[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 159 (2013), Part 3]
[House]
[Page 4008]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                         CLIMATE CHANGE IS REAL

  (Mr. WELCH asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. WELCH. Mr. Speaker, the ocean levels are rising. The ice cap is 
melting. Severe storms, more intense and more frequent. Climate change 
is real, not that you'd know it in this body. We're still having a 
debate about the reality. This is a fact-free zone in Congress when it 
comes to climate change. But we can still make progress, even if we 
debate the science.
  We should do things that allow all of us to use less energy. Energy 
efficiency is good, regardless of what fuel source you use. It creates 
jobs for the folks who are out of work in the home construction 
industry, doing retrofits for commercial and residential buildings. It 
saves families money, and it saves businesses money.
  There's an enormous amount of advocacy on both sides of the aisle to 
do this practical, commonsense step. It will have an incidental 
benefit, as well, of reducing carbon emissions.
  So even as we have an unresolved debate about the science of climate 
change, let's take practical steps that are good for jobs, good for the 
economy, and good for saving taxpayers money.

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