[Congressional Record Volume 165, Number 52 (Tuesday, March 26, 2019)]
[Senate]
[Pages S1953-S1963]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
The Green New Deal
Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, you either believe it or you don't believe
it.
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Is there such a thing as climate change? Are we going through some
change on our planet today? I think so, and 98 percent of the
scientists who report on the subject believe the same thing. The
evidence is everywhere, isn't it? The extreme weather events that we
are seeing are, I think, an indication that something is happening on
this Earth that we call home.
The obvious question is this: Do we have anything to do with it? Does
the fact that we are alive, functioning, building things, and dealing
with traveling by plane and other means have anything to do with what
is happening to our planet? I think so.
Can we do something about it? Sure, we know we can. If we are dealing
with greenhouse gas emissions that somehow in the atmosphere are
raising the temperature of planet Earth, what can we do about those
greenhouse gases? We know there are a lot of very simple and obvious
things.
I can remember a debate on this floor when we talked about making
cars and trucks more fuel efficient and when the folks in Detroit, who
are the smartest people running the automobile companies, said:
Impossible. You can't do it. Americans will never buy those cars. It
just will not work.
Thank goodness we ignored them. We established standards and
regulations. Do you know what? Like it or not, we drive more fuel-
efficient cars and trucks today, and, frankly, I like it. It was a step
in the right direction. It took governmental, congressional prodding to
take place, and it made this a cleaner, safer place to live in the
United States.
There are other things we can do as well, but, first, we need a basic
agreement that there is a problem, that human conduct--the way we live,
the way we work, and the way we produce things--has something to do
with it, and that we are committed to changing it.
How many nations in the world have agreed with that conclusion? All
of them. Wait. All of them except one--this country, this President,
who decided to withdraw from the Paris Agreement. It is a universal,
global decision by every nation on Earth except the United States that
we do have a climate problem, that we are the cause of some part of it,
at least, and that we should do something to change it. This President
says he doesn't buy it and doesn't think the science proves it. He and
he alone, on behalf of this country, stepped away from this agreement.
I think that was a serious mistake.
I am happy to report that Governors across the United States--at
least the Democratic Governors--have said they are going to ignore the
President when it comes to this, and they are going to set up their own
policies. I salute my own Governor, J.B. Pritzker, in Illinois. He is
not part of this denial camp that is trying to ignore the problem. He
is trying to do in our State, as others are, something to make sure
that this planet is more livable, more habitable.
Isn't it amazing that this has become such a partisan issue? There
was a time on the floor of this Senate when it was not. I remember when
the late Senator John McCain, whom I still honor to this day not only
for his service in the Senate but for his service to this country,
teamed up with Democratic Senator Joe Lieberman and started proposing
ideas to deal with climate change--bipartisan proposals, bipartisan
votes. Not anymore, no. We have a big wall down the middle of this
Chamber--on that side, climate denial and, on this side, a belief that
we should be doing something about it.
We could do something today, couldn't we? Couldn't we take the latest
climate assessment from the Federal Government, which spells out the
problem and spells out the challenge, and come up with at least a
reasonable, bipartisan approach with which to deal with the clear
scientific evidence that has been produced by this government as
required by law? Of course, we could, but we are not going to. Instead,
the Republican Senate leader has decided he wants to make a political
move. He wants to put the Democrats on the spot, not to solve the
problem but to have something he can talk about in the next campaign.
A group came together and proposed, as they call it, the Green New
Deal. I have taken a look at it. I went to Senator Ed Markey of
Massachusetts, who is one of the sponsors, and I asked him about it
because he is one of the authors. I know Ed Markey. I served with him
in the House, and I serve with him in the Senate. He has established
credentials when it comes to this issue. He truly cares and has done
many, many things to show that caring.
So I asked him: What is this Green New Deal? It is not a law. I mean,
it is not a bill that will become a law. It is simply a resolution,
which is kind of a statement of purpose, a statement of position. He
said to me that it was aspirational--in other words, that the Green New
Deal sets out aspirations, targets, and values.
I said to him: Ed, that is a good idea, but I want something that is
not aspirational. I want something that is legislational. That is what
we do here, right? I am sure he will come up with those specifics.
Yet Senator McConnell, the Republican Senate leader, has decided that
we are going to put the Democrats on the spot. Take it or leave it in
its entirety--the Green New Deal. Be on the record and vote this
afternoon.
I will make it clear to you right now that I think there are parts of
that Green New Deal that are excellent and some that I disagree with.
At this point in time, I am going to be voting present this afternoon
because I believe we should be legislational, and I believe we should
be bipartisan.
I have said this on the floor many times, and I will say it again:
The only major political party in the world today that denies climate
change is the Republican Party of the United States of America. Now, I
have waited for some Republican to come to the floor and say: Oh, no,
that is not true, Senator Durbin. There are other major political
parties that have the same position as we do. Yet no one has come to
the floor.
A few months back, one Republican Senator in an elevator quietly
said: I think there is a party in Australia that denies climate change.
Maybe that is true, but why in the world have we reached a point at
which this is such a partisan issue? Don't we all see what is happening
with the weather? Can't we see what is happening in terms of the
temperature of this Earth that we live on as it is consistently, year
after year, continuing to rise? Don't we realize that it has an impact
on this Earth that we live on? Don't we realize that if it continues
unabated, the Earth that I am leaving to my children and grandchildren
will be a much different place and a much more challenging place? Can't
we see the flooding in the streets down in Miami in Florida? Can't we
see the melting of the glaciers? Isn't that proof positive that
something is happening?
In my part of the world, the Midwest, I grew up with tornadoes. They
are so common where I live, we even named sports teams after the
tornadoes. When I was a kid--this happened half a dozen times, and I
will never forget it--in the middle of the night, Mom and Dad would
wake me up and say: The tornado sirens are blaring. Get in the basement
right now. Grab your covers and pillow and get downstairs.
We would head down to the basement and wait for the all-clear signal.
Tornadoes were part of our lives, but they were usually confined to
the spring and summer months. Just this last December, we had a tornado
in Taylorville, IL, 30 miles away from where I live. It wasn't supposed
to come this time of year.
Unusual things just like that are happening all over the place, and
they are devastating. Don't take my word for it; talk to the people in
the property and casualty insurance industry. They make a living trying
to guess what the weather is going to be. If they see some horrible
weather condition coming, they know it will not be good for their
bottom line. I have talked to them. There are some States in which they
are unwilling to write property and casualty insurance because of the
vulnerability to hurricanes, tornadoes, and extreme weather events.
They are making a conscious profit-and-loss business decision based on
the evidence before them that something is happening to weather in the
United States. They are not in denial. They embrace the concept every
day when they decide whether to write insurance and what premiums to
charge.
So if the people who do this for a living, who have to show a profit
in their
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company, have come to the conclusion that climate change is for real,
why haven't we in the Senate? Why do we instead engage in this
political theater we are going to have this afternoon? Why aren't we
instead, on a bipartisan basis, sitting down and saying: What can we
do? What can we do in terms of conserving energy, in terms of being
more fuel efficient, and in terms of being more sensitive to this
environment? What can we do?
There are a handful of Republican Senators who have stepped up and
said ``We should. We can see climate change where we live,'' but I wish
they would become a force to lead their leadership forward into taking
this up on a serious basis. This afternoon's vote is just part of a
political stunt. It is not a serious effort to deal with climate
change. We better do that pretty soon.
I yield the floor.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Alaska.
Ms. MURKOWSKI. Mr. President, thank you.
I am sorry I didn't hear all of the remarks from my friend from
Illinois because at the end, he pointed out that there are some on my
side of the aisle who acknowledge that we are dealing with a changing
climate and that those impacts are real. Well, this Senator is one of
them.
