Climate Change
Floor Speech
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Mr. WHITEHOUSE. Mr. President, as I rise for my 220th ``Time to Wake Up'' climate speech, there is abundant evidence that meaningful action on climate change in the United States is unlikely. We have a President who, against all the evidence, claims that climate change is a Chinese hoax. This is the same President who announced last year that he was pulling the United States out of the international Paris Agreement.
This is the same President who installed the theatrically corrupt Scott Pruitt, who owed his entire political career to the fossil fuel industry, to lead, of all things, the Environmental Protection Agency. When Pruitt's endless string of scandals finally proved too much even for this epically swampy administration, President Trump then made a coal industry lobbyist the Acting EPA Administrator.
The fundamentally rotten bargain at the heart of today's Trump politics is that his party is essentially bankrolled by the fossil fuel industry. This is why you see Republicans seeking to freeze voluntary fuel economy and greenhouse gas emissions standards for cars. If consumers pay more at the pump to fill up, fine--what matters is that the oil companies get to keep pumping.
This is why the Republican Clean Power Plan doesn't really reduce carbon emissions. In fact, the EPA's own numbers show that the replacement plan will result in poorer health for Americans, including 1,400 additional deaths a year, but what matters is that the coal companies sell coal.
Republicans even plan to weaken standards on methane leaks. It doesn't matter that methane is an extremely potent greenhouse gas. What matters is that the oil and gas industry doesn't have to spend any money to prevent those leaks.
So there is lots of evidence that meaningful action on climate change in this country is unlikely. Yet on Friday I attended the Global Climate Action Summit, organized by California Governor Brown, to keep up progress reducing carbon emissions and fighting the effects of climate change.
At the summit, States, cities, Provinces, and companies from around the world--indeed, foreign nations--made new announcements about climate change and to reduce carbon emissions. Governor Brown himself signed a law requiring 100 percent of California's electricity to be carbon-free by 2045 and committed that California would be carbon- neutral by the same year. Plus, there is that satellite to measure carbon emissions.
New Jersey announced plans to install more than 3,000 megawatts of offshore wind.
States and cities in India announced plans for thousands of electric buses, cool roofs, and solar-equipped public buildings.
IKEA, the furniture store, announced that all of its delivery services will be zero emissions by 2025.
That is just a small sample of the new commitments--evidence of the determination of Governors, mayors, CEOs, investors, and NGOs to combat climate change despite the failure of Republican leadership in Washington.
But if we are to have any hope of keeping global warming under 2 degrees Celsius--or better yet, 1.5 degrees--we are going to need leadership here. We are going to need a Federal price on carbon. That is why last week's announcement from the Climate Leadership Council was so important. The CLC has been working with former Republican Secretaries of State George Shultz and James Baker and former Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson for a $40-per-ton carbon fee and return all of the money raised by that carbon fee to American families in the form of a dividend. This plan shares a lot of similarities with the American Opportunity Carbon Fee Act, which I introduced with Senator Schatz of Hawaii. The CLC plan is supported by many corporations, business leaders, and former Republican officials.
Last week, the CLC announced that its $40-per-ton carbon fee would result in emissions reductions substantially better than our present national targets. The CLC also found that 56 percent of Americans-- including majorities of Democrats, Independents, and Republicans-- support it. Seventy-one percent of millennials support a carbon fee, which shows that carbon pricing is coming. The only question is how soon. Americans intuitively understand that it makes sense to impose a fee on something we want less of, whether it is carbon emissions or cigarettes. When the revenues from those fees are returned to the American people, it is better still.
Last week's climate summit featured a discussion on carbon pricing organized by the business community. The fossil fuel industry and its array of front groups will, of course, attack any effort to put a price on carbon emissions. So having companies like Gap, Exelon, Pacific Gas and Electric, and Steelcase speak out in favor of carbon pricing was a good start. When the business community shows broad-based support for carbon pricing, it will be very difficult to argue that it is bad for business, but let's remember that the fossil fuel companies bring heavy artillery to this fight.
Washington State has a carbon fee ballot initiative right now, which has provoked Big Oil to spend $20 million to defeat that initiative, including companies that claim they support a carbon price. Among the donors are BP, Phillips 66, and others that have contributed over $3 million each to oppose the carbon price initiative. So against that Big Oil blowback, it would sure be nice if Washington State's corporate leaders stood up on this.
Starbucks, after all, has a whole web page about climate change and has committed to purchasing 100 percent renewable energy. Amazon has a web page on its efforts to reduce its carbon footprint, and it, too, is aiming to go to 100 percent renewable.
Jeff Bezos, one of the world's richest people, is investing in clean energy, along with another corporate icon of Washington State, Microsoft's Bill Gates. In fact, Microsoft is hard at work reducing carbon emissions in its operations. It even has an internal carbon price to encourage reductions in carbon pollution.
Boeing has a web page cataloging its efforts to combat climate change by making its airplanes more efficient.
So where are they when it comes to their own home State's plan to actually do something about climate change? As we have seen so often here in Washington, DC, as well, it is radio silence. The interesting thing is that Big Oil is actually tiny compared to Microsoft, Amazon, Starbucks, Boeing, and the rest of the tech companies, Wall Street banks, insurance companies, consumer goods companies, retailers, and food and beverage companies that all claim to care about climate change--tiny.
The difference is that Big Oil shows up. It shows up here in Congress. It funds its armada of front groups and trade associations and phony think tanks to steer Republicans here in Congress away from anything limiting carbon pollution, just like it is showing up right now in Washington State to kill an initiative that would limit carbon pollution.
Here is the problem: The good guys aren't showing up. They don't show up here in Congress, and they are letting Big Oil outgun them even in Washington State. In my experience, if you don't show up to the game, you don't win. It is as simple as that.
That is the message I took to last week's summit. I truly appreciate business leaders who talk about the dangers of climate change and the value of carbon pricing. I truly appreciate business leaders who work on reducing carbon emissions within their corporate footprint. But it also matters what you do in the public arena. Show up to fight for the policy you already espouse. Show up here in Congress and in Washington State. Challenge Big Oil rather than forfeit the game before it even begins. This is a fight. There are hydraulics in politics. If no one pushes back, the only team on the field will win.
Well, we can't keep having the fossil fuel industry win this fight because we will all be losers in their win. We have to win, but to do that, we will need companies talking a good game to actually show up on game day.
It is not just time to wake up. It is time to show up.
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