[Congressional Record Volume 165, Number 125 (Wednesday, July 24, 2019)]
[Senate]
[Pages S5043-S5048]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




      RECOGNIZING SHELDON WHITEHOUSE'S 250TH CLIMATE CHANGE SPEECH

  Mr. MERKLEY. Madam President, I rise in recognition of a friend and 
colleague, Senator Sheldon Whitehouse, on this special occasion of his 
250th speech in his ``Time to Wake up'' series, a series of speeches, 
as far as I know, unparalleled in the history of the Senate for 
addressing a major national issue, a major world issue--the issue of 
carbon pollution and climate chaos.
  As we take in a breath of air at this very moment, when you are 
sitting on the dais or at one of the desks or sitting on the benches, 
that breath of air contains air very different from the air when I was 
born. The air contains 33 percent more carbon. This has never happened 
over the lifetime of any individual in the history of the human species 
on this planet, and it means big changes because every molecule of 
carbon is grabbing heat and holding on to it.
  Out in Oregon that means there are warmer winters, which is wonderful 
for the pine beetles and bad for the pine trees. It means there is a 
smaller snowpack that melts earlier, on average, resulting in less 
irrigation water for our farmers and ranchers. It also means less 
healthy streams for salmon and trout. It means that a lot of the carbon 
will be absorbed into the ocean and become carbonic acid, and now we 
have to artificially buffer the Pacific Ocean seawater in order for 
baby oysters to survive.
  The list goes on, but the point is that these changes are happening 
not just in my State but all over our country, and not just in our 
country but all over the world. Most of these changes have manifested 
themselves within the last 10 years, that is, when we actually see what 
is happening. Just a couple of years ago, the sea stars off the coast 
of Oregon started dying, and off the coast of Washington and off the 
coast of California. In fact, in some areas they have been completely 
wiped out. The result of that is that the blue sea urchins have 
exploded without the sea stars to eat them. The result of that is the 
rapid disappearance of big kelp forests that harbor thousands of 
species. Who knows what impact that will have on

[[Page S5044]]

