[Congressional Record Volume 169, Number 208 (Monday, December 18, 2023)]
[Senate]
[Pages S6015-S6018]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                                 COP28

  Madam President, last week, I had the opportunity to lead a 
congressional delegation, a bipartisan Senate delegation, to the COP28 
climate meetings in Dubai, UAE. It was my fifth COP delegation of 
Senators that I have led at the annual meetings. I was joined by 
Senator Carper, Senator Whitehouse, Senator Murkowski, Senator Coons, 
Senator Markey, and Senator Schatz.
  This was special. Over 2\1/2\ days, we participated in over 50 
meetings, engaging our colleagues from around the globe, showing U.S. 
leadership, and keeping us on track to accomplish what we set out to do 
at the beginning of this meeting.
  The first point I think we all urged was that there is the urgency of 
the moment. We are beyond the crisis. Predictions that were made 30 
years ago have now come true about severe weather events. We talked 
about category 5 tropical storms 30 years ago coming at regular 
frequency. That is now a reality as a result of climate change. We 
talked about wildfires, and we saw wildfires in Canada darken the skies 
from Boston to Baltimore. We talked about floods and droughts and the 
effect they would have on our food security. That is now a reality as a 
result of climate change and our inability to do what we should have 
done decades ago.
  It is not too late to save the world, and COP28 was a real 
opportunity for us to reflect on where we have been and what we have to 
do.
  I underscored, as my colleagues did, the U.S. leadership in this 
global challenge. We are proud of what we have done in the United 
States, and we are so proud of the passage of the Inflation Reduction 
Act. That was the largest single contribution in America's history--I 
would say in global history--to deal with the global crisis.
  The impact was dramatic in energizing not just the governmental 
sector but the private sector to transition to a new type of an economy 
that recognizes that we have to reduce and eliminate carbon emissions, 
that we have to adapt to the reality of what we have let happen. But, 
importantly, we need to reverse what is happening and make sure we stay 
on target.
  A lot is mentioned about what type of financial assistance we have 
given to the global effort. After all, we are a developed nation. We 
have used our resources historically maybe not in the best way for our 
environment in dealing with carbon emissions. We are asking the 
developing world to do things differently than we did, which could be 
interpreted as affecting their economic opportunity. Quite frankly, by 
investing in renewable energy sources, investing in clean energy, and 
investing in adaptation, the developing world will actually have a 
stronger economy and a stronger economic future, but they need our 
help.
  So, yes, there is a lot of attention to the Green Climate Fund and to 
the new loss and damage funds that are being created, but our 
delegation stressed in Dubai what America and this Congress have 
already done--the assistance we have given under USAID, the assistance 
we have given under our Development Finance Corporation, the assistance 
we have given under the Millennium Challenge Corporation. You add all 
those up for the past 2 years alone, and we have exceeded $8\1/2\ 
billion--that is with a ``b''--in assistance, mainly to the Global 
South but to the developing world, in order to invest in renewable 
energy sources, in order to be able to transition to a greener economy.
  The best thing about the way the United States does its development 
assistance, we do it in a way that does not hold countries hostage to 
debt and gives them the types of economic partnerships that are 
necessary for their economic future. But we need to do more.
  The message in Dubai is that in Paris in 2015, we committed to hold 
the warming of our climate to no greater than 1.5 degrees. We have to 
do that. Are we on target to reach that 1.5? The answer is no. We have 
to do more so that we can reach the 1.5 target.
  Yes, I am optimistic by the results of our COP28 meetings that we are 
moving in the right direction. The first thing we did was an 
assessment--an honest assessment--as to whether we are on track for 
1.5, and the answer was no and that every country needs to do more. We 
need to redouble our efforts. We need to fill the gaps. We need to 
transition off of fossil fuels. I was pleased that at the end, we were 
able to get language included that made it clear we are transitioning 
off of fossil fuels for our energy needs because that is going to be 
absolutely essential for us to meet the 1.5 goal.
  I want to compliment Secretary Kerry, the head of our U.S. 
delegation, for the work he did on behalf of our Nation.
  Let me just tell you some of the specifics we were able to get done 
in Dubai. Madam President, 49 oil and gas companies agreed to slash 
methane emissions by 2030, 124 countries signed a declaration on the 
connection between health and climate change, and 134 countries 
representing 75 percent of all food-based greenhouse gas emissions will 
now include food in their climate targets. The United States, along 
with 130 countries, agreed to triple renewable energy capacity and 
double energy efficiency by 2030. If that wasn't impressive enough, the 
United States and 20 other nations pledged to triple nuclear energy 
production by 2050.
