Economic Growth, Regulatory Relief, and Consumer Protection Act--

Floor Speech

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Mr. MARKEY. Mr. President, I thank my friend Senator Sheldon Whitehouse, and congratulations on his long history of action on climate change.

Six years ago, Senator Whitehouse began a campaign to speak every week about climate change. One need only look at the past 6 years of climate impacts to understand just how important the Senator's pledge is.

The planet has been warming for years, but in the last few years, the disturbing trends have accelerated. The last 4 years have been the hottest on record.

The effects of climate change are already obvious, from the eroding coasts off Cape Cod to storm surge in Boston Harbor. January's bomb cyclone in Massachusetts broke the flood record in Boston set by the Blizzard of 1978.

Sadly, this is our new normal. Thirteen of the top 20 biggest flood events in Boston have occurred since 2000. While Massachusetts gets overrun by the impacts of climate change, President Trump has plans to expand offshore drilling off the New England coast. This is the very definition of insanity.

Our communities and our oceans are feeling the pressure of the changing climate. But what has the Trump administration decided to do about it? Worse than nothing. It has started to withdraw us from the Paris Climate Accord. It has repealed the Clean Power Plan. It has rolled back historic fuel economy standards, loosened standards for hazardous pollutants, and declared all-out war on climate science.

Throughout the administration, there has been an alarming attack on public information about climate change. On the Environmental Protection Agency's website, more than 5,000 pages of information on climate change have disappeared, either relegated to an unsearchable maze far from public view or simply deleted. Fact sheets on public health and climate change are gone. Resources for States and cities have disappeared. Guides for students and teachers are no more. This isn't transparency; it is a transparent attack on climate science.

It is also an attack on our scientists. More than 200 scientists have left the EPA under the Trump administration. Those 200 scientists have been replaced with only seven new hires. Our top climate scientists are telling us that fear is rampant at EPA and across Federal agencies. The EPA's job is to instill fear into the hearts of corporate polluters, not its own scientists.

We need to encourage more science, not less. We need science to inform the policies we need to provide the solutions that could save our planet. That is what Senator Whitehouse has championed for these past 6 years on the floor and throughout his career in public service.

I thank Senator Whitehouse for asking me to stand with him today and for being an environmental Paul Revere, sounding the alarm on climate change. We cannot be silenced, and we will continue to work together to sound that alarm--because that is what is happening, the Earth's alarm clock has gone off and it is telling us all to wake up. There is no one who is more woke to what is happening to our planet's climate than he.

Thank you.

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