the chain of life in the ocean or on the fisheries that are such an 
important part of our economy. In place after place, effect after 
effect, effects can be measured with a thermometer or with litmus paper 
for acidity or with a ruler--effects that can be seen by our ranchers, 
farmers, fishermen, and the forests and timber economy; effects that 
are felt by the 180 million Americans who suffered through an 
extraordinary heat wave in what is now expected to be the hottest month 
in human recorded history, this July.
  So we face a huge challenge, but we cannot respond by saying: Oh, my 
goodness, it is overwhelming. I want to ignore it. Or it is such a 
large challenge that I cannot make a difference.
  Instead, we have to increase our attention. We have to increase our 
efforts. We have to drive a faster transition off of fossil fuels that 
are creating the carbon to renewable fuels, and, in so doing, create 
millions of jobs and make sure they are good-paying jobs, and have a 
race to the top with project labor agreements and with good family 
wages and benefits. We need to make sure that we move forward in a 
fashion that puts jobs in places where they are needed, including in 
our frontline communities, in our frontier communities, as I like to 
call them, and in rural parts of Oregon, in our rural communities, in 
our former fossil fuel communities. Our former fossil fuel workers who 
did the hard work, took the risks, and suffered black lung should be 
first in line for new energy jobs in our economy.
  But we have no time to wait. This needs to be bipartisan. This is not 
blue or red. This is planet Earth. We are all on it together. We are 
all on this little remote planet, a long distance to our next planet, a 
long distance between our star and the next star. There are an 
estimated 2 trillion galaxies in the universe with perhaps a billion 
stars each, but all we have is our little blue-green orb. So let's save 
it.
  Can human civilization rise to the task? That hangs in the balance. 
We are not doing very well so far.
  But my colleague from Rhode Island has given his attention to this 
analysis, bringing everything to bear, saying: Pay attention and work 
hard. So I applaud him and thank him for his weekly speeches and his 
efforts to understand and establish a momentum around a solution and 
applaud him in this very robust form of leadership on such an important 
undertaking.
  Thank you.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Hawaii.
  Mr. SCHATZ. Madam President, in the Senate, in the Congress, and in 
politics, people are a little too loose with their praise. Everybody is 
getting applause, everybody is getting thanked, everybody is the 
greatest, and it gets a little tiresome. So I try to be a little more 
sparing. I mean you still have to be nice to people, but I try to be a 
little more sparing because this gets absurd. Sometimes we have caucus 
lunches, and there are probably 10 or 15 moments when we are all 
applauding each other. It gets crazy.
  But I want to take this moment on the Senate floor to applaud someone 
who really deserves it and who has really displayed extraordinary 
leadership. Whatever one may think about the U.S. Senate and how it 
functions, these are 100 pretty impressive people. They have 
accomplished something probably prior in their life and just to get to 
the Senate is a real thing. But Sheldon Whitehouse is the single most 
fearless individual in politics that I ever have met. He is the single 
most tireless individual in politics that I have ever met, and it is 
not just with speechmaking.
  Today is a marker because he has made 250. Is it 250 or did the 
Senator already do it?
  Mr. WHITEHOUSE. This is 250.
  Mr. SCHATZ. He has done 249, and he is about to do 250, and I will 
let him get to it. But it will be 250 individual speeches on the Senate 
floor. Sometimes there are people in the Chamber, and sometimes it is 
empty and you are talking to these incredible young men and women who 
serve as pages and the Presiding Officer, who has no choice but to sit 
there politely. But Sheldon Whitehouse will give his 250th speech on 
climate, and it is not most of what he has done. It is a small part of 
what he has done to lead on climate with absolute moral, scientific, 
political, and pragmatic clarity.
  I will just say a couple more things about my partnership with 
Sheldon. You know, I was a very happy Lieutenant Governor of the State 
of Hawaii, and I was leading the Hawaii Clean Energy Initiative, which 
is our effort to get to 100 percent clean energy by the year 2040. The 
very unfortunate death of Daniel K. Inouye made a vacancy in the Senate 
seat, and I decided to pursue this Senate seat because I wanted to do 
something about climate. I didn't know most of the Members except for 
the famous ones.
  When I came to the Senate, everybody told me to talk to Sheldon 
Whitehouse, and we became fast friends. He comes from the Ocean State, 
even though that sounds weird to me. I come from the Aloha State, and 
he comes from the Ocean State, and we have been working together ever 
since.
  But I want to report to whomever is watching that I never felt such 
momentum on this issue. It is because of the young people who have sort 
of stormed the castle over the last year or so and demanded change and 
demanded action and demanded the kinds of change and action that are 
equal to the scale of this problem.

  People will quibble with the political tactics and the messaging and 
all of that, but when change happens in the United States of America, 
it is led by young people, and that is what happened. They stormed the 
castle. Even those of us who have been working on climate for a long 
time felt a jolt of energy in a positive way. That is No. 1.
  No. 2 is a little unfortunate, but it is changing the politics, and 
that is events--weather events, climate events. We are no longer 
talking about climate change as a near-term future issue or a long-term 
future issue; climate change is now. It is happening across the 
country. It is not just happening to conservation areas or places where 
you might enjoy the outdoors; it is happening to communities from coast 
to coast and everywhere in between. There are record heat waves, record 
floods, record snowstorms, coral bleaching events. It is very difficult 
to describe something as a 100-year flood or a 500-year flood--which 
means it is supposed to happen, statistically speaking, about every 100 
or 500 years--if that flood is happening every year.
  It is very difficult to ignore the reality of climate change when the 
last 8 hottest years on record were over the last 9 years. The weather 
is absolutely getting weirder and more unpleasant, and our storms are 
getting more frequent and more severe.
  Public opinion is moving. Now you have a majority of Republicans, a 
decisive majority of young Republicans, a huge, vast majority of 
Independents, and pretty much every single Democrat wanting climate 
action. The other part of that, which is encouraging, is that Senator 
Whitehouse has a strategy. He understands it is not enough just to 
marshal public opinion.
  Look at what is happening with gun safety. We are not there yet, even 
though public opinion is absolutely on our side. Sometimes you have to 
look at what is structurally happening in politics, especially in the 
U.S. Congress.
  Senator Whitehouse understands that we have to deal with the 
structural aspects of the way campaigns are funded, the way information 
and misinformation is propagated, and we need to engage on that 
battlefield, as well.
  I will close with this. A, I have never been so hopeful about the 
prospect for climate action in 2021, and, B, I have never been so 
thankful to have a partner who can lead this effort as Senator Sheldon 
Whitehouse can.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Rhode Island.
  Mr. WHITEHOUSE. Madam President, let me first thank my friend Senator 
Schatz for his incredibly kind remarks. He is an outstanding colleague. 
We work together extremely well. He brings a good cop ``aloha'' 
sensibility to a conversation, whereas I tend to lean more toward the 
bad cop, and he has a remarkable vision for how this can be solved. I 
am incredibly honored that he is here.
  For the 250th week that the Senate has been in session, I rise to 
call this Chamber to wake up to the threat of climate change. In April 
of 2012, I delivered the first of these speeches. I