I come from a State where we see it. It is real. It is tangible. It
impacts not only the land and the water but also the people. We see
that in the Arctic. I am one who is approaching this from the
perspective of pragmatism and practical solutions we can move forward
with.
While I like aspirations, and we all have to have goals, I want us to
make sure we are not setting ourselves up for a situation where the
expectations are not realistic.
The Senator mentioned the vote we will have later this afternoon. I
have suggested that it is important for us around here to make sure
that we don't distract from those pragmatic and practical solutions and
that we don't amp up the rhetoric so high that we can't get ourselves
to a place where we can work cooperatively and collaboratively to get
to these solutions. If we are going to address it in a meaningful way,
it must be bipartisan, it must be enduring, it must move from one
administration to another, and, again, it has to be something we can
work toward with meaningful steps.
I would like to take just a couple of minutes today to speak to some
of the things and some of the areas in which I think Congress can
actually make some progress as we look to the issue of climate change.
I have refrained from speaking specifically to the Green New Deal as
it has been laid down and introduced because I don't see it as a real
and viable solution that has been fully considered as a proposal. There
certainly is a lot of aspiration to it. There certainly is a lot of
aspiration, but I have kind of refrained from piling on, if you will,
despite my concerns about the costs of the deal. I think we can go back
and forth in terms of how much it really costs individual Americans,
what is the cost to society, and what is the cost of not doing
something, but I think those are all kind of almost false in a sense
because it is not that we are not doing anything. I think we need to
establish that. If we were to enact and move forward with every aspect
of the proposal as it has been laid out, is it possible? Is it
possible?
It is certainly a worthy goal for us in this country to be
transitioning to more renewable and cleaner sources of energy. We are
doing that. We are certainly seeing that as the cost of solar is coming
down and as we are seeing more wind being harnessed. I think we have
great potential in more hydropower, more geothermal, and the
technologies that could be coming our way when it comes to ocean
energy.
Surely we need to be moving in that direction, but is it affordable?
Is it possible to transition to 100 percent renewable energy and
electric vehicles over the next 10 years? I don't believe it is
physically possible for us to do it in 10 years. So are we setting
something up so that young people, like the Senate pages who are
listening to me, will say: Well, sure, you should be able to do that in
10 years. You say you can. So if you haven't done it, you have failed.
This is not a question of whether we succeeded or failed but whether
every step we are taking is moving us in a more positive direction.
Shouldn't it be a worthy goal to maximize our energy efficiencies
within our buildings and how we access our power? Absolutely. But is it
possible? Would we be able to physically retrofit every building in
America to maximize energy and water efficiency over the next 10 years?
I don't believe we can do that in 10 years.
Aspirations are good, and goals are good, but when you look at what
has been specifically laid out in this Green New Deal, it is more than
just transitioning to renewables or electric vehicles or greater energy
efficiency. It calls for a Federal jobs guarantee. It focuses on
healthcare, education, wages, trade, and a lot more. It suggests
unprecedented levels of prosperity and economic security for all people
of the United States. That is wonderful. I would love that. But how do
we get there? What is the feasible mechanism for accomplishing this
goal?
Let's be honest with where we are and recognize the potential cost of
this Green New Deal. Whether you want to peg it in the price range of
$50 trillion to $90 trillion over the next 10 years--I am not going to
get caught up in those numbers because that is not going to happen. It
is not going to happen.
What I really hope doesn't happen is that this discussion about the
Green New Deal or whatever you want to tag it--that we are not
distracted from the necessary and important conversation we must have
about climate change and the practical steps we can take to address it.
Let's talk about that.
I mentioned to my friend from Illinois that we see it in Alaska. We
say that we are ground zero for climate change. The Arctic is warming
two to three times the rate of the rest of the world. We are seeing
glaciers retreat. Permafrost is thawing. We are seeing sea levels rise.
Wildlife migration patterns are changing. We are seeing different
invasive species. With the water temperature, we are seeing ocean
acidification. Villages are being threatened by coastal erosion and in
need of relocation. For us, this is real. Climate change is real.
If you don't want to use the words ``climate change,'' you don't have
to use the words ``climate change,'' but just come up and take a look,
because something is happening. We are seeing it.
Engaging in rhetoric that is either fantasy or denial really doesn't
help those who are facing this. I think there are some policies that
both parties can support that I think can make a real difference in
real time.
I want to first start off by acknowledging that we are not in a
situation and a place where we are doing nothing. That is not the case.
We are. We are working on policies, and over the course of years, we
have put policies in place that are making a difference and will make a
difference moving forward. It is not as though we are starting from
scratch. Just look at where we were last year. We expanded the tax
credit for carbon capture, utilization, and sequestration, CCUS. We
increased funding for the Department of Energy to research and develop
cleaner technologies. We passed legislation to promote basic science,
nuclear energy, hydropower, and more. Many of us support the
production, use, and export of clean burning natural gas, which can
substantially help reduce global emissions. That was just last year in
terms of the policies we put in place that are moving us forward in the
right direction.
You don't always hear about it, but we have a pretty decent story to
tell here in this country. We are leading the world in greenhouse gas
reductions. Despite an uptick we saw last year, in 2018, our emissions
have fallen significantly over the past decade.
We have made progress, but we need to be making more progress and, in
my view, more accelerated progress. What more can we do? That is a
conversation we are having in the Energy Committee. I have been working
with my ranking member, Senator Manchin from West Virginia. It is a
conversation we have been having on both sides of the aisle. We had a
hearing on the impact on the electric sector due to climate change. We
had that hearing about 10 days or so ago. We are planning on having
others. We are talking
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with other colleagues who are not part of our committee about what more
can be done.
Two or three weeks ago, I was in Houston attending the big oil and
gas conference, the big global conference. It is kind of like the Davos
of oil and gas. It was notable that throughout that week's conference
with oil and gas producers, predominantly, the focus and the attention
was on climate change and what we are doing with those technologies
that will help us to reduce methane leakage, what we are doing to help
share some of these environmental technologies, and what more we are
doing to help facilitate these clean, lower carbon technologies. This
is coming from an industry that is recognizing that innovation must
happen.
It was fascinating. I sat down with a group of about 20 folks who
were pretty high up within their sectors. I was thinking we were going
to be talking about some of the latest technologies in oil and gas
development. But about two-thirds of the people around the table were
not from oil and gas companies; they were from high-tech companies.
They were there because they see that the real difference in making a
difference is going to come from these technologies, and they want to
be a part of that conversation. That is a good conversation to have.
Within the Energy Committee, what we are doing is we are going to
revive and refresh the bipartisan Energy bill that we moved out of
committee and off this floor a couple of years ago with the help of
Senator Cantwell. We moved it out with the support of 85 Members. It
may be that we have to move some smaller bills instead of everything
all at once, but we have to update our policies.
We haven't updated an energy policy for 11 years now. Senator
Cantwell knows, when you think about where the industry has gone, where
the energy sector has gone, and the fact that our policies have lagged,
that is a drag. We need to address that.
I think there are areas where we can reach a bipartisan agreement on
policies that support the innovation, break down the barriers, promote
efficiency, and keep the markets well-supplied. There is a lot more we
can be doing on nuclear energy. I am going to be introducing a
bipartisan bill this week to promote advanced reactors. There is more
we can be doing on carbon capture utilization and sequestration. This
is a big priority of Senator Manchin's. We know that unlocking the key
is going to be with storage and energy storage. We have to be advancing
that. There is so much more room within hydropower, microgrids, to
lower costs for energy in rural areas, to lower the cost of all
renewables and make them more competitive, to ensure we are producing
the minerals and materials we need for the technologies. I mentioned
sharing environmental technologies.
It is not just the Energy Committee that is going to be working on
this. All committees will have their own contribution to make, and I
welcome that, but we have to have rational discussions.
