During remarks on the Senate floor Wednesday night, Senate Democrats spoke bout the environmental policies of the Trump Administration.
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NewsTranscript
00:00:00Mr. President, earlier this month, Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lee Zeldin
00:00:06announced he'd reconsider over 30 rules and policies that protect human health and
00:00:14the environment, calling it the greatest day of deregulation our nation has seen.
00:00:19With a barrage of press releases, Administrator Zeldin threatened to replace the central mission
00:00:24of EPA to protect the environment and the health of Americans with a newer and more
00:00:30sordid mission – to protect the financial interests of President Trump's big oil polluting
00:00:38mega-donors.
00:00:39EPA's mission to protect human health and the environment has guided the agency for
00:00:44more than 50 years, with bipartisan support.
00:00:48The agency was created by Republican President Richard Nixon, and conservative presidents
00:00:53like Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush chose administrators like Bill Ruckelshaus and Kristi
00:00:59Whitman, who took the agency's mission seriously.
00:01:03EPA's bipartisan pedigree and mission matter little to Trump, Zeldin, and their crew of
00:01:11fossil fuel donors.
00:01:15Administrator Zeldin claims that slashing these protections will, quote, unleash American
00:01:21energy.
00:01:22Ha!
00:01:23In reality, these rollbacks will keep Americans dependent on expensive, dirty fossil fuels,
00:01:30while other countries keep moving forward with energy innovation – developing cleaner,
00:01:36cheaper, and more efficient energy.
00:01:40We are deliberately losing a competition.
00:01:44Trump is exalting an antiquated, polluting fossil fuel industry and degrading the lives
00:01:50of the American people.
00:01:53Administrator Zeldin gleefully declared, we are driving a dagger straight into the heart
00:01:57of the climate change religion.
00:02:01But the protections EPA threatens to roll back mostly relate to keeping air and water
00:02:06clean.
00:02:08In the wealthiest country in the world, does it make sense to increase uncertainty about
00:02:13whether water is safe to drink?
00:02:16Administrator Zeldin likely can't juice substantially more fossil fuel production,
00:02:21but slashing these protections will unleash tons more pollution – more pollution from
00:02:27oil and gas producers, power plants, manufacturers, cars and trucks – fewer protections for
00:02:34drinking water, wetlands, and streams.
00:02:38Coal-fired power plants will release more mercury into the air we breathe, settling
00:02:43into our water and our soil, and eventually finding its way into our food.
00:02:49We'll experience more bad air days, like we get in Rhode Island from upwind, out-of-state
00:02:56polluters, when the air is thick with soot and other pollutants triggering asthma attacks
00:03:03and respiratory disease.
00:03:05They threaten even to overturn the good neighbor rule that gives states the ability to push
00:03:12back when upwind states foul the air, as happens to us in Rhode Island.
00:03:20The ability to pollute another state with impunity deliberately is a core thing for
00:03:29EPA to stop, and yet they're caving in to the polluter states.
00:03:36And yes, these rollbacks do threaten to remove limits also on carbon pollution from power
00:03:41plants, oil and gas facilities, and vehicles, turbocharging the ongoing heating of our planet.
00:03:48So let's be clear.
00:03:50Climate change ain't religion – it's science.
00:03:54And well-understood, established, mature science at that.
00:03:59My Republican colleagues in this building all have home state universities that teach
00:04:05climate science.
00:04:07Mass gas emissions, science knows, from the production and combustion of fossil fuels
00:04:13are heating our planet, raising sea levels, increasing the severity and frequency of violent
00:04:18storms, worsening droughts, and causing more intense wildfires.
00:04:23Even the fossil fuel industry's own scientists understood the climate risks of unchecked
00:04:29fossil fuel emissions.
00:04:31Exxon's own climate scientists warned that the burning of fossil fuels was changing our
00:04:36planet's climate, and correctly modeled the effects of greenhouse gas emissions on
00:04:42global temperatures.
00:04:44When Zeldin testified in January before the Environment and Public Works Committee, he
00:04:48pledged to, and I'm quoting him here, work with the scientists and leave the science
00:04:53to the scientists.
00:04:56What happened to that Lee Zeldin?
00:04:58Where did he go?
00:04:59Because the Lee Zeldin of January has been replaced by a Lee Zeldin willing to ignore
00:05:05his own scientists and ignore the facts for the benefit of President Trump's big polluter
00:05:11donors.
00:05:13These fossil fuel industry favors will increase costs for American families.
00:05:19The fossil fuel industry spent almost $100 million that we know of to boost Trump in
00:05:24the last election, and hundreds of millions more on Congress.
00:05:30Trump famously asked industry executives for a billion dollars in exchange for delivering
00:05:35an industry wish list, and here's Zeldin producing that industry wish list.
00:05:42But for people who are not fossil fuel billionaires, the growing exposure to hazardous pollutants
00:05:47and the increase in carbon pollution will increase costs.
00:05:52Tonight, colleagues will talk in more detail about various protections that Zeldin threatens
00:05:58to end and the safety and health policies he is curdling.
00:06:03I'll discuss Zeldin's mischief with the social cost of carbon.
00:06:08What is the social cost of carbon?
00:06:10It's a measure of the costs of each additional ton of carbon pollution released.
00:06:19Increased mortality, for instance, from heat and storms, increased sickness from heat and
00:06:24air pollution, damage to agriculture and infrastructure from droughts and floods, even
00:06:31insurance collapse.
00:06:33The Biden EPA estimated the social cost of carbon at around $190 per ton, which is consistent
00:06:41with most knowledgeable estimates.
00:06:43And the Office of Management and Budget ordered that this number be used in cost-benefit analysis
00:06:48for regulations, as well as in a wider suite of government actions.
00:06:54This analysis is nothing more than common sense.
00:06:57If the government is considering taking a step that would increase carbon pollution,
00:07:02it should consider the costs of doing so.
00:07:04And if it's doing something that would decrease carbon pollution, it should understand and
00:07:09enjoy the economic benefits.
00:07:12Zeldin is proposing to have the government ignore the facts.
00:07:16He wants to ignore the science.
00:07:18He wants to ignore the economics.
00:07:21And he wants to utilize the social cost of carbon, whose value is deliberately and falsely
00:07:26set close to zero.
00:07:30If he succeeds, the federal government will no longer accurately assess the true costs
00:07:35and benefits of climate decisions.
00:07:39This isn't new math or even fuzzy math.
00:07:43This is fake math.
00:07:45Fake math to benefit Trump's oil and gas donors, who get to pretend, falsely, that
00:07:53the American people aren't picking up the tab for their industry's carbon pollution.
00:07:59The International Monetary Fund, which is not a green institution, pegs the costs the
00:08:06public bears from fossil fuel pollution at more than $700 billion every year in the United
00:08:14States alone.
00:08:16Last Congress, as chair of the Senate Budget Committee, I organized hearings on the economic
00:08:21and financial costs of climate change.
00:08:24We heard warnings from economists, scientists, medical professionals, insurance and investment
00:08:29executives, the new prime minister of Canada, a former prime minister of Australia, and
00:08:36even a former Republican Senate majority leader.