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began: ``I know that many in Washington would prefer to ignore this 
issue, but nature keeps sending us messages--messages we ignore at our 
peril.''
  It was a cry of frustration--frustration that the Supreme Court's 
infamous Citizens United decision had killed the bipartisan work that I 
saw here on climate for 3 years; frustration that the fossil fuel 
industry's death grip had tightened around this Chamber, preventing 
action; frustration that our Democratic administration had abandoned 
leadership on climate change and would barely even talk about it.
  It has been a run, and here I am, still at it, 7 years on. Some 
things have changed; some things have not.
  Let's start with what has not changed. What has not changed is the 
scientific certainty about what is happening in our atmosphere and 
oceans. Scientists have understood that burning fossil fuels has caused 
our planet to heat up since the days when Abraham Lincoln was riding 
around Washington, DC, in his top hat. This is not new news.
  Nearly four decades ago, Exxon's own scientists reported to Exxon 
management that there is ``little doubt'' that atmospheric 
CO2 concentrations were increasing due to fossil fuel 
burning. They said back in 1982 that the resulting greenhouse effect 
``would warm the Earth's surface, causing changes in climate affecting 
atmospheric and ocean temperatures, rainfall patterns, soil moisture, 
and . . . potentially melting the polar ice caps.''

  There was no legitimate debate over the science when I started in 
2012, and there is no legitimate debate over the science today. Indeed, 
the science has only strengthened. With each passing year, as Senator 
Merkley said, we rely less on complicated climate models and on 
scientific forecasts and, unfortunately, more on straightforward, 
realtime measurement of the changes. Today, we observe with our own 
eyes what recently was predicted: glacial collapse and retreat, sea 
level rise, arctic warming, and increasingly extreme weather.
  Another constant since 2012 is the fossil fuel industry's remorseless 
campaign, A, to block climate change and, B, to do this while hiding 
its hands behind front groups. I have delivered dozens of these 
speeches about the dozens of climate denial front groups. Indeed, we 
have had whole groups of Senators come to the floor to talk about the 
web of denial that the fossil fuel industry has constructed to 
propagate fake science, to hide that it is the fossil fuel industry 
pulling these strings, and to push its muscle and weight around 
Congress. Mostly, it is funded by Big Oil and the Koch brothers. They 
set these groups up, and they set them loose to sow false doubt about 
real climate science and to obstruct, obstruct, obstruct here in 
Washington.
  They have spent--at a minimum--hundreds of millions of dollars on 
this anti-climate campaign. With that money, they have talked up some 
seriously ridiculous notions, such as carbon pollution is good for us 
all because carbon is plant food. They have taken out billboards 
comparing climate scientists to the Unabomber. It is false and ugly 
stuff powered by hidden money.
  Oil giants still spend huge amounts to infect America's corporate 
lobbying with their obstruction message. InfluenceMap reckons the 
biggest anti-climate lobbying force in Washington is the U.S. Chamber 
of Commerce, a trade group that purports to represent typical patriotic 
American businesses. It should, more properly, be called the ``U.S. 
Chamber of Carbon.'' There it is at the rock bottom, side by side with 
the National Association of Manufacturers, in a statistical tie for 
worst obstructor of climate action in America.
  Why wouldn't Big Oil go to all this trouble? They are defending a 
$650 billion per year subsidy in the United States alone, according to 
the International Monetary Fund. So it is logical, but it is still 
shameful.
  There is a vast majority of American companies that have a different 
view and that want to see climate action. Yet in Congress, that vast 
majority is a silent majority. When I say ``silent,'' I mean they are 
not showing up in Congress--not to push back, not to correct the 
record, not even to seek serious climate legislation. Corporate America 