I have said: Come to the Energy Committee, where there is a safe
space if you want to talk about climate. If you are a Republican on
this side who says I don't know that I want to go there, a Democrat on
that side, let's sit down and have a rational conversation about how we
are going to be working together across the aisle to agree on policies
that will deliver cleaner and lower carbon technologies. They have to
be pragmatic, they have to be durable, and they have to be bipartisan.
Senator Manchin and I had an op-ed that ran in the Washington Post a
few weeks ago. It wasn't great, earthshaking, brandnew, novel ideas on
how to address climate change. What we said is, we have to join hands
on this. We have to come together. We are both from producing States
with very vulnerable populations. Take a look at the two of us and work
with us to help advance some of these things.
We have gotten more shout-outs not for highlighting some new
technology but the fact that we were talking together as Republicans
and Democrats. That is going to be an important part of how we move
forward.
I mentioned, I am from a producing State. You all know that. What
many don't know is how Alaska is leading the way in what is possible
for some of the innovation, the proving ground, for technologies. We
have about every resource you can think of in great abundance,
including sunshine. You don't think about solar for us, but we are
putting it to good use. We have been pioneering when it comes to
microgrids and these smaller scaled technologies. We have wind turbines
out in St. Michael. We have energy-efficient refrigeration on Saint
Paul Island. This is a little, tiny island out in the middle of the
ocean. We have clean power generation in Kodiak. About 99 percent of
that significant fishing community is renewable. We have an in-river
system being installed in Igiugig. We have innovation happening all
over the place, and it is happening because we are driven by necessity.
It costs too much. It is not sustainable.
I don't want to be from a State where most of my off-road communities
are powered by diesel. It is not good for them. It is not good for
anybody. How do we get off that? Allow us to move forward and free up--
some are going to be critical of me. They are going to say: You know
what, Lisa, you are talking about baby steps. You are talking wind
turbines in St. Michael; you are talking about energy efficiency in St.
Paul. Do you know what? When you are paying $7, $8, $9 a gallon to keep
the lights on, to keep something refrigerated--close to 80 cents a
kilowatt hour--that is not sustainable. So for these communities, it is
making a difference. You say: Well, we have a big globe out there. We
do have a big globe out there, and we all have a responsibility there,
but we have to start.
I want to share a quote from my friend, the former Secretary of
Energy, Ernie Moniz. He was talking about some of the practical,
pragmatic solutions. He said some are going to argue it is not enough.
Some would argue, well, that will not get us there as fast as we need
to go. I would argue that would get us there as fast as we can go.
We must--we must--move. We recognize that, but we have to know the
only way we are going to be moving is if we move together. That is what
we have to do in Congress. We have to take these policies that can keep
us moving to lower emissions, to address the reality of climate change,
to do so all the while recognizing we have an economy we need to keep
strong, we have vulnerable people whom we need to protect, and we have
an environment we all care about--Republicans and Democrats--and it is
not just the environment in our States or our country, but it is our
global environment.
So, moving forward, how we are working together on that is a
priority, or should be a priority, for us all. My hope is, we get
beyond the rhetoric, the high-fired rhetoric, and we get to practical,
pragmatic, bipartisan solutions.
Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, I ask the Senator from Alaska to yield for
10 seconds.
Ms. MURKOWSKI. Mr. President, I will yield.
Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, I thank the Senator. She was the person I
was thinking of when I said there are exceptions when it comes to the
partisan divide between us. I stayed for her presentation because I
knew what it was going to be, and I wanted it to be part of the Record.
I think Senator Murkowski and Senator Cantwell--whom we recognize on
our side of the aisle as one of the real leaders on the subject--can
show us the way in the Senate to find a bipartisan approach to deal
with this challenge.
Thank you.
Ms. MURKOWSKI. I thank my colleague for that.
I want to acknowledge the support and partnership I have had with
Senator Cantwell. She and I come from differing views on certain
issues, but throughout our time as the chair and the ranking on the
committee, we really did work to try to advance some of these
solutions, where--I think we would both agree--there is common ground.
Again, advancing that is important. It is important for the progress we
are making. It is making a difference. It is helping to reduce the
emissions. It is helping to move us toward greater efficiency.
So let's not pooh-pooh the small things. Let's acknowledge that
building things together, you do elevate yourself--but we have to
start. If we keep dividing ourselves, then we are not going to come
together to build these bridges.
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I thank my friend from Washington State who has worked hard on the
committee to advance this and continues to do so.
I yield the floor.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Washington State.
Ms. CANTWELL. Mr. President, I come to the floor to join this debate.
I thank my colleagues, the Senator from Illinois and certainly the
Senator from Alaska for her comments because I think some of what I am
going to say will probably overlap in the context of working together
to get things done.
Why do I say that is so important? Because she and I worked on a
bipartisan energy package that we passed out of the Senate over 2 years
ago that had very important, what I would call implementation
strategies, for allowing our businesses and our communities to be more
cost-competitive when it comes to energy.
Certainly, in the State of Alaska, I can't imagine paying $9 a gallon
for fuel just to heat a home or to have your hospital or your school
available for kids to go to play in after school or just meet the
healthcare needs of a community.
Getting energy right not just in big urban cities like Seattle, which
is a lot easier to do--we have net zero buildings, probably some of the
best net zero buildings in the country--already establishing how you
can create energy and sell it back to the grid and be more energy
efficient, but we have to have solutions that are going to meet needs
all across the United States of America.
So, good news to hear that the chairwoman of the Energy Committee is
planning another energy bill. Hopefully, some of those provisions we
worked on 2 years ago, like smart building strategies to help
reengineering of energy systems within our buildings to make them more
energy efficient, would also go a long way. That is about 40 percent of
America's energy use. Every dollar we help a business save in energy
costs just gets plugged back into that business's competitiveness in
today's economy. I thank her for that, and I look forward to seeing
what she and the ranking member, Senator Manchin, push forward, and,
certainly, I know we will have our ideas.
We are here to debate about energy policy and getting it right for
our future prosperity and our competitiveness. I also agree with my
colleague that getting things done is important because I think what we
have proven over the last decade, maybe 15 years, is that we can
transition to cleaner fuels; we can become more energy independent; we
can become more energy efficient; and doing so actually creates new
jobs that are higher wage jobs and help us in the future.
What Americans want to know is whether we can make it through this
transition without doing great damage to our economy, and I think the
results of us working together to pass these legislative ideas in the
last decade have proven to be very strong incentives.
First of all, let's talk about incentives writ large, tax incentives.
We have been involved with the Finance Committee over the last several
years to put in place tax credits that rebalanced our incentives
towards the side of renewable energy and away from fossil fuels. In
2008 with my colleague, then-Senator Ensign of Nevada, we were able to
work to make sure we were driving down the costs of solar, wind, and
biofuels. This legislation, which was extended in the Recovery Act, now
helps us with wind supplies to over 6 percent of the U.S. supply.
I know my colleagues in Iowa know how important this is because their
State's electricity generates millions of dollars in economic activity.
So the fact that we focused on renewables in our tax incentive policy
has helped that industry grow and become a very big part of our system.
Today's grid economy is also being modernized, and we have worked to
put R&D on the table and allow communities throughout the United States
to invest in smart grid technology.
The Presiding Officer comes from a State where there are probably
leaders in a lot of renewable energies. I know there are wind projects
in the State of Washington from companies in his State that are showing
just how efficient wind has become over a long period of time. Who
would have originally thought, as I was talking about the Presiding
Officer's State of Florida, that we would be talking about wind? You
would think I was talking about solar. But this is to show you that the
era of distributive generation--that energy can be created from a lot
of different sources, put on the grid, moved around cost-effectively,
in smart ways, to become more efficient--would help us move toward the
future of giving people better opportunities rather than the pollution
we see from carbon-intensive areas of the United States.
