On the recordDecember 1, 2015
Again, I listened to the previous speaker. House Republicans keep telling us that greenhouse gas emissions are falling in the United States. The previous speaker suggested that the United States doesn't need to do much more about climate change. That couldn't be more wrong. U.S. greenhouse gas emissions did fall in 2008 and 2009 during the economic recession. Since that time, our overall emissions have grown. Cumulatively, U.S. emissions grew, not fell, in 2012 and 2013, the two most recent years for which data is available. What matters really is whether U.S. emissions are on track to decline in the future by the amount needed to prevent dangerous climate change. Scientists say we need to reduce carbon pollution by 80 percent by 2050 to avoid catastrophic climate change. The EPA already predicts that, without any new policies to control carbon pollution, policies like the Clean Power Plan, the U.S. will only see a 2 percent drop in CO<INF>2</INF> emissions by 2040 compared to 2005 levels. So this data highlights the importance of the Clean Power Plan and the Obama administration's overall push to cut greenhouse gas emissions. To suggest the United States doesn't need to do any more, that is just not the case. We need to do a lot more, and that is what the Clean Power Plan is designed to do. I reserve the balance of my time.
