[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 154 (2008), Part 8]
[Senate]
[Pages 11529-11530]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                             GLOBAL WARMING

  Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, I want to say a word about the issue of 
global warming. I notice that my colleagues are waiting to speak in 
tribute to Craig Thomas, and I will also say a word about that.
  I have to agree with Senator Reid when he said that global warming is 
one of the most important issues of our age. I believe he said it was 
the most important global issue and, of course, we realize whatever our 
undertaking may be in life, it is of little value if we don't live on a 
planet that can sustain life. That is what we are worried about--that 
we have warming and carbon pollution that is changing the planet on 
which we live.
  I cannot think of a more formidable challenge that we have ever 
faced. That is why we think it is important to move forward with this 
legislation. The notion that we have blocked all amendments is not 
true. We have said to the Republicans repeatedly: Provide us with the 
amendments. Show us what you are going to offer. Here is what we will 
offer. I think that is a good-faith effort--at least on our side--to 
try to start this important debate. Yet the Republican side has 
refused. They took 30 hours of general debate and didn't produce 
amendments. They asked that this bill be read for 8 hours, and they 
didn't produce any amendments.
  Our fear, of course, is that when the time for actual debate begins, 
without any indication of what they might offer, we will face the same 
thing we did on the GI bill. If you recall that legislation, which was 
to help our returning veterans, it was stopped in its tracks by an 
amendment offered on the Republican side, with a cloture motion filed. 
That meant that 30 hours had to be burned off the clock while we waited 
for the cloture motion to ripen.
  Now, that is use of a procedure here which doesn't advance the debate 
or deliberations. So we asked for assurances from the Republican side. 
We asked is this going to be a good-faith effort to debate and amend 
this bill? Will you produce the amendments? They would not. It is clear 
they don't want to. They are opposed to this bill. We have seen this 
before. We have had 72 filibusters during this session. We have broken 
all of the records of the Senate. The Republican minority has stopped 
us time and again when we have tried to bring up critically important 
issues for our Nation and the world.
  President Bush and the Republicans have dismissed this issue of 
global warming, and I think that is why many Americans are dismissing 
their chances of speaking to the needs of this Nation. This is a 
critically important issue. If this Republican minority will not allow 
us to reach it, I predict the American voters will have the last words. 
We will reach this issue. They will demand that we reach this issue.
  All of the fear being spread here about change in America is 
indicative of the problem the Republicans have today. They are afraid 
of change. Anything that will change things scares them. They don't 
think America is resilient enough and powerful enough to accept change. 
They are wrong.
  Our Nation desperately wants change, starting in Washington, and 
rippling across America, to deal with the issues that face us--first 
and foremost, to bring peace to our Nation, bring our troops home, 
stabilize and strengthen our economy, and deal with critical issues, 
such as global warming.
  Mr. CORNYN. Mr. President, will the Senator yield for a question?
  Mr. DURBIN. Yes, I am happy to.
  Mr. CORNYN. Mr. President, I just ask the distinguished assistant 
majority leader if he and the Democratic majority would agree to an 
amendment designed to help bring down the price of gasoline at the pump 
for the American consumer, and whether they

[[Page 11530]]

would agree to allow us to file that amendment, debate that amendment 
on this bill, and then have an up-or-down vote on the Senate floor?
  Mr. DURBIN. My response is that we are on another bill now, while we 
are waiting for cloture to ripen on the global warming bill. It is our 
intention to move directly into the debate that you have just 
indicated. We have to deal with energy pricing in America. If the 
Republican side is going to offer a good-faith policy amendment to deal 
with this issue, I am sure that will be appropriate.
  Mr. CORNYN. Mr. President, I take it from the answer of the assistant 
majority leader that his answer is no.
  Mr. DURBIN. The answer is yes.
  Mr. CORNYN. I take it that they would not allow us to offer an 
amendment on this bill that would be designed to bring down the price 
of gasoline at the pump by opening America's natural resources to 
development and production.
  Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, time and time again we are told by the 
Republican side, if we could just drill for oil in the Arctic National 
Wildlife Refuge, all of our prayers would be answered and gasoline 
would be $1.50 a gallon, people would stop complaining, and the 
American economy would be back on its feet. It turns out this idea of 
drilling for oil in ANWR is not the answer to our prayers. For many of 
us, it is somewhat blasphemous to think we would take a section of land 
that was set aside by President Eisenhower as a wildlife refuge and say 
that we are so desperate in America for oil that we are going to change 
it forever.
  It strikes me that we have to look at the reality. Of all the oil 
reserves in the world, the United States has access in our boundaries, 
near our shores, to 3 percent of all the oil in the world. We consume 
25 percent of the oil in the world. The Republicans believe we can 
drill our way out--drill in the Great Lakes, drill in the ANWR--and it 
will all be just fine. We know better. We have to take an honest look 
at this and realize that drilling in those places will not answer the 
need.

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