was AWOL in Congress in 2012, and they are AWOL in Congress now. 
Corporate America's silence was deafening then, and it is deafening 
still today.
  So what has changed since that first speech 7-plus years ago? First 
of all, the economics of renewable energy changed in a big way. In 
2012, wind and solar weren't cost-competitive with fossil fuels. 
Storage and electric vehicles were nowhere. That year, the average cost 
of solar was over $200 per megawatt hour. Today, it is one-quarter of 
that. The cost of wind power is down, and offshore wind is emerging. 
Battery storage now competes on price with gas-fired, peak-demand 
plants in many areas. Automakers around the world are making more and 
more electric vehicles, driving costs down and performance up for 
consumers. Even with that massive subsidy for fossil fuel, renewables 
are starting to win on price.
  Another new area is that we are starting to capture carbon. This 
little cube that I have in my hand is CO2 that was pulled 
out of the air by direct air capture technology and can be turned into 
tiles, blocks, bricks. There it is. It is the beginning of a new era of 
carbon capture. The group that did this is competing in Wyoming this 
summer for the XPRIZE for carbon capture.
  Another big thing that has changed since 2012 is that economists, 
central bankers, Wall Street bankers, real estate professionals, and 
asset managers are all recognizing the major risks that climate change 
poses to the global economy. It is not free to ignore it, and the costs 
could come in the form of crashes. Back in 2012, these economic 
warnings--these crash warnings--were uncommon. Today, they are coming 
from everywhere.
  Freddie Mac predicts that rising sea levels will prompt a crash in 
coastal property values greater than the housing crash that caused the 
2008 financial crisis.
  First Street has shown how sea level rises already are affecting 
coastal real estate values up and down the east coast. It found that 
rising seas have already resulted in $16 billion in lost property 
values in coastal homes from Maine to Mississippi.
  Moody's warns that climate risk could trigger downgrades in coastal 
communities' bond ratings. Just last week, the mayor of Honolulu 
testified at Senator Schatz's Climate Committee's first hearing that 
the credit rating agencies are already grilling him about this.
  BlackRock has estimated that some coastal communities face annual 
average losses of up to 15 percent of GDP from climate change by the 
end of the century. Heads up, Florida.
  Coastal property is not the only financial risk. The Bank of England, 
Bank of France, Bank of Canada, San Francisco Fed, and European Central 
Bank--along with many top-tier, peer-reviewed economic papers--are all 
warning of systemic economic risk. That is central banker speak for 
something that poses a risk to the entire economy, all from stranded 
fossil fuel assets called the carbon asset bubble.
  One other thing I have spent a lot of time on is oceans--the heating, 
the acidification, the lost and shifting fisheries, the collapse in 
coral and expanding dead zones, and, of course, the rising sea levels. 
Our terrestrial species needs to pay a lot more attention to the seas. 
There has been a real shift in attention in these intervening years.
  Then you have Standard & Poor's, Moody's, Citigroup, and more 
economists warning that the costs of climate change will not be 
measured in the hundreds of billions or even in the trillions but will 
be measured in the tens of trillions of dollars. That is a penalty 
worth avoiding and worth the attention in the Senate.
  So here I am, 7-plus years later, giving my 250th speech. Somewhere 
between persistent, tiresome, and, I suppose, foolhardy is where you 
will find me.
  I never thought I would still be at it well into 2019, but the fossil 
fuel industry, with all of its wretched dark money, is still calling 
the shots in Congress while the rest of corporate America still sits on 
its hands. The U.S. Senate still is not seriously considering any 
legislation to reduce carbon pollution, and I am still frustrated, but 
I am optimistic because the denial wall is cracking.
  Bankers and asset managers and financial titans recognize the massive