00:08:40Throughout the hearings, witnesses emphasized the systemic economic risks that climate
00:08:45change poses and warned that if we don't shift away from our dependence on fossil fuels,
00:08:51things will get much worse.
00:08:54Systemic was the word I emphasized in that last sentence.
00:08:59Systemic may sound like a bland academic term, but a systemic risk in economics is one which
00:09:08threatens to bring down the entire economy, much the way failures in the mortgage market
00:09:15led to the Great Recession of 2008.
00:09:19Zeldin's promised rollbacks will have real economic consequences for families.
00:09:24American families will bear increased health care costs.
00:09:28Even with an honorably functioning EPA, health care costs from fossil fuel air pollution
00:09:33and climate change are estimated to total nearly $820 billion in the U.S. each year.
00:09:42Doctors appointments, emergency room visits, rehab and home health support, and prescription
00:09:47drugs all strain the pocketbooks of American families.
00:09:51Lost work and school days and reduced labor productivity cost both families and the broader
00:09:57economy.
00:09:59Last year, the United States suffered a record-breaking 27 separate billion-dollar disasters, pushing
00:10:05up prices, damaging insurance markets, and burdening the families who were in harm's way.
00:10:13Economic losses from natural disasters reached more than $200 billion.
00:10:20Climate-related extreme weather, hurricanes, wildfires, and floods damaged property, damaged
00:10:27infrastructure, damaged agriculture, and damaged supply chains.
00:10:32These recurring disasters are disrupting insurance markets across the country.
00:10:38Turmoil in the insurance markets bleeds over into turmoil in mortgage and housing markets.
00:10:45If you can't get insurance on your house, the next buyer can't get a mortgage on your
00:10:50house.
00:10:52That reduces the pool of buyers and results in plunging property values.
00:10:57If your insurance premium quadruples, say from $2,000 a year to $8,000 a year, your
00:11:04home's value will fall, as the carrying costs associated with owning it have dramatically
00:11:11increased.
00:11:14Last year, the Budget Committee obtained county-level data for the entire country, showing the
00:11:22evolution of non-renewal rates for homeowners' insurance from 2018 to 2023.
00:11:30And what we showed is that non-renewal rates were rising, indeed skyrocketing, as insurers
00:11:37retreat from areas of the country battered by the storms and wildfires that climate change
00:11:43makes both more likely and more intense.
00:11:48While the usual suspects are Florida, California, and Louisiana, non-renewals are also skyrocketing
00:11:55across areas of southern New England, the Carolinas, Oklahoma, New Mexico, the Northern
00:12:01Rockies, and Hawaii.
00:12:03We found that non-renewals increased the most in the counties most exposed to climate risk.
00:12:09Not surprising.
00:12:11And also that where non-renewals were spiking, premiums were surging as well.
00:12:18Earlier this year, the non-profit First Street Foundation took a look at the data we had
00:12:25looked at in the Budget Committee and looked forward and made some prediction about what
00:12:30increasing premiums and declining availability of insurance will mean for property values.
00:12:38They looked out the 30-year period of a mortgage entered into today, and they found that property
00:12:45values will decrease, decrease in many counties by 20, 40, 60, or even 100 percent.
00:13:00Change in home value due to insurance costs, minus 100 percent.
00:13:05If you're in that category, and there are a few of them and more coming in the future,
00:13:11your home will lose all its value during the period of your mortgage.
00:13:15And you can bet the people selling you that mortgage are going to notice.
00:13:21Let's not forget that for most Americans, their largest asset is their home.
00:13:25Home ownership is how most families build wealth.
00:13:28So something that's going to systemically reduce home values is hurting Americans.
00:13:35In a future gripped by climate change, the home ownership path to economic security
00:13:40breaks.
00:13:41What Zeldin is proposing will accelerate that danger forward, bringing the inevitable day
00:13:47of reckoning closer.
00:13:49In Administrator Zeldin's home of Suffolk County, New York, for instance,
00:13:55from 2018 to 2023.
00:14:03And annual premiums have already increased by almost $800.
00:14:08And that's just a taste of what's to come.
00:14:11And by the way, it's not just me saying this.
00:14:14Fed Chair Jerome Powell warned the Senate Banking Committee that in 10 to 15 years,
00:14:19there will be entire coastal and wildfire exposed regions of the United States in which
00:14:27it will no longer be possible to get a mortgage.
00:14:31That's our future.
00:14:33When your insurance premium goes up by hundreds or by thousands of dollars, that is Republican
00:14:41climate denial in action.
00:14:45When your grocery bill goes up because orange juice, sugar, coffee, chocolate, olive oil
00:14:50are more expensive because of climate-related extreme weather, that's climateflation in
00:14:56action.
00:14:58Before I yield, I'll close with one last thought.
00:15:01We are where we are, entering the era of climate consequences because American politics failed
00:15:10to get this right.
00:15:12Our political system failed because the American political process became corrupted by the
00:15:19big money influence of the fossil fuel industry.
00:15:24Our politics got corrupted, and that is why we have so grievously failed at addressing
00:15:32climate change.
00:15:34We have senators here from states whose state universities teach climate science, pretending
00:15:40that climate science isn't real.
00:15:44Mr. President, history will look back at us with anger and disgust, justifiably.
00:15:51I yield the floor to my wonderful senior colleague from Rhode Island.
00:15:57Mr. President, I rise today to-
00:15:59The senator from Rhode Island.
00:16:01Thank you, Mr. President.
00:16:02I rise to join my colleague, Senator Whitehouse, the ranking member on the Environmental and
00:16:08Public Works Committee, and the foremost voice for sensible climate policies, someone
00:16:16who for years has warned us of the encroaching dangers of climate change, and today once
00:16:24again has demonstrated his great insights, particularly with respect to the cost of homeowners
00:16:31of climate change.
00:16:34He is raising the alarm about President Trump's environmental policy and the effect it will
00:16:40have on the health and well-being of Americans.
00:16:43I want to thank him for his leadership on this important issue.
00:16:48Earlier this month, EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin announced that his agency would move
00:16:54to repeal 31 environmental and health protections.
00:16:59This Trump environmental plan would undo restrictions on air pollution from power
00:17:04plants, cars, and trucks.
00:17:07It would allow harmful discharges into our water systems, relax restrictions on the emissions
00:17:13of mercury and other known neurotoxins, ease limits on soot and haze pollution, and the
00:17:20list goes on and on and on.
00:17:23These rollbacks appear to be a quid pro quo for President Trump's fossil fuel donors,
00:17:30whom we reportedly asked to donate a billion dollars to his campaign last year.
00:17:38One of Trump's most concerning proposals is the repeal of the EPA's longstanding scientific
00:17:45finding that greenhouse gases are pollutants.
00:17:50After losing in the Supreme Court in 2006, the fossil fuel industry has been out to overturn
00:17:57this so-called endangerment finding for nearly two decades.
