Barbara Boxer

Mrs. BOXER

Mrs. BOXER. Mr. President, 3 and 4.

Mrs. BOXER. That is the first part. I further ask unanimous consent that the time until 2 p.m. be equally divided--Senator Inhofe between 12 to 1 and Senator Boxer between 1 and 2?

Mrs. BOXER. All right, I will say the time until 2 p.m. be equally divided between Senator Inhofe and myself.

Mrs. BOXER

Mrs. BOXER. My Republican friends are fierce defenders of the status quo. They are desperate defenders of the status quo. They are clinging to the past and turning away from solving one of the major challenges of our time. All they say is no, no, no, for the status quo. And the reason is they know we are so close with this bill to finally getting us off foreign oil, finally getting us off big oil, and that is whom they defend here every single day. They talk about working people. When is the last time they stood up and argued in favor of working people? Let me show you the working people who are supporting us. They stand up: Oh, we are going to lose jobs, lose jobs, lose jobs. It simply isn't true. We have businesses, we have working people. Why don't they go and tell the people who are supporting the Boxer- Lieberman-Warner bill, from the International Union of Operating Engineers, from the building and construction trades, from the Association of Bridge, Structural, Ornamental and Reinforcing Iron Workers, from the heat and frost insulators, to the plumbers, to the roofers, to the plasterers, to the painters and the allied trades, to the teamsters and truckdrivers, to the brick layers. They stand here and scare people. These working people know where the jobs are. The jobs lie in the new economy, the new green economy, the economy that gets us off of foreign oil, that gets us off of big oil. Then they have the nerve to talk about how we are going to raise gas prices. Take a look at what has happened to gas prices since George Bush became President. And what did they ever do about it, Bush and Cheney? Oh, they were the oilmen and they were going to be able to deal with the oil companies. I will never forget it. Under George Bush, a 250-percent increase, a 250-percent increase in a gallon of gas in the years he has been in office, and all he can do is go to Saudi Arabia and hold hands with the Saudi Prince and beg. It doesn't work. What is going to work is a climate security act such as the one we have before us, and this is the pie chart I can show you. Look at this. My friend from Oklahoma, he makes up things about this bill. He says it is about raising taxes. That is false. We give back almost $1 trillion in taxes. We give back much more than $1 trillion in consumer relief. All of this yellow is what most of this bill does, and here we invest. We invest in low-carbon technologies so that we can get off oil. They do not want to get off oil. They have friends in the oil industry. Who do you think is opposing us and making up untruths about our bill? That is what happens. We don't have any tax increases, we have tax cuts. And then Senator Bunning says scientists disagree. Yes, there were a few people who still said the world was flat. There are a few people who still say cigarette smoking doesn't cause cancer. But the vast majority of scientists from the IPCC, the most brilliant scientists all over the world gathered, including our own here in America--11 American National Academies of Science say global warming is unequivocal. You can put your head in the sand. You can divert attention by saying this is a tax when it is not. How do we get the funding? We get it from the largest emitters of greenhouse gas emissions. I am looking at the Presiding Officer sitting in the chair. She wrote the first section of the bill that deals with a greenhouse gas registry so we can measure that. And what do we say to them? You are going to have to get permits to pollute. Polluters pay. And we help them with that in the early years, and we take that money and we give most of it back to the people, OK? Then the rest of it, the rest of it we put to deficit reduction and investments of technology. We hear others get up and say: Drill, drill, drill. You can't drill your way out of this problem. I don't want to drill in a wildlife preserve that Dwight Eisenhower, a Republican President, set aside. That is ridiculous. It only has 6 months of oil. It is better to have a long-term solution where we have the alternatives ready, the cars ready, the different fuels ready. Senator Corker complains about the process and he complains about the process. I say to Senator Corker: Vote for cloture. We will have amendments, we will debate the bill, and we will move forward. So it seems to me we are hearing a lot of falsehoods here. Vote for cloture. Let's get off of big oil and foreign oil. Let's have a good economic future and solve the crisis of global warming.

