Border Security, Economic Opportunity, and Immigration Modernization Act

Floor Speech

Mr. WHITEHOUSE. Mr. President, I rise today for the 35th time to again bring the message to my colleagues that it is time to wake up to the threat of climate change. There is simply too much credible evidence that climate change is occurring, and there is too much at risk for us to continue sleepwalking.

Our oceans face unprecedented challenges from climate change and carbon pollution. Oceans have absorbed more than 550 billion tons of our carbon pollution. As a result, they have become 30 percent more acidic. That is a measurement, not a theory.

Ocean temperatures are also changing dramatically, again driven by carbon pollution. Sea surface temperatures in 2012, from the Gulf of Maine down to Cape Hatteras, were the highest recorded in 150 years. That is another measurement. Fish stocks are shifting northward with some disappearing from U.S. waters as they move farther offshore. Fishermen who have come here to talk to Senator Reed and myself have noted anomalies, and ``things are not making sense out there'' is the way they have described it.

In my home State of Rhode Island, the Ocean State, we put our lives and hearts into our relationship with the ocean. The day-to-day life on the coast is a proud and rewarding tradition, but it is one that is now threatened by climate change.

The waters of Narragansett Bay are getting warmer--4 degrees Fahrenheit warmer in the winter since the 1960s. Long-term data from the tide gauges in Newport, RI, show an increase in the average sea level of nearly 10 inches since 1930, and the rate of increase is accelerating. Sea level rise is contributing to erosion and allows storm surges and waves to wash farther and farther inland. Last year Hurricane Sandy really sped up that erosion, driving down beaches and dunes and tearing up coastal homes and roads.

The ecosystem damage, erosion, and storms are just part of the price Rhode Islanders pay for unchecked greenhouse gas pollution. We are not alone. Every region of the United States is facing similar costs.

Economists are working to calculate the costs of carbon pollution by adding up those damages of climate change. It is called ``the social cost of carbon'' because it is the cost of pollution the big polluters offload onto the rest of society. When consumers and taxpayers are forced to shoulder those costs, that is a market failure, and it is flat out unfair.

The Obama administration recently revised its estimates of the social cost of carbon. The new calculation does a better job at capturing the most recent projections for sea level rise and agricultural productivity. This is a good step toward recognizing the magnitude of the harms of climate change, and I hope it is an indication that the President is going to do more to address this problem.

Economists and administration officials are not the only ones looking at the cost of carbon pollution. Among those weighing the evidence that our climate is changing are the cold-eyed professionals of the property casualty insurance industry--insurers and the reinsurers. Their industry depends on getting this right. Politics has no place in their calculations. This is how they make their living.

The insurance sector has created a complete data set for natural catastrophes worldwide from 1980 up to 2011, and here is what they see: The annual number of natural disasters is going steadily up. The top three colors of each of these bars show the number of events that are related to weather. On the bottom, this set in red shows the events that are not related to weather. Volcanoes, earthquakes, and so forth, are not climate related.

While the overall number of catastrophes is increasing, we can see the number of these nonclimate catastrophes is constant. It is the climate-driven catastrophes that are increasing.

Here is the chart without those nonclimate catastrophes. These are the catastrophes that are related to climate-driven weather. Insurers and reinsurers are looking more closely at the increase in weather-related catastrophes and are now starting to include climate-change costs in their risk models.

Pricing carbon properly is necessary. Representative Henry Waxman, Representative Earl Blumenauer, Senator Brian Schatz, and I have released a discussion draft of legislation to make the big carbon polluters pay a fee to cover the costs of dumping their waste carbon into our atmosphere and oceans--a cost they now push off onto the rest of us--and return all of that revenue to the American people.

At present the political conditions in Congress are stacked against us. The big polluters and their allies hold sway and Congress refuses to wake up. While Congress sleepwalks through history, States such as my home State of Rhode Island are acting to mitigate and adapt for climate change.

This week I welcomed dozens of Rhode Islanders to Washington for our annual Rhode Island Energy and Environmental Leaders Day. This event brings together Rhode Island renewable energy and sustainable development businesses, community development nonprofits, State and local officials, environmentalists, experts, and academics, to share ideas with national leaders and Federal agencies on promoting green energy, improving resiliency, and combating climate change.

We were joined by my terrific Rhode Island delegation, Jack Reed, Jim Langevin, and David Cicilline. The highlight of the event was hearing from Vice President Al Gore, who is a world leader on environmental protection and alternative energy. Vice President Gore declared that ``We are on the cusp of a fantastic revolution'' in green energy. ``But there is still ferocious resistance,'' he warned, from ``legacy industries that have built up wealth and power in a previous age''--that is what stops Congress. That is what keeps us sleepwalking, and that is why we don't wake up.

