[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 157 (2011), Part 4]
[Senate]
[Page 4794]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                             GLOBAL WARMING

  Mr. SESSIONS. Madam President, briefly, with regard to the debate 
over the limitations of CO2, global warming gases, and the 
Environmental Protection Agency, Congress has never made a decision on 
this. The way it came out, in my view, is an example of judicial 
activism and a dangerous end run around popular sovereignty in America.
  Forty years ago, Congress passed the Clean Air Act. That act was 
designed to deal with particulates and mercury and NOX and 
SOX--things determined to be pollutants. There was no 
thought at that time that carbon, or CO2, was a warming gas 
that would create global warming. It was before the global warming 
discussion really ever was generated.
  Congress had no intention whatsoever to say that carbon dioxide, 
which is a plant food, which is not harmless to human beings and had 
never been classified as a pollutant, would be placed under the total 
control of the Environmental Protection Agency. But later an activist 
Supreme Court--5-to-4--seemed to say, but not with perfect clarity, 
that because now we know or we think some say that CO2 is a 
global warming gas that could cause global warming, the EPA must 
regulate what really is a plant food and had never been considered to 
be a pollutant.
  I think Congress needs to act. I think Congress needs to assume 
responsibility. We need to say: No, we are not prepared to direct that 
the Environmental Protection Agency control all CO2 
emissions in the country. We never intended that. We are not prepared 
to do that. If we want to start down that road, we in Congress will 
figure out how we should start down that road and how much ought to be 
done. But no group of bureaucrats should be empowered to regulate every 
farm, every apartment building, every schoolhouse, every automobile, 
every vehicle, every train, much less every electric-generating plant 
in the country.
  It is a big deal about reality and power in America. It is just one 
more example of how judges and bureaucrats are utilizing powers really 
never intended to be given to them. Really, they sort of create that to 
impose their agenda on the rest of the country. I believe we should 
back away from that. That is why I support Senator Inhofe in his view.
  I yield the floor and suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The assistant bill clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mrs. SHAHEEN. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent the order for 
the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Ms. Klobuchar). Without objection, it is so 
ordered.

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