Mrs. BOXER. Madam President, I have a unanimous consent request that I may have printed in the Record a statement of Senator Barack Obama which says if he were able to be present, he would vote to invoke cloture.

Mrs. BOXER. I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mrs. BOXER

Mrs. BOXER. Mr. President, I listened to my friend from Wyoming, and I will tell anyone who was listening, first, he says the bill is not ready for debate. Now he wants to debate. You know, my friend voted not to go to the bill in the first place. He does not want a global warming bill, neither do most of the people on that side of the aisle, with some exceptions. Their answer is: No, no, no, no, status quo. That is why they keep losing seats all around the country. Now, 89 percent of the people want us to take up this legislation. Now, you can say you are against this for technical reasons and procedural reasons. I wish to talk about that, I do, because our leader went to the Republican side and said: We are ready to come up with a good plan to move forward on this bill. And he said to the other side: Let's start off with doing two amendments a side. No, that wasn't good enough. OK. Let's make an agreement for 3 amendments, 10 amendments, germane amendments. No. It was obvious from the start. No. Well, we think it is time to say yes, to stand and tackle the problem of global warming. They do not think it is time. I don't think they will ever think it is time. What is really remarkable is that the States out there have started. The western Governors have gotten together. They have signed a western climate initiative. Why? The American West is heating up more rapidly than the rest of the world. That is where my friend comes from. I didn't hear him talk about global warming. I heard him talk a lot about China. I don't know what he was saying, whether he is so happy that China keeps building these dirty coal plants. I will tell him, the people of China can't breathe. There was a whole series about this. We want to have a clean coal future. That is why the Boxer-Lieberman- Warner bill invests heavily in clean coal. We understand there is 200 years worth of coal in America, and we want to make sure we get the technologies moving. That is why we want this bill, so we get to the day where we can have clean coal. I want to tell my friend, he got up and criticized the way this bill was handled and the rest. I wish to speak about what we have done on our committee. The Presiding Officer serves on that committee and is an active member who has supported even stronger legislation than this. We are getting attacked because they say it is too strong. The bottom line is--my friend will attest because he was part of this--we had 25 hearings, one of which I remember well which he chaired, since the day I took the gavel, inclusive. The bill was written in the subcommittee. The bill was worked on. It got to the full committee. I remember my friend in the chair was not happy with the bill in the subcommittee. He worked very hard. We changed it. Yes, we changed it, because that is what legislating is about. There isn't one person in this Chamber who has all the answers. I certainly don't. This has to be a collaborative approach. Then a wonderful thing happened. Senator John Warner said: I am breaking the stalemate. I have kids. I have grandkids. I am a national security expert. The national security people are saying we need to do something about global warming. It is going to be one of the biggest causes of wars in the future. This is a big issue. Senator Warner came and said he wanted to work with us. That meant we could get legislation out of the committee. Senator Baucus comes from a huge coal State. He took the lead in the coal provisions. We worked very hard. When the bill came out of the full committee, we took it to our colleagues in the Senate. We did an unprecedented thing. We had open hearings for every Senator. I don't know if Senator Enzi came to any of those. Maybe he did. My staff is sitting here next to