  These are the kinds of advances that seemed out of reach just a few 
years ago, and they come on the heels of progress we have made here at 
home. In recent years, the United States has enacted not only clean 
energy investment to reduce emission, we ratified the Kigali Amendment 
to the Montreal Protocols to reduce harmful chemicals in the 
atmosphere. The list goes on and on and on.
  Let me make it clear. We have to do more. We are in crisis. But I was 
encouraged, as the global community gathered in Dubai, with U.S. 
leadership. There was a renewed commitment that we all need to work 
together to save our planet for future generations.
  One of those key players in our delegation, who has led the fight in 
regard to the need for us to recognize that we

[[Page S6016]]

have to get off of a carbon economy and who has proposed legislation 
here and has worked with the international community to do that, is 
Senator Sheldon Whitehouse. He has been a real champion on all those 
issues. He was a key member of our delegation in Dubai. I am pleased to 
see that he is on the floor.
  I yield the floor.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The Senator from Rhode Island.
  Mr. WHITEHOUSE. Madam President, well, first of all, congratulations 
to Chairman Cardin for his fifth COP delegation that he led. I have 
been on all five of them, and I am really grateful that he has 
organized them and organized them well.
  A couple of topics on this one: Going in, we had acquired from the 
UNFCCC the requirement that people showing up would have to disclose 
their fossil fuel affiliations--like who are you really working for, if 
you have come to the COP--and we have worked since then with the 
environmental community to put some real teeth into that disclosure so 
that you actually know what the questions are and you have to answer 
them, and you can't just send it to the PR department and get a bit of 
fluff to file. We have sent that in to Professor Raskin, who is the 
intermediary on the subject of transparency with the UNFCCC.
  So we didn't get it done for this one, and this one was swarming with 
lobbyists and undisclosed mischief makers. The U.S. Chamber of 
Commerce, for instance, was present. We know, particularly in this 
building, that they are constantly up to no good. But we are hoping 
that, by the next COP, there will be far better transparency and people 
who are actively working to defeat climate legislation, to defeat 
climate progress have to disclose that they are up to that. They can 
still come, but everybody needs to know what jersey they are wearing.
  The other thing that happened was that the nations of the world 
agreed that we are going to transition away from fossil fuels. For many 
of us, that seemed pretty obvious going in. So I am not too excited 
about that. But what is good about it is that every country signed off 
on it, like Saudi Arabia. Countries that have long been part of the 
fossil fuel kleptocracy apparatus had to go along with this.
  So while the standard may not be all that exciting--everybody knew 
going in we are transitioning away from fossil fuel, for Pete's sake--
the unanimity is new, and I give John Kerry a lot of credit for being 
extremely patient and determined to hold through all that and at least 
move the worst performers, the worst nations, to catch up with 
everybody else who already knew that transitioning away from fossil 
fuels is necessary.
  There was some good work done on methane. There were international 
efforts to focus on methane and, particularly, methane leaks, and that 
is going to be good because working with what we are doing in the 
United States on methane--the methane regulation that just passed out 
of EPA; the methane fee that was brought into the IRA with the good 
work of Chairman Carper; the methane task force that the Biden 
administration has stood up to spot methane leaks from satellites and 
go right at them the way a fire department would and make sure they are 
put out, they are snuffed out, they are stopped, and moved quickly--you 
put that together with an international package, and you can begin to 
make a real dent in methane emissions.
  And methane emissions are less dangerous than carbon dioxide because 
they don't last as long, but they are immensely powerful while they are 
in the atmosphere. So they are really dangerous in the short run, and 
knocking them out in the short run will be a good outcome.
  The last thing I will say is that we talked a lot about the CBAM, or 
the carbon border adjustment mechanism, while we were there. The 
European Union has passed a CBAM that will tariff goods that are 
imported into the EU from more carbon-intensive countries, including us 
and including China and including Russia and including everybody in the 
world.
  And, to my mind, that EU CBAM is the most promising emissions 
reduction strategy anywhere--arguably, even more than these COPs. It is 
a big, big deal. And one of the things we heard from our EU folks is 
that they are not budging. No matter what pressure is put on them, they 
are not budging. They are not going to give exceptions. They are not 
going to give waivers. They are not going to let people weasel out. 
