Executive Session

Floor Speech

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Mr. MARKEY. Mr. President, borrowing from a phrase from Senator Whitehouse of Rhode Island, ``It is time to wake up to the threat of climate change.'' We must open our eyes to the insidious web of deceit that the Koch brothers, in alliance with the Trump Administration, are weaving to promote an anti-science, anti-consumer, and anti-renewable energy agenda. This web of deceit is something that the Koch brothers are proud of.

Just last week, they bragged to donors in a report that they were responsible for President Trump's policies: repealing the Clean Power Plan, check; attacking public lands, check; attempting to gut bedrock environmental laws for infrastructure projects, check; leaving the Paris climate accord, check; tax giveaways to Big Oil and other fossil fuel corporations, check-plus.

The first year of the Trump Administration has been a Koch brothers wish list, and they are popping their champagne bottles all the way to the bank. In fact, the various front groups and trade organizations that pushed President Trump to exit the Paris climate accord accepted almost $7 million from the Koch brothers directly. Those groups took millions more from other anti-climate groups, which were also funded by the Koch brothers. It is a tangled web they weave with their money. That is what the Koch brothers have bought--a network of individuals, shady front groups, and partisan organizations whose sole purpose is to undermine the policies that protect Americans and the planet from climate change.

Like a real spider web, it is hard to see this web of deceit unless the light catches it in just the right way. I am going to shine a light on a few threads of this web tonight, the threads that make up the effort to undermine the scientific consensus on climate change: the Koch brothers and their CO2 Coalition. One of these threads is the CO2 Coalition. This group, founded in 2015 with the remains of the defunct George C. Marshall Institute, pushed a single mantra: ``Carbon dioxide, a nutrient vital for life.''

The CO2 Coalition started where the George C. Marshall Institute, another Koch-backed front group, left off--disseminating disinformation, particularly around global warming.

Total funding from the Koch-related foundations for the CO2 Coalition is more than $650,000 since 2004. In addition to the Kochs, the billionaire conservative Mercer family also gave the CO2 Coalition $150,000 in 2016. And that is just what we know of.

For those not familiar, the board of the CO2 Coalition includes the controversial physicist William Happer, who has testified in front of Congress multiple times to push climate denialism and the self-serving interest of the fossil fuel industry and the Koch brothers.

When I was chairman of the House Select Committee for Energy Independence and Global Warming, Dr. Happer advocated in testimony for the government to support an ``alternative hypothesis,'' which amounted to denial of climate change. This ``alternative hypothesis'' was the grandfather of another familiar term, the Trump Administration's so- called alternative facts--``alternative hypothesis.''

During those years that I was the chairman of the Select Committee for Energy Independence and Global Warming and the Subcommittee on Energy and the Environment of the Energy and Commerce Committee, I conducted nearly 100 hearings. They went on for hours and hours. We are talking of 200, 300 hours of hearings where we were able to hear these crackpot theories that were enunciated and debunked at that time. Despite his views on climate science being routinely debunked, including what happened in my hearing back then, Dr. Happer continues to be called as an ``expert witness'' by Republicans in Congress. From this platform, he spreads doubt and misinformation about climate change. He has called carbon dioxide ``a benefit to the Earth,'' an absurd assertion that is in complete contrast to the findings of the EPA and the vast majority of climate scientists. That is because in its materials, the CO2 Coalition states that it has the express purpose of ``educating thought leaders, policy makers, and the public about the important contribution made by carbon dioxide to our lives and the economy.''

In reality, the CO2 Coalition writes articles, produces videos, and uses this content to spread lies about climate change through social media. They seek not to inform but to deform consensus scientific views at the bidding of their fossil fuel funders, the Koch brothers.

Here is some information about carbon dioxide that the CO2 Coalition fails to mention in its love letter to fossil fuels. Every ton of carbon we emit costs us $36--that is the social cost of carbon-- the cost to all of us of emitting an extra ton of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.

