Volume 161, No. 167 covering the 1st Session of the 114th Congress (2015 - 2016) was published by the Congressional Record.
The Congressional Record is a unique source of public documentation. It started in 1873, documenting nearly all the major and minor policies being discussed and debated.
“VETERANS DAY AND CLIMATE CHANGE” mentioning the Environmental Protection Agency was published in the Senate section on pages S7903-S7905 on Nov. 10, 2015.
The publication is reproduced in full below:
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 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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