They are going to stick to their guns and make sure that their proposal 
goes forward. And I encourage that because I think, as soon as they are 
really locked down and everybody knows it, others will begin to join.
  And guess what today's news is? The UK is officially joining the EU 
CBAM. Now, those two big economies are joined, and they will not have 
to pay internal tariffs to each other. And, as my friend Philip Dunne, 
the conservative MP who leads the Environmental Audit Committee of 
Parliament, said, their version of the UK CBAM will ``keep the U.K. at 
the forefront of the group of leading economies . . . introducing 
comprehensive and effective measures to tackle global emissions while 
promoting growth.''
  The EU is in, rock solid, not budging. The UK is joining. Now it is 
time for the United States to step up and join the carbon border tariff 
policies that are probably our very best step to avert the horrors of 
uncontrolled climate chaos.
  With that, let me yield the floor back and, again, thank Chairman 
Cardin for his leadership of this very busy and hard-working 
delegation.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The Senator from Maryland.
  Mr. CARDIN. Madam President, let me just underscore Senator 
Whitehouse's role in the CBAM that he has talked about, because that 
sets up a level playing field on carbon--the real price of carbon--so 
we are not at a competitive disadvantage. We have got to catch up to 
what Europe is doing. We have got to join the group. And Senator 
Whitehouse has been the champion of pointing out that there is a price 
that we all pay because of carbon emissions, and we asked our companies 
to do it in a friendlier way. They need to be on a level playing field 
with their competitors--of course, China being of principal concern. 
These CBAM proposals will establish that level playing field and put 
American producers on a level playing field if we join with these 
efforts.
  Senator Carper, who chairs the Environment and Public Works 
Committee, has been the key leader in the U.S. engagement on the 
climate agenda. Through his leadership, we were able to pass the 
Inflation Reduction Act, which has been the envy of the world, for a 
commitment on the energy agenda.
  But he also was responsible for the bipartisan infrastructure bill, 
and it had a heavy diet of greener transportation programs, 
establishing a way that we can electrify our transportation fleet with 
charging stations. All that came under Senator Carper's leadership.
  And then there is the Kigali protocol. So we were able to ratify that 
through our committee, through his leadership. So he has been the real 
champion and leader for the U.S. Senate on these aggressive policies to 
be a leader in the world on climate issues, and I am proud to serve on 
this committee, along with the Presiding Officer. We have a real 
champion and leader in Senator Carper.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The Senator from Delaware.
  Mr. CARPER. Madam President, one of the joys for me of serving here 
is serving as the chair of the Environment and Public Works Committee, 
right next to Ben Cardin and about two seats away from Sheldon 
Whitehouse. And we appreciate your participation and leadership and 
membership on our committee as well, Madam President.

  We have a bunch of pages down here in the well--one, two, three, 
four, five, six, seven, eight. They are high school juniors or seniors, 
and they are probably like 16, 17, or maybe 18 years old. Pretty soon, 
they are going to head out into the world and, hopefully, go on and do 
bigger and better things than we have and than their parents and 
grandparents have done. I want to make sure, and I think my colleagues 
want to make sure, that they actually have a planet to grow up on and a 
planet to grow old on.
  When I was about their age, I became a Navy midshipman and raised my 
right hand to defend the country and

[[Page S6017]]

the Constitution, in those days. I learned a little bit about 
leadership when I was not much older than these guys. One of the things 
I learned about leadership is the importance that leadership by example 
is not ``do what I say'' but, rather, ``do what I do.''
  One of the great things about going to the COP, with the leadership 
of Senator Cardin and with our colleagues, was that we didn't just go 
and sit and tell the rest of the world: Do x, y, or z.
  We went and said: This is what we are doing, and this is why it is 
important. We want you to join us in this.
  And, more and more, folks around the country--around the world, 
rather--are doing that. Today, I think the majority of Americans agree 
that climate change actually is a major threat--maybe the major threat 
facing our planet and the people who inhabit it. Every day, Americans 
see the impacts of climate crises, particularly in the form of more 
frequent and destructive storms throughout the--really, throughout the 
planet.