Even in areas around the United States that still do rely on coal,
people are starting to see that renewables are becoming cheaper. The
Northern Indiana Public Service Company found that building renewables
is cheaper than keeping existing coal plants open. According to the
company's 2018 Integrated Resource Plan filed in October, they can save
their customers $4 billion over the next 30 years by ramping down the
amount of coal they use from two-thirds of their generation mix today,
to 15 percent by 2023, to eliminating the use of coal entirely by 2028.
These aren't just places like my State of Washington, where we have,
as I said, a lot of technology and a lot of efficiency, but also States
that are making the transition off these fossil fuels, showing it is a
good investment and is cheaper for their customers.
We know new wind power purchase agreements continue to set records
for the lowest cost power, putting downward pressure on electricity
costs nationwide. I can't tell you how important that is. Coming from a
State where we have had cheap hydropower for decades, decades, and
decades, it has built our economy over and over again. I like to say it
has helped us store apples. After you pick apples and want to store
them for a while, guess what helps? Cheap electricity.
Now we store bits--actual software bits. There are data centers that
want cheap electricity. So the very nature of cheap electricity keeps
driving Washington's economy over and over.
I know that other States in the Nation would benefit from cheaper
electricity sources too. It would help their businesses and it would
help their consumers. So today, despite the fact that over 94 percent
of all electricity generating capacity added over the past century has
been in the renewable area or natural gas, consumers are paying 4
percent less per kilowatt hour for electricity than they did a decade
ago. So this diversification off of fossil fuel and this investment in
these cleaner sources of energy are helping to lower rates for
consumers, and that is why we need to keep going in this direction.
There is a reason that Fortune 500 companies are among the largest
renewable energy investors in the country. According to the Wall Street
Journal, corporations as diverse as Budweiser, The Gap, and MGM
International have invested over $16 billion in wind and solar in 2018,
and that is expected to double in 2019. Even the utility industry is
waking up to this new reality. The CEO of NextEra, the largest U.S.
electricity company in the world by market capitalization, recently
told investors that solar and wind, plus storage, will be cheaper than
coal, oil, or nuclear.
So this is something that we need to realize. Specifically, he said
that the subsidy for wind generation costs will be 2 to 2.5 percent per
kilowatt, and large scale solar will only be a little higher than that.
Adding storage to this will help us to get those prices down even more.
That is why getting the R&D budget right for the Department of Energy
right now and ARPA-E is so critical. We can't cut these programs. We
need to make sure that we are continuing to make an investment so that
our Nation's electricity sector provides not only more affordable and
more reliable energy, but also cleaner energy that will help our
atmosphere.
We already now have 3.2 million people working in the clean energy
sector. That is nearly three times as many jobs as in the fossil fuel
industry. Yet people continue to act like this is an economic debate
only about one sector over the other. It is about how we make the
transition and how we skill and train people for these future
opportunities that support millions of jobs here in the United States
of America.
Now, why do I want to continue on that route? Because I want the
United
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States to be a leader in clean energy technology. I don't want to leave
this up to our competitors in other countries for them to reap the
benefit of better technology and higher wage jobs. I want us to reap
these benefits. I have seen many companies that have made their
transition in the energy sector from a fossil fuel focus to renewables,
and I hope that will continue to happen.
There is another area that we have incented over the last 10 years
that has, I think, proven to be a good investment. Senator Hatch and I
teamed up in 2007 to introduce legislation providing a $7,500 tax
credit for plug-in electric vehicles.
Now, I know that at the time people thought: Well, what is this
electric vehicle market all about? But I think we can look here in 2019
and see exactly what it is about. Consumers have more choices, there
are more competitors in the market, and we are reducing our dependence
on fossil fuel. That is why we need to fight President Trump's budget
request to take away those tax incentives for people who buy electric
vehicles. We need to continue to move forward on driving down the cost.
Another area that we made progress on in the last decade was fuel
efficiency for automobiles. I can tell you what that fight was like in
2007 as we struggled here to move forward. Fuel-efficiency economy
increases will result in oil savings in 2030 of about 3 million barrels
per day--more than we import from the Persian Gulf and Venezuela
combined. So we should not roll back fuel efficiency standards for
automobiles. I believe this is a red herring.
We know that fuel efficiency helps consumers to drive to work every
day and to afford to fill up in a more economic way. If the Trump
administration does roll back these fuel efficiency gains, owners of an
average model vehicle from the year 2025 will have to fill up their gas
tanks 66 times more and cost drivers over $1,620 more than what they
currently pay. So why roll them back?
Another great area of success was establishing a renewable fuel
standard back in 2007 in that same bipartisan energy package that was
worked on by so many Members of this institution and successfully by so
many Members in this institution.
So, to me, it stands in stark contrast to where we are today in this
debate, because all of the people working together--our colleagues, the
late Senator Ted Stevens, and the late Senator Danny Inouye--played key
roles as chairman and ranking member of the Commerce Committee, the EPW
Committee, and the Energy Committee. They all added to that legislation
in 2007. This bipartisan increase in expansion of the renewable fuel
standard was a great way to look at homegrown fuels for the future and
making up a larger source of that supply today from renewable clean
energy.
So all of these show that we have made progress working together over
the last decade or so in a bipartisan way to demonstrate that this
transition is necessary, that this transition can be made, that we can
make it successfully without hurting our economy, and that we can drive
down costs for businesses and consumers and better protect our
environment. That is so, so critical.
I am so concerned about the cost of extreme weather and the impact of
climate change that I asked my colleague, Senator Collins, to request
with me, from the Government Accountability Office, what the costs of
these impacts were. Why did I want that information? Because, in the
Northwest we are already seeing more damage from fires that have become
a constant threat every summer. We have seen a shellfish industry that
has basically been threatened by warmer waters. We have seen our
challenges to our coastline and changing sea levels. So we wanted that
information.
The result of the study showed that current estimates for the impacts
as a result of climate change would exceed $1 trillion by 2039. These
are costs that we are going to pay in response, mitigation and
adaptation. I would rather get about the task of diversifying now and
reducing those costs that are going to be paid out by the American
taxpayer. We can do better.
So moving toward a cleaner economy off of fossil fuels is what we
need to do. With today's energy infrastructure turning over every three
or four decades anyways, which will take an investment of $25 to $30
million, making the right choices from the private sector, is with whom
we need to partner.
I look forward to working with my colleagues on that, working with my
colleague from the Energy Committee, Senator Murkowski, and my
colleague Senator Manchin, and all the other colleagues on that
committee to help us get these strategies right.
We know the answer to this question. Moving forward on cleaner
sources is better for our environment and we have made great strides in
the last decade in doing so and driving better economic opportunity for
both the consumers and the future energy workers of the United States.
I thank the President, and I yield the floor.
The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Cruz). The Senator from Utah.
Mr. LEE. Mr. President, fear has become an all too prevalent quality
in America's political discourse, and, unfortunately, fear is
unavoidable when debating the substance of the resolution before this
body today; that is, climate change, socialism, and the Green New Deal.
On entering this debate, I have a little fear in my heart as well. My
fear at this moment may be just a little different than that of some of
my colleagues. Unlike some of my colleagues, I am not immediately
afraid of what carbon emissions unaddressed might do to our environment
in the near term future or our civilization or our planet in the next
few years. Unlike others, I am not immediately afraid of what the Green
New Deal will do to our economy and our government. After all, this
isn't going to pass--not today, not anytime soon, certainly.
Rather, after reading the Green New Deal, I am mostly afraid of not
being able to get through this speech with a straight face. I rise
today to consider the Green New Deal with the seriousness it deserves.
This is, of course, a picture of former President Ronald Reagan
naturally firing a machine gun while riding on the back of a dinosaur.
You will notice a couple of important features here.
First of all, the rocket launcher is strapped to President Reagan's
back, and then the stirring unmistakable patriotism of the velociraptor
holding up a tattered American flag, a symbol of all it means to be an
American.