00:18:04Repealing it would degrade the EPA's authority to regulate greenhouse gas emissions, meaning
00:18:10it could no longer act to curb emissions from vehicle exhausts, factories, power plants,
00:18:17and many, many more locations.
00:18:20Relaxing these standards would result in more pollutants in our air and in our water.
00:18:26And the fact is, these pollutants are not just numbers on a chart.
00:18:32They are the reason millions of Americans are suffering from asthma, heart disease,
00:18:38and other respiratory conditions.
00:18:41Several studies have shown that air pollution can negatively impact maternal health and
00:18:47lead to miscarriages and low birth weights.
00:18:50And these health impacts will particularly harm low-income communities, where the effects
00:18:56are disproportionately severe.
00:18:59Mr. Zeldin claims these actions will, quote, unleash American energy, but really they will
00:19:07just unleash more pollution on the American people.
00:19:12Mr. Zeldin claims that these actions will drive down costs for American families, but
00:19:17the evidence shows otherwise.
00:19:20Indeed, EPA previously found that for every $1 the country spends to reduce air pollution,
00:19:28it's estimated to yield $30 in economic benefits in return.
00:19:35These actions will worsen climate change and contribute to more flooding and coastal
00:19:41erosion, which has cost homes and businesses in my home state of Rhode Island millions
00:19:47of dollars in just the past few years.
00:19:51Mr. Zeldin claims that by rolling back these protections, he is simply giving power back
00:19:56to the states.
00:19:58But we know that pollution does not respect state lines.
00:20:04We are all in this together to protect our air, water, and human health.
00:20:10The Trump administration is taking us backward and hurting hardworking families in the process.
00:20:17I firmly oppose the Trump EPA's misguided plan and will continue to join Senator Whitehouse
00:20:24and my other colleagues in pushing back against this administrative's harmful agenda.
00:20:31And once again, let me salute Senator Whitehouse for his leadership on this critical, indeed
00:20:37this existential issue.
00:20:39And with that, I would yield the floor to Senator Welch.
00:20:49Senators from Rhode Island, I appreciate- Senator from Vermont.
00:20:51I'm sorry, thank you.
00:20:54Thank you, Mr. President.
00:20:56I want to thank my colleagues.
00:21:00You know, this issue of the environment is being completely, completely ignored.
00:21:07Worse than that, the problems we have in our environment are being intensified by what
00:21:14the Trump administration is doing.
00:21:16You know, the EPA mission is clear.
00:21:20It's about protecting human health and the environment.
00:21:24And EPA regulations are intended, in some cases, to prevent mercury- that's what I'm
00:21:30talking about- contaminating our drinking water.
00:21:34And they protect us, some of those regulations, from toxic gases, soot, and ash polluting
00:21:39out of air.
00:21:41They keep lead out of our drinking water and asbestos out of our homes.
00:21:46And they do help fight climate change and prevent premature deaths caused by pollution.
00:21:52Now there's a mantra in the Trump administration that regulations are bad, bad.
00:22:02There is not a single member of this Senate, and that includes every single Democrat, who
00:22:07is not willing to make the most efficient regulations we can have to do the job that
00:22:14needs to be done to protect the health and safety.
00:22:17If there are regulations that need to be looked at, they need to be revised, they need to
00:22:22be reformed, let's do it.
00:22:24But the idea that the federal government would turn a blind eye to active pollution that
00:22:33is produced because it results in profit to the polluters is something not a single member
00:22:41of this body should ever tolerate, ever, ever, ever.
00:22:46And what you're seeing from the administration is that the repeal of these regulations is
00:22:56not about improving them, it's about giving license to the polluters.
00:23:03And you know, Mr. President, shouldn't a polluter pay for the pollution that a polluter causes?
00:23:13Should large corporations have free reign to pollute our air and water, contaminating
00:23:19the environment, threatening the health and welfare of our kids?
00:23:27The Trump administration is trying to decimate an agency that has protected us and the environment
00:23:32since the 1970s.
00:23:34And let me just emphasize, it's not their intention to reform it or to improve it, it's
00:23:40to basically destroy it.
00:23:44That's why the president has fired the members of the EPA's Scientific Advisory Board and
00:23:51Clean Air Scientific Advisory Committee.
00:23:55Get rid of the scientist is the answer they present as a way of getting rid of pollution.
00:24:04Doesn't work that way.
00:24:07So as I said, I have absolutely not only no problem, but I'm completely, completely
00:24:15committed to doing anything I can to make regulations be practical and effective.
00:24:20I am absolutely and adamantly opposed to giving polluters a free reign to make profit at the
00:24:27expense of the health and welfare of the people that I represent and we all represent.
00:24:35Nowhere is what the Trump administration more clear than their attempt to rescind the
00:24:42endangerment finding, which affirms that greenhouse gases pose a threat to the health and welfare
00:24:48of the American people.
00:24:51That was a finding based on science.
00:24:54You know, it's one thing you don't like the finding.
00:24:57It's another thing to deny that the finding has a solid basis, in fact, in science.
00:25:05You can pretend climate change doesn't exist.
00:25:08You can pretend dirty air doesn't exist.
00:25:10You can pretend dangerous water doesn't exist.
00:25:15You won't be able to breathe it or drink it for too long without finding out that you're
00:25:20wrong.
00:25:22But when you're the president and you have a responsibility to the health and welfare
00:25:28of the American people, that's not a luxury you're entitled to take.
00:25:33You know, firing the EPA scientist on the SAB and on the SAC, that won't change the
00:25:44facts.
00:25:45You can fire the scientist, but you can't change the facts.
00:25:51But it's the preference of the administration to want to blatantly ignore those facts so
00:25:56they can follow through on the president's campaign and promise and make it easier for
00:26:00the polluters to pollute.
00:26:04Mr. President, I oppose and oppose firmly the Trump administration's attempts to weaken
00:26:10the EPA.
00:26:13I will always support making it more efficient, more effective, but the mission that the EPA
00:26:20has, an organization started during the Nixon administration, is to protect the health and
00:26:27welfare of the American people, and we can never step back from our commitment to do
00:26:32that.
00:26:33Mr. President, I yield back.
00:26:43Mr. President.
00:26:44The senator from Massachusetts.
00:26:49Thank you, Mr. President.
00:26:50Mr. President, before I begin my remarks, I want to take a few minutes to thank Bob
00:26:55Nelson, the Small Business Administration District Director from Massachusetts, upon
00:27:01his retirement on Monday after 30 years of federal service.
00:27:06Bob is a paragon of public service, commuting each day more than 100 miles from Connecticut
00:27:13to Boston to serve Massachusetts small businesses.
00:27:17For 26 years, Bob has helped small businesses recover from everything from the economic
00:27:23downturn after 9-11 to the Great Recession of 2008 to the COVID-19 pandemic.
00:27:31Bob is known for giving small business owners his direct cell phone number so that they
00:27:37never have to go through a moment of uncertainty.
00:27:41His career is a testament to the impact that steady and passionate public service can have
00:27:47on everyday people and local economies.
