[House Hearing, 116 Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
CLIMATE CHANGE, PART I:
THE HISTORY OF A CONSENSUS AND THE CAUSES OF INACTION
=======================================================================
HEARING
BEFORE THE
SUBCOMMITTEE ON ENVIRONMENT
OF THE
COMMITTEE ON OVERSIGHT
AND REFORM
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
ONE HUNDRED SIXTEENTH CONGRESS
FIRST SESSION
__________
APRIL 9, 2019
__________
Serial No. 116-15
__________
Printed for the use of the Committee on Oversight and Reform
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COMMITTEE ON OVERSIGHT AND REFORM
ELIJAH E. CUMMINGS, Maryland, Chairman
Carolyn B. Maloney, New York Jim Jordan, Ohio, Ranking Minority
Eleanor Holmes Norton, District of Member
Columbia Justin Amash, Michigan
Wm. Lacy Clay, Missouri Paul A. Gosar, Arizona
Stephen F. Lynch, Massachusetts Virginia Foxx, North Carolina
Jim Cooper, Tennessee Thomas Massie, Kentucky
Gerald E. Connolly, Virginia Mark Meadows, North Carolina
Raja Krishnamoorthi, Illinois Jody B. Hice, Georgia
Jamie Raskin, Maryland Glenn Grothman, Wisconsin
Harley Rouda, California James Comer, Kentucky
Katie Hill, California Michael Cloud, Texas
Debbie Wasserman Schultz, Florida Bob Gibbs, Ohio
John P. Sarbanes, Maryland Ralph Norman, South Carolina
Peter Welch, Vermont Clay Higgins, Louisiana
Jackie Speier, California Chip Roy, Texas
Robin L. Kelly, Illinois Carol D. Miller, West Virginia
Mark DeSaulnier, California Mark E. Green, Tennessee
Brenda L. Lawrence, Michigan Kelly Armstrong, North Dakota
Stacey E. Plaskett, Virgin Islands W. Gregory Steube, Florida
Ro Khanna, California
Jimmy Gomez, California
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, New York
Ayanna Pressley, Massachusetts
Rashida Tlaib, Michigan
David Rapallo, Staff Director
Britteny Jenkins, Subcommittee on Environment Staff Director
Laura Rush, Deputy Chief Clerk
Christopher Hixon, Minority Staff Director
Contact Number: 202-225-5051
Subcommittee on Environment
Harley Rouda, California, Chairman
Rashida Tlaib, Michigan James Comer, Kentucky, Ranking
Raja Krishnamoorthi, Illinois Minority Member
Jackie Speier, California Paul Gosar, Arizona
Jimmy Gomez, California Bob Gibbs, Ohio
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, New York Clay Higgins, Louisiana
Kelly Armstrong, North Dakota
C O N T E N T S
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Page
Hearing held on April 9, 2019.................................... 1
Witnesses
Jeffrey Sachs, Ph.D., University Professor and Director, Center
for Sustainable Development, School of lnternational and Public
Affairs,Columbia University
Oral statement............................................... 2
The Honorable Tim Wirth, Former Senator from Colorado, Vice
Chairman and President Emeritus of the United Nations
Foundation
Oral statement............................................... 4
Michael Oppenheimer, Ph.D., Albert G. Milbank Professor of
Geosciences and International Affairs, Princeton University
Oral statement............................................... 6
Nicolas Loris, Deputy Director, the Thomas A. Roe Institute for
Economic Policy Studies, The Heritage Foundation
Oral statement............................................... 9
The written statements for witnesses are available on the U.S.
House of Representatives Document Repository at: https://
docs.house.gov.
Index of Documents
The following items are posted on the U.S. House of
Representatives Document Repository at: https://docs.house.gov.
* AIAM Technical Committee Memo from 1996; submitted by Ms.
Ocasio-Cortez
* Email/Global Climate Science Communications Action Plan;
submitted by Ms. Ocasio-Cortez
* Confidential Article, "The Greenhouse Effect;" submitted by Ms.