That carbon pollution is endangering human health, and it costs us money as a society to treat the damage it does to the health of our planet and the people who live on the planet. Carbon pollution is not a vital nutrient for life, as the CO2 Coalition asserts. It is a dangerous pollutant for our society when it is inside of our atmosphere at dangerous levels--at dangerous levels. The CO2 Coalition is certainly not the only fossil fuel supported group that is weaving this web of deceit. Especially when it comes to talking about the importance of the ``free market,'' fossil fuel-funded climate deniers often have selective memory loss.

The Lexington Institute, which has received funding from fossil fuel companies like ExxonMobil, insists that renewables can't compete in the free market with fossil fuels without Federal subsidies. That assumes that the fossil fuel industry has succeeded in the free market all on its own. It has not. Adam Smith is spinning in his grave, wondering how the fossil fuel industry gets such subsidies. As a matter of fact, he is spinning so fast that he would qualify for a subsidy under the tax policies, which Republicans put in place.

Federal subsidies for the fossil fuel industry are more than 100 years old and account for nearly $15 billion each year. Subsidizing an oil company to drill oil or a coal company to mine is like paying a fish to swim or a bird to fly. You don't have to do it. The tax breaks for the oil and gas industries are permanent pieces of the Tax Code. These payouts automatically continue year after year--forever, into infinity. They never decrease. They never go away. That is certainly not the case for renewable energy industries, like solar and wind. These industries have had to endure the uncertainty of not knowing if their tax breaks will expire. Now tax breaks for wind are scheduled to end completely next year. That will never happen to a fossil fuel break. The tax breaks for solar will end in 2021, but for the fossil fuel industry, those tax breaks will never come off the books because they fight against special tax breaks for wind and solar. Oh, my goodness. Who would want to help them? In fact, in its taking $15 billion a year every year for 100 years and 100 more years into infinity--completely distorting the free market with the support of fossil fuel companies like ExxonMobil--the Lexington Institute is spinning its strand of the web of deceit by trying to stop a renewables revolution.

The Koch brothers and their fossil fuel allies aren't doing this alone. They have found their most ardent ally in their campaign to attack climate science in President Donald Trump. Throughout the Trump administration, there has been a concerted effort to deny, to delay, and to defund the science of climate change in an unprecedented way. Just look at the President's Big Oil all-star Cabinet. At one point, we had former Exxon CEO Rex Tillerson as Secretary of State. We still have former Governor of oil-rich Texas Rick Perry at the Department of Energy. Oklahoma's oil oligarch Scott Pruitt is heading the Environmental Protection Agency. All of these oil allies have voiced doubts about the existence of climate change and the role of humans in causing it, but no one is doing more to help anchor the various strands of the web of deceit on climate science in the Trump administration than the EPA's Scott Pruitt.

Mr. Pruitt announced today a new proposed rule purporting to ``strengthen transparency and validity in regulatory science.'' What exactly does this new secret science rule really mean? The proposal would actually do the opposite of what its name suggests. This proposal would actually restrict the use of scientific research that EPA officials can use in crafting new regulations under the guise of so- called transparency. The Trump administration would allow the EPA to consider research studies for which the underlying data are publicly available. What this proposed change would really do is effectively block the Agency from relying on longstanding, important studies like those that link lead exposure to devastating neurological damage.

Scott Pruitt, at the behest of Big Oil and interests like the Koch brothers, wants to deny EPA scientists access to critical information in order to shield polluters, such as coal and chemical companies. Today, as Pruitt ceremoniously announced his new rule, he was accompanied by--wait for it--William Happer of the CO2 Coalition. The web of deceit is very real. No matter what Scott Pruitt tries to undo at the EPA, no matter what science President Trump tries to deny through the Federal Government, no matter what groups the Koch brothers try to fund, the truth is all too clear. Climate change is happening now.

Last year, we experienced a record $16 billion in storms--extreme weather events--and climate-related disasters. It was more than in any year in recorded history. Hurricanes ravaged Texas, Florida, Puerto Rico. The recovery from Hurricane Harvey alone is projected to cost $180 billion. That is the damage even as the Republicans fight to take the wind and solar tax breaks off the books. This year, in Massachusetts, we already experienced four Northeasters before the end of March. Three of those storms cost more than $1 billion. That is the earliest in any year ever recorded that we have experienced three storms with this magnitude of devastation. The cost of these storms speaks for itself. We simply can't afford to deny the impacts and reality of climate change anymore.

