[Congressional Record Volume 165, Number 63 (Thursday, April 11, 2019)]
[Senate]
[Pages S2412-S2413]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                     Nomination of David Bernhardt

  Mr. MARKEY. Madam President, I rise today to address the Senate on 
the nomination of David Bernhardt to head the Department of the 
Interior.
  I ask unanimous consent that I may use this chart in order to further 
my goal of making it clear why he should not be nominated and confirmed 
as Secretary of the Interior.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  Mr. MARKEY. Madam President, under Secretary Bernhardt, the 
Department of the Interior will come to stand for the Department of Oil 
Interests, DOI.
  This wheel of Bernhardt's giveaways makes it very clear what the 
objective of his tenure as the Secretary of Interior will, in fact, 
entail.
  Bernhardt's nomination is just a continuation of the Trump 
administration's cartel Cabinet. Only a month ago, a former coal 
lobbyist was confirmed to head the Environmental Protection Agency. Let 
me say that again. Just last month, a coal lobbyist was nominated and 
confirmed to be the head of the Environmental Protection Agency of the 
United States--unbelievable. But now Republicans want to install a 
former oil lobbyist to head the Department of the Interior because, in 
Trump's administration, it is nothing but foxes guarding the henhouse.
  We need more answers about Mr. Bernhardt's lobbying activities. We 
need answers on whether Mr. Bernhardt used his position at the 
Department of the Interior to help former clients. The American people 
need to see the documents associated with Bernhardt's lobbying 
activities. Most importantly, we should not confirm a former oil 
lobbyist to lead the very Agency that is tasked with protecting our 
public lands from despoliation.
  Let me now point to the wheel of giveaways for more oil--more oil. 
And that is the goal of his appointment.
  The Arctic National Wildlife Refuge is one of our national treasures 
that is under threat from Big Oil and the Trump administration. This is 
the wildest place left in America, and it should not be turned into a 
drilling playground. Yet Republicans here in the Senate voted in 2017 
to hand this special place--the Arctic Refuge--over to Big Oil. Now 
this administration is trying to hit the gas on drilling there, in one 
of the Earth's most pristine wilderness areas.
  Last year, Mr. Bernhardt said that he would ``expedite'' oil 
development in the wildlife refuge, and he has worked inside the 
Department of the Interior to limit environmental review of drilling 
activities. So let's just imagine gushing oil poisoning the habitat of 
magnificent creatures like polar bears and caribou, snowy owls and the 
Arctic fox; rigs and pumps threatening the ancestral homeland of the 
Gwich'in and Inupiat peoples, which they call ``the sacred place where 
life begins.''

[[Page S2413]]