00:27:51Everyone who has worked with Bob respects him, and that goes for me, my staff, and all
00:27:58of the SBA employees that he has worked with over all of the years, and the thousands of
00:28:06small businesses who he has helped during those years.
00:28:11Bob Nelson is a small business champion, and because of him, countless business entrepreneurs
00:28:17and communities are strengthening our nation, creating jobs, and making our economy the
00:28:22envy of the world.
00:28:24So thank you, Bob.
00:28:26Thank you, Bob, for everything that you have done, for bringing a public servant's heart
00:28:30to your work, and for your many years of service making the Massachusetts Small Business Administration
00:28:37District Office the best in the nation.
00:28:41So Mr. President, over the last two months, the Trump administration has made one thing
00:28:48painfully clear.
00:28:51They do not have an all-of-the-above energy strategy.
00:28:57They have an oil-above-all energy strategy.
00:29:03Oil above the law, above the economy, above the health and wellness of working families
00:29:11in our nation.
00:29:13Gas prices are up.
00:29:16Electricity bills are up.
00:29:19Home heating costs are up.
00:29:23Yet instead of investing in working families, Donald Trump is launching a full-scale assault
00:29:32on the very programs designed to bring costs down and create jobs, all while spewing baseless
00:29:45lies that begin in the White House and then spread across his entire administration, but
00:29:55especially focused on his energy policy.
00:30:01Back to the Department of Energy, staff have been ordered to draw up a hit list of clean
00:30:07energy programs, programs Congress already funded, programs workers are counting on.
00:30:16These are not hypothetical investments.
00:30:18These are real dollars that could unleash real jobs and real benefits for communities
00:30:25across the country.
00:30:27And now they're being sacrificed to serve a political agenda that rewards polluters
00:30:34and punishes the public.
00:30:37Nowhere was this agenda more proudly displayed than at this week's CERA week, or as I like
00:30:47to call it, the Olympics of Oil, where Energy Secretary Chris Wright gave a speech that
00:30:54would make big oil blush, although it's more likely that they just turned with a flush
00:31:05because of the incredible way in which they were treated.
00:31:13Big oil had a big treat coming from the speech by Energy Secretary Chris Wright.
00:31:20So let's take a moment to fact check Secretary of Energy Chris Wright's big oil sponsored
00:31:28big lies at CERA week in Houston.
00:31:33Chris Wright said, quote, this is his quote, the previous administration's policy was focused
00:31:39myopically on climate change, with people as simply collateral damage, false.
00:31:49Chris Wright is wrong.
00:31:52When Democrats controlled the White House and Congress, we invested in solutions that
00:31:58centered smart communities and a livable future.
00:32:03Since the Inflation Reduction Act was passed in 2022, the clean energy boom has created
00:32:09more than 400,000 new jobs and spurred $420 billion in investments, most of it in red
00:32:21districts.
00:32:2270 to 80 percent of the funding is in red districts.
00:32:29That's a people powered economy.
00:32:33That's an all of the above strategy.
00:32:36Everyone is included.
00:32:38So if we're talking myopic, look no further than Trump.
00:32:44It is the pot calling the kettle black.
00:32:48Trump has been exclusively focused on tax breaks for the rich with extensive collateral
00:32:54damage.
00:32:55New reporting shows that more than 50,000 energy jobs have been lost or stalled since
00:33:02Trump was elected.
00:33:05And that over $56 billion in U.S. clean energy investments were canceled or stalled in that
00:33:13same time.
00:33:15If he continues down this road and guts the IRA, he will be driving an estimated 790,000
00:33:24jobs off a cliff while wiping $160 billion from our economy by 2030 and raising household
00:33:33energy costs by $32 billion over the next decade.
00:33:39In other words, President Trump and his energy policy are engaging in economic sabotage.
00:33:46So let's continue fact-checking Secretary Wright.
00:33:50Secretary Wright also said in that speech, quote, wind and solar supply roughly 3 percent
00:33:58of global primary energy.
00:34:00The truth, renewables powered 30 percent of the world's electricity in 2023.
00:34:10Got it?
00:34:11Not 3 percent, 30 percent of the world's electricity in 2023.
00:34:17And in the first nine months of 2024, 96 percent of all new electrical generation capacity
00:34:25installed in the United States was renewable.
00:34:28Wind, solar, battery.
00:34:3196 percent of all new electrical generation capacity installed, with the majority actually
00:34:38coming from solar.
00:34:41It's the fastest growing, cheapest energy out there.
00:34:45Big oil isn't just losing its monopoly.
00:34:48It simply cannot compete.
00:34:51The natural gas industry, they're petrified.
00:34:54Can you imagine if you're saying, well, we're the only way in the future in which you can
00:34:59have predictable electricity which is generated, natural gas is the answer, when in 2024, 96
00:35:08percent of all new electrical generating capacity was wind and solar and battery storage technology?
00:35:14If you do that for 10 years in a row, the natural gas industry is facing an existential
00:35:21moment.
00:35:23That's what they're afraid of.
00:35:25They're afraid of competition.
00:35:26They're afraid of alternative energy sources.
00:35:29Oil, gas and coal, they got a tax break for 100 years from the federal government and
00:35:35they were able to squash all of the competition over all of those years.
00:35:41But when finally we level the playing field and the alternatives show up that are non-polluting,
00:35:49that don't have any greenhouse gases to go up into the planet, that don't warm the planet,
00:35:54all of a sudden we're hearing the secretary of energy in the Trump administration lying
00:36:00about that because they have to lie.
00:36:03Otherwise they would have to explain why they're planning on killing hundreds of thousands
00:36:09of new jobs in these industries which are absolutely bursting at the seams.
00:36:17But wait, there's more.
00:36:18Here's what else Secretary Wright said at the Sarah conference down in Texas.
00:36:23He said, the last administration recklessly pursued policies that were certain to drive
00:36:30up electricity prices.
00:36:32Once again, false, false.
00:36:36The fact, however, is that onshore wind is the cheapest source of new electricity in
00:36:43America.
00:36:45It has been for nearly a decade.
00:36:47It beats fossil fuels even without subsidies and costs half as much as new natural gas
00:36:55on average.
00:36:57Again, existential threat to the natural gas industry, onshore wind beats it in the marketplace
00:37:05every day for ten years in a row.
00:37:08So what's Secretary Wright saying?
00:37:11He's saying he's going to lead the effort to kill it and to kill solar, to kill all
00:37:16of it.
00:37:17And building new solar, well, it's cheaper than running existing coal or building new
00:37:22gas projects in the United States.
00:37:26Solar's winning in the marketplace and it's frightening to the natural gas industry.
00:37:31Just absolutely frightening.
00:37:34It's fossil fuel volatility that has hammered families at the pump and on their power bills
00:37:39with fossil fuel exports going to the highest bidder abroad.
00:37:45In my home state of Massachusetts, many gas bills are double what they were last year.
00:37:52That's unacceptable.
00:37:54Let's keep going with the fact checks.
00:37:57In a pathetic attempt to justify the benefits of deadly pollution, Secretary of Energy Wright
00:38:04said, quote, we've raised atmospheric CO2 by 50 percent in the process of doubling human
00:38:13life expectancy.
