[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 161 (2015), Part 13]
[Senate]
[Pages 18037-18038]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                    VETERANS DAY AND CLIMATE CHANGE

  Mr. MARKEY. Mr. President, tomorrow is Veterans Day, and on Veterans 
Day it is important that we thank America's veterans and their families 
for their service to our Nation. Veterans Day is a time to honor all 
those brave men and women who put themselves in harm's way so we may 
enjoy the tremendous freedoms and personal liberties that make our 
Nation the greatest in the world. Such bravery deserves our unending 
gratitude.
  We have an obligation to honor them all year-round by fighting to 
ensure they have the resources, the support, and the protections which 
they have earned. They fought for us, and now we need to fight for 
them. When we send our men and women in uniform abroad, we can be 
confident they will do their utmost to complete their missions. Our 
mission, as Senators, is to minimize the need to send our armed 
services members into harm's way. The root causes of overseas conflict 
are complex and diverse, from religious divisions to natural resource 
allocations, to democratic yearnings. Increasingly, in the modern era, 
climate change is straining the strands of stability until they snap.
  When I was chairman of the House Select Committee on Energy 
Independence and Global Warming, I held a 2007 hearing where one U.S. 
general told the story of Somalia, how drought in Somalia had caused a 
famine and how that famine had ultimately then led to and encouraged a 
conflict. The pattern in Somalia is the same pattern that we see in 
other countries: drought leading to famine, leading to fights between 
different tribes or peoples who otherwise had no reason to fight. Aid 
came in from the United States, warlords started to fight over it, and 
that is how 18 U.S. service people lost their lives in what we now call 
``Black Hawk Down.''
  In 2010, terrible droughts in Russia and China and floods in Pakistan 
decimated wheat harvests and created a global shortage. The price of 
wheat increased dramatically. The Middle East, home to the world's top 
nine wheat importers, felt it severely, especially since the region's 
farmers struggled with their own parched fields. Much of Syria was 
gripped with the worst drought it had ever experienced. The price of 
bread skyrocketed across the region and demands for regime change were 
not far behind.
  As we look around the world, we can see, hear, and feel how climate 
change is a threat multiplier and a catalyst for conflict today. While 
we have to deal with the consequences of climate change that are 
already apparent, there is still time to prevent future catastrophes. 
That is why President Obama has been using the tool he has in the Clean 
Air Act to reduce carbon pollution. He has used it to increase the fuel 
efficiency of America's cars and trucks, and now he has released the 
Clean Power Plan, but Republicans want to undo it with the 
Congressional Review Act.
  Starting next Monday in this Chamber, Senate Republicans can bring 
the resolution to the Senate floor at any time to dismantle the Clean 
Power Plan. Undoing it would be bad for our economy, bad for our 
health, and bad for our national security.
  Now, 2014 was the hottest year in global history. Records go back all 
the way to 1880--the warmest year. The first half of this year is now 
the hottest January to June in that same record. The Clean Power Plan 
captures the scientific urgency and the economic opportunity necessary 
to avoid the worst consequences of climate change. The Clean Power Plan 
provides flexibility to the States to find the solutions to reducing 
carbon pollution that works best for their situations, unleashing a 
clean energy revolution in every single State in the Union. It will 
create jobs and save consumers billions on their electricity bills. It 
will avert almost 100,000 asthma attacks and prevent thousands of 
premature deaths. The climate and health benefits of the rule are 
estimated to save $34 billion to $54 billion per year by the year 2030.
  Using the Clean Air Act to reduce carbon pollution is grounded in the 
Supreme Court's 2007 decision that confirmed the Environmental 
Protection Agency's authority to regulate carbon dioxide and other 
heat-trapping gases as pollutants under the Act. The Supreme Court has 
reaffirmed that authority in two subsequent cases, and we have used 
that authority to set carbon pollution standards for vehicles. These 
standards, along with increasing the fuel economy of our Nation's cars 
and trucks, are reducing pollution, saving drivers money, and sparking 
innovation. We will see similar benefits coming from the Clean Power 
Plan.
  Some of my colleagues in the Senate say it can't be done. Some will 
say it will raise electricity bills. Some will say it will kill jobs. 
The problem for them is their claims are just not true. The Clean Power 
Plan is a plan to create jobs and to grow our economy. It is a signal 
to the marketplace to invest in clean energy--in wind, in solar, and 
other renewable energy resources. That is the 21st century. Too many 
people on the Senate floor keep looking at the future in a rearview 
mirror. They keep looking backward instead of ahead, unleashing the 
technologies of the 21st century. The green generation, the young 
people in our country, they know we can do this. They know renewables 
are the technologies of the 21st century. If we do it, it will be a 
signal to the rest of the world that the United States is going to lead 
the effort to reduce greenhouse gases, while unleashing a job-creating 
renewable energy revolution not just for our own country but for the 
entire planet.
  Just 2 months ago, in September, Congress had the honor of hearing 
from Pope Francis, who shared his message of action. He told us the 
American people can do it. He said:

       I call for a courageous and responsible effort to redirect 
     our steps and to avert the most serious effects of the 
     environmental deterioration caused by human activity. I am 
     convinced we can make a difference and I have no doubt that 
     the United States--and this Congress--have an important role 
     to play. Now is the time for courageous actions and 
     strategies.

