Providing for Congressional Disapproval of a Rule Submitted by the Environmental Protection Agency
Floor Speech
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Mr. MERKLEY. Thank you very much, Mr. President.
I rise today to oppose the Congressional Review Act to derail the Clean Power Plan.
It was Theodore Roosevelt who said, ``Of all the questions that can come before this nation, short of the actual preservation of its existence in a great war, there is none which compares in importance with the great central task of leaving this land even a better land for our descendants than it is for us.''
Theodore Roosevelt was at the core of the conservation movement in the Republican Party. It is a Republican Party far removed from the party it is today. Roosevelt's determination to ``leave this land a little better'' has been replaced by complete abdication of responsible leadership for the stewardship of our planet.
The Clean Power Plan that this resolution concerns is the single most significant step this country has taken now or in the past to combat climate change. Many citizens do not know that over the past few decades we have seen the carbon pollution rise in the atmosphere, and it is now in the upper level of 400 parts per million. As that carbon dioxide concentrates and comes to a higher level, it traps the heat, and that heat is producing profound consequences. We haven't had this level of carbon pollution for 3 million years--long before humans walked this planet and when sea levels were as much as 80 feet higher than they are today. So this is no ivory tower issue; it is very real, not only in the measurement of pollution in the air but in the facts on the ground.
In my home State of Oregon, we are seeing impacts on our forests. We see impacts of pine beetles spreading and creating a big red zone of dead trees. We see it in impacts in terms of fiercer forest fires and a longer forest fire season--a season that has grown 60 days in 40 years. We see it in terms of the diminishing snowpack in the Cascades, which not only makes our trout streams warmer and smaller, but it decreases the water we have for agriculture, and we have a massive drought year after year. The three worst ever droughts have been in the last 15 years in the Klamath Basin in the south. We see it in terms of our sea production--our oysters, which are struggling to create shells when they are small because the Pacific Ocean is 30 percent more acidic now than it was before the industrial revolution.
Carbon pollution is really a war on rural America. It is a war on forestry, our fishing, and our farming, and that cannot be allowed to stand.
There is no question that we have conclusive evidence of global warming. Globally, 14 of the 15 warmest years on record have all occurred in the last 15 years. They have all occurred in this century, and 2014 was the warmest year ever on a global basis. This year, 2015, is on course to be even warmer yet. This translates into damage to our rural economy not only in terms of our forestry, our fishing, and our farming, but also in terms of the economic impact that occurs from the damage. The damage we see today is going to only get worse in the years ahead. These rural industries will suffer, and American livelihoods will suffer.
It is irresponsible to continue business as usual. We need to dramatically change course. We need to pivot from a fossil fuel energy economy to a renewable energy economy.
The Clean Power Plan sets achievable standards to reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 32 percent of 2005 levels by the year 2030--strong but achievable standards. We have the technology today, but do we have the political will?
Or is this body going to be ensnared by the powerful lobbying of the Koch brothers and the fossil fuel industry, which have announced they are going to spend $1 billion in the next election to make sure their policies are the ones adopted in this room and that their policies will guide our future.
Well, how about this? How about we have policies that are the policies related to the welfare of American citizens, related to the welfare of our farmers, our fishing industry, and our forest industry? How about we fight for rural America instead of being led astray by the Koch brothers and the fossil fuel industry?
We know the Clean Power Plan will have a powerful, positive impact that will provide significant public health benefits, reducing premature deaths from powerplant emissions by nearly 90 percent, and that will avoid 3,600 premature deaths, will lead to 90,000 fewer asthma attacks for children, and will prevent 300,000 missed work and school days. We know this plan will create tens of thousands of jobs while driving new investments in cleaner, more modern, and more efficient technologies. We know it will save the American family nearly $85 on their annual energy bill.
Fewer deaths are a good thing. More jobs are a good thing. Saving families money is a good thing. So let's fight for good things. Let's not follow the path my Republican colleagues are proposing, in which they are saying no to reducing bills for families, they are saying no to creating good-paying jobs, they are saying no to improving public health, and they are saying no to saving lives. Well, let's say yes.
It has been said that we are the first generation to feel the impacts of global warming and the last generation that can do something about it. This is a moral challenge to our generation of humans on this planet--on our beautiful blue-green planet. This responsibility rests not with some future generation or some past generation but with all of us right now. This resolution to try to torpedo the most effective measure America has ever adopted in the past or in the present is, in fact, deeply, deeply misguided.
Let's turn back to the test President Theodore Roosevelt put before us when he said that there is no more important mission than leaving this land even a better land for our descendants than it is for us. Our children and our children's children are counting on us to act. They are counting on us to save jobs, to save lives, and to save our planet. We must not fail this test.
I yield the floor.
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