  I have spent my career protecting the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge 
for future generations, and today I will not support the nomination of 
David Bernhardt to undermine the protections we have worked so hard to 
put in place. We must stand up for the generations yet to come that 
cannot yet speak to protect our public lands and our oceans.
  At the same time, the Trump administration is trying to roll back the 
fuel economy standards for the vehicles we drive. In other words, since 
we put 70 percent of all the oil we consume in our country on a yearly 
basis into the gasoline tanks of the vehicles we drive in our country, 
if you increase the fuel economy of every one of those vehicles, it 
will reduce the amount of oil you need to drill for.
  What do the Republicans want to do? What do the oil companies want? 
What do the Koch brothers want? What does ExxonMobil want? Well, it is 
very simple. By not increasing the fuel economy standards of the 
vehicles we drive, we need more oil because cars will consume more in 
the course of a year. They then say: Ah, let's turn to the Arctic 
National Wildlife Refuge--a sacred place--and find more oil, because 
the vehicles we drive won't be that efficient.
  What kind of sacrifice are we going to make in our country because 
the Koch brothers and ExxonMobil want to have more oil drilled for? We 
are going to have the Trump administration say: The only way we can 
justify it is if the cars, the light trucks, the SUVs that people drive 
are not that efficient; therefore, we need all the oil we can get, even 
though we are a technical giant and we know we can make these vehicles 
so much more efficient, so we never have to drill there. That is a sin 
against the environment and a sin against our country and future 
generations that should be able to enjoy this pristine area, the 
wildlife refuge.
  Let's move on to another part of the wheel of giveaways--even more 
oil that will be another giveaway during the Bernhardt time at the 
Department of the Interior.
  On January 4, 2018, the Department of the Interior announced a plan 
to revise the offshore drilling plan to eliminate protections for the 
east and west coasts, the eastern Gulf of Mexico, and the Arctic Ocean. 
The plan proposed to open up more than 90 percent of the U.S. 
coastlines to oil and gas leasing.
  Since then, the bipartisan opposition has been deafening. All 
Governors along the east and west coasts have opposed or expressed 
concerns about expanded oil and gas exploration off their coasts. More 
than 340 municipalities and over 2,100 elected local, State, and 
Federal officials have formally opposed offshore oil and gas drilling 
and seismic airgun blasting in our ocean. But David Bernhardt is not 
listening to those concerns. Instead, he is listening to his former 
fossil fuel clients. He is moving ahead with this terrible offshore 
drilling plan that would threaten State after State with the threat of 
a spill in the ocean off of those States.
  We should not confirm Bernhardt to lead the Department of the 
Interior. Handing the keys to the beaches of our country, the 
coastlines of our country, and our fishing and tourism industries in 
our country over to Big Oil is not what our citizens want. That is the 
opposite of what we need to do to protect our environment, but that is 
what David Bernhardt and his fossil fuel friends want.
  There is no reason that we have to drill off of the coastlines of our 
country right where people who are swimming will be watching these oil 
rigs that are going to be drilling down into those ocean areas off of 
our beaches to find oil that we don't need. If we increase the fuel 
economy standards of the vehicles we drive, we will be able to back out 
the need for all of that additional oil. That is the sin against the 
environment that is being committed. That is the agenda of David 
Bernhardt's at the Department of the Interior.
  Instead of being the United States of America--a technological giant 
that invents its way to the new automotive technologies that reduce the 
amount of oil we need and reduces the amount of greenhouse gasses that 
go up into the atmosphere--with David Bernhardt as the Secretary of the 
Interior, partnered with the new coal lobbyist who is running the EPA, 
we are going to wind up with more greenhouse gasses going up into the 
air, a reduction in the efficiency of the vehicles we drive, and 
putting more profits into the pockets of the Koch brothers and 
ExxonMobil and the auto industry, which also wants to reduce the fuel 
economy standards of the vehicles we drive. This is a sin against our 
environment but also our identity as the technological giant of the 
planet.
  We can do this. We can make our cars more efficient. We can have 
plug-in hybrids. We can have all-electric vehicles. We can create a 
revolution that avoids the necessity of drilling off of our beaches and 
drilling in the Arctic Wildlife Refuge. We can do this, but that is not 
what Donald Trump wants. He wants fossil fuel industry representatives 
at the Department of the Interior and EPA running these Agencies.
  David Bernhardt's ties to Big Oil--the very industry he is tasked 
with regulating--are as deep as an oil well. Those ties should be 
disqualifying for anyone nominated to head the Department of the 
Interior. We need to stop the pollution of our democracy by Big Oil 
interests.
  I urge my colleagues to vote no on the nomination of David Bernhardt. 
I ask my colleagues to consider what we can do to avoid the necessity 
of despoiling these sacred environmental locations in our country for 
the oil industry, for the Koch brothers.
  This is a big moment, this vote we are about to cast. This is one 
more step by Donald Trump that will result in far more greenhouse gases 
going up into the atmosphere, far more danger being presented to places 
that should be put off limits to the oil industry because of the risk 
of environmental danger that would result from that permission to 
drill.
  That is why we should all pause and really consider whether we want 
to go deeper and deeper into an era that is completely avoidable if we 
unleash the technological might of our country.
  When President Kennedy went to Rice University in 1961, what he said 
was that we were going to have a mission to the Moon and that mission 
would require us to invent new metals, new alloys, new propulsion 
systems that did not exist, and that within 10 years, we would have to 
then bring that mission back safely from the Moon through heat half the 
intensity of the Sun and do so successfully.
  Auto mechanics is not rocket science. We already know how to improve 
the fuel economy standards of the vehicles we drive. We don't need 
nuclear physics and we don't need aeronautical engineers to help us do 
this.
  President Kennedy challenged our country, and we responded. President 
Trump is like J.F.K. in reverse. He is saying that we can't do it; 
that, instead, what we have to do is, here on Earth, be the leaders in 
spoiling our most sacred environmental locations.
  That is why today is such a monumental opportunity for the Senate to 
say no on a bipartisan basis to David Bernhardt, who is someone who 
does not deserve the post of Secretary of the Interior.
  I once again urge a ``no'' vote from all of my colleagues.
  I yield the floor.
  Madam President, I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The senior assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Alaska.
  Ms. MURKOWSKI. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the 
order for the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.