00:38:15Then he said, quote, everything in life involves tradeoffs.
00:38:18Well, let me be clear.
00:38:21In the United States, climate fuel disasters already kill more than 1,300 people every
00:38:28year.
00:38:29More CO2 doesn't mean more life.
00:38:31It means more floods, more fires, suffering, deaths, $300 billion worth of damage between
00:38:41Hurricane Helene and Hurricane Milton last fall, $150 billion worth of damage in Los
00:38:51Angeles from climate-driven storms.
00:38:55By the way, only $50 billion of it covered by insurance.
00:38:59Catastrophic for all those communities.
00:39:02So let's talk about the real tradeoffs.
00:39:06Clean air traded for asthma.
00:39:09Safe homes traded for billion-dollar climate disasters.
00:39:13Lower bills traded for big oil windfall profits.
00:39:17This administration has made its tradeoff clear, your future for their profit.
00:39:23That's Trump's art of the deal.
00:39:27And what a great deal for the oil, gas, and coal industry.
00:39:31All they have to do is raise money for Donald Trump, and in return, they kill the competitors
00:39:38which are killing the oil, gas, and coal industry in the market.
00:39:44Adam Smith is spinning in his grave so fast that he would actually qualify for a tax break
00:39:52under the IRA.
00:39:55That's how much they're lying about the marketplace and how it is responding to finally the incentives
00:40:03that are there to compete against oil, gas, and coal.
00:40:09Which brings us to the Environmental Protection Agency.
00:40:12Because what's a fossil-fueled agenda without a full-on assault on the very agency tasked
00:40:18with protecting our air and our water and our climate?
00:40:22Two weeks ago, EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin announced that he is taking more than 30 actions
00:40:31to unravel our bedrock environmental safeguards in a nauseating attempt to shock and awe us
00:40:38into submission.
00:40:40These are the regulations that keep our air breathable, our water drinkable.
00:40:46These are the standards that keep us healthy instead of sick.
00:40:51And all so that their big oil BFFs can make a few more big bucks, while the rest of us
00:41:00will foot the bill with our health conditions that will be created by these fossil fuels,
00:41:07these pollutants going up into the atmosphere.
00:41:11These rollbacks are not a revolution for American progress in energy.
00:41:16They are a return to the same tired fossil-fuel program of the past.
00:41:21For starters, they are attempting to eliminate EPA's authority to regulate dangerous greenhouse
00:41:26gases based on the threat they pose to public health or welfare, known as the endangerment
00:41:32finding.
00:41:33This finding came from a Supreme Court ruling in my very own home state that brought the
00:41:41case to the Supreme Court, Massachusetts v. EPA in 2007, which said something we all know.
00:41:50Greenhouse gases pose an actual and imminent threat to people everywhere.
00:41:54And it doesn't stop there.
00:41:56They're hoping to roll back quality standards for particulate matter pollution that are
00:42:01projected to avoid 4,500 premature deaths and 800,000 cases of asthma over just six
00:42:09years.
00:42:10That's all going to get wiped out if they have their way.
00:42:13But we're going to fight them, by the way.
00:42:15We're going to fight them every single step of the way on this dangerous health endangering
00:42:22strategy which they are seeking to put on the books.
00:42:26They're aiming to gut wastewater regulations so cold plants can contaminate the water we
00:42:31drink from and swim in.
00:42:33They're trying to pump the brakes on clean car and truck regulations that reduce harmful
00:42:37air pollutants and save families money at the pump.
00:42:41The list goes on and on.
00:42:43They are dismantling the federal government before our very eyes.
00:42:47This isn't about efficiency.
00:42:49This is about sacrificing the health of our communities for the health of their pocketbooks.
00:42:55Just like Energy Secretary Chris Wright's speech, we know it's a lie.
00:43:00They aren't making America great again.
00:43:03They're selling America to the highest bidder, to the oil and gas and coal industry.
00:43:10That's what they're doing.
00:43:11They're just selling us out.
00:43:14We must continue to speak up for the truth and continue to fight.
00:43:18The natural gas industry, they're threatened by a wind and solar and battery revolution
00:43:25that will generate the electricity which we need in our country.
00:43:28Natural gas doesn't like it.
00:43:29They want it killed.
00:43:30The oil industry, we put 70% of all the oil we consume into gasoline tanks.
00:43:36They don't want to see the all-electric vehicle revolution continue to grow exponentially.
00:43:42They're going to try to kill that, too, so that we do not have that reduction in the
00:43:48amount of oil that we put into cars that we drive around our country that spew that pollution
00:43:54up into the sky.
00:43:55The oil and gas industry, they go to the White House.
00:43:58They go to Donald Trump.
00:44:00They go to Mar-a-Lago in order to get the protection they need against competition,
00:44:07the protection they need against clean energy, the protection that they need against the
00:44:13creation of a million new clean energy jobs in our country.
00:44:17That should be our future, and it's what young people want more than anything else.
00:44:22They want that revolution.
00:44:23They're the Green New Deal revolution.
00:44:26That's what they want.
00:44:27They want to see it happen, and because it is happening, oil and gas are having, unfortunately.
00:44:34This White House, Secretary of Energy Christopher Wright, his entire cabinet, EPA Administrator
00:44:41Lee Zeldin, all of them just dismantled all of the protections which have been put on
00:44:46the books over a generation.
00:44:48This is an historic moment, and all we can say to you, oil, gas, and coal, all we can
00:44:54say to you, Trump White House, is we're going to fight.
00:44:58We're not going away.
00:45:00There's a young generation out there that's rising up, and they're not happy with what
00:45:06is happening in this White House.
00:45:08They do not want to see their future sold for campaign contribution from polluters in
00:45:13our country, so we're ready to fight, and we're going to align ourselves with the young
00:45:17people in our country that want a different future, a better future, a clean future, and
00:45:24that's what we're going to get because we will not lose, and I can't thank Senator White
00:45:29House enough for being our leader on the Environment and Public Works Committee and
00:45:34for bringing us out here this evening to have this incredibly important historic discussion
00:45:40about the direction of our nation.
00:45:44Can the distinguished senator from Massachusetts yield for a question?
00:45:48I would love to have a conversation with the senator from Rhode Island.
00:45:53Well, Mike, you referenced the value to the fossil fuel industry of being able to run
00:46:01to Congress or run to the White House and throw money around, and as a result of that
00:46:08expenditure on politicians, earn the right to pollute for free and get enormous competitive
00:46:20advantage against clean energy.
00:46:27The industry clearly spends a lot of money.
00:46:31We know they spent $100 million getting Trump elected.
00:46:35He asked them for a billion dollars, which could have come through dark money, in order
00:46:40to deliver on this subsidy program they want.
00:46:47How lucrative do you think the fossil fuel political operation is?
00:46:55I think it's the most well-financed lobbying effort in Washington, D.C.
00:47:02I think they have had an ownership of this building for 100 years, and they're afraid
00:47:09it's about to slip away.