me. No, he didn't. I remember Senator Bennett came. I remember many Senators came. They asked the experts the questions. We had the IPPC, the leading experts. We had the Bush administration come to talk about public health problems. We opened a transparent process to all. We asked Senators: Can I come to your office? I went to probably 30 offices. Senator Lieberman did. Senator Warner did. Anyone who wanted it did. Transparent. What do you need? What do you think? How can we do this better? How can this work? That is the way legislation ought to be done. That is what leadership is. This is a tripartisan piece of legislation--a Democrat, a Republican, and an Independent. I will say this: When you say no to this and when you divert attention to gas prices, which have gone up 250 percent under George Bush--250 percent--and when you say this bill is going to make it worse, you don't really know what you are talking about because if you look at the modeling that was done--and George Bush confirmed this--the modeling says under a worst-case scenario, gas will go up 2 cents a gallon per year for 20 years. It is a 12-percent increase attributable to this bill which we know will be entirely offset by the fuel economy. In other words, that 2 cents will be offset by the fuel economy bill. So this bill will lead to lower gas prices. Why? Because it will spur technology. That is the point of the bill. If we could look at the pie chart, what you see is that most of the money that is generated in this bill from the permits bought by the 2,100 biggest emitters of carbon goes to tax relief for our people, consumer relief for people, deficit reduction, more than half, and the rest goes to investments. A little bit goes to help the emitters in the early years. The rest goes to national security, and international agricultural resources and forestry, low-carbon technology efficiency, and local government action. We want to help local governments. That is why the U.S. Conference of Mayors has endorsed this bill. I have to say, what amazes me about what I hear from the other side is there is nothing about the issue of global warming or climate change. You don't hear anything, very little except from the supporters of our bill. Senator Snowe, Senator Warner, yes, we hear from them. But for the most part, we have heard no words that let us understand where we can sit down and talk. As far as China is concerned, to hold them up as some kind of model, if that is what my friend was doing, let me say that I don't want to be a party to it. I want to be a party to leading China, leading India, leading the world, not following countries where the people are so sick they can't even breathe. That is not what we want. We heard the same thing when we passed the Clean Air Act, Safe Drinking Water Act, the Clean Water Act, the Endangered Species Act--this is the end of the world. They made all kinds of excuses why we should not act. Tomorrow, we have a chance. I hope we will get a good vote. I don't know what we will get. But I do want to put into the Record some very important letters from our colleagues. First, I am very touched to tell my colleagues that we have a letter from Senator Kennedy. I am so happy to say that. It reads: Dear Chairman Boxer: I commend you and Senator Lieberman and Senator Warner for your leadership on the Climate Security Act. At long last, significant legislation long needed to address this growing crisis is ready for Senate action, and I wish very much that I could be there for this landmark debate. Regrettably, I'm unable to participate, but I hope my colleagues will support the Act by voting for cloture, as I would if I were able to do so. With respect and appreciation and all great wishes, Sincerely, Edward M. Kennedy. Ted, if you or your family is watching, we received this letter with such pride. We thank you so much, and we send you our heartfelt prayers and hopes for a speedy recovery. We miss you so much. I ask unanimous consent to have printed in the Record a letter from Senator Biden:

