Tom Udall: “climate change is one of the greatest challenges of this century. We have a profound choice before us. We can deny that…”

“climate change is one of the greatest challenges of this century. We have a profound choice before us. We can deny that our climate is warming, we can fall behind our economic competitors, we can ignore the danger to our planet and to our security--that is one choice--or we can move forward with the diversified energy portfolio that includes clean energy, with an energy policy that makes sense, that creates jobs, that protects the environment, and that will keep our Nation strong. There is a lot of work to be done. We can work together, we can find common ground, become energy independent, move us on a path to energy independence, grow our economy, and fight climate change. But instead, unfortunately, our focus today is on the Keystone XL Pipeline. The new majority has not chosen to start with energy policy as a whole or innovation or manufacturing policy or our response to climate change. Instead, we are debating on the floor of the Senate just one pipeline project, which primarily benefits another Nation. There is really one basic question. Is the Keystone Pipeline in our Nation's interest--not Canada's interest or Wall Street's interest but our Nation's interest. I do not believe it is. I say this for two reasons.…”