[Congressional Record Volume 167, Number 164 (Wednesday, September 22, 2021)]
[Senate]
[Page S6616]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                          Climate Legislation

  Ms. STABENOW. Madam President, for more than 100 years, scientists 
have shown that burning fossil fuels creates carbon pollution that 
heats up and builds up in our atmosphere. It just doesn't go away. It 
just keeps building up more and more and more.
  And for more than 100 years, we kept on burning fossil fuels anyway. 
In fact, we have given major--as a Congress--major, permanent tax 
benefits for the past 100 years to the fossil fuel industry. Now we are 
experiencing the full force and the huge cost of that choice, and it is 
growing even faster than many predicted.
  This week, I published a report that outlined how extreme weather 
events are becoming more destructive, more dangerous, and more 
expensive, thanks to the climate crisis.
  Last year, the U.S. Senate set an awful record. We had 22 separate 
billion-dollar weather and climate disasters in one year--the most 
ever. In total, these 22 disasters cost the Nation almost $100 billion 
in damages, and 262 Americans lost their lives in severe storms and 
heat waves and wildfires.
  2020 may have set a record, but, unfortunately, it is a record that 
is going to be broken probably this year. Over the past 5 years, 
American taxpayers have spent an average of $126 billion a year in 
damages due to these disasters. And the total cost of these disasters 
over the last 15 years tops $1 trillion, and growing every single day, 
every single year.
  We are debating right now a budget--a Build Back Better Budget--and 
it involves investing in a number of important things over 10 years at 
about $350 billion a year, and we are going to spend that very soon 
just on climate damage if we don't get ahead of this.
  I know the Presiding Officer is leading on this in a very important 
way, which I thank you, for the issue around clean electricity 
policies. We have a lot of work to do. Nobody is going untouched. No 
State is untouched--from Montana to Mississippi, to Massachusetts, to 
Michigan.
  Last week, President Biden was in Idaho surveying the terrible damage 
caused by wildfires. He said: ``We can't continue to ignore reality.''
  He is right. The reality is carbon pollution is the root cause of the 
climate crisis. Pollution goes into the atmosphere. It doesn't leave. 
It just gathers there more and more and more and more, and we are 
seeing what is happening as a result of that.
  If we don't combat the climate crisis now, the destruction and the 
deaths will continue to go up and up and up. If you think taking action 
is expensive, consider the cost of inaction.
  Who pays the bill?
  Well, we all do. We all pay the bill.
  Then there is the personal cost. I am thinking of a landowner who 
lives on the same wooded acres his grandfather owned--or at least he 
did until a drought-fueled wildfire destroyed his home and the forest 
that surrounded it.
  I am thinking of the small business that lost its roof and all of its 
inventory when a hurricane and the resulting storm surge hit a small 
beachside community.
  I am thinking of all the Michigan growers I know who are one early 
freeze or dry season away from being unable to keep the family farm 
going, and I am thinking of those 262 families who lost someone they 
loved and will never be the same.
  We owe it to those families to take action so that the climate crisis 
doesn't continue to cost people their lives and their livelihoods, and 
we owe it to American taxpayers to do all we can to avoid the worst 
impacts of this crisis.
  We know what we need to do. We know what we need to do. We need to 
cut carbon pollution. That is what we need to do. There are big 
interests on the other side--oil and gas and coal interests. There is a 
lot of money--big special interests that keep trying to tell us this 
isn't real. You know, what you are seeing right in front of your face, 
what you are experiencing in your life, isn't real; it is pretend; it 
is not really happening. They put a lot of money into trying to stop 
what we are doing, but we have to take action. We have to take action. 
We know this is about carbon pollution; it is also about methane 
pollution and other greenhouse gases.
  We can start doing something about it by passing the Build Back 
Better budget that the President has proposed. The Build Back Better 
budget will make electric vehicles more affordable and ensure that they 
are built right here in the United States. I want them built in 
Michigan, but at a minimum, we want them built in the United States. 
That is really important because we know that the transportation sector 
is the single largest source of carbon pollution that is driving 
climate change. Electric vehicles are a major part of the solution but 
not the only one, but they are a major part of it.
  The question is not whether they will be built; it is where they will 
be built--whether they are going to be built in China, where they are 
spending over $100 billion right now to capture the entire market, 
including electric batteries as well as the vehicles, or whether we are 
going to make it in America.
  My goal is to make these vehicles in America. I have often said that 
Michigan workers are the best in the world. I believe that. Under the 
Build Back Better budget, they will lead this world. American workers 
will lead the world if we are smart about doing what we need to do to 
invest in America.
  The Build Back Better budget also provides clean energy tax 
incentives, and it funds clean energy procurement so we can make the 
electricity we need to power the vehicles without carbon pollution. It 
helps ensure that the technologies we need to transition to clean 
energy are built right here in the United States by providing tax 
credits for manufacturers to retool and build new plants to produce 
advanced energy parts.
  It will hold polluters accountable and make sure they are held 
responsible for their actions. It will invest in important clean 
electricity policies. It will invest in climate-smart agriculture so 
that farmers and ranchers and foresters can continue to be an even 
bigger part of the solution, and it will restore our forests and make 
them more resilient to wildfires.
  The Build Back Better budget, alongside the bipartisan infrastructure 
package, which is also very important, will make our infrastructure 
more resilient and tackle the main driver of the climate crisis: carbon 
pollution.
  Best of all, these investments will also create millions of good-
paying American jobs. That is the great part. As we are transitioning 
in Michigan, we are seeing jobs that are being created as part of the 
clean energy economy.
  It is true that these policies represent significant investments, but 
it is also true that the cost of inaction is much, much higher. 
Inaction has consequences--so many different consequences--for us, for 
our children, for our grandchildren, and we can't afford those 
consequences. We just can't afford those consequences anymore.
  So, on behalf of all of our children, on behalf of our grandchildren, 
now is the time to act. We must take this moment because we are running 
out of time. We must take this moment to act to address the pollution 
that is creating this climate crisis. We can do it--we know what to 
do--but now is the time to act and get it done.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Texas.