00:47:11Would the gentleman from Rhode Island agree with me?
00:47:13I would not be surprised, actually, if the political lobbying and dark money influence
00:47:20operation of the fossil fuel industry was not actually its most lucrative line of business,
00:47:28because for a billion dollars or $6 billion or $7 billion spent manipulating our politics,
00:47:36they protect a $700 billion annual subsidy, according to the International Monetary Fund.
00:47:42That's a $100 return every year for every $1 invested.
00:47:48They don't make that much off their tar sands.
00:47:51They don't make that much off their oil wells.
00:47:53They don't make that much off their methane leaks.
00:47:57You know, the senator from Rhode Island is wise and precise in his analysis of the agenda
00:48:07of these companies.
00:48:08So the senator from Rhode Island and I have, for 12 years, led the effort, along with the
00:48:14senator from Connecticut, to have offshore wind all along the Atlantic coast.
00:48:21And the Biden administration put in place a plan to deploy 30,000 megawatts of offshore
00:48:29wind.
00:48:31And what Donald Trump, with Chris Wright, the Secretary of Energy, with the Secretary
00:48:35of Interior, are now planning is to kill that entire revolution, capturing the wind
00:48:44that blew the pilgrims to our shores, capturing the wind that had the whaling crews go out
00:48:51in order to fuel the energy of the 19th century.
00:48:56But when it wants to be used for the energy of the 21st century, the oil and gas and coal
00:49:00industries say, absolutely not.
00:49:03We can't allow that to happen.
00:49:05And why can't they allow it to happen?
00:49:07Because it will replace natural gas-generated electricity that pollutes.
00:49:12And it would just transform the way in which electricity powers our businesses, powers
00:49:18our homes all across the East Coast of the United States.
00:49:22And we could wave goodbye to that natural gas, fossil-fueled, polluting future for the
00:49:2921st century.
00:49:30So what is Donald Trump doing after receiving tens and tens of millions of dollars in contribution
00:49:38from the natural gas industry, led by Harold Hamm, who promised Trump, the number one natural
00:49:44gas guy in America, that he would raise the money for him in the campaign?
00:49:47Well, the payoff, the payback, is kill offshore wind.
00:49:53So they say all of the above.
00:49:54Nah, they don't mean all of the above.
00:49:57Chris Wright, the Secretary of Energy, says people really don't like wind.
00:50:01So we have to make an exception, because people don't like wind.
00:50:03You know who doesn't like wind?
00:50:05The natural gas industry.
00:50:06They hate wind, OK?
00:50:08They hate it because it's the competition, because it's working, because it's cheaper,
00:50:12and because it's also cleaner, in the same way that the oil industry hates the all-electric
00:50:19vehicle revolution, because it kills oil as a business, as we move to a renewable way
00:50:26of generating electricity that then powers the vehicles which revive in America.
00:50:31So the gentleman, the chairman of the Environment and Public Works Committee, as usual, has just
00:50:38put his finger right on the problem.
00:50:42And it is the money that is sloshing through the Mar-a-Lago and Washington, D.C. White
00:50:50Houses.
00:50:51It's an absolute disgrace.
00:50:52And I can't thank him enough for bringing this out to the floor for a full exposition
00:50:57to the American people.
00:50:58And we welcome our colleague from Connecticut to join the festivities here on the Senate
00:51:02floor.
00:51:03All three states, downwind states, from the pollution of the Midwest, of Pennsylvania,
00:51:10West Virginia, Ohio, nothing we can do about it other than breathe in the waste that they
00:51:15don't clean up.
00:51:16Senator Blumenthal.
00:51:17Now, what does that mean by downwind, just so people can understand it?
00:51:21What do you mean by that?
00:51:22Well, it means that the prevailing winds that blow over West Virginia, that blow over Pennsylvania,
00:51:26that blow over Ohio, blow over their smokestacks that have been deliberately built high into
00:51:33the air so that the pollution coming out of the smokestack gets caught up in those prevailing
00:51:39winds and ends up falling down in the form of ozone and particulate matter in Massachusetts,
00:51:46in Connecticut, and in Rhode Island.
00:51:49And the Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management and the Massachusetts Department
00:51:53of Environmental Quality and the Connecticut Department of Environmental Protection can
00:51:57do nothing about it because those states have chosen to put it up into the sky above them
00:52:03so that it lands on us.
00:52:04And it blows into the lungs of the people in Connecticut, Massachusetts, and Rhode Island.
00:52:11I yield to the gentleman from Connecticut.
00:52:13The perfect segue to my remarks, if I may be recognized, Mr. President.
00:52:18Connecticut.
00:52:19Thank you, Mr. President.
00:52:24The perfect segue to my remarks, because downwind means we are the recipient of their air and
00:52:34their pollution, which are the small particulates.
00:52:39They are often the size of literally a quarter of the head of a pin.
00:52:48And the reason they are so dangerous is that they are inhaled to the very deepest parts
00:52:53of our lungs where they do the most damage.
00:52:57And so I am grateful to be talking about the good neighbor rule.
00:53:02That is actually the purpose of my coming to the floor, to talk about the rule that
00:53:09applies to those power plants and states that are supposed to be good neighbors.
00:53:17And according to this rule, they would be good neighbors.
00:53:20But the EPA is rolling it back, withdrawing it.
00:53:27And so I'm grateful to be here with two champions.
00:53:31My great friend and neighbor, the senator from Rhode Island, Senator Whitehouse, who
00:53:38has made this battle a constant struggle, from his seat on the floor, in meetings, in
00:53:47town halls, in forums literally around the world.
00:53:53And my neighbor from Massachusetts, the author of the Green New Deal, which I was proud to
00:53:58join in its first day, and still represents a milestone in environmental advocacy.
00:54:09And we're here today to advocate, joyous even though saddened by the need to be here, joyous
00:54:19to be amongst this band of brothers and sisters who are going to stand strong and steadfast
00:54:28against the Trump administration's sellout.
00:54:33You heard it from Senators Whitehouse and Markey.
00:54:38These rollbacks are a gift.
00:54:41They are literally a payback to the lobby, the anti-environment lobby, the fuel and oil
00:54:54and gas lobby that has so infiltrated and permeated our government, including now the
00:55:04Environmental Protection Agency.
00:55:05And so let me begin by highlighting for people who care.
00:55:12And that should be everyone.
00:55:15It really should be everyone who has children, who will inherit the mess we are creating.
00:55:23It should be everyone who cares about the planet and what we are leaving for others,
00:55:31our stewardship of the environment.
00:55:35The EPA is becoming a shell.
00:55:40Literally 65% of its workforce has been fired.
00:55:4665% are planned to go.
00:55:50There's no way that the EPA as a law enforcement agency can function with the remaining 35%
00:55:58of its staff.
00:56:00But perhaps most egregiously, the administrator of the EPA announced just two weeks ago that
00:56:11he was targeting 31 climate and health protections to roll back.
00:56:16He called it the largest deregulatory announcement in United States history.
00:56:23He said it was the most momentous day in the history of the EPA.
