[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 152 (2006), Part 4]
[House]
[Pages 4852-4853]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                              {time}  1245
                             GLOBAL WARMING

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Murphy). Pursuant to the order of the 
House of January 31, 2006, the gentleman from New Mexico (Mr. Udall) is 
recognized during morning hour debates for 5 minutes.
  Mr. UDALL of New Mexico. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to discuss the 
urgent need for the House of Representatives to address global warming. 
As you can see from last week's cover of Time magazine, both popular 
and scientific consensus indicate that the United States must act now 
to mitigate this problem.
  In fact, a poll released yesterday by Environmental Defense indicates 
that more than 70 percent of Americans polled believe that global 
warming is real and a problem that they are willing to do something 
about.
  Mr. Speaker, it is time for a national policy on global warming. 
America must lead the global effort. As I speak, our colleagues in the 
other chamber are holding a day-long conference on this issue. They 
have also debated legislation and had several votes on bills designed 
to curb greenhouse gas emissions. It is time, in fact it is long 
overdue, for the United States House of Representatives to join the 
debate.
  In my home State of New Mexico, we may already be seeing the dramatic 
effects of global warming. In the drought

[[Page 4853]]

seasons of 2002 and 2003, we had major die-offs of our State tree, the 
pinon. Scientists predict that this major die-off is only the prelude 
to life in a warmer future. Also, as seen in this picture, dramatic 
melting has already been seen in icecaps, glaciers and sea ice on both 
poles and in high mountain regions across the globe. Scientists are in 
almost unanimous agreement that these events are directly related to 
the build-up of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere from the burning of 
fossil fuels.
  Mr. Speaker, last week the Honorable Tom Petri and I introduced H.R. 
5049, the Keep America Competitive Global Warming Policy Act. Our bill 
will help America curb our emissions and spur innovation to keep us in 
the global technological lead. The bill is an economy-wide, upstream, 
cap-and-trade policy that covers all greenhouse gas emissions.
  However, to provide some certainty to the economy, the bill provides 
for an unlimited number of additional safety valve allowances. These 
allowances will be sold by the Treasury Department at a fixed and 
reasonable price, which will escalate over time. The escalation of the 
safety valve price is tied to the emissions-control activities of the 
five largest developing country greenhouse gas emitters. This will 
ensure that the rest of the world joins us in this effort. In that way, 
our policy will not put America at a global disadvantage.
  We know that there may be less emissions reduction with a safety 
valve than without one. However, the cost certainty and the modest 
starting up cost of the safety valve allowances provide assurance this 
policy will not result in undue economic harm. We believe it is better 
to have a policy that works slowly yet surely rather than one that 
might prove economically unworkable.
  Many companies, including the largest utility in my home State of New 
Mexico, have expressed the need for a safety valve in any mandatory 
greenhouse gas emissions control legislation.
  While the safety valve and a cap-and-trade program are critical to 
the short-term success of curbing emissions, conservation, research and 
technology are some of the long-term solutions of global warming. Our 
bill creates an advanced research projects agency inside the Department 
of Energy. The goal of the E-ARPA is to explore the truly out-of-the-
box, high-risk, high-payoff research that will be necessary if we are 
to get to a low or no carbon dioxide or greenhouse gas world.
  Mr. Speaker, we know that despite our best efforts some will probably 
be negatively impacted by this policy. That is why our legislation 
allocates allowances to those people, entities and localities that may 
incur dislocations because of this legislation.
  Finally, we also set aside allowances for auction that will be used 
to ensure that the legislation is revenue neutral.
  Mr. Speaker, this bill is modest, certain and efficient. It commits 
America to reducing its greenhouse gas emissions by having emitters 
internalize the costs associated with global warming. This monumental 
step of putting a price on all greenhouse gases will stabilize 
emissions and eventually reduce them and finally put the United States 
on the road towards curbing the effects of global warming.
  I urge my colleagues in the House to cosponsor this comprehensive and 
economically rational legislation and help break the stalemate that 
exists on the global warming issue.

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