Now, critics might quibble with this depiction of the climactic
battle of the Cold War because, while awesome, in real life there was
no climactic battle. There was no battle with or without velociraptors.
The Cold War, as we all know, was won without firing a shot. But that
quibble actually serves our purposes here today because this image has
as much to do with overcoming communism in the 20th century as the
Green New Deal has to do with overcoming climate change in the 21st
century.
The aspirations of the proposal have been called radical. They have
been called extreme, but, mostly, they are ridiculous. There isn't a
single serious idea here--not one. To illustrate, let me highlight two
of the most prominent goals produced by the plan's authors.
Goal No. 1, the Green New Deal calls essentially for the elimination
of airplanes. Now, this might seem merely ambitious for politicians who
represent the densely populated northeastern United States, but how is
it supposed to work for our fellow citizens who don't live somewhere
between Washington, DC, and Boston? In a future without air travel, how
are we supposed to get around the vast expanses of, say, Alaska during
the winter? Well, I will tell you how.
Tauntauns is that beloved species of reptile mammals native to the
ice planet of Hoth. Now, while perhaps not as efficient in some ways as
airplanes or as snowmobiles, these hairy bipedal species of space
lizards offer their own unique benefits. Not only are tauntauns carbon
neutral, but according to a report a long time ago and issued far, far
away, they may even be fully recyclable and useable for their warmth,
especially on a cold night.
What about Hawaii? Isolated, 2,000 miles out into the Pacific Ocean,
under the Green New Deal's effective airplane prohibition, how are
people there supposed to get to and from the mainland and how are they
supposed to maintain that significant portion of their economy that is
based on tourism?
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At that distance, swimming would, of course, be out of the question,
and jet skis are notorious gas guzzlers. No, all residents of Hawaii
would be left with is this. This is a picture of Aquaman, a superhero
from the undersea kingdom of Atlantis but, notably here, a founding
member of the Super Friends.
I draw your attention to the 20-foot impressive seahorse he is
riding. Under the Green New Deal, this is probably Hawaii's best bet.
Now, I am the first to admit that a massive fleet of giant, highly
trained seahorses would be cool and it would be really, really awesome,
but we have to consider a few things. We have no idea about scalability
or domestic capacity in this sector. The last thing we want is to ban
all airplanes and only then find out that China or Russia may have
already established strategic hippocampus programs designed to cut the
United States out of the global market. We must not allow and cannot
tolerate a giant seahorse gap.
For goal No. 2, the Green New Deal anticipates the elimination of all
cows. Talking points released by the sponsors of the resolution the day
it was introduced cited the goal of ``fully get[ting] rid of''--and I
will paraphrase a little bit here--``[flatulating] cows.''
Now, I share their concern, but honestly, I think you have to
remember that if the cows smell bad, just wait until they get a whiff
of the seahorses.
Back to the cattle, I have a chart to illustrate this trend. As you
can see on the left, these little cows represent the bovine population
of America today. On the right is the future population under the Green
New Deal. We would go from about 94 million cows to zero cows--no more
milk, no more cheese, no more steak, and no more hamburgers.
Over the State work period last week, I visited some farms to find
out for myself what Utah's own bovine community might think about the
Green New Deal. Every cow I spoke to said the same thing: Boo.
The authors of this proposal would protest that these goals are not
actually part of the Green New Deal but were merely included in
supporting documents accidentally sent out by the office of the lead
sponsor in the House of Representatives. This only makes my point. The
supporters of the Green New Deal want Americans to trust them to
reorganize our entire society and our entire economy, to restructure
our very way of life, and they couldn't even figure out how to send out
the right press release.
The Green New Deal is not a serious policy document because it is not
a policy document at all; it is, in fact, an aesthetic one. The
resolution is not an agenda of solutions; it is a token of elite tribal
identity, and endorsing it, a public act of piety for the chic and
woke. And on those embarrassing terms, it is already a resounding
success. As Speaker Pelosi herself put it, ``The green dream or
whatever they call it, nobody knows what it is, but they're for it,
right?'' Right.
Critics will no doubt chastise me for not taking climate change
seriously, but, please, nothing could be further from the truth. No
Utahn needs to hear pious lectures about the gravity of climate change
from politicians from other States, for it was only in 2016, as viewers
of the Syfy network will well remember, when climate change hit home in
Utah, when our own State was struck not simply by a tornado but by a
tornado with sharks in it.
These images are from the indispensable documentary film ``Sharknado
4.'' They captured the precise moment when one of the tornado sharks
crashed through the window of Utah's Governor, Gary Herbert. A true
Utah hero and a fine American, Governor Herbert--who, by the way, is an
incredible athlete and expert tennis player--bravely fought off the
animal with the tennis racket that he keeps by his desk precisely for
occasions such as these.
So let's be real clear. Climate change is no joke, but the Green New
Deal is a joke. It is the legislative equivalent of Austin Powers' Dr.
Evil demanding sharks with ``frickin' lasers'' on their heads.
The Green New Deal is not the solution to climate change. It is not
even part of the solution. In fact, it is part of the problem. The
solution to climate change won't be found in political posturing or
virtue signaling like this. It won't be found in the Federal Government
at all. Do you know where the solution can be found? In churches, in
wedding chapels, and in maternity wards across the country and around
the world. This is the real solution to climate change: babies.
Climate change is an engineering problem--not social engineering but
the real kind. It is a challenge of creativity, ingenuity, and most of
all, technical innovation. Problems of human imagination are not solved
by more laws; they are solved by more humans, more people, meaning
bigger markets for innovation. More babies will mean more forward-
looking adults, the sort we need to tackle long-term, large-scale
problems.
American babies in particular are likely going to be wealthier,
better educated, and more conservation-minded than children raised in
still industrializing countries. As economist Tyler Cowen recently
wrote on this very point, addressing this very topic, ``by having more
children, you are making your nation more populous--thus boosting its
capacity to solve [climate change].''
Finally, children are a mark of the kind of personal, communal, and
societal optimism that is the true prerequisite for meeting national
and global challenges together.
The courage needed to solve climate change is nothing compared with
the courage needed to start a family. The true heroes of this story
aren't politicians, and they aren't social media activists; they are
moms and dads and the little boys and girls whom they are at this very
moment putting down for naps or helping with their homework, building
tree houses, and teaching them how to tie their shoes.
The planet does not need for us to think globally and act locally so
much as it needs us to think family and act personally. The solution to
climate change is not this unserious resolution that we are considering
this week in the Senate but, rather, the serious business of human
flourishing. The solution to so many of our problems at all times and
in all places is to fall in love, get married, and have some kids.
Thank you, Mr. President.
I yield the floor.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Washington.
Mrs. MURRAY. Mr. President, I rise today to join my Democratic
colleagues in lifting up the voices of countless people in my home
State of Washington and around the Nation who are calling out for
Congress to truly address the climate change crisis.
I am glad the Republicans have decided to take at least a short break
from their hurried ideological campaign to pack our Federal courts with
as many conservative judges as possible. It is inexcusable that they
are now choosing to play silly political games instead of working with
us to make progress on the many challenges our constituents are facing
right now.
Let me be clear. Democrats welcome a robust, fact-based discussion on
the Senate floor about what we as a nation must do to combat climate
change. That is not what today's vote is, nor what it was meant to be.
From the beginning, this vote was scheduled by Republicans to throw red
meat to their rightwing base and an extra bone to Big Oil and Gas. But,
if anything, what today's vote makes painfully obvious is that while
Democrats are here at the table ready to get to work to tackle one of
the most urgent issues of our time, Republicans don't have a vision,
much less any solution for how we are going to reverse the course of
climate change and prevent future damage to our planet. On the
contrary, many Republicans won't even admit this is a problem, even
after the Trump administration itself released its own report detailing
how climate change has damaged our planet and will continue to do so if
unaddressed.
