Speeches
Time to Wake Up: Corruption Scheme
For this 259th climate speech, I'm going back to the theme of corruption. Before diving into the "how," let's start with the "why," because the scale and the remorselessness of the scheme of corruption the fossil fuel industry has run is hard to comprehend without understanding "why." Here's the "why." The fossil fuel industry reaps the biggest subsidy in the history of the planet. The IMF estimates the global subsidy in the trillions every year. That's globally. In the United States alo… Continue Reading
11.13.19
Time to Wake Up 258: Rough Seas Ahead
Mr./Mdm. President, today in my 258th Time to Wake Up Speech, I want to take us back to our oceans. The oceans are a clear and consistent signal of climate change, a signal untainted by fossil fuel industry propaganda attacks. And for good reason. It's hard to dispute sea level rise measured with tide gauges; acidification measured with the kind of pH test kit in a middle school science classroom; or rising temperature measured with a thermometer. Even the fossil fuel industry can't foul th… Continue Reading
11.06.19
Time to Wake Up: Colorado
Mr./Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that Lucia Simonelli, a AAAS fellow in my office, be granted floor privileges for the remainder of this Congress. I rise today for the 257th time to call this chamber to wake up to the threat of climate change. Today, I report on my trip to Colorado to see how climate change is affecting life in the Centennial State, and to learn more about the remarkable action Coloradans are taking to confront climate change. Colorado is the 18th state I have vi… Continue Reading
10.30.19
Time to Wake Up: Marathon Petroleum
When historians look back at why the United States failed so badly to take on climate change, they'll of course focus on the political efforts of the world's largest oil companies, Exxon, Chevron, BP, and Shell; they'll note the obstructive role of leading trade associations, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the National Association of Manufacturers, and the American Petroleum Institute; and they'll chronicle the network of phony front groups set up by Big Oil and the Koch brothers to sow doubt of … Continue Reading
10.16.19
Time to Wake Up: ACE Rule on CRA
Mr. WHITEHOUSE. Madam President, I am delighted to join my colleagues from Maryland and Delaware to support this resolution expressing disapproval of the Trump administration rescinding the Clean Power Plan and replacing it with its so-called affordable clean energy rule, which is a name fanciful enough to make George Orwell blush. The first thing to understand about the so-called affordable clean energy rule is that it is a do-nothing rule, exactly as the polluters wish. EPA admits its own rul… Continue Reading
09.25.19
Time to Wake Up: China
As-prepared for delivery. Mr. President, I rise today for the 254th time to ask this body to wake up to the challenge of climate change. In the time I've been doing these speeches, I've watched the shifting waves of climate denial. First climate change was a hoax; then there wasn't enough science; then the science was uncertain; then solving climate would hurt the economy; then, innovation will magically save us. There's a new entrant in the climate denial lexicon: China. China isn't … Continue Reading
09.16.19
Time to Wake Up: We Did Start the Fire
Mr./Madam President, I rise today for my 253rd "Time to Wake Up" speech. If you felt like the heat this summer was particularly brutal, you were not imagining things. July was the hottest month ever recorded, according to NOAA. The Secretary General of the World Meteorological Organization noted "July has rewritten climate history, with dozens of new temperature records at [the] local, national and global level." NOAA says 2019 is on track to tie for the second hottest year on record. Over… Continue Reading
09.10.19
Time to Wake Up: Wyoming
Mr./Madam President, I have often spoken about how climate change is affecting Rhode Island: rising sea levels will remake our map; warming seas are shifting our traditional fisheries away from Rhode Island waters; a hotter climate creates public health risks for Rhode Islanders. The list goes on. In the Senate I've also tried to learn how climate change is affecting other states. Some states are coastal, some are upland. Some are urban, some are rural. Some are mountainous, some are flat. … Continue Reading
07.30.19
Time to Wake Up: Who Funds The Chamber?
