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[Page S1981]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
THE GREEN NEW DEAL
Mrs. FEINSTEIN. Madam President, I rise to join my colleagues in
calling for legislation to resolve the climate crisis. The need for
action could not be more urgent. Every day of inaction in the U.S.
Senate brings new risks of irreversible harm to our communities, our
environment and future generations.
Unfortunately, this week's vote is not really about climate change.
The Senate has been asked to invoke cloture on a nonbinding resolution
that raises but does not really answer a broad range of questions about
climate change and our economy.
The Senate is not ready to end debate on these issues. We have hardly
begun.
The Democratic Caucus is united in recognizing the realities of
climate change and calling for effective solutions.
However, this constitutes a minority view in the U.S. Senate. For too
many years, our calls for comprehensive climate change legislation have
fallen on deaf ears.
The Green New Deal in all of its ambition and breadth should be
recognized as a sign of the frustration that is mounting in this
country as a result of Republican obstruction.
I do not agree with every aspect of this particular resolution. It
addresses not only climate policy but also longstanding partisan
disputes over healthcare, housing, jobs, and other economic policies.
These are important policy debates, but it is my view that the
legislative effort to address climate change does not need to wait for
agreement in these other areas. The need for action is too urgent.
But whatever our disagreements about policy approaches and nonbinding
resolutions, it is long past time for us to set aside disagreements
about the validity of climate science.
The scientific community has warned us about climate change for
decades with increasing certainty and specificity, including in a
report of the President's Science Advisory Committee in 1965, five
assessment reports of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change
since 1990, and four national climate assessment reports of the U.S.
Global Change Research Program since 2000.
Most recently, a special report of the Intergovernmental Panel on
Climate Change identified the disastrous consequences if we allow the
world to warm by more than 2.7 degrees Fahrenheit above pre-industrial
temperatures.
We are already at more than 1.8 degrees of warming. Sea levels have
risen more than 8 inches. Ocean acidity has increased by 30 percent.
Ice sheets in Antarctica and Greenland are melting into the sea at an
accelerating pace of more than 400 gigatons per year.
Allowing the world to warm another degree, as we are on a course to
do between 2030 and 2052, may well surpass our ability to adapt.
Continued warming will threaten rapid, widespread, and long-lasting
increases in heatwaves, wildfire, disease, drought, crop failure, sea
level rise, ocean acidification, mass extinction, collapsing food
chains, mass population migrations, and human conflict.
To avoid warming in excess of 2.7 degrees Fahrenheit, the special
report identified that we will need to cut emissions 45 percent below
2010 levels by 2030 and 100 percent by 2050.
That will require rapid transitions in all sectors at an
unprecedented scale.
Unless the U.S. Senate can undertake the hard work of serious
legislation soon, it is clear the world will be unable to meet that
goal.
The good news is that there are a large number of good policy ideas
the Senate can consider if my Republican colleagues agree to join with
us in earnest.
There are bipartisan proposals for legislation to place a price on
greenhouse gas emissions by placing a fee on fossil fuels.
We can even rebate the revenues to cover the costs for households and
industry. These are good ideas that we should explore.
There are numerous examples of clean energy standards and other
policy commitments at the State, local, and international level. These
are also good ideas that we should explore.
My own State of California has demonstrated bold, creative new ideas
for cutting emissions at the same time as it has grown to be the fifth
largest economy in the world.
The State has mandated that 50 percent of its electricity must be
from renewable sources by 2030.
We are actually ahead of schedule and are on track to reach that
deadline by 2020, 10 years ahead of schedule.
From there, we are committed to be completely carbon neutral by 2045.
My State's policies work. From the low-carbon fuel standard to the
zero-emission vehicle mandates to the economy-wide cap-and-trade
system, each innovative policy approach makes it easier to meet our
goals.
By harnessing the strength of the American economy to address climate
change, we have an opportunity to create millions of new jobs while
strengthening the infrastructure and industries that are critical to
our future.
It is long past time for the Senate to move beyond show votes on
nonbinding resolutions and move on to the hard work of actual
legislation.
I urge my Republican colleagues to join us in this effort.
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