Jeff Bingaman: “The amendment is a sense of the Senate. It reads: Findings. Congress finds that greenhouse gases accumulating in the…”

“The amendment is a sense of the Senate. It reads: Findings. Congress finds that greenhouse gases accumulating in the atmosphere are causing average temperatures to rise at a rate outside the range of natural variability and are posing a substantial risk of rising sea levels, altered patterns of atmospheric and oceanic circulation, and increased frequency and severity of floods and droughts. I know this is an issue that some in this Senate disagree strongly with, and I am sure my colleague from Oklahoma will take great exception to this. I believe the science is well established that this is the case, and the National Academy of Sciences has stood behind that basic statement. This is the second statement in the resolution: There is growing scientific consensus that human activity is a substantial cause of greenhouse gas accumulation in the atmosphere. Again, we may have Members here in the Senate who disagree with that conclusion. They are certainly free to do that. But I hope a majority of the Senate agrees with it. The third finding set out in this amendment is that ``mandatory steps will be required to slow or stop the growth of greenhouse gas emissions into the atmosphere.'' There are some who have spoken in the Senate today who have said that mandatory steps are not required, that this problem will be solved by voluntary action, that the marketplace is solving this problem as we speak, and we do not need to be concerned about enacting any kind of mandatory provisions.…”