know what is at 
stake. But this administration--Andrew Wheeler--has rolled back the 
historic Clean Power Plan, the Nation's first regulation of greenhouse 
gases from the power sector.
  We need to be laser-focused on climate change and the existential 
threat it represents. Meanwhile, Andrew Wheeler and the Trump 
administration are doing their best to pretend that climate change is 
no big deal. That is even as the Pentagon recently concluded that two-
thirds of critical military installations are threatened--two-thirds of 
critical military installations are threatened--by climate change.

[[Page S1508]]

  Climate change is a big deal, and it is time to do something about it 
that is real--not play political games, but to actually do something 
thoughtful and real about it.
  In the wise words of Hank Williams, Jr., ``We need a little less talk 
and a lot more action.'' Andrew Wheeler has repeatedly shown no 
interest in acting. In fact, he wants to take us backward--and is 
taking us backward--on climate change. He has no interest in reducing, 
let alone eliminating, carbon pollution. We need to act, and it is 
clear that Andrew Wheeler is the wrong person to lead the EPA at this 
critical time for our country.
  I urge a ``no'' vote on Andrew Wheeler for EPA Administrator.