Democrats are all on the same page. We believe in the science, we
believe climate change is one of our planet's most urgent crises, and
we all believe that now is the time to take action before our planet
suffers even more irreparable harm. Democrats have long recognized
climate change is a threat not just to our environment but to our
economy, our community, our health, and even our way of life.
As a voice for Washington State, whose residents are being threatened
summer after summer with ever-worsening wildfires that destroy more
property and cost more money to contain
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and prevent every year, and as a grandmother who wants to leave a
better world for the next generation, this is personal to me. But it is
not just me or Senate Democrats; our families back in our States
understand the risk of climate change, too, and they are very eager for
their government to take action against the immediate threat that it
poses.
I was back home last week meeting with leaders in our State capital
of Olympia. They are working on a suite of progressive policies aimed
at tackling climate change. Every day, I hear from young people all
over my State about how they want to inherit a clean, healthy planet.
The only way we can ensure that happens is by listening to the science
and working to do something now while we still can make a difference.
I am inspired by my constituents--especially the students. I
understand why they are so passionate. They get it. They know how
serious climate change is for today and tomorrow, and they get that we
don't have any time to waste. But they cannot do it alone, and neither
can Washington State. It is going to take a national effort, a Federal
effort to give this issue the attention it deserves, and Congress
should play a major role in making sure it is treated like the
emergency it is.
Unfortunately, when I turn to my Republican friends in moments like
this, when we could be having a real conversation about what we should
be doing today to tackle climate change, I am reminded that this isn't
a debate made in good faith. If Republicans were truly interested in
addressing climate change, they would have stood against President
Trump's reckless efforts to roll back clean air standards or, even
better, stopped him from pulling the United States out of the Paris
climate agreement and weakening our leadership in the global fight
against climate change. And those are just a few things.
Now we have some Democrats and Republicans coming together to protect
our environment. The recent passage of the public lands package is a
good example. But when it comes to the issue of climate change and
having a discussion about what it would take to really address it with
the seriousness and the urgency it deserves, Republicans apparently
only have time for partisan political games, which is so unfortunate
because it is long past time for them to recognize that climate change
is an urgent and serious issue. It is going to take all of us working
together to prevent future generations from suffering the worst of its
impact.
Democrats are ready and willing to debate Republicans on the facts,
about the risks of not tackling climate change as aggressively as
possible, and I can only urge Republicans to drop these games. Listen
to your constituents. Listen to the facts. Do the right thing and work
with us to address this critical issue before it truly is too late.
Thank you.
Mr. President, I yield the floor.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Maryland.
Mr. VAN HOLLEN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the
following Senators be permitted to speak for up to 5 minutes each prior
to the recess: Van Hollen, Cardin, Stabenow, Schatz, Markey, and
Heinrich.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there objection?
Without objection, it is so ordered.
Mr. VAN HOLLEN. Thank you, Mr. President.
I am on the floor today with a very simple question: What is the
Republican agenda for tackling many of the major challenges we face
today in the United States of America?
We know what our Republican colleagues are against. In fact, just
yesterday, the Trump administration asked a Federal court of appeals to
strike down the entire Affordable Care Act, which would eliminate
affordable healthcare for tens of millions of Americans and strip away
protections for people with preexisting conditions.
So that is what Republicans are against, the Affordable Care Act.
What are they for? Since January of this year, the new Democratic
majority in the House of Representatives has already passed major
legislation on some important issues for our country. They passed a
major bill to protect and strengthen the integrity of our election
system and the health of our democracy. It includes lots of provisions,
including one to get rid of secret money in politics, because, like the
American public, we believe that Americans have a right to know who is
spending tens of millions of dollars to try to influence their votes.
Why not get rid of secret money and dark money in politics? That is
what the House bill does. That bill is right here in the Senate now,
but are we going to get a chance to vote on that? We are asking the
majority leader for a vote on that bill that is sitting right here in
the Senate.
The House also passed sweeping legislation to address gun safety
issues. Specifically, the legislation calls for a universal criminal
background check to keep guns out of the hands of dangerous
people. This is overwhelmingly supported by the American public. Why
would we want to keep a big loophole in the law that allows dangerous
people to get guns and commit violent acts with those guns? That bill
is also here in the Senate, but there is no sign that we are going to
vote on that bill.
Instead, the Republican leader is bringing up the nonbinding
resolution--the Green New Deal resolution--which calls for ambitious
goals to tackle climate change, which has created a lot of important
momentum in our country to address this issue. Yet our Republican
colleagues are not bringing up this bill because they want to do
something about climate change; they are bringing it up with the
express purpose of defeating it and playing political games.
It is a very simple question. We know what you are against. You are
against the Green New Deal resolution. But what are you for when it
comes to addressing climate change? The science is overwhelming. It
mounts every day. Americans can see what is happening with their own
eyes in the form of extreme weather events.
Former Senator Bob Kerrey from Nebraska just wrote over the weekend:
The disastrous flooding this month in Nebraska and much of
the upper Midwest is a reminder of several important truths.
First, weather and climate are not the same thing. Climate
affects weather, not the other way around.
If our Republican colleagues don't agree with our own American
scientists at NASA and NOAA, scientists throughout the country and
around the world, my goodness, I would hope they would believe our
military leaders who just last year put out a report. I am reading from
a release that says: ``New Pentagon Survey: Climate Change-Related
Risks to 50% of Military Infrastructure.''
The folks at the Pentagon seem to recognize the costs and harm of
climate change. Yet our Republican colleagues do nothing but play games
with this issue.
Ironically, this week we are going to be taking up a disaster relief
bill. I think the pricetag for that bill is $13 billion to $14 billion.
This is just one of many disaster relief bills we will handle.
We all know that we will always have natural disasters, but we also
know from the science that they are more intense, more extreme, and
more costly because of climate change, and they happen more often
because of climate change.
Our Republican colleagues are happy to ask taxpayers to shell out
more and more money to pay for the harm and damage of climate change
through extreme weather events, but they are not willing to consider
any legislation on this floor to actually do something about it and
stop the rising costs, harm, and damage.
If you don't like the nonbinding resolution of the Green New Deal,
why not support another nonbinding resolution put forth by Senator
Carper and every Democrat? It is very simple. No. 1, climate change is
real; No. 2, human activity is the dominant cause; and No. 3, Congress
should take immediate action to do something about it. That must be a
really radical proposal for our Republican colleagues, but only one
Republican Senator has signed on, which just shows the incredible
hypocrisy of this entire exercise.
The Republican leader is bringing up a measure that calls for
ambitious goals. I think those are good goals. I support it, but he
wants to defeat it. Yet he has not a single idea of his own to address
this issue.
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This week, I intend, along with Congressman Don Beyer in the House,
to reintroduce a bill called the cap and dividend bill. It is very
simple: The polluter pays, just as we have handled environmental issues
in the past. We will put a price on carbon pollution, and by doing so,
we will create more incentives for investment in clean energy
technology, renewable energy technology, energy efficiency. We propose
to take the proceeds from that ``polluter pays'' fee and rebate the
entire thing to the American people. As a result, according to the
studies of the University of Massachusetts, 80 percent of the American
people, at the end of the day, will actually see more money in their
pocket than before, and we will begin to address the ravages of climate
change.
I urge my colleagues to actually do something when it comes to
climate change.
I yield the floor to Senator Stabenow from Michigan, who has been a
leader on this issue.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Michigan.
Ms. STABENOW. Mr. President, I want to thank my friend and colleague
from Maryland for his powerful words, as well as all of my colleagues
who are here for their leadership on this incredibly important issue.
Climate change is real. Carbon pollution is real. It is having a real
effect in my State of Michigan. We can and must take real action to do
something about it. It is not a time for playing political games.