Mrs. BOXER. We thank Senator Biden. I again thank Senator Obama. He sent a similar letter that he would, if he were here, vote for cloture. And a beautiful statement from Senator Clinton from which I will read in part: . . . I would vote for cloture on this legislation if I were able to be present in the Senate. . . .The time is now to move forward and deal with global warming, and I urge my colleagues to vote for cloture. Continuing from her letter: This bill makes steep reductions in emissions, encourages the development and deployment of clean energy technology, provides assistance for American families, training for workers whom the clean energy industry will demand. I ask unanimous consent to have the letter printed in the Record.

Mrs. BOXER. She congratulates us on the bill. It is with great pride that I add these letters to Senator Obama's letter. I do hope my colleagues will give us a ``yea'' vote. We know that under the rule, we can have amendments. Absolutely, we can. We hope we will get a good cloture vote. I yield the floor.

Mrs. BOXER

Mrs. BOXER. Madam President, before my friend Senator Reed leaves the floor, if I can have his attention, this morning, Senators Warner, Lieberman, and I and Senator Kerry held a press conference with GEN Gordon Sullivan, whom you mentioned in your remarks, and ADM Joseph Lopez. We had the most extraordinary testimony from them in terms of having to act. It was chilling in a way because they said: You never know something with 100 percent certainty. They said: But what we learned on the battlefield is if you wait until you have 100 percent certainty, horrible things can happen. It was chilling. They warned us to act. So I think my friend brought it home this morning with his remarks. I ask unanimous consent that Senator Allard speak off his side's time--how many minutes?

