[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 159 (2013), Part 1]
[House]
[Page 252]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                      THE FUTURE OF CLIMATE CHANGE

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Oregon (Mr. Blumenauer) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. BLUMENAUER. It was exciting to hear the President make climate 
change a major focus of his inaugural address, and appropriately so. 
Mr. Obama's first term provided stark evidence of the peril to the 
planet: record-breaking heat waves, drought, hurricanes, forest fires, 
disappearing polar ice, all in accord with a prediction of the climate 
scientists, but the effects were happening faster and more severely 
than predicted.
  The good news is that you don't have to believe the climate 
scientists to reduce carbon pollution and energy waste while 
reasserting American global energy leadership. Even balancing the 
budget could be made easier with this initiative.
  Congress and the administration should begin serious conversation 
about a broad-based carbon tax. This would give the right signals on 
energy sources and use. It could raise money to reduce the deficit, 
restore our badly damaged infrastructure, speed and finance 
conservation while cushioning the impact on lower-income families and 
small business.
  There are a number of other commonsense steps that would make 
progress on carbon pollution and energy conservation goals much more 
significant. First, the EPA should stop dragging its feet, permitting 
old, polluting, inefficient coal plants to continue to spew forth toxic 
waste harming not just the environment but the health of our citizens. 
It's past time that the Clean Air Act should be enforced. We should 
make sure there are proper safeguards for the fracking technology for 
gas and petroleum and making sure this vast reservoir of inexpensive 
gas does not undercut the critical addition of renewables to our energy 
portfolio: solar, wind, geothermal, perhaps even tidal energy.
  We need global leadership on these technologies for a balanced energy 
portfolio and, ultimately, to reduce our carbon footprint. At each 
step, we should be looking to enhance energy conservation, because the 
cheapest kilowatt hour is one that you don't have to generate and use.
  We should have a 10-year glide path in our support of renewable 
energy. The wind energy industry has already signaled receptivity to 
phasing out its subsidy, just giving it enough time to come to scale 
and then stand on its own. It's such a good idea, we should do the same 
thing for the petroleum industry. After 100 years, the most profitable 
commodity on the planet is mature and will be able to survive and even 
thrive without additional tax incentives.
  Finally, and most important, we should have the Federal Government 
lead by example. The Department of Energy's management of four large 
power marketing agencies should be the gold standard for integrating 
renewables into the grid, upgrading transmission capacity, and leading 
on conservation. The GSA, with over 300 million square feet of Federal 
office space should demand that all our facilities, every square foot 
we lease, buy, or build, should be of the highest energy efficiency.
  The Federal fleet should be on the cutting edge of fuel efficiency 
standards.
  Finally, the Department of Defense, the largest consumer of energy in 
the world, needs to redouble its efforts. The Pentagon is already 
moving in the right direction. But it's not just about saving money in 
the long term; it's providing operational flexibility and reducing 
vulnerability from inefficient and dangerous fossil fuels. Those fuel 
tanker trucks in Afghanistan and Iraq might as well have had great big 
bull's eyes on them for terrorists. The military knows this, and we 
should give maximum support even in a time of gradually reducing 
Pentagon budgets. This will pay dividends for defense and to our 
family's budget if the Pentagon gets it right.
  It's clear that America is ready and equal to this challenge. The 
President has signaled his interest and leadership. The question is 
whether Congress is equal to the challenge, ready with innovation, 
cooperation, and leadership.

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