[Congressional Record Volume 167, Number 14 (Monday, January 25, 2021)]
[Senate]
[Pages S123-S124]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                             CLIMATE CHANGE

  Mr. WHITEHOUSE. Madam President, I have hastened to the floor because 
I was upstairs, waiting for the House managers to bring the article 
over, and I heard my friend, the distinguished Senator from Alaska, 
talking about his concern about the fossil fuel part of the energy 
sector and his dissatisfaction with what the Secretary of the Treasury 
was able to assure him of in that regard.
  I just wanted to note that I missed a moment of the Senator's remarks 
when I came walking down here, but as best as I could tell, the Senator 
never mentioned the term ``climate change,'' and he never referenced 
``carbon emissions.'' I have to say, if we are going to deal with our 
energy sector, we have to deal with it in a way that takes into account 
carbon emissions and climate change. You can't just whistle past those 
things and pretend that they are not real and act as if we can continue 
to go forward in the way we always have--releasing carbon dioxide in 
the atmosphere, poisoning our oceans with acidification, warming the 
planet, and putting coastal communities like mine at grave risk from 
sea level rise and storm surge. We have to address those things.

[[Page S124]]

  As we go forward in this new Congress, I very much hope that my 
friend Senator Sullivan and I will be able to work together to address 
that exact problem to make sure that not only is our energy mix strong 
for our economy but to make absolutely sure that we are not sacrificing 
the safety of our planet, the economic security of our future 
generations, and the health of people all around the planet who have, 
really, no choice but to live close to the land and feel the pounding 
of climate change in their immediate lives every day. We have to 
address those things, and I hope we will.
  So, in having heard his side of the argument, I just wanted to come 
back to the floor and offer the other side. Somewhere between us there 
is a resolution because I know perfectly well that the State of Alaska 
is getting hit by the acidification and warming side and by the sea 
level rise and storm surge side of this problem, just as much as Rhode 
Island is. Perhaps, because, as my friend constantly reminds me, Alaska 
has a huge advantage of size over Rhode Island, one could even imagine 
that it is having more of an effect than Rhode Island.
  So with those comments and with affection and regard for my colleague 
from Alaska, I yield the floor
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Alaska.
  Mr. SULLIVAN. Madam President, as a lot of our colleagues here know, 
Senator Whitehouse is not just a distinguished Senator but one of my 
very good friends here in the U.S. Senate. So I always respect what he 
has to say, and I appreciate his words. He and I have done a lot of 
work--some key work, particularly on issues of the environment and 
cleaning up our oceans--ocean acidification--and I look forward to 
continuing to work with him. Climate change is also, certainly, 
happening in my State. We are seeing it. No doubt about it.
  My point is we have an economy that is in recession, and you have 
tens of thousands--literally, hundreds of thousands--of people out of 
work, and you have a sector that is important--critical, actually--the 
energy sector. There is no doubt about it. I know we can use words like 
spewing and polluters, but the energy sector has been one of the things 
that has made this country so strong, with great jobs--middle-class 
jobs--and people can't deny that. All I am asking for is for the new 
Secretary of the Treasury to look at that.
  We are looking at the whole U.S. economy and the strength of our 
recovery and good-paying jobs. That has to be taken into account. What 
I worry about is that it is not. We need a debate, and I would welcome 
it with my good friend on: What is the strategy? The strategy out of 
the box can't be that we are going to go after these oil and gas jobs 
and put people out of work. And replace it with what?
  We had a hearing in the Commerce Committee with the new, incoming 
Transportation Secretary. A lot of people asked: Well, what are you 
going to replace it with? What are you telling the 10,000 guys who just 
lost their jobs on the Keystone Pipeline their new jobs are going to 
be? They have mortgages and tuitions to pay. They are out of work right 
now. So we need a strategy.
  Look, I look forward to working on all of these issues with my good 
friend from Rhode Island, but it is, I think, a first. If you look back 
at the great history of this Nation, if you don't have a U.S. Treasury 
Secretary or other members of the Cabinet who are for a robust, strong 
energy sector--which, of course, would include renewables--that is new, 
that is different, and, I think, it is very troubling, particularly as 
it relates to the jobs that, I think, are going to be sacrificed on a 
policy and a strategy that I have not seen the meat and bones of yet. I 
am just seeing the damage, and a lot of the damage is starting to 
happen to the people I care about, particularly in my State, who work 
in these sectors and who are great Americans who have helped build this 
country and build my State. We can't just disregard them and say: Don't 
worry; you are going to get a green job later.
  It is tough to tell people that. It is tough to tell people that when 
they have mortgages and tuitions, and we are relying on them.
  So I commit to continuing to work on these issues and others with my 
friend from Rhode Island. I appreciate his coming down here, but I 
wanted to explain my vote on an issue that I think we need to debate 
here in the Senate that is important for our Nation.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Rhode Island.
  Mr. WHITEHOUSE. Madam President, I would just close by suggesting 
that perhaps my friend, the Senator from Alaska, can sympathize, since 
he fears that the interests that he came to the floor here to defend 
will not be listened to. Perhaps he can sympathize with the fact that, 
for 4 years, an entire administration wouldn't give the time of day to 
the sea level rise concerns that are threatening my State. We are 
talking about Freddie Mac. We are talking about a property value crash 
across all of our coasts that is going to cause enormous harm to Rhode 
Island, and we just left an administration that wouldn't pay one iota 
of attention to that. It had fossil fuel industry climate deniers, and 
there is such a thing. Not everybody in the fossil fuel industry is 
that way, but they picked the bottom feeders to bring into government.
  I share the Senator's frustration, but let me say I have got it about 
10,000 times over after having lived with the Trump administration for 
the past 4 years and gotten nothing and after having tried to bring 
serious climate debate to the floor, knowing that the Republican leader 
was going to block it. So, yes, I sympathize with his distress, and I 
hope he sympathizes with my, rather, greater, cumulative distress from 
the last 4 years.
  I yield the floor.
  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.
  Mr. SCHUMER. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order 
for the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDENT pro tempore. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  The hour of 7 p.m. having arrived, the Acting Sergeant at Arms will 
present the managers on the part of the House of Representatives.

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