Mrs. BOXER. This is up to you.

Mrs. BOXER. And then Senator Sanders for 7, and then Senator Bennett for 5, and then Senator Baucus for 10. I know Senator Craig would like 10 minutes.

Mrs. BOXER. Mr. President, how much time remains on our side?

Mrs. BOXER. I would like to speak for about 20 minutes, and then I would like to yield up to 10 minutes to Senator Salazar.

Mrs. BOXER. Colleagues, let me tell you where we are. Your Environment and Public Works Committee, for the first time, voted out a landmark bill, the Lieberman-Warner bill. We did that after 25 hearings. We had everyone come before us. It was extraordinary. From the leading scientists, to State government officials, to mayors, to business leaders, to folks who run utilities, to religious leaders, it was extraordinary--environmental organizations. We listened and we asked questions and we voted. Now, the day that Senator Warner decided he believed part of his legacy on national security had to include global warming, he stepped out and he came to me, after he had already talked to Senator Lieberman, and said: I want to be on this team. He said: I will be with you through thick and thin. We have had thick and we have had thin. We have had great moments and tough moments. And we are kind of in a tough moment now because we so want to complete work on this bill. It is going to be a very tough road for us to be able to do that. I went over to my friend, Senator Warner, and I told him, first of all, what a joy it has been to work with him on this because our lives in the Senate have kind of taken us in different directions. But now, we finally had a chance to work together. You could not have a better colleague. You could not have a more loyal friend. When he says something, he sticks with it. We have created this troika, a tripartisan troika, which I think has been a very good experience for all of us. I told him, because he has several months remaining in the Senate, that when he leaves, I hope he will become a worldwide spokesperson for action in this area. There are very few people who bring to the table the national security experience and his new knowledge now that he has absorbed on this issue of global warming or climate change. I do not know if he will do that, but if he does it, I think it is going to make an enormous contribution as Senator Lieberman and I are here battling every day with a new President of the United States to try to get something done. So I hope he will consider that. So many people did help us. Senator Warner alluded to our staffs. I want to name a few names now. This is just a few of the people: Bettina and Erik of my staff, David and Joe of Senator Lieberman's staff, and Chelsea and Chris of Senator Warner's staff, and their staffs that report to them. There was extraordinary dedication, sleeplessness, early morning phone calls. To get to this point is so difficult. And not one second has been wasted because as we get this landmark bill in place, we will take off where we left, and where we left is just a tremendous amount of knowledge, so many of our Senators getting involved. It has really been a heart-warming experience. That is why it is tough to get to the point where we are now because we are ready, ready to finish this job, ready to work with our friends. But we are going to try to see how many votes we can get for cloture. We urge our friends and colleagues to please say yes to continuing this important topic. Senator Lieberman, I think by showing these maps and showing us the ice melt--by the way, many members of our committee, we led a trip to Greenland. Imagine. I say to my friends who might be listening to this, imagine this. An iceberg that is larger than the Senate Chamber, floating, floating toward the ocean. The average age of this iceberg, 9,000 years old. Imagine this. Average age, 9,000 years old. Within 1 year, that iceberg will be nothing but water. And we know what that means. Seas will rise. It is happening faster than we thought. When we have this debate, our opponents come down, and they do not talk about climate change. They do not talk about it. They haven't challenged us on our basic premise that we have a problem. They switch the topic to what I think is a made-up topic. And it is sad because the Senate deserves more than that. I don't know how many times I have said it, but I have to say it again because there is a big advertising campaign against what is called the Lieberman-Warner bill. I suppose I am lucky they did not put Boxer in that one. They have said gas prices, because of this bill, are going to go to $8 a gallon, and this morning, $28 a gallon. These people are making things up. These people are making things up. Even the Bush administration, who opposes us, said the worst case scenario is 2 cents a year on the pump for 20 years. We know because we have done the calculations that the fuel economy bill we passed will offset that increase. So this bill brings no increase. Indeed, this bill will get us off foreign oil, will get us away from big oil. We will have alternatives for once, and we will be free. We will not have to have our President go to Saudi Arabia and hold hands with the Prince and beg. This is not necessary if we allow technology to move forward. So I am going to show you again. This is annoying that I have to keep doing this, but I think it is important. In the last 7 years, we have seen gas prices go up 250 percent, 82 cents since January--82 cents. My friends are coming down here, and suddenly the opponents of the bill are saying: Watch out, gas prices will rise. When truly, honestly, they have not offered anything, in my view, to try and resolve the terrible increases we have seen until now. So let's get rid of that bogus issue. We are on the precipice. We are on the moment. If we do this bill, we will finally have alternatives to oil, and we will get off our addiction to oil, as the President said we should. We will have cellulosic fuel. We will be able to see new kinds of automobiles. We are really there right now. Senator Sanders was eloquent today. There is a plug-in hybrid that can get 150 miles to the gallon. That is all going to happen with a bill like this one. I want to thank also the groups that have worked so hard to help us, the environmental groups, the faith-based groups. I thank right now GEN Gordon Sullivan who came to the press conference that both my colleagues alluded to this morning. I have a copy of his statement. Did you place it in the Record, Senator?