Ocasio-Cortez
* 1981 Inter-Office Correspondence re: CO2 Position Statement;
submitted by Ms. Ocasio-Cortez
* 2009 Ad from the New York Times; submitted by Mr. Gomez
* Questions for the Record addressed to witness Jeffrey Sachs
CLIMATE CHANGE, PART I: THE HISTORY OF
A CONSENSUS AND THE CAUSES
OF INACTION
----------
Wednesday, April 9, 2019
House of Representatives
Subcommittee on Environment
Committee on Oversight and Reform,
Washington, D.C.
The subcommittee met, pursuant to notice, at 2:27 p.m., in
room 2154, Rayburn House Office Building, Hon. Harley Rouda
(chairman of the subcommittee) presiding.
Present: Representatives Rouda, Hill, Tlaib, Gomez, Ocasio-
Cortez, Comer, Gibbs, Higgins, Armstrong, and Jordan.
Mr. Rouda. The subcommittee will come to order. Without
objection, the chair is authorized to declare a recess of the
committee at any time. This committee is convening the first in
a series of hearings on climate change and the history of a
consensus and the causes of inaction.
Now, I want to welcome our witnesses: The Honorable Tim
Wirth of Colorado, Vice Chairman and President Emeritus of the
United Nations Foundation; Dr. Michael Oppenheimer, the Albert
Milbank Professor of Geosciences and International Affairs at
the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs
at Princeton University, that's going to be pretty tough to get
on your business card; Dr. Jeffrey Sachs, University Professor
and Director of the Center for Sustainable Development at the
School of International and Public Affairs, Columbia
University; and Nicolas Loris, Deputy Director of the Thomas A.
Rowe Institute for Economic Policy Studies and Herbert and
Joyce Morgan Fellow in Energy and Environmental Policy at the
Heritage Foundation.
I will begin by swearing you in. Please stand and raise
your right hand. Do you swear or affirm that the testimony you
are about to give is the truth, the whole truth, and nothing
but the truth, so help you God?
Thank you. Let the record show that the witnesses answered
in the affirmative. Without objection, I would like to have
Senator Wirth, you are now recognized for five minutes to give
your testimony. I'm sorry, Dr. Sachs, because I know you have a
hard stop, so we're going to go with you first to provide your
testimony. The floor is yours.
STATEMENT OF JEFFREY SACHS, PH.D., UNIVERSITY PROFESSOR AND
DIRECTOR, CENTER FOR SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT, SCHOOL OF
INTERNATIONAL AND PUBLIC AFFAIRS, COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY
Mr. Sachs. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. I am honored
to be able to participate in these important hearings. In
October 1992, the U.S. Senate ratified the U.N. Framework
Convention on Climate Change, with the objective to achieve
stabilization of greenhouse gas concentrations in the
atmosphere at a level that would prevent dangerous
anthropogenic interference with the climate system. This is the
law of the land under the Supremacy Clause of the Constitution.
Yet for almost 27 years, the U.S. Congress has failed to adopt
any major legislation to implement this treaty. Since 1992,
greenhouse gasses have risen relentlessly, with CO2
concentrations raising from 357 parts per million in February
1992 to 411 parts per million in February 2019.
Climate safety is now nearly out of reach, thanks in no
small part to the scandalous inaction of the U.S. Congress. In
2019, it is a bit late to discuss the views of Congressmen
regarding climate science. Despite the pseudo debate over
climate science in the Wall Street Journal and Fox News, there
is no such debate among professional climatologists. This
science goes back 150 years. It is absolutely a consensus, and
the type of claims that are made about the debate are simply
bizarre.
In 2019, it is a bit late to doubt the threats awaiting
human kind if the U.S. Congress persists in its unconscionable
inaction. The five hottest years on record have been during the
past five years. The 20 hottest years on record have been in
the past 22 years. Temperatures are already 1.1 degree Celsius
above the pre-industrial level, and are higher than any decade
of the past 10,000 years, the entire span of human
civilization, the so-called Holocene.
The U.S. and the planet are buffeted by extraordinary heat
waves, droughts, floods, forest fires, and extreme storms. The
damage from climate-related disasters is soaring and has
exceeded $450 billion during 2016 to 2018, or an average of
$150 billion per year.
World leading climate scientist James Hansen, long NASA's
lead climatologist, recently published the finding that earth
is now as warm as it was during the prior interglacial period,
known as the Eemian, when the sea level reached six to nine
meters higher than today. Hansen concludes that we are at dire
risk of a catastrophic rise in sea level by many meters.
