9/15/09: Sen. Byron Dorgan (D-ND) reiterates his opposition to the creation of a carbon market with a cap-and-trade system to limit global warming pollution. Arguing the Senate Energy Committee energy legislation "takes significant steps towards addressing climate ," Dorgan calls for its passage "and then at some point later bringing a climate change bill to the floor."
DORGAN: This is a big old planet of ours, and we stick straws in the planet and suck oil out. Now today -- today is a Tuesday -- we will take out from these drilling rigs and the pumps and so on where we've discovered oil, we'll take out about 85 million barrels of oil from under the earth. And one-fourth of it needs to be used in this country. We need one-fourth of all the oil that's produced in the world today. And as I said, 70% of that oil comes from outside of our country. And about 70% of the oil that we use in this country is used in our transportation system.
We have a very serious dependency on oil. It makes us less secure nationally. It creates all kinds of issues. And so the question is what do we do about that? That's what I want to talk about for a few minutes. I want to talk about it in the context of some news reports that have said recently that I and several others somehow did not support climate change legislation.
Let me make clear what my position is.
I have said on the floor of the Senate, I don't support cap-and-trade, quote unquote, around trade.
. . .
I do believe that there's something happening to our climate that we should be attentive to. I do believe a series of no-regret steps at the very least make a lot of sense as we begin to address them. Let me just say that while I have said I do not intend to be supportive of the cap-and-trade approach, especially with quotes around trade, I think there are some things we can, will, and must do to address the issue of climate change and having a lower carbon future.
Having said that, let me say that my hope is that the legislation that we have written already, already passed through the energy committee in this Congress, will be brought to the floor for a debate because it takes us significant steps towards addressing climate change. But most importantly, it will reduce our dependence on foreign oil and create, therefore, more national security and more energy security for our country by producing more american energy and by incentivizing the kinds of things that conserve, save and create other forms of energy as well.
Let me talk just for a bit about this bill, because some people say, well, we have to bring an energy bill to the floor combined with a climate change bill. I don't believe that. I think it would be much smarter, in my judgment, to bring an energy bill to the floor that is already completed in the committee, passed out of the committee with a bipartisan vote.
It's called the American Clean Energy Leadership Act. Bring that to the floor, debate it, pass it, get it to the president for his signature, and do something very significant for our country's energy future. And then turn, when we have completed that, because that bill itself moves in the direction of climate change and addressing climate change, then turn to the issue of a climate change bill and how we create a lower carbon future.
. . .
Now, we are told, well, you have to bring Waxman-Markey or you have to do this or that. What we have to do, it seems to me, is to be smart. And the smart thing, in my judgment, would be a-to-take the legislation that the United States Senate energy committee has produced that does all of the things I've just described, almost all of which contribute in a very positive way to addressing a lower carbon future, and all of which address the issue of greater energy security and greater national security by making us less dependent on foreign oil and making us more dependent on American-produced energy.
. . .
I hope very much as people start thinking of and talking after whatever happens on health care happens -- I hope very much when people think about energy and climate change that a consideration will exist of bringing a good energy bill to the floor that is a significant step in the right direction for climate change and then at some point later bringing a climate change bill to the floor because I think they are related but separate. And I think it would be much smarter to get the value and the success of an energy bill that's now out of the committee and ready to be dealt with by the Senate at some point very soon.
Mr. President, I yield the floor and make a point that a quorum is not present.
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Ask Byron, Episode IVby SenatorDorgan275 views
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lovecloud2 2 years ago