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economic risks of a fossil fuel-based economy and see the huge economic 
potential of a low-carbon economy. They now see real business incentive 
to push back on the fossil fuel denial apparatus. They now see real 
business peril in allowing the fossil fuel denial apparatus to rule.
  I ask unanimous consent to have printed in the Record at the end of 
my remarks the ``Economists' Statement on Carbon Dividends'' that was 
published in the Wall Street Journal, which illustrates that exact 
point.
  I am also optimistic because people are talking about climate change 
again, and colleagues are talking about climate change. Americans 
everywhere are talking about climate change. Most Republicans want 
action on climate change. Voters are engaged on climate change, and 
more than anyone else, young people especially are engaged. From young 
hero Greta Thunberg to kids all across this country, to the young 
plaintiffs in the Juliana suit, young people are engaged. Any 
politician who wants a long career had better care about what young 
people think. Any political party that wants to matter in a decade had 
better care.
  Over in the House, it is starting to show. A few Republicans have 
actually introduced legislation to put a price on carbon emissions. 
Even President Trump--the guy who handed over the keys to his 
administration to the fossil fuel industry--feels the need now to talk 
about the environment. As empty as that talk is, the pressure he feels 
is progress. The fact that he feels he has to talk about it is 
progress.
  As for me, I can't wait to stop giving these speeches. These speeches 
chronicle the continued failure of this body and the continued failure 
of our country to grapple with an evident climate crisis, and these 
speeches chronicle the fake science and the political mischief and 
muscle that the fossil fuel industry has used to debauch our American 
democracy. Marking that sordid history is important, but I want it to 
be history. When the dark days of denial and obstruction are past, 
these speeches will no longer be necessary.
  I particularly thank my colleague from Hawaii, Senator Schatz; my 
colleague from Oregon, Senator Merkley; my colleague from 
Massachusetts, Senator Markey; and other colleagues who have been 
incredible friends and allies in this fight, like Senator Heinrich of 
New Mexico and Senator Warren of Massachusetts. I thank my colleagues 
for being here today and for being such extraordinary partners and 
teammates. We are a band of brothers and sisters in this cause, and our 
band is growing.
  As more and more Americans, from kitchen tables to corporate cocktail 
parties, come to terms with the real scope of the problem and the 
danger this failure presents, not only am I proud of my colleagues who 
are with me already, but I am very hopeful my colleagues across the 
aisle will also soon become great partners.
  Until then, I conclude for the 250th time by saying it is time to 
wake up.
  There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in 
the Record, as follows:

             [From the Wall Street Journal, Jan. 16, 2019]

Economists' Statement on Carbon Dividends--Bipartisan Agreement on How 
                        to Combat Climate Change