00:56:28In my view, it is a day that will live in environmental infamy.
00:56:33It marks a step back by decades.
00:56:40And for people who think, well, we need some disruptors, like Elon Musk, who is behind
00:56:47these steps to decimate the agency, disruption can sometimes be constructive, but not when
00:56:55you burn down the house, burn down an agency, burn down a framework of laws that have been
00:57:05carefully built and reflect not only an intellectual commitment, but also a deliberately constructed
00:57:21way to balance the needs of environment and energy and other interests that serve the
00:57:29public.
00:57:31This administration is destroying that balance.
00:57:34It's easy to destroy things.
00:57:36It's easy to burn down a house.
00:57:38Much harder to construct it.
00:57:41And this administration is blatantly and malignly and cruelly destructive, firing 65% of a workforce
00:57:50that has dedicated itself to caring about the environment and acting on our statutes
00:57:58to protect the environment.
00:58:00So let's just call it what it is.
00:58:04Elon Musk, Donald Trump are using Lee Zeldin, I'm tempted to say he's their puppet, certainly
00:58:14he's their instrument, to take a wrecking ball to environmental protections that have
00:58:19safeguarded Americans from toxic air and water pollution for decades.
00:58:26And so far from ensuring clean land, water, and air for all, Elon Musk, EPA, is giving
00:58:36Donald Trump's big polluters a carte blanche to trash the planet.
00:58:44No exaggeration, really.
00:58:46I mean, come right down to it.
00:58:48Let's call it for what it is.
00:58:50The administration is running roughshod over our federal environmental protection laws
00:58:56writ large.
00:58:57I'm going to focus today, as I mentioned just moments ago, on one of the rules that EPA
00:59:02is rolling back, the Good Neighbor Plan.
00:59:06And it's appropriately called the Good Neighbor Plan because it is a landmark environmental
00:59:15protection law that literally safeguards Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island,
00:59:25Pennsylvania, New York, other states of New England against the pollution generated in
00:59:34Ohio and other Midwestern states.
00:59:37It is brought by the prevailing winds.
00:59:41The polluters didn't create those prevailing winds.
00:59:45But nonetheless, the pollution is carried on them toward the East Coast.
00:59:53Funny thing about those little pieces of soot created in fuel-burning power plants, they
01:00:01have no respect for state boundaries, none.
01:00:06I don't know why.
01:00:07You know, we have in Connecticut, as Rhode Island and Massachusetts do, strong laws that
01:00:15protect our air and water.
01:00:18And those pieces of soot, the nitrogen, the other pollutants have no respect for our boundaries.
01:00:27The Clean Air Act, through its Good Neighbor provision, empowers the EPA to step in when
01:00:34states' emissions are significantly contributing to the air quality problems of another state.
01:00:41In 2023, the EPA released its final Good Neighbor Plan that would ensure 23 states meet the
01:00:50Clean Air Act's Good Neighbor requirements by reducing pollution that significantly impacts
01:00:57downwind states like Connecticut, Massachusetts, and Rhode Island.
01:01:04Connecticut has some of the worst air quality in the country, let's be honest here, largely
01:01:11due to pollution traveling from power plants in the Midwestern states.
01:01:17Data shows that anywhere from 90 to 95 percent of air pollution impact in Connecticut on
01:01:24high ozone days originates from outside our state, and it's causing serious harm to Connecticut
01:01:33and our residents.
01:01:35Last year, Connecticut exceeded the federal health standards for ozone on 23 different
01:01:42days.
01:01:44That's almost a month out of the year.
01:01:46Three of Connecticut's cities, Hartford, New Haven, and Bridgeport, ranked within the top
01:01:50100 most challenging cities to live with asthma last year.
01:01:59That's according to the Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America's annual report.
01:02:05One of the top 100 most challenging cities in which to live with asthma is a pretty lamentable
01:02:17distinction.
01:02:19These consequences are cumulative.
01:02:23They mean more hospital visits, more health care costs, more missed school and work days,
01:02:32and ultimately more serious illnesses, more premature deaths.
01:02:40They're the equivalent of imposing secondhand smoke on children or people with asthma or
01:02:49other kinds of respiratory problems.
01:02:53Zeldin, Musk, Trump's rollback was touted as lowering the cost of living for Americans.
01:03:04Lowering the cost of living, it's going to do just the opposite.
01:03:08Not only is protecting the environment the right thing to do for our planet, it also
01:03:13benefits America economically.
01:03:15EPA projected in 2026, the first year of the Good Neighbor Plan was set to be implemented.
01:03:23Americans would see significant health benefits because of this rule, including preventing
01:03:28approximately 1,300 premature deaths, avoiding more than 2,300 hospital and emergency room
01:03:35visits, cutting asthma symptoms by 1.3 million cases, avoiding 430,000 school absent days
01:03:44and 25,000 lost work days.
01:03:48One estimate found that this Good Neighbor Plan would provide over $16.2 billion in net
01:03:56monetary benefits.
01:03:58When you count the hospital visits, the lost work days, the school days, the doctors' treatment,
01:04:07all of it adding to $16.2 billion.
01:04:10That's no bargain for the United States of America.
01:04:14What you may save on day one, you pay in multiples on day five or ten throughout the
01:04:25year.
01:04:27Only the federal government is empowered to protect the people of the United States who
01:04:34live downwind from these power plants.
01:04:39Connecticut cannot do it, nor can Massachusetts, nor Rhode Island on their own.
01:04:48It is legally and physically impossible.
01:04:54But protection is impossible if Musk and Trump, through Lee Zeldin, roll back this rule.
01:05:07And let's be, again, honest what's happening here.
01:05:10This Good Neighbor Plan rollback is part of a larger pattern and practice to undermine
01:05:18and undercut and eventually eviscerate environmental protection.
01:05:21It's the reason they're firing 65% of the EPA's workforce.
01:05:25It's the reason why they are slashing and trashing other agencies that are vital to
01:05:31environmental protection.
01:05:33It comes as Trump's EPA has moved to cancel hundreds of grants for climate projects across
01:05:42the country for every action they take to chip away at our bedrock environmental protection.
01:05:51The world is less healthy, and our planet is more endangered.
01:05:59I urge my colleagues to stand in strong opposition to the Musk-Trump-Zeldin shameless attack
01:06:09on the Environmental Protection Agency and on our environment.
01:06:15I yield the floor.
01:06:18Thank you, Mr. President.
01:06:27From Connecticut yields?
01:06:29Absolutely.
01:06:30No, thank you.
01:06:31So what I'd like to talk about a little bit, if I could, with you and Senator Whitehouse,
01:06:39is this pollution agenda that they have for us in New England, but they have writ large
01:06:47for the whole country as well.
01:06:50So let's just take solar energy.
01:06:53In 2009, the total amount of solar ever deployed in the United States was 2,000 megawatts.
01:07:01That was it.
01:07:04In 2024, 40,000 megawatts was deployed.
01:07:11And it's scaring the natural gas industry, because combined with battery storage, it's
01:07:18just saying that New England doesn't have to import any more natural gas, any more pollution.