In 2019, it is a bit late to doubt the practicalities of
stabilizing greenhouse gas emissions. Engineering studies
galore have repeatedly demonstrated that we already have the
technologies needed to de-carbonize most or all of the world
energy system, and that comprehensive de-carbonization is
within reach and is economical. The key steps are to shift
electricity from coal, oil, and gas to renewable zero carbon
sources, mainly solar, wind, hydro, and geothermal, to
electrify automobiles and home heating, and to meet other
energy needs, for example, shipping, aviation, trucking and
heavy industry through a combination of direct electrification
in synthetic fuels manufactured with zero carbon electricity.
In view of these findings, the recent proposals for a Green
New Deal make eminent sense, and a de-carbonization plan should
be put into legislation as soon as possible. Several recent
studies have shown how the U.S. can de-carbonize the energy
system by 2050. Several States, including California and New
York, are already aiming to de-carbonize their power sectors
before that date, yet the Federal Government is rudderless and
without a plan, because of the chronic inaction of the U.S.
Congress.
In 2019, it's late to claim that the U.S. should not act
because other countries will not follow suit. The Paris Climate
Agreement provides a mechanism to coordinate global actions.
All 193 U.N. members States signed the agreement, yet only one,
the United States, has declared its intention to withdraw from
the agreement. With the science established, the climate
disasters at hand, the future risks evident, the technological
solutions available, and the diplomatic framework established,
the question remains why Congress has so flagrantly failed?
In my view, it is money. The oil industry supports the
campaign funding of much of the Congress, much of this
committee, and much of all of the Congress, especially on the
Republican side. For all of Congress, the oil and gas sector
contributed $82 million in the last election cycle. The largest
spending was outside money at $35 million; PAC money 15; Koch
Industries spent by itself $10.5 million; eighty-seven percent
went to Republicans; the co-contributions, 94 percent--99
percent to Republicans. Total campaign spending by the oil and
gas sector since 1990 has totaled $622 million, with 81 percent
going to Republican candidates.
In addition to the campaign spending, the oil and gas
industry spends an astonishing amount on lobbying, $124.8
million during 2018, which comes to $232,000 per Member of
Congress. The top five lobbying clients were ExxonMobil, Koch
Industries, Chevron, Royal Dutch Shell, and the American
Petroleum Institute. Their combined spending last year was
$46.7 million. The total lobbying outlays of the oil and gas
sector during 2010 to 2018 summed to a shocking $1.225 billion.
Twenty-two Senators wrote a letter to Trump asking him to
pull out of the Paris Climate Agreement. Every one of those
Senators, all Republicans, was funded by oil and gas PACs. The
total oil and gas PAC spending for the 22 Senators for the
period 2013 to 2018 came to $5,870,000.
The American people have lost confidence in the U.S.
Congress. Only 11 percent of the public expresses a great deal
or quite a lot of confidence in Congress down from 42 percent
in the early 1970's. Only 8 percent describe the honesty and
ethical standards of Congress as high, or very high, compared,
for example, with 84 percent for nurses.
Our hopes rest with politicians who choose to run their
election campaigns without accepting the corrupting money of
corporate PACs, especially oil and gas PACs. All politicians
should renounce oil and gas PACs and return to the business of
protecting the American people.
Mr. Chairman, I implore this committee and the Congress to
act without further delay. Twenty-seven years of inaction are
dangerous enough. I know that I speak on behalf of millions of
Americans and billions of people around the world who seek an
urgent response to a world in peril. Thank you very much.
Mr. Rouda. Thank you, Dr. Sachs. We are starting to bump up
against a vote, but in the effort of trying to get a little bit
more testimony in, Senator Wirth, I would like give you five
minutes for the floor and to----
STATEMENT OF HON. TIM WIRTH, FORMER SENATOR FROM COLORADO, VICE
CHAIRMAN AND PRESIDENT EMERITUS OF THE UNITED NATIONS
FOUNDATION
Mr. Wirth. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman, and I'm
delighted to be here and be back in the House where I spent 12
incredibly interesting, and, I hope, productive years. It is a
great opportunity, and I am delighted to have you here. My
message today is really very simple. We have understood the
science of climate change for over 40 years. It hasn't changed,
it has just gotten more refined and more granular and more
clear in its specificity, but the basic thrust of that science
has not changed. We know about the climate problem; we know
about carbon; we know where it comes from; we know how it gets
generated. And the basic question is, given this, we have
allowed this climate crisis to increase dramatically. And the
question is, why did we let this happen the way it has, and now
what are we going to do about it? That's what you all are up
to, and I am delighted that you're taking on this small and
modest challenge. It is enormously important.