       Global climate change is a serious problem calling for 
     immediate national action. Guided by sound economic 
     principles, we are united in the following policy as 
     recommendations.
       I. A carbon tax offers the most cost-effective lever to 
     reduce carbon emissions at the scale and speed that is 
     necessary. By correcting a well-known market failure, a 
     carbon tax will send a powerful price signal that harnesses 
     the invisible hand of the marketplace to steer economic 
     actors towards a low-carbon future.
       II. A carbon tax should increase every year until emissions 
     reductions goals are met and be revenue neutral to avoid 
     debates over the size of government. A consistently rising 
     carbon price will encourage technological innovation and 
     large-scale infrastructure development. It will also 
     accelerate the diffusion of carbon-efficient goods and 
     services.
       III. A sufficiently robust and gradually rising carbon tax 
     will replace the need for various carbon regulations that are 
     less efficient. Substituting a price signal for cumbersome 
     regulations will promote economic growth and provide the 
     regulatory certainty companies need for long-term investment 
     in clean-energy alternatives.
       IV. To prevent carbon leakage and to protect U.S. 
     competitiveness, a border carbon adjustment system should be 
     established. This system would enhance the competitiveness of 
     American firms that are more energy-efficient than their 
     global competitors. It would also create an incentive for 
     other nations to adopt similar carbon pricing.
       V. To maximize the fairness and political viability of a 
     rising carbon tax, all the revenue should be returned 
     directly to U.S. citizens through equal lump-sum rebates. The 
     majority of American families, including the most vulnerable, 
     will benefit financially by receiving more in ``carbon 
     dividends'' than they pay in increased energy prices.
       George Akerlof, Robert Aumann, Angus Deaton, Peter Diamond, 
     Robert Engle, Eugene Fama, Lars Peter Hansen, Oliver Hart, 
     Bengt Holmstrom, Daniel Kahneman, Finn Kydland, Robert Lucas, 
     Eric Maskin, Daniel McFadden, Robert Merton, Roger Myerson, 
     Edmund Phelps, Alvin Roth, Thomas Sargent, Myron Scholes, 
     Amartya Sen, William Sharpe, Robert Shiller, Christopher 
     Sims, Robert Solow, Michael Spence and Richard Thaler are 
     recipients of the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences.
       Paul Volcker is a former Federal Reserve chairman.
       Martin Baily, Michael Baskin, Martin Feldstein, Jason 
     Furman, Austan Goolsbee, Glenn Hubbard, Alan Krueger, Edward 
     Lazear, N. Gregory Mankiw, Christina Romer, Harvey Rosen and 
     Laura Tyson are former chairmen of the president's Council of 
     Economic Advisers.
       Ben Bernanke, Alan Greenspan and Janet Yellen have chaired 
     both the Fed and the Council of Economic Advisers.
       George Shultz and Lawrence Summers are former Treasury 
     secretaries.

  Mr. WHITEHOUSE. I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Massachusetts.
  Mr. MARKEY. Madam President, what an honor it is to be out here with 
the great leader from the State of Rhode Island, Sheldon Whitehouse, 
who has come onto the Senate floor 250 times to say to the Senate and 
to say to our country that it is time to wake up. His voice is 
inspiring. His voice cuts through all of the obfuscation that has been 
paid for by the special interests. It ensures that we hear the truth 
about the danger climate change poses to our country and to the planet.
  I came out here just to say how special it is for me and for every 
other Member who partners with Sheldon Whitehouse on this issue. This 
is somebody who has dedicated his career to solving this problem. He 
knows all issues go through three phases--political education, 
political activation, and political implementation. He has been a one-
man tutor in his educating of the American public and the U.S. Senate 
on not only the technical aspects of climate change but on the 
political aspects of it because, ultimately, it is not a technology 
problem; it is a political problem we have. The technologies are ready 
to go.
  What Senator Whitehouse has done is to have served as this 
inspirational center point. He has ensured that the voice of sanity has 
been heard, that the voice of truth has been heard. Why is it important 
for him to be this incredible leader? It is that climate change--or the 
climate crisis--is the national security, economic, environmental, 
healthcare, and moral issue of our time, of this century. Everything he 
has been saying is something that, in my opinion, is going to wind up 
putting him in the history books for the incredible leadership he has 
shown.
  There are a lot of times in which you can be right but too soon. 
People are not ready to hear it. Yet what we are finding across the 
country is that more and more people are ready to hear it, especially 
the younger generation, especially people who recognize right now they 
are going to live their entire lives with this crisis.
  How do we know that?
  Back in November, our scientists--13 Federal agencies--who were 
mandated by a 1990 law, had to present a report to the President on 
climate change. All 13 agencies--the Department of Energy, the EPA, the 
Department of State--had to come together. Here is what they concluded: 
If we do not change what we are doing right now, the planet will warm 
by 9 degrees Fahrenheit by the year 2100. Let's say that again. The 
planet will warm by 9 degrees Fahrenheit between now and 2100--81 years 
from now.
  In other words, the pages who are here in the well of the Senate 
right now will live through this entire story as it unfolds if we 
continue with business as usual. Interestingly, the consequences are 
not those the deniers want us to know, for all 13 agencies concluded 
there could be upward of--get ready for this--an 11-foot rise in the 
ocean in the Northeastern part of the United States. Think about that--

