The Congressional Record is a unique source of public documentation. It started in 1873, documenting nearly all the major and minor policies being discussed and debated.
“Nomination of Andrew R. Wheeler (Executive Session)” mentioning the U.S. Dept. of Energy was published in the Senate section on pages S1507-S1508 on Feb. 27, 2019.
The Department oversees energy policies and is involved in how the US handles nuclear programs. Downsizing the Federal Government, a project aimed at lowering taxes and boosting federal efficiency, said the Department's misguided energy regulations have caused large losses to consumers for decades.
The publication is reproduced in full below:
Nomination of Andrew R. Wheeler
Ms. STABENOW. Mr. President, I rise today to speak about a vote that we will be having in just a few minutes on the process of moving Andrew Wheeler forward as the EPA Administrator.
This is not a time for talk; it is not time for theoretical debates. This is certainly not the time for an EPA Administrator who, during his time at the EPA, has ignored climate scientists, rolled back climate regulations, and taken action that will lead to more carbon pollution.
Instead, this is a time for bold, decisive action. We need to act today because life on our planet depends on it. The fate of our Nation depends on it. Our children's and grandchildren's futures depend on it.
For those reasons, I cannot support Andrew Wheeler for the critical position of EPA Administrator.
Climate change is real. In fact, it is more than real. It is an existential crisis, and it is already having real impact on Michigan families and Michigan's economy.
Some call it global warming. Katharine Hayhoe, a climate scientist from Texas Tech, has a better term. She call calls it ``global weirding.'' Ask anybody in Michigan. Things have been weird.
Our lakes are heating up. In fact, Lake Superior is getting about 2 degrees warmer each decade. That could make the lake a happy home for invasive species, like sea lamprey.
As the waters warm, these parasites grow and kill off more trout and salmon and other fish that are key to the Great Lakes' $8 billion recreational fishing industry. It is believed that warmer temperatures contributed to algal blooms on the lake last summer.
Other changes we are seeing are life-threatening.
Thanks to the polar vortex in January, Michigan experienced temperatures colder than Antarctica. Scientists believe that climate change has caused the jet stream to become wobbly--that is a technical term, ``wobbly''--pushing dangerously frigid air south.
Folks say: Well, how can it be global warming when we see the polar vortex? It is about what is happening to destabilize the atmosphere and the planet and the changes that are occurring.
Last weekend, a bomb cyclone hit my State, leaving tens of thousands of Michigan residents without power.
We are having to come up with new terms. I had never heard of a bomb cyclone--60-mile-an-hour winds, ripping up homes and farms and roadways.
The intensity of what is happening is incredible. The travel was so treacherous in Otsego County that all roads were closed--all of the roads were closed. Even drivers on Interstate 75 were getting stuck in drifts. That is our major highway.
We can't link any specific storm to climate change. However, we do know that overall climate change is making storms more intense. They are longer. They are more intense. They are happening more frequently with more intensity.
Last summer in Houghton County, more than 5\1/2\ inches of rain fell in 6 hours. It caused at least $100 million in damage to infrastructure, and a 12-year-old-boy died when the basement of his home collapsed.
Our climate is changing, but you don't have to take my word for it. Just ask insurance company executives. Their companies paid out a record $135 billion--billion dollars--from natural disasters in 2017 alone. That is almost three times as much as the historic annual average, and their projections show it getting worse.
We need to take action on climate change. While it is not widely recognized, I want to speak about something positive that we have done, and that was last year's farm bill.
As you know, the farm bill passed the Senate with a vote of 87 to 13--the most votes in history. While the bill was historic for a number of reasons, one of those is that it includes the most ambitious Federal climate-smart agricultural and forestry policies to date, working with farmers and ranchers as partners.
It helps farmers implement climate-smart policies by revamping USDA conservation programs to prioritize investments in soil carbon sequestration, incentivizing the planting of cover crops, and expanding USDA support for farmer participation in carbon markets.
It also invests in the Rural Energy for America Program, which helps farmers and rural small businesses install renewable energy systems and creates a joint USDA-Department of Energy education grant program to drive carbon capture projects across rural America.
We must also protect forests and farmland, which serve as vital carbon sinks that hold carbon rather than releasing it and making the destabilization even worse.
The farm bill amends the popular Healthy Forests Reserve Program to prioritize carbon sequestration practices programs and discourage the development of forestland. It authorizes new programs to restore national forest landscapes, protect carbon-rich, old-growth trees, and prevent uncharacteristic wildfires and their emissions. It establishes a landmark soil health demonstration trial to keep carbon in the ground and promote healthy and productive farmland.
I am proud of what we did. It was done with the partnership of farmers and ranchers, and I have to say that our farmers understand the importance of protecting our land--their land--air, and water, I think, as much as, if not more than anyone else. No one's business is more impacted by severe and erratic weather than our farmers. They are caught right in the middle of it, and I appreciate their working with us to be part of the solution.
I am also working with my colleagues on policies to ensure that the United States, not China, is the global leader on advanced transportation technologies like electric and hydrogen vehicles.
Meanwhile, Andrew Wheeler and the Trump administration are upending fuel economy and carbon regulations in a way that hurts the auto industry, consumers, and our environment. We need to invest more in renewable energy and the research that is making it more affordable all the time.
Electric utilities in Michigan have committed to dramatically increase renewable electricity, reduce carbon emissions by 80 percent, and stop burning coal.
Meanwhile, Andrew Wheeler and the Trump administration have rolled back the historic Clean Power Plan.
I am proud of the fact that Michigan utilities are moving forward anyway because they know it is the right thing and they know what is at stake. But this administration--Andrew Wheeler--has rolled back the historic Clean Power Plan, the Nation's first regulation of greenhouse gases from the power sector.
We need to be laser-focused on climate change and the existential threat it represents. Meanwhile, Andrew Wheeler and the Trump administration are doing their best to pretend that climate change is no big deal. That is even as the Pentagon recently concluded that two-
thirds of critical military installations are threatened--two-thirds of critical military installations are threatened--by climate change.
Climate change is a big deal, and it is time to do something about it that is real--not play political games, but to actually do something thoughtful and real about it.
In the wise words of Hank Williams, Jr., ``We need a little less talk and a lot more action.'' Andrew Wheeler has repeatedly shown no interest in acting. In fact, he wants to take us backward--and is taking us backward--on climate change. He has no interest in reducing, let alone eliminating, carbon pollution. We need to act, and it is clear that Andrew Wheeler is the wrong person to lead the EPA at this critical time for our country.
I urge a ``no'' vote on Andrew Wheeler for EPA Administrator.
