"Climate Power Play: Financial, Legislative, and Regulatory Moves toward a New Energy Economy": Time to Wake Up on Climate Change

Thank you for inviting me to speak at today's Symposium, Power Play: Financial, Legislative, and Regulatory Moves Toward a New Energy Economy.1 I come from Rhode Island, where we take our environment and our state nickname-the Ocean State2-very seriously. This was perhaps best exemplified by an exchange between Senator Theodore Francis Green,3 a Rhode Island Senator of great longevity, and one of his Senate colleagues. Green had apparently done something to annoy a fellow Senator, who then turned to him and said, Theodore, how big is that little state of yours anyway? Green looked coolly back at him and said, Well, that would depend wouldn't it-high tide or low tide?My point here is that what's happening out there, particularly in our oceans, means a lot for Rhode Island, and that makes it a real pleasure for me to be here with you to have this conversation about climate change. I am perhaps the most optimistic person in the Senate-perhaps the most optimistic person in Congress-about our ability to get something done on this issue. And let me take a few minutes here to take you through my case.The first point in the case is that the reality of climate change is really now beyond serious or sober questioning.4 The atmosphere is measurably warming,5 Arctic ice is visibly melting,6 seas are warming and rising and acidifying,7 and these are not complex projections. They're not computer models. They are measurements. And they are measurements that can be made relatively simply.We also know how much harm the reality of climate change is causing. And we see its costs all around us. We see it in storm-damaged homes and flooded cities.8 We see it in drought-stricken farms and raging wild fires.9 We see it in bleaching coral10 and stressed shellfish.11 We see it in shifting habitats12 and migrating diseases.13These costs are not, however, being incorporated into the price of the coal or oil that are contributing to climate change by releasing carbon pollution when burned. The big oil companies and the coal barons have managed to offload all of those costs onto the rest of us-onto society.14 That is wrong, and it is also a market failure. It gives polluting industries an unfair advantage over cleaner energy producers.So that is why I'm working with a number of colleagues to put a price on carbon pollution-an accurate price on carbon pollution.15 The idea is a pretty simple one: the big polluters pay a fee to the American people to cover the cost of dumping their waste into our atmosphere and oceans.16At present, I will concede that political conditions in Washington do not make that possible. So what do we have to do then? We have to change those political conditions. I think we can do this, and I think we can do it more quickly than most people realize. I see the path before us; I see the tools to do it with, and it's up to us to pick up those tools and use them.I'll mention three of them.The first tool is one that's actually already been wielded, and I give President Obama credit for this. His Climate Action Plan17 has a particular strength to it, which is that the Environmental Protection Agency will be setting carbon pollution standards for new and existing power plants.18The worst fifty power plants in the United States pump out more carbon pollution than Canada.19 They pump out more carbon pollution than South Korea.20 So setting standards to limit pollution from these plants is a big deal. Now, when the owners of those power plants see those regulations and the associated costs of compliance coming at them, suddenly, an economy-wide carbon fee may look a little better. When their status quo is no longer that they get to pollute for free, their attitude about negotiating carbon legislation may shift. And when the polluters' attitude shifts, the Republican Party's attitude shifts.Think about it: if you're a practical politician representing a coal state, you have to realize that the jobs and revenue provided by that industry won't last forever. …

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