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11 feet higher. The impact would be catastrophic. Our pages will live 
through this entire story unless we change what we are doing in our 
country, unless we change what the U.S. Senate does to put preventive 
measures in place.
  What Senator Whitehouse is saying is: Wake up. The science is clear, 
and it is unchallengeable.
  Our problem is that too many Republicans--especially the denier in 
chief who sits in the Oval Office--are nostalgic for a time that never 
existed. They pretend, somehow or other, that all of these climate-
related problems are going to magically be solved by policies that 
don't exist and perhaps we are just in some kind of cycle on our planet 
that will go away and that these young people will not have a legacy of 
climate change to have to deal with in their lives. Of course, every 
scientist in America, with the exception of those who are bought by the 
Koch brothers, bought by ExxonMobil, bought by the fossil fuel 
companies, agrees that this is going to happen.
  From my perspective, what we are seeing is something that is deadly--
the forest fires, the extreme heat waves, the supercharged hurricanes, 
the Biblical flooding. All of it is happening as a result of what human 
beings are doing to our own planet. Global temperatures are rising like 
a runaway freight train. This month is on track to be the hottest month 
on Earth ever recorded. May I say that again? The month of July in 2019 
is on track to be the hottest month ever recorded in the history of our 
planet. Last month was the hottest June in recorded history. Every 
month so far in 2019 has been in the top five hottest on record. The 
last 5 years have been the hottest 5 years ever recorded, and 20 of the 
last 22 years have been the hottest ever recorded.
  This is not a drill; this is an emergency, and it is an emergency 
that has an answer in deploying wind and solar and new batteries and 
all-electric vehicles and energy efficiency and investing in new 
technologies that can accelerate the solution even more. It is all 
there for us to do.
  Right now, we are celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 
mission to the Moon. President Kennedy felt there was an existential 
threat to our planet that the Soviet Union was posing. He actually said 
at Rice University that he knew we were behind. The Russians had 
already sent up Sputnik. The Russians had already sent up Yuri Gagarin. 
He said we were behind but that we would not be behind by the end of 
the decade. He made it quite clear that we would have to invent metals 
that did not exist, invent alloys that did not exist, invent propulsion 
systems that did not exist; that we would have to return from the 
mission from the Moon through heat that was half the intensity of the 
Sun and that we would have to do so within a decade so we would control 
that existential threat.
  The U.N. scientists and our scientists have each now said that 
climate change poses an existential threat to our planet--not ours, not 
Senator Whitehouse's and mine. Those are the words of the scientists of 
the planet and our own scientists.
  So we have to respond in the same way that President Kennedy asked 
our Nation to respond back in the 1960s. And the young people in our 
country--they are ready to go. They are ready to do whatever is 
necessary. But in order to do so, it is going to require us to take the 
kinds of actions that are necessary.
  The U.N. special report said that if emissions are not cut by 100 
percent by 2050, climate change will lead to natural disasters costing 
$54 trillion over the next 80 years.
  A lot of people say: Can we afford to take on this challenge? What 
our scientists are saying is that we can't afford not to take on this 
challenge. We can't afford that kind of a price when we can create 
millions of jobs saving the planet in wind and solar and new all-
electric vehicles and buildings, technologies, energy efficiency. We 
can save all of creation by engaging in massive job creation. It is all 
there for us.
  We just did it with the telecommunications revolution. We moved from 
black, rotary dial phones to the young people who are here in the well 
of the Senate here today--they have iPhones that they walk around with. 
Those iPhones have more computing power than the computers on the 
Apollo mission. How did we do that? We are Americans. We take on these 
challenges, and we revolutionized the telecommunications industry to 