Frankly, the stakes are just plain too high. We should be coming
together around a resolution that our entire Democratic caucus has put
together that simply says this: Climate change is real; climate change
is caused by humans; Congress must act on climate change. Let's start
there. We can't even get bipartisan support for this, which is so
basic. Let's start there and then take specific action.
I was very encouraged a few weeks ago when Chairwoman Murkowski and
Ranking Member Manchin on the Energy and Natural Resources Committee
held a hearing on climate change. It was the first one since I have
been on the committee. It may be the first one ever to talk about the
incredibly disastrous impacts of what is happening in Alaska, as well
as around our country. We should be working together across the aisle
to solve this big problem and to come together with specific actions
after the hearing. I am looking forward to that.
Instead, the Republican leader is playing ``gotcha'' politics with an
issue that is hurting real people from Bristol Bay to the Missouri
River Basin to the Great Lakes. Frankly, it is insulting, and the
people who are having their livelihoods upended deserve better.
You don't have to spend much time in Michigan to see the effects,
unfortunately. The Great Lakes Basin has warmed more over the last 30
years than the rest of the contiguous United States. That is not a
position we want to be in.
Precipitation is up 11 percent since 1900. That means more flooding.
Flooding is worse. Between 2040 and 2060--which actually is not that
far away, particularly when we are looking at our children and
grandchildren--Northern Michigan and the Upper Peninsula could see 500
percent more 100-year floods.
Heat waves in Michigan have tripled compared to the long-term
average. It is estimated that by 2040 the dangerously hot days could
cause 760 people in the Detroit metro area alone to die each year when
they otherwise wouldn't. Rising energy demands will require more than
$6 billion in infrastructure improvements. Cold water fish species
could simply die off, threatening our $5 billion per year sport fishing
industry.
Agricultural productivity could fall to 1980 levels by 2050. Keep in
mind that by then, our planet's population will be double what it was
in 1980. If agricultural productivity is falling at that point, that
will be a disaster, not only for the United States and our people but
for around the world.
These changes are already hurting our people in Michigan and our
economy. Just talk to a cherry grower who has lost an entire crop
because of warm weather in February--which causes his trees to bloom
too early, and then the freeze comes and wipes out all the cherry
trees--or a family whose fishing and boating business is threatened by
invasive species and toxic algal blooms or the family who lost their
12-year-old son when flooding caused the basement of their home to
collapse.
Perhaps you are more motivated by the bottom line. If that is the
case, you should just talk to insurance company executives. Their
companies paid out a record $135 billion from natural disasters in 2017
alone. That is nearly three times as much as the historic annual
average. By the way, after we finish voting on this resolution that the
Republican leader is bringing up, we are going to be asked to vote on a
disaster package to help States and communities that have been impacted
by carbon pollution and climate change. We will only see more of that
if we don't take real action.
It is not time for words. It is time for action. It is time to focus
like a laser on reducing carbon pollution, reversing the damage that
has already been done and creating good jobs at home.
I am so pleased that Michigan right now is leading in green new jobs
in the Midwest. We need to ensure that the United States--not China--is
the global leader on advanced transportation technologies like electric
and hydrogen vehicles. We need to invest more in renewable energy and
the research that is making it more affordable all the time.
I realize my time is up. Let me just say, in closing, we can do
something about this. We have done this before. When we discovered acid
rain about 40 years ago, we put together a market-based program and
were able to fix that issue. CFCs, chemicals that break down into
chlorine and eat away at the ozone layer--today, that hole in the ozone
is closing because of actions we took together. Now is the time to take
real action on carbon pollution, agree to these basic principles, and
then move forward together on behalf of our children and grandchildren.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Hawaii.
Mr. SCHATZ. Mr. President, I got my first taste of politics when I
was 16 years old. I was worried that my favorite surf spot was going to
be turned into condominiums, so I joined the Save Sandy Beach
Coalition. Adults around me told me that I was too young to take
action. They told me that the adults had it under control, but I didn't
listen. It took several years, but with lots of grassroots energy, the
Governor of the State of Hawaii eventually signed legislation that
preserved the Sandy Beach coastline for generations.
America's proud history of social change is about young people who
don't take no for an answer; they take action. Some of the most
inspiring movements in our history have been led by young people. They
were the ones who first refused to leave their seats in segregated
lunch counters, who filled campus squares demanding an end to
apartheid, who marched in the streets against police brutality, and
staged walkouts to protest gun violence.
Once again, young people are standing up because the adults are
blowing it. On March 15, tens of thousands of kids walked out of school
in hundreds of cities and 130 countries demanding action on climate.
This isn't a school project for them. It is a fight for the world they
will inhabit. They see what is happening around the world. The climate
is changing, and it is getting worse, and we need to take action.
In 2017, the United States experienced 16 disasters that cost $1
billion or more: 9.8 million acres burned by wildfire; 30,000 people
homeless; 200,000 homes and businesses damaged or destroyed by
Hurricane Harvey; the Florida Keys devastated by Irma; thousands dead,
and an entire island's infrastructure destroyed by Hurricane Maria. The
year 2017 set a new record for the cost of extreme weather events.
Last year was not better. There were 14 separate disasters that cost
$1 billion or more, including the largest, deadliest wildfires that
California has ever seen. According to NOAA, the wildfires did more
than $40 billion worth of damage. So in these two record-setting years,
climate change has cost billions in personal property and taxpayer
dollars. And they have cost lives.
Now the Midwest is flooding. I don't mean that as a political
statement or a rhetorical flourish. The Midwest is
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flooding. In another once-in-a-lifetime storm, which is happening more
and more frequently, the levees and systems built to deal with flooding
have failed because they were built for a climate that no longer
exists. Communities are underwater, and people are stranded in their
homes right now, at this very moment. In Nebraska alone, the damage is
already more than $1 billion. Livestock, crops, infrastructure have
been destroyed. Soil that is needed not just for this season but for
the future has been destroyed. This is the moment at which Congress
should be examining the costs of climate change and what to do about
it.
I have to say something about the senior Senator from Utah. That was
appalling. I understand that we want to make jokes and that we want to
be clever and that we want to have a clip to put on Facebook or
Instagram or whatever, but that was appalling. This is the crisis of
our generation, and it is not a joke. He spent time creating images not
of what we ought to do--not of his conservative proposals around
climate change--but in being consistent with what Leader McConnell
wants the Republican Party to do, which is to not engage in the
substance and to turn this into a joke.
I have to say, on behalf of everybody in Hawaii, on behalf of the
young people who care about this, and on behalf of the people across
the planet who want climate action, this isn't funny. This requires the
party in charge of the U.S. Senate to take it seriously.
The good news is, we are starting to have an engagement about climate
change. I saw the senior Senator from Tennessee engage a bit and say we
should have a Manhattan Project for solving climate change. Good
enough. I saw Senator Isakson, 3 or 4 weeks ago, talk about how we
ought to take climate action. I also know the chair of the Energy and
Natural Resources Committee cares about this issue. So there is an
opportunity for engagement but not so long as Leader McConnell thinks
this whole thing is worthy of nothing more than being a joke.
I yield the floor.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from New Mexico.
Mr. HEINRICH. Mr. President, we don't have any more time to waste on
political stunts, on climate denial or, for that matter, on climate
``delay-al.'' Enough with the straw man arguments from my Republican
colleagues about hamburgers and ``Sharknado.'' Is that really the best
they can do?
Climate change is real, and our pollution is causing its devastating
impacts. Those are just facts.
As an engineer, I am certain our capacity to confront this challenge
rests heavily on our ability to make policy that is actually driven by
facts, by data, and by the best available science. That science
provides us with clear and indisputable evidence that the destructive
wildfires, hurricanes, and flooding we have seen are directly linked to
human-caused climate change.