Mrs. BOXER. I would think that General Sullivan's credentials are impeccable. He said: Yes, climate change and national security and energy independence are all interrelated. Simply hoping that these relationships will remain static is not acceptable, given our training and experience as military leaders. And then he says: Because, as you know, we have been told that the scientists have 90 percent certainty. He addresses that at the end. He says: In conclusion, you never have 100 percent certainty on the battlefield. We never have it. If you wait until you have 100 percent certainty, something terrible is going to happen. As such, now is the time to act on the critical issue of climate change. Now this did not come from Senator Warner, Senator Lieberman, Senator Boxer; it did not come from Al Gore; it did not come from Tony Blair-- all of whom are fighting hard. This came from a general with years of experience on the battlefield. We must act now. I think I would like to go to this chart. Waiting 2 years to act will double the annual rate at which we must cut emissions. In other words, you have a problem, and the longer you wait, the harder it is because the carbon goes into the atmosphere and stays there. So we get further and further behind. Look at this. A May 2008 study by Tufts University economists found that the annual costs of not addressing global warming, not addressing it, by 2100, could be $422 billion in hurricane damage, $360 billion in real estate losses, $141 billion in increased energy costs. Let me say that again: $141 billion in increased energy costs if we do not do something about it; $950 billion in water costs. So if we do not act now, it is going to cost us. And we have to devise a way, through cap and trade, which I will not go into the details of, that essentially says: Those who are the biggest emitters will pay for permits to pollute. What do we do with those funds? I have a chart to show you what we will do with those funds. Most of it goes to the following: tax relief. In the early years, we are concerned that we may see energy, electricity costs go up before we get into the energy efficiency we want. The next big amount is consumer relief through utilities and State actions. That is second. So when our utility bills start going up, utility companies have the right to write on that bill ``credit'' so we stay whole. Deficit reduction, that is another big piece. We wanted it to be deficit neutral. I have to laugh--I think it was Senator Kyl and Senator McConnell who said this is a tax bill. Let me get this squared away. Our bill is a huge tax cut, huge consumer relief, not a penny of a tax increase. What else do we do? Workers assistance. We make sure our workers are trained for new jobs. Local government action, they are going to do something. For example, if they are going to take their offices and make them energy efficient, we want to help them. Low-carbon technology and efficiency, we know what that means. We know the low-carbon energy sources are going to get funds. Agricultural resources and forestry are going to get funds. National security and international are going to get funds. Transition assistance to emitters. In other words, we say to those who pollute, those who emit: You are going to have to buy permits. But in the beginning, we help them with that. So, look, about more than half of this goes straight back to the consumers and the other parts go to technology. That is what this bill does. Why are the opponents of this bill afraid to have a debate? I do not understand it. At first we heard they wanted the debate because they believed they could defeat us if they talked about how this bill would result in higher gas prices. Frankly, between Senator Warner, Senator Lieberman, Senator Snowe, myself, Senator Kerry, the Senators who have been on the floor, I think we definitely debunked that point. We said it is a humpty-dumpty argument. We are right on the precipice of getting off of foreign oil and big oil. We are on the precipice of these new technologies with this bill. We are on the precipice of moving toward energy independence finally. We have been talking about it since I was a much younger person, and now, finally, we can do it. And what happens. We have to cut the debate short when we are ready to get the job done. Well, this is a national security issue. It is a religious and moral issue. This is an issue of tremendous import for our grandchildren, for our children. This issue strikes me as one that is a win-win for everyone because when you address global warming and you save the planet, which is what we must do, we finally have the impetus to get to that energy independence. We finally have the impetus to say, you know, we can be controlling, we can be controlling of our own future. It is a great picture for our children to see. I honestly think if we do nothing, we will be on the wrong side of history. I want to say to my friends in State government, from the east coast to the west coast to the middle of America, keep up what you are doing. You are doing the right thing. You can't wait for us. It may not happen today, but we are catching up with you. I say to my friends at the Conference of Mayors, Republicans and Democrats and Independents who support this bill: Thank you for your support. Keep on doing what you are doing. You are in the leadership. You are on the ground. We are coming soon. We have two Presidential candidates who care about this issue. When one of them gets to the White House, they will be here negotiating with us. That is going to make a big difference, that is for sure. I want to close by showing a great chart that says ``Yes.'' This is the moment for us to say yes to energy independence, yes to our children, yes to the science, yes to a diversified energy future, yes to American manufacturing, yes to saving the planet, yes to consumer protection, yes to new technologies, yes to a strong economy, yes to State and local action, yes to public health, yes to tax relief, yes to transit, yes to a level playing field, and yes to American leadership-- there are a lot of yeses on here--and, of course, yes on the cloture petition which will allow us to get to the substitute and get to the bill. I reserve the remainder of my time and turn now to Senator Salazar. I thank my colleagues all.