We went through a period in the 1980's and 1990's of
significant bipartisan cooperation. Just as a marker of that,
the biggest climate bill in the Senate was introduced in 1990,
and it had 20 Senate sponsors, 12 Democrats and eight
Republicans. That will give you a flavor of the bipartisan
nature of this. George Bush--when George H.W. Bush spoke of the
climate issue. He said, Now I'm going to apply the White House
effect to the greenhouse effect, and they really went to work
on a number of significant changes in public policy that had to
be made. There are all kinds of examples of partnerships that
occurred between Members of the Senate, Republicans and
Democrats, and the same thing was going on here.
So what happened? How did this all come a cropper, which it
did some time in the late 1990's, early 2000's? And I would
attribute the change and move away from this time of
cooperation to at least two factors: one, the ozone agreement.
The discovery of the hole in the ozone came in around 1987, and
by--in a very short period of time, the Congress had acted, the
Ozone Treaty was signed, and changes were made. Very quickly,
done very rapidly. But that was a sign to other people of what
could be done, and what, for those who are opposed to it, of
the kind of issue that had to be stopped.
A second marker was the clean air amendments of 1990. That,
in a similar way, I think, caught the industries affected by
surprise. Again, the Congress acted quickly. The leadership of
the Congress acted rapidly. Dole and Mitchell were side by side
in the amendments, and I think many in the industry thought
this is getting out of control, you know, what we have got to
do is make sure that the changes that are being requested and
required, you know, are slowed down if not stopped.
Out of that grew the Global Climate Coalition, and the
Global Climate Coalition was created by the National
Association of Manufacturers, and in it was just about every
industry in the United States when it began in the early
1990's. It continued for 15 years until it ran out of gas, but
during that 15-year period of time, it had an enormous impact:
collecting political contributions, raising enormous amounts of
research money, doing a lot of advertising that was really
very--very false in terms of talking about the climate crisis.
They became a major force opposed to the changes that
everybody in the scientific community believed had to be done
and in which there had been a major bipartisan agreement. That
stopped.
Now, why did it stop in 2020 right at the beginning of the
21st century? Well, the political pressure from these groups
was intense, and I think a lot of people were really thrown off
stride by that just as the industries, I think, were caught
somewhat off guard by the rapid movement of the Montreal
protocol and ozone, and by the rapid passage of the clean air
amendments. I think many on the proponent side were caught by
surprise by the very rapid development of the Global Climate
Coalition.
Anyway, the two groups really remained in conflict, you
know, for, I would say, a good 15 years. And it wasn't until
the Paris Climate Accord that began the direction of those that
these groups began to come together, aided by another very
significant change, which was that most of the big industry
groups dropped out of the Global Climate Coalition. They
realized that there was a real climate crisis coming. They
realized that there were great economic opportunities there,
and they realized they had to get their industries more deeply
involved in the public policy process. This occurred over--it
didn't happen overnight, as you can imagine, but these
industries, many of them became very involved and, I would
argue, very helpful in turning the corner away from the world
of confrontation back toward a greater time, a time of greater
cooperation.
By the time of the Paris Climate Accord, you know, the
world had really come together--this is a shorthand obviously--
but it had come together in a very interesting and important
set of new coalitions designed to make progress. No longer was
it going to be governments dictating what the solutions were
going to be, but it was a different kind of a process that was
grassroots, bottoms up, and very important in that fashion.
So that's where we are coming out of 2015. We now have
remnants of the battle. I think the current administration has
not been helpful at all in encouraging the kind of changes that
have to be made. In fact, they have been discouraging those and
trying to turn back much of the progress made and to destroy
many of the institutions that were built. But even so, the
momentum is very significant and continues.