We are running out of time. It is past time for us to start
implementing real solutions to eliminate our carbon pollution and
mitigate the most devastating effects of climate change, and we must
create a managed transition to an economy that is run on 100 percent
clean energy. I encourage us to look to what just happened in my home
State of New Mexico to see that this is possible, that it is not pie in
the sky.
For more than a century, New Mexico has been a major part of our
carbon-based economy--from coal, to oil, to gas. Yet, just last week,
our new Governor, Michelle Lujan Grisham, signed into law sweeping
legislation to move our State toward being a 100-percent carbon-free
power sector by 2045. I am enormously proud of the hard work that has
led to there being this landmark legislation. This major transition to
clean energy will change our State and our economy for the better.
New Mexicans will save money in their monthly bills. Along the way,
we will create thousands of new, high-paying jobs across our State,
including in the communities that will be impacted by this transition.
We are already seeing the massive economic potential of clean energy
with the enormous wind farms and solar plants that are coming on line
all across our State. Every new project brings new jobs and brings
millions--sometimes billions--of dollars of investment.
That is the kind of action we need to take in the U.S. Senate. The
United States can and must lead the way in this transition. That is why
we are challenging Majority Leader McConnell to put an end to the
political stunts.
Leader McConnell, bring your solutions to the floor. Let's get to
work together.
I yield the remainder of my time to Senator Whitehouse of Rhode
Island, who has been an incredible leader on this issue.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Rhode Island.
Mr. WHITEHOUSE. Mr. President, I will speak very briefly.
Rhode Island is a coastal State, and we are now looking at maps that
our coastal agency, the local university, and the scientists at NOAA
tell us will create a new face of Rhode Island in the decades ahead if
we don't address climate change. We turn into an archipelago. We lose
enormous amounts of waterfront, and as a small State, frankly, we don't
have a lot to give back to the ocean. This is deadly serious for us.
I join in my colleague's sense of offense that the other side thinks
this is something funny. This is not funny for Rhode Islanders; this is
deadly real. You may disagree with us, but the one thing that, I think,
we are owed on this subject is sincerity, but there is nothing sincere
about the vote that is going to be held on the Green New Deal.
This is a vote that will be based on a cartoon version of the Green
New Deal that was cooked up by the Koch brothers, who have their oily
hands all over this mess, and it was instructed by the fossil fuel
mouthpiece of the Wall Street Journal's editorial page. It took only
days for the majority leader to hop up and do the bidding of these
farces.
We are owed better than this. If you disagree with our measures,
fine. Have one of your own. We have five or six different bills and
strategies that we are willing to work on. This is the time to be
serious, to be sincere, and to quit mocking a concern that across the
board is recognized as real. In fact, there is not a Republican here
who can't go to his home State university and be told about the truth
of climate change.
I yield the floor.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Massachusetts.
Mr. MARKEY. Mr. President, this afternoon, the Republican leader is
bringing the Green New Deal resolution up for a vote on the floor of
the Senate. What the Republican leader, however, is not doing is
allowing us to have any hearings, any witnesses, any science, any
evidence of the massive destruction in our country.
Just from fires and flooding over the last 2 years, there has been
$400 billion worth of damage. None of that will ever be heard out here.
None of it was heard in a committee because the Republican leader is
making a sham of this process. This is not the serious process this
incredible issue deserves. The United Nations has made it clear that
climate change is now an existential threat to our country and to the
planet.
Notwithstanding the incredible damage that is being done to our
planet, the Republicans' concern is that the Green New Deal is an
existential threat to the Koch brothers, to ExxonMobil, and to all of
those polluting companies that do not want to end business as usual.
The Republican leader does not want a hearing at which we will learn
that we now have 350,000 people who are in the wind and solar
industries and that we have 350,000 blue-collar jobs--electricians,
roofers, steelworkers--in our country. The Green New Deal would
supercharge that even more to our having millions of clean energy jobs
in our country.
We can save all of creation by engaging in massive job creation,
which is the core of the Green New Deal, and we can do it in a way that
ensures we protect people in our country. We have gone now from 80,000
solar jobs to 240,000 solar jobs in just the last 10 years. We have
gone from 2,500 all-electric vehicles to 1 million all-electric
vehicles in just 10 years. There have been 500,000 new electric
vehicles sold this year in the United States--1 year--after only having
2,000 of them sold 10 years ago. We went from 1,000 megawatts of solar
capacity to 65,000 megawatts in 2018. That is a revolution in 10 years.
We have gone from 25,000
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megawatts of wind to 98,000 megawatts of wind in 10 years.
That is the revolution the Koch brothers are afraid of, and that is
the revolution the polluters want to stop because it is the existential
threat to their business model. That is what the fight is all about out
here--the Koch brothers v. the Green New Deal. It is one business model
against another, and our business model is the job creation engine of
this generation for blue-collar jobs.
Now, who paid for the Republican study that they all came out on the
floor to use? It was paid for by the Koch brothers. They put together
what they believe are the costs of the Green New Deal. This was not
some private, independent group. The Koch brothers themselves paid for
the study that the Republicans have used out here on the floor.
The hearings, if the majority leader had ever ordered them to have
been conducted, would have just picked out some of the items regarding
how much harm had been done to our planet and to our own country in the
last 2 years--$24 billion from western wildfires in 2018, $24 billion
from Hurricane Michael, $24 billion from Hurricane Florence, $18
billion from western wildfires in 2017, $91 billion from Hurricane
Maria, and on and on and on--Hurricane Harvey, $127.5 billion.
This is all climate related. We pay the price for this. There is no
exempting America from having to pick up the costs. Shouldn't we be
investing in job creation? Shouldn't we be investing in this incredible
change that is already taking place in our economy?
The Green New Deal is not just a resolution; it is a revolution that
is taking place across our country. That is why people are rising up
all across our country. It is because they know we can do this and
because they know this is a job-creation engine that absolutely can
create millions of jobs and that can absolutely begin the process of
having America, once again, be the leader on this issue.
The denier in chief sits in the White House. The denier in chief
addressed the United States at the State of the Union for an hour and
20 minutes just 7 weeks ago, but he did not mention climate change and
did not mention clean energy jobs. That is why we are in this fight. We
are in the fight because, if we don't lead, the rest of the world will
not follow. You cannot preach temperance from a barstool. You can't
tell China and you can't tell India what to do if you yourself are not
leading. We are the United States of America.
President Kennedy challenged our country to have a mission to the
Moon. He said in his speech at Rice University that we would have to
invent new metals, new alloys, and propulsion systems that did not
exist. He said we would have to bring that mission safely back from the
Moon through heat that was half the intensity of the Sun and get it
completed within 10 years. We did that as a nation. We can do this as
well. We can deploy these technologies; we can invent new technologies;
and we can create millions of jobs within our country because we are
bold--because we are a country that can do it.
The President is, for all intents and purposes, John F. Kennedy in
reverse. He says we can't do it. He says we should not accept this
challenge. Ladies and gentlemen, the Green New Deal is our accepting
the challenge, and we are looking forward to this debate today and
every day until election day of 2020. We are going to inject this issue
into the Presidential and congressional races of 2020 in a way that
ensures that unlike in 2016, when Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton were
not asked a single question about climate change, the candidates will
be asked every day about what their plans are.
We say to the Republican leader: Do you believe in the science? Do
you believe it is an existential threat? If you do, where is your plan?
Where is the Republican plan to deal with the science of climate
change?
If you do not believe it is a threat, then, say it. If you do not
believe the science, then, say it. But if you do believe the science,
then, all we say to you is this: Where is your plan to deal with this
challenge?
President Kennedy responded to the challenge of the Soviet Union
controlling outer space, and we succeeded. What is the plan of this
Republican era to deal with the challenge of climate, an existential
threat to our planet?
We thank you for your attention.
I suggest the absence of a quorum.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
The bill clerk proceeded to call the roll.
Mr. CARDIN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for
the quorum call be rescinded.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.