  A decade ago, the United States experienced, I am told, 10 weather 
disasters--10--that cost at least a billion dollars each--10 that cost 
at least a billion dollars each. This year, there have been 25--25--of 
these billion-dollar events. That includes this summer's wildfire on 
the Hawaiian island of Maui, which, tragically, took some 100 lives--
our Nation's deadliest wildfire in a century.
  We also know that 2023 was not one of the hottest years on this 
planet; it was the hottest year on our planet, without question. 
Scientists tell us that global temperatures are going to keep rising if 
we don't do more to transition away from fossil fuels.
  So, Madam President, the question that I am asking myself and I think 
we need to ask ourselves is, What are we going to do about it? And as 
Senator Cardin and Senator Whitehouse have laid out, we are doing a 
lot. Can we do more? Yes, we can do more. Are we going to do more? Yes, 
we are going to do more.
  We will hear from the chairman of the Finance Committee here in a 
little bit, and he will talk a bit about the great work that has been 
done under his leadership in the Finance Committee to make sure that we 
follow through and build on what we have already done.
  But the United States, while I think we are getting our act together 
on this front, for a long time, we were the biggest emitter of 
greenhouse gases on the planet--far and away the biggest--and I think 
we have a moral obligation. Having put so much greenhouse gases up into 
the air, I think we have a moral obligation to actually lead in the 
reduction of emissions and make sure that these young people up here 
and my grandchildren and your grandchildren and all have a planet to 
grow up on.
  I want to just commend Senator Cardin. I think he did a great job 
leading our codel. It was an honor to be a part of that codel. I want 
to say how much I enjoyed it. It was bipartisan. We ran into a bunch of 
folks from the House of Representatives over there, Democrats and 
Republicans. So it had a good bipartisan, bicameral feel, and we came 
away and felt good about it--really good about it.
  As for COP28, Senator Cardin has already mentioned this, but our 
message to the rest of the world was that the United States is--I am 
tempted to say ``once again,'' but I will just say is again--leading 
the global effort to tackle the climate crisis, and my colleagues have 
already mentioned a couple of ways that we are doing that.
  It has been mentioned--Kigali. There may be good people at home 
watching this saying: What in the world is Kigali? Well, it refers to a 
treaty, a treaty that actually reduces the emission of something called 
HFCs.
  What are HFCs? My wife told me about a year or 2 ago: Stop talking 
about HFCs. Nobody really cares about HFCs.
  Well, here is why they do. They are refrigerants. We all have 
refrigerators. We have air-conditioners. We have freezers and chillers 
and coolers. And the ingredient that helps make all of those work is 
HFCs, or hydrofluorocarbons. That is the good news: they work. It cools 
things off. But the bad news is it is bad when those HFCs leak into the 
atmosphere. They are 1,000 times more potent than carbon dioxide as a 
greenhouse gas. I will say that again: 1,000 times more potent than 
carbon dioxide as a greenhouse gas.
  So the idea of reducing those and phasing out those HFCs is a big 
deal. That is what we are doing. We are doing that. That one thing 
alone is worth about half a degree centigrade toward meeting our goals 
coming out of the Paris accords a year or 2 years ago. The agreement 
out of Paris was 1\1/2\ degrees Celsius reduction, and from this one 
thing alone with the HFCs, we are going to get a third of that.
  Following that COP26, we put our heads down, and we got to work. 
After months of intense negotiations, we passed the Inflation Reduction 
Act. Big provisions in the legislation came out of our committee, Mr. 
Chairman, which included almost $370 billion in incentives for clean 
energy and climate change--the largest ever investment in climate 
action and environmental justice. Where I come from, that is real 
money, and, hopefully, we will do even more on that.
  But soon after we had done that, the Senate came together on a 
bipartisan basis to ratify the Kigali Amendment that I talked about. 
That is a big deal, and we have to make sure that we actually implement 
it as intended.
  But, if taken together, these historic wins are advancing our 
Nation's climate goals, and, importantly, they are also helping to 
create hundreds of thousands--hundreds of thousands--of good-paying 
clean-energy jobs in our country and many more around the world.
  We have heard for years: We can't address climate change; we can't 
address the warming of our planet and create jobs and economic 
opportunity. Hogwash. We can do both. And if you look at the inflation 
numbers, inflation is down. If you look at employment numbers, 
employment numbers are up. And the work that we are doing on the 
greenhouse gas side is going forward. So we are doing it all. We are 
doing it all. But still, we are clear-eyed that there is more work to 
be done. COP28 resulted in--Senator Cardin had mentioned that--a 
historic global agreement that called for transitioning away from 
fossil fuels which are causing global warming. And our success in 
achieving our shared climate goals will depend on the actions we take 
in the decade to come.

