[Congressional Record Volume 165, Number 76 (Wednesday, May 8, 2019)]
[Senate]
[Pages S2745-S2746]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

      By Ms. SMITH (for herself, Mr. Heinrich, Mr. Kaine, Mr. 
        Whitehouse, and Mr. Schatz):
  S. 1359. A bill to amend the Public Utility Regulatory Policies Act 
of 1978 to establish a market-oriented standard for clean electric 
energy generation, and for other purposes; to the Committee on Energy 
and Natural Resources.
  Ms. SMITH. Mr. President, climate change is the existential challenge 
of our time. I know this because this is what the science says. I know 
this because I have seen the impacts of climate change in my State. I 
know this because it is what our children who will live with the 
consequences of a changing climate tell us. In a recent poll, half of 
Americans age 18 to 29 describe climate change as a ``crisis that 
demands urgent action.''
  Today I rise to discuss how the clean energy revolution can be the 
way we fight climate change and the way we create jobs and opportunity. 
Colleagues, in this global challenge, the United States can lead or we 
can follow. I want us to lead.
  This morning, as a Senator from an agricultural and high-tech State 
from the Upper Midwest, I have joined with Representative Ben Ray 
Lujan, who represents the great State of New Mexico, a State with 
significant oil and gas resources, to introduce the Clean Energy 
Standard Act of 2019. Our legislation would dramatically expand clean 
electricity and put the United States on a path to net zero greenhouse 
gas emissions from the electric sector by the middle of the century, 
including a nearly 80-percent reduction in emissions by 2035 compared 
to 2005.
  Not so long ago, the United States was a global leader in tackling 
climate change. President Obama took strong action to remove carbon 
emissions from cars. He advanced the Clean Power Plan to significantly 
reduce emissions in the electric sector, and he provided the essential 
leadership that led to adoption of the international Paris climate 
agreement, which commits the countries of the world to collectively 
hold global warming to well below 2 degrees Celsius.
  Unfortunately, our current President has moved unilaterally to undo 
these actions, as if we can bury our heads in the sand and ignore the 
reality that a warming climate threatens our health, it threatens our 
financial stability, and it threatens our very existence. I regret to 
say it, but for the most part, the Republican-led Congress has gone 
along with President Trump as he has ceded U.S. leadership on climate 
and clean energy to our competitors.
  The result of this? Our global competitors are happy to dominate in 
this field. This is, I think, quite interesting. China has more than 
twice as much wind power as the United States, and in 2018, China beat 
the United States on new wind installations by more than 3 to 1. Half 
of all new solar installations in the world last year happened in 
China. Here at home, President Trump's policies caused the solar energy 
industry to shed 20,000 jobs as the United States lags in fourth place 
on installed solar energy.
  Fortunately, while Washington wavers, there is a groundswell of 
support for the clean energy revolution at the local level. When 
President Trump moved against the Paris climate agreement, Americans 
responded with the ``We Are Still In'' campaign. Churches, Tribes, 
mayors, county executives, and campus leaders led the way. States 
followed and took action. Last week, the U.S. House of Representatives 
pledged and passed legislation to renew our commitment to the Paris 
Agreement.
  There are now over 100 cities around the country which have committed 
to clean or renewable energy. Four States and the District of Columbia 
have policies that will get them to net zero emissions by mid-century. 
Several more are moving in that direction. In my home State, 
Minnesota's Governor, Tim Walz, has a plan for 100 percent carbon-free 
electricity by 2050. That bill passed the Minnesota House by a 74-to-59 
vote. Minnesota Senate, it is now your turn. To my colleagues in the 
Senate, it is our turn as well.
  I believe the best ideas come from people working at the local level 
to solve problems, and I also think the best ideas that can get done 
are those that bring people together across regional differences, 
political ideology, and their own life experiences. That is how our 
bill, the Clean Energy Standard Act of 2019, came to be. It builds on 
what is already working at the local level.
  As a clean energy standard, it has a bipartisan history. Back when 
Republicans and Democrats were working together on bills to reduce 
carbon pollution--all the way back in 2009 through 2012--clean energy 
standard bills like this one had both Democratic and Republican 
cosponsors. This bill today is supported by labor groups, by 
environmental groups, and by utilities--an unlikely but strong 
coalition in these days of divisive politics.
  The basics of this plan are simple. First, let's start where electric 
utilities are and then improve from there. We know many electric 
utilities are shifting to renewables and clean energy because it is the 
most cost-competitive thing for them to do and because it is what their 
customers want, but we also know that each utility is going to start 
from a different place in terms of the amount of clean energy it 
already sells.
  Let's start there. Our bill recognizes these regional differences and 
then asks each utility to improve from where they are. One size does 
not fit all. On the one hand, States like Idaho and Washington are 
blessed with abundant hydropower and already produce over 80 percent of 
their electricity from carbon-free sources. On the other hand, four of 
our united States get less than 10 percent of their electricity from 
carbon-free generation. Our bill asks each utility to start from where 
they are and improve from there.
  Utilities that start with a low amount of clean energy are asked to 
grow quickly, but they slow down as they reach very high levels of net 
zero emission electricity. The plan recognizes also that rural co-ops 
and municipal utilities face unique challenges, and we accommodate 
that.
  The second thing about this plan is this: Let's be ambitious. Science 
tells us that we need to achieve net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 
the second half of this century if we are to avoid the worst 
consequences of climate change. We desperately need some can-do 
American spirit and ingenuity here, not nay-saying.
  This bill is ambitious. It would result in expected electric sector 
emission reductions of nearly 80 percent by 2035 compared to 2005 
benchmarks. If the cost curve bends faster and the clean energy 
transition turns out to be even cheaper, reductions will happen even 
faster.
  Third, let's be open to all solutions for a clean energy future. 
Addressing the challenges of climate change isn't easy, and there is no 
one solution. We need to be open to all ideas and all approaches so 
long as they actually reduce carbon emissions. If we want an electric 
system that is not only zero emissions but also reliable, resilient, 
and affordable, we can't afford to rule out any technologies in 
advance.
  None of us knows in 2019 what is going to be the best way to run a 
reliable, affordable net zero emissions electric system in 2050. What 
we do know is that we need to create strong