We were also joined by Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz, who asserted the Obama administration's dedication to doubling renewable generation by the end of this decade.

Congressman Henry Waxman, the ranking member on the House Energy and Commerce Committee and my fellow cochair of our Bicameral Task Force on Climate Change, also came to address the group, as did our colleague Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts. New Englanders, of course, know Senator Warren as a tireless advocate for everyday Americans, who is unafraid to challenge powerful special interests, and my friend Henry Waxman has carved out a unique role for himself as one of the leading legislators in the House of Representatives on this and a great number of other public health issues. I am so proud to be working with Representative Waxman.

The innovation that is taking place in my Ocean State was on full display at the Rhode Island Energy and Environmental Leaders Day. We are a leader in the development of offshore wind energy. This month the Federal Bureau of Ocean Energy Management announced the first-ever auction for renewable energy leases off the coast of Rhode Island and Massachusetts.

Our State's Special Area Management Plan, or SAMP, has balanced environmental, commercial, and military marine interests through a first-of-its-kind marine spatial planning process. This cooperation has protected rich fishing grounds and sped up wind energy development.

Rhode Island is part of the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, nicknamed ``Reggie,'' along with eight other northeastern States, including the State of the Presiding Officer, I believe. Our region caps carbon emissions and sells permits to powerplants to emit greenhouse gases, creating economic incentives for both States and utilities to invest in energy efficiency and renewable energy development.

Rhode Island's Climate Change Commission identifies risks to important State infrastructure and reports on the effects of catastrophic events such as Hurricane Sandy and the 2010 flood.

In places such as North Kingstown, RI, the city planners have taken the best elevation data available, and they have modeled various levels of sea level rise and storm surge. By combining these models with maps showing roads, emergency routes, water treatment plants, and estuaries, the town can better plan its infrastructure and its conservation projects.

The Rhode Island Department of Health is using a $250,000 grant from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to help the State prepare for and address health effects associated with climate change.

Most of all, Rhode Islanders are calling for action, especially young Rhode Islanders. When I spoke at a climate change rally on the National Mall earlier this year, busloads of Rhode Islanders had driven down to show support for action on climate change. Right now students at Brown University and the Rhode Island School of Design are pushing their great universities to divest their endowments of coal holdings.

I am proud of the effort we are making in Rhode Island, and I know a lot of States are working just as hard. But I say to my colleagues: Our home States are hampered in these efforts by inaction in Congress. Even the Government Accountability Office, known as Congress's watchdog, has pointed out repeatedly that the Federal Government should be a better partner to States that are trying to adapt to and plan for climate change.

Sadly, Congress seems determined to be the last holdout against good sense. Some in this body choose to ignore the science and put special interests before national interests. They stifle policies that would be economically inconvenient to their special interests. The obstruction may be well funded by the polluters and their allies, but the majority of the American people understand that climate change is a problem, and they want their leaders to take action.

Many in Washington do recognize the need for climate action and ocean stewardship. President Obama declared this June to be National Oceans Month, saying:

All of us have a stake in keeping the oceans, coasts, and Great Lakes clean and productive--which is why we must manage them wisely not just in our time, but for generations to come. Rising to meet that test means addressing threats like overfishing, pollution, and climate change.

Last week, the National Marine Sanctuary Foundation hosted the 12th Capitol Hill Ocean Week, bringing marine professionals, government officials, and ocean advocates to Washington to discuss strategies for keeping our oceans and coasts healthy.

Also, last week, Secretary of State John Kerry hosted a roundtable discussion about the challenges of and opportunities for ocean sustainability under climate change.

Responsible people are calling for action, such as Rhode Island's energy and environmental leaders, the insurance and reinsurance sector, and virtually every major reputable scientific organization, such as NASA, whose scientists sent a buggy the size of an SUV to Mars and are driving it around right now on the surface of Mars. They may know something when they can do that. Major U.S. corporations are calling for action, including Apple and Ford and Nike and Coca-Cola and organizations such as the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. Heather Zichal, President Obama's Deputy Assistant for Energy and Climate Change, made it clear to the crowd at Rhode Island Energy and Environmental Leaders Day:

Congress has not yet delivered a common-sense, market-based solution. ..... [I]f Congress will not act, then [the President] will.

It is time to wake up and to meet the challenge of our time. There is a lot at stake for every State and there is a lot at stake for every generation. It is time to wake up and to take action.

I yield the floor.

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