Which brings me to the final item I wanted to mention, and
that's the Green New Deal. You know, I'm a great supporter of
the fact that the Green New Deal was introduced. I think that
it served a major policy goal by illustrating again and
bringing to people's attention the need to move. It was not a
prescriptive. Nobody ever thought the Green New Deal was going
to be prescriptive. It wasn't a piece of legislation. It was a
not particularly well-drafted prose document. But it raised the
issue and the urgency of the intergenerational crisis. It
raised the urgency of the fact that, you know, we had to make
changes that are going to impact possibly--probably, the
poorest people in the country had to be thought about and
focused on, and it made other Statements about what everybody
knows has to be done, and the terms of the long group of
changes.
So I believe that the people responsible for the Green New
Deal deserve a pat on the back, not a kick in the shins, but
rather, just say, Good job, and we hope everybody can pick up
on the thrust of what they were trying to do. So, Mr. Chairman,
thank you very much. Delighted to be with you.
Mr. Rouda. Thank you, Senator Wirth. And as is the case, we
have votes that we have to go to, and, Dr. Sachs, I realize you
may not be here with us when we get back, and Dr. Oppenheimer
and Mr. Loris, I apologize that we're going to put a delay on
the continuation here. And I also would like to thank my
colleague, Mr. Higgins, for coming in, so we can get this
started. We are going to run to vote now, so we are adjourned
now until--temporarily adjourned until, probably about--
recessed, excuse me, until about 3:15.
Mr. Higgins. Mr. Chairman, before we adjourn, I would
like--on the record, I would like to submit a question in
writing to Dr. Sachs if he is not going to be here, and I thank
him for appearing today.
Mr. Rouda. Absolutely, that will be fine. And we will
recess until approximately 3:15 p.m. or when votes finish,
whatever occurs sooner. Thank you.
[Recess.]
Mr. Rouda. The subcommittee will come back to order. Thank
you, everybody, for enduring that delay. We're going to
continue with witness testimony. Dr. Oppenheimer, I believe you
are next up, so the floor is yours for the next five minutes or
as much time as you need.
STATEMENT OF MICHAEL OPPENHEIMER, PH.D., ALBERT G. MILBANK
PROFESSOR OF GEOSCIENCES AND INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS, WOODROW
WILSON SCHOOL OF PUBLIC AND INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS, PRINCETON
UNIVERSITY
Mr. Oppenheimer. Well, that's quite an invitation. Thank
you, Mr. Chairman, and thank the committee for holding these
hearings. I think they're especially important in light of some
of the rather discouraging comments about climate science, or
the facts that we heard in this morning's full committee
hearing. I was asked by the staff to describe highlights in the
development of climate change science that had occurred by late
in the 1980's to illustrate how much scientists already knew at
that time. Although the science of climate change and the
greenhouse effect reaches back to the early 19th century, and
you can read my full testimony if you want a summary and
references.
Let me start by citing a 1979 report from the National
Academy of Sciences, and I'll quote, ``We estimate the most
probable global warming for a doubling of carbon dioxide to be
near three degrees Celsius,'' which is about five degrees
Fahrenheit, ``with the probable error of plus or minus 1-1/2
degrees Celsius.'' Now go on, ``We have tried, but have been
unable to find any overlooked or underestimated physical
effects that could reduce the currently estimated global
warming due to a doubling of atmospheric carbon dioxide to
negligible proportions, or to reverse them altogether.''
In other words, a committee 30 years ago, 40 years ago,
looked hard at this issue, came up with estimates for the
amount of warming that would come from doubling the amount of
CO2 in the atmosphere, which we're unfortunately well on our
way to doing, and gave an answer which is not much different
than today's and could not find, try as hard as they would, a
way to negate those--that warming of the three degrees Celsius,
which is quite substantial. The same remains true today. Things
have not changed that much in respect to how large we think the
warming could be.
After an avalanche of scientific developments during the
subsequent 10 years, we already knew a number of other things,
and I'll just summarize them. This is what we knew at the end
of the 1980's: By trapping heat, greenhouse gasses had
maintained a climate in which civilization developed and
thrived. Much of the difference in the surface temperature
between earth and its two nearest neighbor planets, Mars and
Venus, Venus being hot, Mars being cold was due to the moderate
greenhouse gas levels on earth. Atmospheric concentrations of
the primary human made greenhouse gas carbon dioxide were
increasing, we knew that at that time, mainly as a result of
the combustion of coal, oil, and natural gas to produce energy,
and that continues to be the case today.