[[Page S2746]]

clean energy incentives that the electricity market will understand and 
respond to and then allow all technologies to compete. That is what 
this bill does.
  Here is what that might look like. Here is what it could look like. 
Most scientific models say that in a net zero emission electric grid, 
renewable sources like wind and solar will deliver the bulk of the 
electricity we need, but we also know that a reliable grid needs energy 
sources that can be turned up or down when we need them. This means 
resilient, reliable electric grids that will be built on a combination 
of hydropower, nuclear power, long-term energy storage, and fossil 
fuels, if they are deployed with carbon capture.
  What will be the proportion of these energy sources in 2050? We can't 
know that today, but what we do know, based on one leading model, is an 
approach like the one in our bill that is open to all clean sources of 
electricity will be up to trillions of dollars cheaper than an approach 
that relies on handpicking technological winners and losers. 
Colleagues, clean, reliable, and affordable energy is important to my 
constituents in Minnesota, and I bet it is important to your 
constituents as well.
  Fighting climate change is a big challenge that requires a lot of 
good ideas. The Clean Energy Standard Act of 2019, which I introduced 
today, will get the electric power sector to net zero carbon emissions, 
but it doesn't do everything we need to do to fight climate change.
  This bill is only one of the steps that we need to take to move our 
country and our world to net zero greenhouse gas emissions in a way 
that is fair and just and economical, but it is an important piece.
  In the electric sector, we already know a lot about how to make 
progress to lower carbon emissions. Thanks to innovation and good 
policies at the State level, emissions from electricity production have 
declined substantially just in the last decade.
  Now we need to keep that progress going and going faster. We need to 
continue and accelerate progress and expand the use of clean 
electricity into other sectors.
  Think about this. A clean electric grid can provide the energy to 
reduce carbon emissions in transportation, in buildings, and in other 
parts of our economy. Electric vehicles can contribute to reduce carbon 
emissions when we have a clean energy electric sector. Office buildings 
and homes can contribute to reduce carbon emissions when we have a 
clean electric sector. That is what progress can look like.
  I am grateful that a few of my fellow Republicans in Congress are 
moving beyond the President's head-in-the-sand denial of climate 
change. These colleagues--and I hope more of them--are looking for ways 
to spur innovation in clean energy by providing new funding for clean 
energy research.
  This is all well and good, but Federal funding for clean energy 
research will not work all on its own. What drives adoption and 
dispersion of innovation is a strong market signal that low carbon 
sources of electricity will be valued by the market, and that will be 
happening predictably as big utilities make important capital 
investments. Research money provides a really important push to get 
innovation started in the lab, but for innovation to move from 
technology to be adopted at a scale and pace that we need, we must be 
sending a strong, clear signal from the market that low-carbon sources 
of electricity are going to be valued.
  The Clean Energy Standard Act of 2019 does this. It is a crucial 
complement to Manhattan Project efforts to spur technology innovation. 
These two are complements but not alternatives. Research without market 
incentives will not get us where we need to go.
  Colleagues, climate change is real, and we need bold action to fight 
it. If we do--when we do--the United States can be the clean energy 
leader. This will be good for jobs. It will be good for our health, and 
it will be necessary for the survival of our planet.
  We can lead or we can follow. I believe we need to lead. This is what 
our bill seeks to do by putting the United States in the forefront for 
reaching net zero carbon emissions in the electric sector. This is an 
environmental imperative. It is an economic imperative, and it is a 
jobs imperative. I don't care whether you come from a State that gets 
80 percent of its power from clean energy or whether you get 10 
percent.
  This is why our plan has the endorsement of the Union of Concerned 
Scientists, the Clean Air Task Force, and Fresh Energy in Minnesota. 
Our plan is supported by the Utility Workers of America and United 
Steelworkers. Bills that are acceptable to labor, the environmental 
movement, and forward-thinking utilities are rare. Yet this is what we 
really need if we are going to build a winning coalition to address 
climate change.
  We Democrats understand that the climate crisis requires bold action, 
and we understand that we need many ideas and many solutions. I offer 
one today.
  I challenge--I urge--my Republican colleagues to do the same and to 
join us. Join with us and help us find solutions to a crisis that will 
shape irrevocably the world our children and our grandchildren will be 
living in.
  Science tells us that the challenge is great, but it also shows us 
solutions that can cut net carbon emissions to zero, lower energy 
costs, and expand jobs and opportunity. That is the future I want for 
my children and my grandchildren yet to be born. Let's get to work. We 
don't have any time to waste.
  I thank Representative Lujan for partnering with me on this bill. I 
thank my colleagues Senators Heinrich, Kaine, Whitehouse, and Schatz 
for cosponsoring this legislation. I also thank Senator Jeff Bingaman 
of New Mexico, longtime chair of the Senate Energy Committee, who first 
worked in a bipartisan way on a clean energy standard bill that was a 
template for our effort today.
  I thank also the scientists and economists who have provided 
thoughtful analysis as we developed this bill--most prominently, 
Resources for the Future and President Obama's Secretary of Energy, 
Ernie Moniz. I am grateful for their support and eager to begin the 
push to get our policies moved forward.
  I yield the floor.

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