01:07:25And slowly but surely, in other parts of the country, they too will deploy wind and solar
01:07:33with batteries and reduce the amount of pollution that is sent up into the atmosphere that blows
01:07:38our way on the East Coast from the Midwest.
01:07:44And it actually is more economical for us.
01:07:48It's actually a job creator for us, because the jobs are actually in New England, not
01:07:52in other states.
01:07:54We're doing it for ourselves offshore, on the roofs of people's homes, out along the
01:08:01highways as we deploy these renewable energy resources.
01:08:06And it is absolutely frightening to them.
01:08:09In the same way, I'll add this number too.
01:08:11In 2009, there were a grand total of 2,000 total all-electric vehicles in the United States.
01:08:19That was all we had from Henry Ford to 2009, 2,000 all-electric vehicles.
01:08:26And why?
01:08:27Well, because the auto industry said, we can't figure it out.
01:08:30It's just too hard.
01:08:32And then we put the incentives in place.
01:08:33The battery technologies were given incentives.
01:08:37There were incentives to buy all-electric vehicles.
01:08:40And last year, there were about a million and a half all-electric vehicles and plug-in
01:08:44hybrids sold in America, not 2,000 total just 15 years ago.
01:08:49So the direction is absolutely vertical.
01:08:52It is just taking off exponentially.
01:08:56And again, with it goes a reduction in greenhouse gases, especially as each year goes by and
01:09:02more and more of those technologies are deployed.
01:09:05So I think that what Senator Whitehouse has done on the floor over and over again, just
01:09:12bringing out the fundamental corruption of how policies are made in the energy and environment
01:09:19sector, just becomes more and more true as we're only eight weeks into the Trump administration.
01:09:26But we can see that almost like an Old Testament prophet that Sheldon Whitehouse has been
01:09:35shining a light on this corruption.
01:09:38And now it has all come to pass.
01:09:41So I can't thank the senator from Connecticut for his great leadership on these issues.
01:09:49We kind of consider ourselves to be innovation states.
01:09:51We're going to figure this out.
01:09:54And as we've figured it out, it is absolutely frightening to those states that have been
01:09:59producing energy for generations and good for them and good for their citizens.
01:10:05But if we figure it out as well, we should not be stopped any more than they.
01:10:10We stopped them in the 20th century.
01:10:14We should be allowed to innovate in the 21st century.
01:10:17But they are trying to put in place the policies purchased from the Trump administration that
01:10:22block us from those solutions, which work not just for ourselves, but like many other
01:10:28things invented in New England over the years.
01:10:31We can export them around the world.
01:10:34We can be the world leader in the development of and then export of all these technologies.
01:10:40And so again, I can't thank you enough, Senator Whitehouse, for your great leadership on this
01:10:43on the floor.
01:10:44Well, I'm delighted to be joined by all of you.
01:10:46I'd make an observation of my own.
01:10:49I think Senator Blumenthal wants to join in, but the observation that I would make is that
01:10:53our three states are known for great universities, Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut,
01:11:00Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island.
01:11:06And they all teach climate science, and they all teach economics as well.
01:11:13But it's not just those three universities.
01:11:16If you go across the aisle and check in with our Republican colleagues with their Republican
01:11:21home states, they have great universities in their home states, including state universities.
01:11:28And their state universities in their home states teach the very climate science that
01:11:35Republican senators deny on the Senate floor.
01:11:40I've been through the syllabuses of home state universities for Republican colleagues and
01:11:48gone through the classes that teach climate science, and they teach economics.
01:11:59And you can go to Milton Friedman, the famous free market conservative economist, and what
01:12:05does he say about pollution?
01:12:08He says the cost of the pollution has to be in the price of the product, or else it's
01:12:14a big, fat subsidy.
01:12:17And it's not market economics any longer.
01:12:20It's a government subsidy.
01:12:21It's corporate welfare.
01:12:24And that's what we see in this dispute.
01:12:27The climate science is real.
01:12:28Their own state universities teach it.
01:12:31And the economics is real.
01:12:34Their own state universities teach Milton Friedman.
01:12:39What they're doing in this building, contrary to what their universities know, is to fight
01:12:46with political power to keep polluting and have the public bear all the costs of their
01:12:52pollution.
01:12:53Have the public bear all the costs of their pollution.
01:12:56Not be a real market economy in which the price of the pollution as a negative externality
01:13:01gets baked into the price of the product, but pollute for free.
01:13:07This is a huge pollute-for-free scam running to about $700 billion every year.
01:13:16So no wonder it's taken a while for wind and solar to take off, fighting the headwinds
01:13:21of a multi-hundred-billion-dollar subsidy from an industry that gets to pollute for
01:13:27free.
01:13:28And who bears all those costs?
01:13:30How are your fishermen doing in Long Island Sound as that water has warmed?
01:13:37Or mine?
01:13:38Or yours?
01:13:39And that's just one example.
01:13:41If the senator from Rhode Island would yield, I would just add a footnote to that important
01:13:48conversation, which is they teach economics, and they teach that those externalities are,
01:13:58in effect, a subsidy if they aren't charged to the consumer and made transparent.
01:14:03But they can also distort the markets.
01:14:07And those subsidies cause consumers to buy cars that are more polluting or to use fuel
01:14:16that is more contaminating to our environment.
01:14:19They also avoid the benefits, the public interest benefits, of cleaner fuel and better cars.
01:14:29And just to give you an illustration, for many years, Senator Markey and I crusaded
01:14:36for safer cars, cars that were better built, cars that had seatbelts, cars that had airbags.
01:14:44The industry resisted, almost comically now in retrospect, because once they started installing
01:14:53these devices, once they made cars safer, you know what they found?
01:14:58Consumers wanted safer cars.
01:15:01They also wanted cars that were more energy-efficient.
01:15:05Lo and behold, when they saw the benefits of these kinds of energy-saving and environmentally
01:15:17friendly measures, consumers voted with their feet and their wallets and their dollars.
01:15:24And if we did not have these kind of hidden subsidies, consumers would vote for electric
01:15:30cars, if there were more charging stations, if there were batteries that took them longer
01:15:36distances without having to recharge.
01:15:40And so I'm kind of surprised that the President of the United States isn't having a showroom
01:15:49on the White House lawn for all electric vehicles, not just for Elon Musk's Tesla.
01:15:57Why not provide that kind of boost and elevation for electric vehicles generally?
01:16:07And the car manufacturers would bet on cleaner cars if they were given the true costs and
01:16:15enabled to enjoy the true benefits of electric cars generally, not just the ones produced
01:16:23by a billionaire, unelected, unappointed official, unconfirmed official, acting in effect on
01:16:33behalf of Donald Trump with Lee Zeldin as his instrument to fire hardworking people
01:16:42in the EPA and to roll back rules that benefit consumers.
01:16:48I thank my colleagues for the colloquy.
01:16:50I see that the Senator from South Carolina, whose time we are intruding on, has come to
01:16:53the floor, and we yield to Senator Scott.