Cory Booker

We need to create a Government regulatory climate where these folks can flourish, and we are not putting undue cost burdens on them, correct?

Mr. Chairman, thank you for that.

Meeting the rising global demand for energy while simultaneously slashing carbon emissions presents a very difficult challenge for this generation.

There is no way that renewable pace will keep up with the demands we are having.

By 2050, meeting the Paris targets would require us to cut emissions by up to 70 percent while producing 70 percent more electricity.

In the minute I have left, obviously Senators Crapo and Inhofe come at this from a different direction than we do.

The historic Paris Climate Agreement set ambitious goals to target and limit global warming to 1.5 centigrade above pre-industrial levels.

These are innovators who are really critical for advancing nuclear in terms of the safety, in terms of being able to better deal with challenges we have like the waste from current light water reactors as well as deal with problems we have…

American leadership on nuclear energy is absolutely critical.

We have trashed that infrastructure, allowed it to decline dramatically, and we are suffering as a result of that.

If we were running this like America, Inc., as opposed to whatever the mishegas is that we are calling this, the way we are running Congress, if we were the board of directors, we would invest now so we can save a lot of money later, right?

Without this reaffirmation, and without a clear commitment that the government will work diligently to achieve this objective, we will continue to lack the coordinated approach to a national maritime policy our industry needs.

I want to begin, as I always do, with thanking her for her leadership and for holding this hearing on this critical role in maritime industry in our Nation and, frankly, to deal with our Nation's economy.

The more we wait, the more expensive it gets, not just because when you are trying to fix your roof, the longer you wait, the worse the damage gets, but also because the cost of capital right now is as low as it is going to be for a very…

This hearing is timely. As folks know, Senator Fischer and I are preparing to introduce our second maritime reauthorization bill.

I'm really worried about the decline of the U.S. Merchant Marine in general, and the effect it is having on our preparedness, on our economy.

This country's ports, vessels, and Merchant Marine forces are absolutely critical to our Nation's economic growth and military preparedness and disaster relief efforts.

Residents of my state of New Jersey know this well. New Jersey is home to the Port of New York and New Jersey, which has moved more than 120 million tons of cargo every year in recent years and is the busiest port on the East Coast.

The asthma rates are about three, four times higher. No. 1 reason why children are missing schools; the lack of productivity, the impact it has on that child's overall success is pretty dramatic, and that evidence is pretty iron clad…

I think we have a crisis in this Country in terms of the toxicity and how it affects our children.

The lost economic productivity of kids that are being affected and their health is being affected is really troublesome.

So Congress's inaction to find this is putting at risk the health of our children and pregnant women in every State around the Country.

I have reintroduced the same legislation that was reauthorized by Ronald Reagan.

There is a very small pool for environmental justice work.

You agree that this is a new threat and that we should be making supplemental new funding, as opposed to taking away urgently needed dollars from currently existing programs?