On the recordJanuary 26, 2015
I thank the Senator. I thank the Senator for taking the time to have this very important discussion in the Senate this afternoon. This past Thursday night the majority leader decided they would not allow for a debate on an amendment I was propounding that would have imposed a tax on the Canadian oil as it is being transported through this proposed pipeline. In the eventuality of an oilspill, the Canadians would have to have contributed to. The majority did not make it possible for me to speak for even 1 minute on ensuring that the Canadians had to pay the tax in the event there was an oilspill with their oil in the United States of America, while Americans would have to do so. This is the question I am going to propound to the Senator from California. Right now we know that there is increasing carbon pollution in the atmosphere, which stacks the decks, increasing the chances that our country, our planet would draw an extreme weather joker that would have catastrophic consequences for our country or for any other place in the world. We know that while no one storm can be attributed to climate change, scientists agree there is an increase in the intensity and the frequency of extreme weather events. In fact, in the 2013 consensus report bulletin of the American Meteorological Society said: ``The number of severe regional snowstorms that occurred since 1960 was more than twice the number that occurred during the preceding 60 years'' in the United States of America.…
