S.J. Res. 53

Floor Speech

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Mr. SCHUMER. Mr. President, now on climate, as Senator Cardin well knows, later the Senate will vote on his resolution of disapproval to repeal the Trump administration's so-called affordable clean energy rule. This is one of the few opportunities where the minority can force a vote on the Senate floor, and there may be no more worthy an issue than protecting our environment.

Four years ago, the Obama administration put in place new standards and safeguards for CO2 and fossil fuel emissions from powerplants--the first of their kind intended to meet the threat of climate change. Earlier in July, by employing shady science, the Trump administration so violently obliterated these safeguards protecting our globe, our world, and frankly a lot of the forests in my home State of New York. In its place, the Trump administration enacted a new rule that will allow big polluters to wreck our air, dirty our water, and poison our Earth with little or no accountability.

Thanks to this new rule, commonsense limits on carbon emissions have been blurred, and deadlines for implementing the reductions have now been tripled or even quadrupled, but time is running out for the United States to meet the existential threat posed by climate change. That is why this rule is such a grave mistake.

Thankfully, in this case, the minority can do something under the Congressional Review Act. We are allowed to overturn some of the rules this administration unilaterally put in place. Later this morning, we will vote on Senator Cardin's resolution of disapproval, which, if passed, will repeal the Trump's administration's destructive rule and reinstitute the safeguards that were originally in place.

Our Republican colleagues have a choice. They can either stop the rollback of lifesaving environmental protections or they can side with energy companies that put their fortunes ahead of our future. The choice is theirs.

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