  With that in mind, as chairman of the Environment and Public Works 
Committee, I remain focused on overseeing the implementation of our 
recent climate wins.
  And over the next year, I hope we are going to build on our Nation's 
climate goals, including advancing bipartisan legislation to strengthen 
our Nation's nuclear industry--I think Senator Cardin may have referred 
to that--and helping confirm President Biden's nominees for key 
leadership posts.
  I believe the last time I checked, nuclear energy is providing, I 
don't know, a half or more than half of our carbon-free electricity in 
this country. We have the potential to build on that, and we need to do 
that. Hopefully, we will.
  I want to close by words spoken down at the other Chamber. A couple 
of years ago, French President Macron came and spoke to a bipartisan 
House-Senate gathering. In talking to us about climate change and 
global warming, he said: ``There is no planet B.'' That is what he 
said: ``There is no planet B.''
  This is the only planet we are going to have--no planet B. We have to 
make every day count. And I think what we heard coming out of the 
COP28, we have every intention of helping lead this planet to that 
direction.
  And with that, I yield the floor. I want to again thank Senator 
Cardin and yield back to him, thanking him for terrific leadership in 
the COP and so many other forums.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Ms. Butler). The Senator from Maryland.
  Mr. CARDIN. Madam President, let me again thank Senator Carper for 
his leadership on these issues.
  We are joined by Senator Markey.
  If we would have passed Senator Markey's bill in the Senate that 
passed the House, we would not be in this position today. He has been a 
leader on climate issues for several decades now and has really been 
the champion on raising the consciousness that we all have 
responsibilities for this one globe.

[[Page S6018]]

  I yield the floor.
  Mr. MARKEY. Thank you, Senator Cardin. Thank you for your leadership 
in bringing our delegation to COP28. And what a delegation with you as 
the chairman of Senate Foreign Relations; Senator Carper, the chairman 
of Environment and Public Works; and Senator Whitehouse, a historic 
leader on these issues--and even sitting out here on the floor right 
now, Senator Wyden, who was so instrumental in ensuring that the IRA 
passed and that it had the incentives to unleash a clean energy 
revolution that had been long overdue in terms of having a response. So 
we thank you.
  And we thank the young people--the pages--who are here today because 
they are the true leaders of this movement.
  Coming off the heels of this year's climate talks, it was clear that 
COP28--the international climate conference--was an opportunity to lift 
our gaze, to lift the planet's gaze to the constellation of 
possibilities for our ability to be able to respond to this crisis that 
is affecting our planet and to readjust the gravitational force of 
fossil-fueled interests that pull our countries away from climate 
action.
  I have been to many international climate conferences over the years. 
I know how much it matters to give countries a space to convene, to 
give advocates a chance to hold governments accountable, and to give 
the public a direction for a livable future. COPs give us a chance to 
organize and not just agonize about the climate crisis.
  I was encouraged to see the final COP28 deal include a call to 
transition away from fossil fuels, as well as an agreement on the fund 
for losses and damages due to climate change.
  We have never had such a strong signal that it is time to close the 
chapter on the heyday of fossil fuels. But the science is clear: Weak 
agreement language will not keep our planet strong. We can't just agree 
to consider lifesaving actions; we must commit to those lifesaving 
actions.
  COP28 came to a loophole-filled end, less an embrace of a fossil-free 
future and more a step in the right direction when we needed to be 
sprinting toward a fossil-fuel phaseout on the planet.
  The climate crisis disproportionately impacts people who are least 
responsible, most affected, and, most often, left behind: poor, 
marginalized, and indigenous communities.
  We can't build walls around the climate crisis so we have to build 
bridges. To be a leader, the United States must commit to phasing out 
fossil fuels and to putting our money where our mouth is. We have done 
it at home with the Inflation Reduction Act, which is already 
unleashing commitments of nearly $300 billion in private funding for 
clean energy in just the first year since it passed. And it has the 
potential of ultimately unleashing trillions of dollars of private 
sector investment over the next decade. And I think it will do that.