Our greatest weapon in fighting deceit and tearing down this web is sunlight--the sunlight of truth and the sunlight that is fueling the solar revolution. It is a clean energy revolution that is fueling blue- collar job creation and our economy, and it is happening all across this country and around the globe. Renewable energy is the greatest force for blue-collar job creation in the history of the United States.

Right now, wind and solar are generating 7 to 8 percent of the electricity we consume every day in the United States. Right now, we have more than 90,000 megawatts of wind. We have more than 50,000 megawatts of solar installed in the United States. By 2020, we are projected to have 120,000 megawatts of wind. We will have more than 90,000 megawatts of solar. Solar is projected to add an additional 35,000 combined megawatts in 2021 and 2022. That means, by the end of 2022, we could have over 250,000 megawatts of wind and solar installed in the United States.

You can see what is happening now with wind and solar after it had been, essentially, stopped by the fossil fuel industry for 100 years. This could have happened 50 years ago. This could have happened 100 years ago. Yet now, finally, because of Democratic policies, we have been able to finally unleash this revolution.

What is accompanying that wind and solar revolution? It is jobs, blue-collar jobs. We now have 350,000 Americans who are working in wind and solar. By 2020, we are going to have 500,000 workers in wind and solar. The majority of our solar jobs--137,000--is of electricians. There are roofers doing the installation. There are 38,000 jobs in manufacturing. These are good blue-collar jobs. There are 25,000 of our wind jobs in manufacturing while 35,000 are in construction, development, and transportation. These are good-paying, blue-collar jobs.

Why is this renewable revolution unstoppable? Why is this job creation that is good for all of creation unstoppable? It is because the cost of renewables is plummeting. The cost of solar has fallen 50 to 60 percent over the last 5 to 6 years. The cost of wind has fallen 66 percent since 2009. In fact, wind and solar are generally cheaper than coal and nuclear energy are right now. Coal is losing the war against wind and solar in the free market. It is not a conspiracy against coal. It is competition for coal that has finally emerged. That is what is happening. Coal is losing in the marketplace.

This is not just happening in the United States. It is happening around the entire world. Mexico had a power auction at the end of November at which the average price for solar was 1.9 cents per kilowatt hour. In 2017, solar in Saudi Arabia came in at 1.8 cents per kilowatt hour. In Dubai, it was 2.4 cents per kilowatt hour. Half of all electricity installed around the world last year was renewable. Renewable energy deployment around the world has increased by 8 percent a year for 7 years in a row.

This is a global clean energy race, and it is a global job creation race. The Koch brothers and their fossil fuel allies want to take the United States of America out of this revolution. Global temperatures are rising, but the cost of renewables is plummeting. There is no denying the science of climate change or the mathematics behind the renewable revolution.

For decades, the Koch brothers have perpetrated a fraud on the American people about climate change. They have worked to discredit science in order to sow doubt. They are funding a web of deceit that spreads misinformation and undermines the urgency needed to address the generational challenge of climate change. We must fight back with education, with urgency, with facts, and, ultimately, with action.

That is why, this week, I am introducing, with my colleagues here in the Senate and in the House, the Climate Change Education Act. This legislation would promote climate literacy by broadening students' understanding of climate change, the consequences of climate change, and the potential solutions. This bill would give students, teachers, and families the tools they need to protect our planet for future generations. We must take the climate deniers and their fossil fuel funders to task for their opposition to the clean energy opportunities that could win the battle against climate change.

We have a chance to unleash a clean energy revolution that creates jobs as it cuts dangerous carbon pollution. We are on the floor today to cut down this tangled web of deceit--to shine a light on the lies that emanate from this Koch brothers-funded web of deceit that has tried its best to stop this clean energy revolution.

As you can see, this revolution has taken off in the United States as it has taken off around the rest of the planet, and it will not be denied. The green generation, the young generation in our country, will not be denied. They want to see a wind and solar and all-electric vehicle revolution take place that will change the course of history. That is why we are out here today--to let the rest of the world know we are in this fight, and we are going to win it.

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