  He is right. The Pope is right. This is the time for action from 
Congress--not denial, not obstructionism. Now is the time for the 
United States, for this Senate, to be the leader in finding the global 
solutions to this threat of dangerous climate change.
  So what the Pope did was take the message of Christ and not deliver a 
``Sermon on the Mount,'' he delivered a sermon on the Hill--a sermon on 
the Hill to the Members of the House and the Senate to do everything 
they can to reduce dangerous greenhouse gases. In saying that to us, he 
said it as someone who taught high school chemistry, as someone who 
knows this issue--a Pope who taught chemistry. The Pope did not believe 
that science is at odds with religion. The Pope believes science and 
technology is the answer to our prayers, and he called upon us to 
unleash a technological revolution to reduce these dangerous greenhouse 
gases.
  Why do we know that we can do this? It is a moral imperative. The 
Pope basically said three things: No. 1, the planet is dangerously 
warming and the science confirms that; No. 2, human activity is largely 
contributing to the warming of the planet and the science confirms 
that; and, No. 3, since human beings are causing this problem, they 
have a moral responsibility and a moral imperative to do something 
about it. We are the United States of America. We are the global leader 
in technology. We are the revolution. So let's see how far we have come 
in a very brief period of time.
  In 2005, we installed 79 megawatts of solar in the United States. 
Solar technology had been around for generations. Einstein actually won 
his Nobel Prize for breakthroughs in solar research. Yet this is where 
we were in 2005; a tiny 79 megawatts was all we were able to install. 
Then we began to change policies in the United States. We began to have 
States across the

[[Page 18038]]

country, 30 States, which said we are going to have more renewable 
electricity in our States. We put tax breaks on the books, and look 
what happened in that very brief period of time. By 2014, nearly 7,000 
megawatts in solar were installed in 1 year, up from 79, 100 times more 
solar, after not doing anything for generations. Policies were put on 
the books. All the deniers, all those doubters--all of a sudden 
everything they said about how solar wasn't practical, solar couldn't 
solve the problem--were confronted with this reality.
  This year nearly 8,000 megawatts are going to be installed; next 
year, 12,000 megawatts of solar. We are going to have 40,000 megawatts 
of solar installed by the end of next year in the United States--
40,000--and we were doing 79 total in 2005. That is how rapidly it is 
changing. That is how many new jobs are being created in America.
  The same thing is happening in wind. Wind is going to be producing 
20,000 new megawatts in just 2015 and 2016.
  So here is the good news, and it is incredibly great. There will be 
300,000 jobs in the wind and solar sector by the end of next year, 
300,000 people working. There will only be 65,000 coal miners, but we 
will have 300,000 people with these incredible jobs in wind and solar. 
That is a revolution that wasn't on the books just 10 years ago. All 
the experts said it can't happen, it won't work, and it will never be 
successful.
  So these revolutions are the things on which we have to continue to 
be the leaders to ensure that we put on the books and keep on the books 
so that we are successful. There is a technological imperative that we 
lead, there is an economic imperative that we lead because these jobs 
get created, and there is a moral responsibility that the United States 
has because we were the leading polluter for 100 years on the planet. 
China has now caught up to us, but a lot of that CO2 is red, 
white, and blue.
  Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent for 1 additional minute.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  Mr. MARKEY. So here is where we are: The President is going to use 
all of his legal authority to reach a deal in Paris. He will do it 
pursuant to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change 
that was signed by President George Herbert Walker Bush and ratified by 
the Senate in 1992, so everything he is doing in Paris is completely 
pursuant to a treaty that was agreed to by this body. He is doing the 
Clean Power Plan to reduce greenhouse gases by 30 percent by the year 
2030 in the electric utility sector, by the Clean Air Act of 1990, a 
law passed by the Senate. He increased the fuel economy standards to 
54.5 miles per gallon by the year 2025, still the largest reduction of 
greenhouse gas in the world's history, pursuant to a law passed in 2007 
by the U.S. Senate.
  Underlying it all is an authority given to him by the Supreme Court 
in 2007, in Massachusetts versus the EPA, which mandated the EPA had to 
act if they found there was an endangerment of an environment. All of 
this is legal, all of it is authority the President is using, and all 
of it is working to create a new era of clean energy jobs all across 
our country so that we are no longer preaching temperance from a 
barstool to the rest of the world. We can now say to China and to 
India: You too must put your reductions on the books.
  Mr. President, I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Alaska.

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