Mrs. BOXER. Madam President, please, this is a parliamentary inquiry and not to be taken away from the time of my friends. I just found out when we did our unanimous consent request it was not clarified that following the Republican side, Senator Boxer or her designee would have 5 minutes, followed by Senator Inhofe or his designee to have 5 minutes.

Mrs. BOXER. Thank you.

Mrs. BOXER

Mrs. BOXER. Mr. President, I am glad the Senator from Alaska came to speak because she is at ground zero, and she explained that what is happening in her State is very serious. She knows it. She is close to it. Where I simply don't agree with her is she says our bill is going to lead to higher gas prices. We are back to that same old-same old stuff. The fact is--I will reiterate it; I have said it so much, it is probably extremely boring to those who have listened to me, but I will say it again--President Bush sent down a veto promise on this bill, and in it he said gas prices are going to go up 50 cents over the 20-year period. That is 2 cents a year. That is 12 percent over 20 years. What he didn't say is that because we passed fuel economy standards, all that is offset for our people because the fuel economy standards are going to mean you actually can go farther on a gallon of gas. So there is no increase in gas prices. As a matter of fact, what is going to happen is, we are going to get the alternatives we need. Senator Murkowski's people, my people, Senator Warner's people, Senator Reid's people, and Senator Schumer's people at the end of the day are going to say: Thank goodness, we are finally off foreign oil; we don't have to be dependent on a President-- this one or the next one--going to Saudi Arabia and begging. That is the whole point of the bill. The whole point of the bill is to get those technologies, and the bill essentially does this. We say to the people who are emitting carbon: You have to buy permits to pollute. We take half that money-- more than half of it goes back to consumers through a tax cut or through the utility companies that give you credit right on your bill. This is a good bill. This is a bill that will create jobs. This is a bill that will create the technologies. Senator Warner got into this whole issue because his legacy is national security. Our leaders tell us we have to act now. To have people come to this floor with a bogus argument that makes no sense is unfortunate. If we vote cloture on this bill, we will be able to amend it and move forward. I wish to show how many people are supporting us and the groups that are supporting us. We hear a lot of my Republican friends say: We are going to lose jobs. Yes, the miners came out with a statement. They said the bill needed work. So did the UAW, the bill needed work. And we are open to that. Senator Warner and I, Senator Lieberman, and Senator Kerry said we are ready to meet with our colleagues and fix the bill. But oh, no, all they want to do really is drive this bill off the floor. I have a list of working people who endorse this bill. So don't come here, I say to my colleagues--Senator Murkowski didn't do this, but others have done it--and say, oh, we are going to lose jobs. You tell that to the International Association of Bridge, Structural, Ornamental and Reinforcing Iron Workers. Tell that to the insulators and the allied workers. Tell that to the shipbuilders. Tell that to the bricklayers. Tell that to the elevator constructors. Tell that to the painters. Tell that to the plasterers. Tell that to the journeymen. Tell that to the sheet metal workers, the teamsters, the operating engineers, and the building and construction trades. They all see what this bill will mean. It means building a new infrastructure for a new day with new energy. The faith communities are supporting us. I am so grateful to them. It is as if I prayed for help and they came forward--the Evangelical Environmental Network and the Evangelical Climate Initiative, U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, National Council of Churches, Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism, Jewish Council of Public Affairs, the Interfaith Power and Light Campaign. Why? Because they feel so strongly that the planet is threatened and God's creation is threatened. We cannot wait forever. We do not have a perfect bill. We want to get it started, and we cannot. It is a very sad state of affairs. I will be happy to yield to my friend.