Mr./Madam President, before I begin my 251st Time to Wake up remarks, I would like to thank two AAAS fellows who will be leaving my office. Dr. Kim Binsted came to us from the University of Hawaii, where was the principal investigator on the NASA-sponsored Hi-Seas project, studying conditions like those astronauts would encounter on Mars. Next month, she returns to Hawaii to continue her research. Dr. Ryan Edwards joined us after completing his PhD at Princeton University, where he studied c… Continue Reading
07.24.19
Time to Wake Up 250: Looking Back – and Forward
Mr./Madam President, for the 250th week in a row of Senate session, I rise - yet again - to call this chamber to wake up to the threat of climate change. In April 2012, I delivered the first of these speeches; I began: "I know that many in Washington would prefer to ignore this issue, but nature keeps sending us messages - messages we ignore at our peril." It was a cry of frustration - frustration that the Supreme Court's infamous Citizens United decision had killed bipartisan work on climate… Continue Reading
07.16.19
Time to Wake Up: Banking on Climate Change
Mr./Madam President, for a long time people opposed to climate action said that tackling climate change would be too costly, would harm economic growth, would be bad for American businesses, and would kill jobs. These were phony arguments, peddled by fossil fuel interests. And they're flat wrong. Actually, the economic hazard is not action, but inaction. [Chart 1: Economic warning organizations] We've recently seen an explosion of warnings from economic regulators, central banks, insurers,… Continue Reading
07.08.19
Time to Wake Up: The Case for Carbon Pricing
You've just heard two colleagues make convincing and passionate arguments for putting a price on carbon, the central protection from climate crisis. A price on carbon like we propose would dramatically lower emissions, and put us on a net zero-by-2050 path - the path necessary to avoid the worst climate chaos. Because it's a price on pollution, we can dial it up or dial it down, as climate chaos worsens or abates. Because our proposal is border-adjustable, it would let American industry comp… Continue Reading
06.25.19
Time to Wake Up: Something Fishy Going On
Mr. President, it is a great honor and pleasure to join the senior Senator from Connecticut on the floor today. We were both U.S. attorneys. We were attorneys general together. We now serve in the Senate together, and I consider him a friend outside of my day job as well. It is terrific to be here with him. It is also a happy coincidence that a Senator from another great fishing State, Louisiana, should be presiding while we speak about our fisheries. This is my 247th of these speeches. Rhode I… Continue Reading
06.20.19
Time To Wake Up: Never Again: Remembering the Cuyahoga River Fire
Mr. President, it is my great honor to join Senator Brown of Ohio here on this 50th anniversary. The image of a river aflame is engraved in our collective memory. For Ohioans, for Senator Brown, and for all others who care about our water and environment, the Cuyahoga River remains a rallying cry. Time magazine ran a piece in 1969 calling it this: "Chocolate brown, oily, bubbling with subsurface gasses, it oozes rather than flows." No fish lived in it. It was too dangerous for drinking or swim… Continue Reading
06.19.19
Whitehouse Remarks at the National Press Club
It is good to see you all. Thank you for having me. Thank you to Tiffany and Tiernan, for your wonderful introductions. And thank you to the League of Conservation Voters and End Citizens United for being such amazing allies. And for the amazing work you do together. I emphasize "together" because our failure in Congress to address climate change is directly connected to the secret empire of dark money that Citizens United launched. Climate denial and dark money are two sides of the same coin… Continue Reading
06.19.19
Whitehouse Remarks in Judiciary on Combating Kleptocracy
First let me thank you, Chairman Graham, for holding this hearing. We have been working on this for a long time and I appreciate very much your patient and persistence and your attention to the rising threat that kleptocracy poses to our country. I also want to particularly thank Senator Grassley who has been my compadre on the TITLE Bill for a long time, back when he was chairman and now as Chairman of Finance he has another terrific position to push for clarity and transparency in this area. … Continue Reading
06.19.19
Whitehouse Remarks at 2019 Public Citizen Gala
Thank you, Lisa, for that kind introduction. It's an honor to be here today with Desmond Meade. What a remarkable story of perseverance and service to our democracy. His is the kind of strength we will need in the fights to come. I have been battling side-by-side with Public Citizen for a very long time now. We both recognize the threat to our democratic institutions from an excess of corporate power. We are both fighting for reforms to preserve access to the courts, empower voters in the … Continue Reading
06.11.19
Time To Wake Up: Exxon Knew
Mr. President, I am here today for my weekly "Time to Wake up" speech. We know a lot of things now. We know our atmosphere is filling with carbon dioxide to a point unprecedented in the history of the species on our planet; we know global temperatures are climbing and warping the weather across our country and around the world; we know our oceans are warming and acidifying in a way that the geologic record shows is a precursor to massive ocean die-offs; and we know the kind of action we must ta… Continue Reading
06.10.19
Whitehouse Remarks on the Gaspee Raid
Madam President, I come to the floor of the Senate today, as I do every year at this time, to remember what Rhode Island abolitionist Frances Whipple McDougall called ``the first blood [drawn] in the Revolution.'' This past Sunday marked the 247th anniversary of the Gaspee raid. This is an image of what happened to the Gaspee. We ought to remember. Most Americans do not know about the Gaspee Affair. They have learned about a far tamer incident in Boston Harbor a year later, when some tipsy Bost… Continue Reading
06.04.19
Time To Wake Up: Corporate America Engages
Madam President, one of the things I have noticed over the years that I have given these climate speeches is that corporate engagement on climate change has been one-sided, let's just say. It is clear who my adversaries have been--Big Oil, the coal lobby, the Koch brothers, and some very powerful corporate trade associations--the American Petroleum Institute, the National Association of Manufacturers, and the most powerful of all, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, so-called. In my view, it is more p… Continue Reading