  But now we need to do it internationally as well. We have to provide 
direct finance for clean energy and climate resilience. We must push 
the World Bank and we must push the International Monetary Fund to do 
more and to do better, and we must stop subsidizing, financing, and 
approving new fossil fuel plants around the world.

  We cannot preach temperance from a barstool. And the United States 
right now is drunk on oil and natural gas production and exports from 
our country around the world. Plus, we continue to foot the bill for 
other countries' fossil-fueled binges.
  In the face of these challenges, the answer is not to reverse course 
on our climate and clean energy commitments. It is to double down. It 
is to do more. It is to respond to this moral challenge to our country 
and to our planet, to the challenge which young people are given, to 
this body, and to the world to respond to a crisis that was not dealt 
with by preceding generations.
  Trying to solve climate change without a phaseout of fossil fuels is 
like trying to end lung cancer without getting off cigarettes. Our 
prescription here is clear: Phase out fossil fuels and build clean 
economies here at home and abroad at the same time.
  And I look forward to continuing to partner with my colleagues in 
Congress, members of Parliament around the world pushing for a fossil-
free future, environmental and climate justice organizations led by 
young people, and all those who are working for a global Green New 
Deal. Young people are leading us, and we must respond to them.
  They are right and the fossil fuel industry is wrong on every one of 
these issues, and we have to continue to respond to this challenge 
politically. We have taken important steps, and the Senators who are 
here today led that effort but without a single Republican vote. We 
cannot sprint toward the solutions if we do not have more support from 
the Republican Party. We will not have credibility with the rest of the 
world if we continue to build LNG export facilities to send natural gas 
around the world, to addict countries to natural gas while we should be 
helping them to deploy wind, solar, all-electric vehicles, battery 
storage technologies, and other clean energy technologies.
  That is what we should be doing. We have to end this era where we are 
about to try to build dozens of LNG--liquefied natural gas--plants to 
addict the rest of the world.
  Fossil fuel climate change is a threat to each and every one of us. 
So each and every one of us has a role to play in heeding the COP's 
call to action.
  I thank you, Mr. Chairman. I thank you for your leadership. Thank you 
for convening us here today.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Maryland.
  Mr. CARDIN. Madam President, let me thank Senator Markey again for 
his extraordinary leadership.
  I want to also acknowledge Josh Klein for the work that he did as our 
staff person for COP28.
  Madam President, Senator Wyden is on the floor. I know he is planning 
to speak on Martin O'Malley to be the next Administrator of the Social 
Security Administration, but I want to take this time to thank Senator 
Wyden for his leadership on the climate agenda.
  We marked up in the Senate Finance Committee the energy provisions 
that ended up in the Inflation Reduction Act well before the Inflation 
Reduction Act was put together as a package. And it was the work that 
Senator Wyden led in the Finance Committee that provides the 
predictability to the future of our Tax Code to reward renewable 
energies.
  We were asked in the COP meetings: What happens if there are changes 
in elections, will America still be strong on the climate? And we 
pointed out our Tax Code, which we have been able to continue tax 
provisions. And Senator Wyden has led the effort to make sure we have a 
strong tax base to reward renewable energy sources so that we can do 
exactly what Senator Markey said: transition off of fossil fuels to 
renewables.
  I just really want to acknowledge the work that Senator Wyden has 
done on the climate agenda. And he was a very popular person in Dubai, 
even though he was not there.
  Mr. WYDEN. Madam President, I don't want to make this a bouquet-
tossing contest. The fact is, the four Senators on the floor have 
together put in decades and decades and decades prosecuting the cause 
of clean energy. And the fact of the matter is, we had tried a lot of 
things over the years. We tried cap and trade.
  I was a strong supporter of Senator Markey's efforts. We tried carbon 
taxes. We tried border adjustment. And particularly three of the four 
Members over here are from the Finance Committee--they were willing to 
take the risk of saying we ought to basically, if not throw the Tax 
Code in the garbage can as it relates to energy, get pretty darned 
close in terms of creating a whole new set of incentives.
  I am going to speak about Martin O'Malley's candidacy here for a few 
minutes. But I just wanted to say to these four, we would not have even 
gotten a major climate bill out of the Senate Finance Committee to 
break 50 years of gridlock. That is how the New York Times described 
it: 50 years of trying. And the Finance Committee broke that gridlock. 
It wouldn't have happened without these four Senators. I want them to 
know that.