On the recordSeptember 22, 2022
Mr. President, I rise to address three different topics, if I might. First, this week, the Senate of the United States did something important, something that is genuinely a big deal. We ratified a treaty. This is something we don't do often enough, and it bears repeating what this Kigali Amendment to the Montreal Protocol is. By a vote of 69 to 27, a big bipartisan vote, this Senate ratified a treaty that will reduce global warming by a full degree Fahrenheit-- something critical to the future of the planet--and we do it in a way that is a win for American manufacturing, a win for American exports, and a win for our planet and creation. Some of you may remember, a long time ago, we discovered a problem--a growing hole in the ozone layer that was being caused by propellants, by CFCs. So the world came together to eliminate CFCs and replace them with a new generation of artificial propellants and refrigerants known as HFCs. That was good news. The hole in the ozone layer had largely been addressed, and the threat of skin cancer and being bombarded by radiation that that posed was largely resolved. Yet, this next generation of chemicals, HFCs, had an unexpected additional problem. They are 1,000 times worse for global warming, for climate change, than carbon dioxide, so much so--and they are so broadly used in every industrial setting--that it has led to a rapid increase in global warming. Well, the solution was actually invented in Delaware.…
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