move from the black, rotary dial phone. And these young people don't 
even know what that is.
  We have moved from having no fax machines in our country 40 years ago 
to today. There are no fax machines in America. That is how quick the 
revolution goes when you put a plan together to accomplish it.
  Well, the same thing is true in the clean energy sector, and what 
Senator Whitehouse has been leading us on is this explication to the 
Senate that we can do it. You can't let the special interests dictate 
it, though. You can't let the dark money control it. That is his 
lecture to us, that it is incredibly important for us to ignore it. In 
the same way we ignored the monopolies in telecommunications, we have 
to ignore the monopolies and the duopolies that exist in the energy 
sector as well.
  So I thank the Senator from Rhode Island again, and I will repeatedly 
do so because he will reach 300 speeches out here on the floor and 500 
speeches out here on the floor. You might as well put an infinity sign 
behind the number because that is how many speeches he will give out 
here on the Senate floor to wake up this institution. That day is going 
to come, and I just wanted to come out here and thank Senator 
Whitehouse for his incredible leadership and to let him know that I am 
honored to be his partner in this effort.
  I will be by your side the entire time it takes for us to get a 
solution for the young people in our country that they deserve and they 
expect from this institution.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Rhode Island.
  Mr. WHITEHOUSE. Madam President, may I propose to my wonderful 
colleague, the Senator from Massachusetts, that the Good Lord forbid 
that I have to get to 500 such speeches before we solve this problem.
  Mr. MARKEY. The Good Lord and Mitch McConnell.
  Mr. WHITEHOUSE. I would note that if we look back to 2009, there are 
some very important signs of optimism.
  On the legislative side, Senator Markey--then-Representative Markey 
with his colleague Representative Waxman--successfully ushered, with 
significant industry and popular support, a serious climate bill 
through the House of Representatives, proving that it can be done, 
proving that real climate legislation can pass in this body.
  In that same year, in 2009, a gentleman named Donald Trump--the same 
Donald Trump who is President now at the other end of Pennsylvania 
Avenue in the White House--took out an advertisement in the New York 
Times, and in his advertisement, Donald Trump and his children--Donald, 
Eric, and Ivanka--as well as the Trump Organization, all said that the 
science of climate change was incontrovertible. They further said that 
if we did not act, the consequences of climate change would be 
catastrophic and irreversible.
  So we have the living experience of legislation passing, led by then-
Representative Markey and Representative Waxman, and all we need, 
really, is to bring back that 2009 Donald Trump. Come on back, buddy. 
We want you because you were right in 2009.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Massachusetts.
  Mr. MARKEY. Madam President, you know, Massachusetts is the Bay 
State, and Rhode Island is the Ocean State.
  Back 240 or so years ago, Paul Revere got on his horse, and he 
started riding, warning of great danger. From my perspective, Sheldon 
Whitehouse is a latter-day Paul Revere, and he is warning that the 
climate crisis is coming and that it is going to be much worse than it 
is today.
  So from my perspective, this latter-day Paul Revere, who is Sheldon 
Whitehouse, represents the best of New England and the best of our 
country and the best of our planet because we have to be all in this 
together, and we can't be leaders by sitting on the sidelines, which is 
where Donald Trump wants to have us. The Indians, the Chinese, and 
others--they won't

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listen to us. You cannot preach temperance from a barstool. You can't 
tell the rest of the world to do something while you have a cigar in 
one hand and a beer in the other. That is where we are now with 
pollution under President Trump.
  We have to be leaders, not laggers. That is what Sheldon Whitehouse 
is all about. That is why it is my great honor to be up here with him, 
and for as long as it takes, he will be out here.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Cramer). The majority leader.

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