[Congressional Record Volume 165, Number 163 (Wednesday, October 16, 2019)]
[Senate]
[Pages S5824-S5825]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                      Unanimous Consent Agreement

  Mr. WHITEHOUSE. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the 
vote be extended until 4:30 p.m.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there objection?
  Seeing none, without objection, it is so ordered.


                              S.J. Res. 53

  Mr. WHITEHOUSE. Madam President, I am delighted to join my colleagues 
from Maryland and Delaware to support this resolution expressing 
disapproval of the Trump administration rescinding the Clean Power Plan 
and replacing it with its so-called affordable clean energy rule, which 
is a name fanciful enough to make George Orwell blush.
  The first thing to understand about the so-called affordable clean 
energy rule is that it is a do-nothing rule, exactly as the polluters 
wish. EPA admits its own rule would do virtually zero to reduce carbon 
pollution. It requires zero emissions reductions at natural gas-fired 
powerplants, and it would allow coal-fired powerplants to make minor 
efficiency improvements and then run for longer hours. That could 
actually lead to an increase in carbon pollution.
  This rule is designed to fool people into thinking that the Trump 
administration is obeying the Clean Air Act, but no one should be 
fooled.
  From the get-go, the Trump administration made clear it didn't care 
about cutting carbon pollution, fighting climate change, or protecting 
the environment or public health. It cared about obeying the fossil 
fuel industry, not the law.

[[Page S5825]]

  Within weeks of taking office, Trump's swampy Cabinet rolled out the 
red carpet for coal baron Bob Murray, who had an action plan for the 
administration. Here is Murray with Energy Secretary Perry, and look 
who is accompanying Murray at the meeting, our EPA Administrator, 
Andrew Wheeler, then Murray's lobbyist. It looks like a friendly 
meeting, and why wouldn't it be? Look at that, such a nice big hug. 
Isn't that sweet?
  Murray was the major financial backer of the Trump administration, 
and this was his payback time. Individuals associated with Murray 
Energy were the largest source of donations to Donald Trump's 
Presidential campaign, and Murray himself chipped in a cool 300 grand 
for Trump's inaugural festivities. Murray was also one of the largest 
donors to election spending groups associated with disgraced EPA 
Administrator Scott Pruitt, under whose tenure this botched ACE rule 
began.
  So what was the first item on Bob Murray's action plan? To get rid of 
the Clean Power Plan. Bob Murray wasn't the only one who wanted to 
scrap the Clean Power Plan. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the 
National Association of Manufacturers, two of the largest and most 
powerful trade associations in Washington, also asked the EPA to scrap 
the Clean Power Plan. That is no surprise. The independent watchdog 
group InfluenceMap found the chamber and NAM the two worst obstructers 
of climate action. They will not reveal their donors, but I believe 
they took lots of money from the fossil fuel industry and became its 
mouthpiece. They got paid, and this was the play.
  The chamber and NAM were also aligned with shadowy fossil fuel 
industry front groups like the so-called Utility Air Regulatory Group 
and the American Council for Clean Coal Electricity--more Orwellian 
names. These groups also asked the EPA to scrap the Clean Power Plan 
and replace it with this toothless rule.
  Is that unsavory enough? It gets worse. Guess who represented UARG, 
that Utility Air Regulatory Group. It was none other than fossil fuel 
industry stooge Bill Wehrum, who helped orchestrate a web of front 
groups, like UARG, which obscured and multiplied the influence of 
Wehrum's polluter clients--clients responsible for massive carbon 
pollution.
  Naturally, Trump put this guy in as head of EPA's Air Office. Before 
Wehrum headed for the exits this summer, Murray's man Wheeler praised 
Wehrum for ``tremendous progress'' in repealing climate regulations. 
Pruitt to Wheeler to Wehrum--this is rank fossil fuel crookedness in 
plain view.
  Several of us submitted comments laying out the financial and 
professional connections between the Trump officials who developed this 
bogus rule and the fossil fuel industry that asked for it. Those 
comments are posted online and in the Federal Register. I urge you to 
have a look. Also available online is a report I did with Senator 
Carper detailing Wehrum's industry ties and conflicts of interest. 
Median.com/@senwhitehouse will link you to all of this.
  The crony capture of EPA is not the only problem with the rule. The 
industry is so greedy and its hacks are so clumsy that they don't 
bother to align the rule with the scientific and economic evidence.
  In court, Agency actions will be found to be arbitrary and 
capricious--and therefore invalid--if they are not the product of 
reasoned decision making.
  In this case, it is clear that the EPA ignored the science, ignored 
the economics, and produced exactly what the fossil fuel industry told 
it to do: a do-nothing rule that took good care of the coal and natural 
gas industries.
  What does the science tell us? According to the world's best 
scientific report, if we reduce carbon pollution by roughly half by 
around 2030 and reach net zero emissions sometime around the middle of 
the century, we stand a chance to hold the global average temperature 
increase to 1.5 degrees Celsius.
  Our own best scientists warn that if we don't limit carbon pollution, 
we will be hit with economic losses in the hundreds of billions of 
dollars per year by the end of the century. Legions of economists, 
investment banks, asset managers, central banks, credit rating 
agencies, and other experts warn of serious economic risks from climate 
upheaval. Here is a summary of just some of these warnings, which I 
have delivered to every colleague in the Senate. That, too, can be 
found on that Medium page.
  Pruitt, Wehrum, and Wheeler ignored all of this for their do-nothing 
rule. The only voice that mattered was the polluter industry that they 
came from and will go back to in an oil-greased revolving door. This 
ACE rule is the exact opposite of reasoned decision making. But that 
was never the point. The fix was in. Even a bogus rule that courts 
throw out buys this crooked and corrupting industry time--time to keep 
polluting, time to burn through reserves, and time to use its political 
muscle to fend off action here in the Senate. If you are in the 
fiddling business and fiddle for money, fiddling while Rome burns is a 
fine economic proposition for you.
  The Supreme Court has ruled that greenhouse gases are pollutants 
under the Clean Air Act. The EPA has found that greenhouse gases from 
powerplants endanger human health and welfare. Those determinations 
mean the EPA must limit carbon pollution, consistent with the law. This 
masquerade of a rule fails to do this, so it must be replaced with 
something effective, as a matter of law.
  I ask colleagues to think carefully about their vote on this 
resolution. Do you want to endorse this record of obvious industry 
capture? Do you want to side with this corrupting industry over your 
own constituents' health and safety? Do you want to go on record 
ignoring all the warnings from the Bank of England, from Freddie Mac, 
from Nobel Prize-winning economists, and from hundreds of our own 
government's most knowledgeable experts?
  The fossil fuel industry--its voice full of money, as F. Scott 
Fitzgerald might say--has drowned out the voices of everyone else for 
too long here. But you can't shout down the laws of physics. You can't 
shout down the laws of biology, chemistry, and economics. Those laws 
will have their way, and we have been well warned. So, please, let's 
turn the corner to a brighter day where decency rules, not industry 
political thuggery; a brighter day where facts and science matter more 
than dark money and paid-for denial; and a brighter day where we don't 
give our grandchildren daily cause for shame. It is time to wake up, 
and this vote is a chance to do so.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Arkansas.