Mrs. BOXER. Mr. President, I reclaim my time. I thank my colleague. Yes, I have had wonderful conversations with the Senator from Alaska. The reason there is a bit of frustration in my voice is because I don't think we have much time to waste. I am very worried about delaying. I look forward to working with my colleague from Alaska. I want to put into the Record also the businesses that support our bill just as it is: Alcoa, Avista, Calpine, Constellation Energy, E2, Entergy Corporation, Exelon Corporation, Florida Power and Light, General Electric, National Grid, NRG Energy, PG&E, Public Service Enterprise Group. We have broad support of governments: the U.S. Conference of Mayors; the National Association of Clean Air Agencies; Climate Communities, which is a national coalition of cities, towns, counties, and other communities. The people in the cities, the counties, and the States, I want to send them a message today: Don't lose heart if we don't win this vote tomorrow. We are building support. We are building support in the community, we are building support in the Senate, and the next President of the United States, regardless of whether it is Senator McCain or Senator Obama, supports global warming legislation. So my friends on the other side of the aisle can say no, no, no, status quo, status quo, and they may win the day. But at the end of the day, they will not win because 89 percent of the people of America want us to tackle this problem. Let's take a look at what the scientists are telling us. Eleven national academies of science, including the U.S. National Academies of Science, concluded that climate change is real. It is likely that most of the warming in recent decades can be attributed to human activities. The Nobel Prize-winning IPCC concluded in 2007 that global warming is unequivocal; there is a 90-percent certainty that humans have caused it. Today, Senator Warner, Senator Lieberman, and I had an amazing press conference with a former general and a former admiral. It was really something to hear them. They said some chilling things in this global warming debate. When they ended it, they said: When we are out on the battlefield, we cannot wait for 100 percent certainty. The scientists have given us 90 percent certainty. You wait, you are going to face danger, trouble, horrible things can happen. They look at it as a campaign to stop something quite dangerous. Let's look at the human health impacts, I thank my friend, Senator Nelson, who is in the chair, for all the work he has done on this issue. His magnificent State is another place which is ground zero. I flew with my friend--first of all, we went to the Everglades. It was an extraordinary experience and one which I shall never forget. We went with my spouse and Senator Nelson's spouse. We went through this gift from God, which is what the Everglades is. It is impossible to describe. It is like a river of grass. That is what it is called, a river of grass. A remarkable place. When we went up in our helicopter and flew over the State, I held my breath. This magnificent State. But if those sea levels rise? There cannot be enough protection. We couldn't do it. So we have to stop the problem, and that is what the Boxer-Lieberman-Warner bill does. Look at the human health impacts of global warming in North America: increase in the frequency and duration of heat waves and heat-related illness; increase in waterborne disease from degraded water quality. Why? Because certain amoebas and bacteria can live in warmer waters. As a result, these are new kinds of creatures. We had a child in Lake Havasu get an infection in one of these warmer waters. The infection went to the brain. This is the kind of thing the Bush administration health officials are telling us. Dr. Julie Gerberding came before our committee. It was mind boggling what she was telling us we can expect. By the way, unfortunately, a lot of her statement was redacted. Even though it was redacted, it was powerful. She basically was saying to us: Please act now. Increased respiratory disease, including asthma and other lung diseases from increased ozone and smog, and the children and the elderly are especially vulnerable. I say to my brothers and sisters, men and women of the Senate, children and the elderly are vulnerable. This is America. We take care of the most vulnerable. They cannot do this. We all believe in our great economic system, the free-enterprise system. There are certain things our Government has to do, which is to make sure people can have healthy lives. Part of it is that the planet be healthy. We have to act now. I will conclude my remarks in the next 2 minutes and then will yield to my colleague for 2 minutes to do a quick Executive Calendar. I want to talk about job growth because, again, we heard all along: Oh my goodness, this bill is going to kill job growth. In California, we have a law like this. It has done wonders. For example, we have 450 new solar energy companies. As we see a decline in the housing area-- and I know my friend in the chair has seen this in Florida--a lot of the workers who would have been laid off are being grabbed up and going to work in these solar energy companies. We are so fortunate we had that, in a way, a safety net. People are so excited. If you come to California, if you go to the Silicon Valley, the entrepreneurs there want to invest in new technologies. They will not do it until there are laws in place because they need certainty. I will close with this: A study of the impacts of my State's law says there will be 89,000 new jobs created by 2020. There are more than 450 solar companies--I mentioned that--hiring electricians, carpenters, and plumbers. And the top manufacturing States for solar are Ohio, Michigan, California, Tennessee, and Massachusetts. That is interesting because we are seeing these new manufacturing jobs being created across America. In closing, I will show my favorite chart of all and the one I want to end with. Let's say yes for once around this place. Let's say yes to something good, to a clean energy future, to clean green jobs, to science, to clean air, to saving the planet, to consumer protection, to a big tax cut, to a strong economy, and to the Boxer-Lieberman-Warner bill. I thank you so much, Mr. President, and I really do thank you for your leadership in Florida and here as well. I yield the floor.

Mrs. BOXER

Mrs. BOXER. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that we now proceed to a period of morning business in which Senators may speak for up to 10 minutes each.

Mrs. BOXER

Mrs. BOXER. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Select Committee on Intelligence be authorized to meet during the session of the Senate on June 5, 2008, at 2:30 p.m. to hold a closed hearing.

Mrs. BOXER

Mrs. BOXER. Mr. President, I have a unanimous-consent request.

Mrs. BOXER. Mr. President, in order to debate global warming legislation to get us to lower gas prices, I ask unanimous consent that reading of the amendment be dispensed with so we can get back to the business of the Senate.

Mrs. BOXER. I reiterate my request because the reason given by my friend is wrong. We have had a summary available for 2 weeks. I ask unanimous consent that reading of the amendment be dispensed with.