Earth's global mean or average temperature had increased by
about four-tenths of a degree Celsius, or seven-tenths of a
degree Fahrenheit at that time since the late 19th century, and
sea level had risen, as well. We knew all that then by the late
1980's. Today, earth is close to a degree Celsius warmer, and
sea level is about 8 inches higher than it was about a century
ago.
Fourth, we knew that the increase in carbon dioxide in the
atmosphere would last a millennia, a very, very long time,
unless a way were found to artificially remove it and store it
somewhere. The same is true today. There's a long inertia in
this problem. If ambitions were not reduced substantially,
earth's climate would become warmer in the next century, and
this is looking from the 1980's, so the next century is this
century, than it was over the entire history of civilization,
possibly warmer than it had been for several million years.
Now, we just either got very close to, or surpassed the
first of those dubious milestones, that is warmer than in the
history of civilization. We may be there already. And we are--
unless we do something to curb emissions, we seem likely to be
headed toward a warmer planet over the next century than has
been witnessed in several million years. Way before humans
evolved.
Resulting climate changes were expected to increase the
frequency of very hot days and lead to impacts on water
availability, crop yields, sea level, and natural ecosystems.
We were worried then particularly about what was the canary in
the coal mine of ecosystems, namely coral reefs, and coral
reefs due, to a number of insults, including climate change,
have begun to perish around the globe in the tropics where they
live.
Today, most of these impacts have already been detected and
much larger changes are forecast. In other words, the broad
outlines of a problem bearing high risk for humans in society
were already clear, even if many important details remain to be
fleshed out. They were already clear 30 years ago.
To just bring us up to date, by the mid 1990's, the
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change in which I have
participated over the last 28 years, identified 19, 19 aspects
of the global and regional climate, such as cloudiness, snow
cover, glacier length, precipitation intensity, the thing that
causes flooding rainstorms, to which scientists had detected
trends associated with the warming.
So it is not just global average temperature is going up,
it is not just sea level is rising; many, many features in the
climate system, probably, if you could detect all of these
changes, every notable feature of the climate system is already
changing. Climate change has become pervasive and detectable
across the climate system and the earth's system as a whole.
Since then, the scientific consensus has only solidified as
new observations of the climate system have emerged, and
improved modeling techniques have also been developed.
Uncertainty on some important questions remains a fact of
life in the climate science world. For example, the future rate
of disintegration of the large ice sheets in Greenland and
Antarctica and the resulting effect on sea level rise remain
largely uncertain, particularly in terms of what will happen
later in this century.
By the way, the potentially unstable part of the Antarctic
ice sheet, and the part of the Greenland ice sheet that is
likely to slowly melt away, together contain an amount of ice
which if it all were disgorged into the ocean, might eventually
raise sea level by about 50 feet. That won't happen in this
century entirely. Part of it will. Part of it will, even if we
slow emissions, because there's a big inertia in the sea level
rise system. Part of it will just continue to happen for
centuries and centuries beyond, no matter what we do.
However, uncertainty in the face of high risk--uncertainty
like this in the face of high risk, is no excuse for inaction
to reduce the risk. We can see the outlines of the future, and
it is not very comforting, especially with respect to the ice
sheets.
I want to just finish with a word about the so-called
climate skeptics. There's a great deal of difference between
rational skeptics, those who are conversant with the scientific
literature who can be convinced by evidence who subject their
own ideas to rigorous review. There's a difference between
those and the obdurate uninformed skeptics whose ideas about
climate change never, or rarely are, found on the pages of a
peer-reviewed scientific journal.
Regrettably, climate science has been under constant attack
since around 1990 by the proponents of the latter approach and
their facilitators. Presumably due to the increasing political
stakes attached to this issue. There is evidence that these
attacks have reduced the belief by the general public that a
scientific consensus actually exists at all, a disturbing
development that I hope these and other similar hearings help
to counteract.
In conclusion, I would like to thank this committee and
you, Mr. Chairman, for inviting me to testify, and I welcome
the opportunity to answer questions, any questions you may have
on this subject.
Mr. Rouda. Thank you, Dr. Oppenheimer.
Mr. Loris, the floor is yours for the next five minutes.
Thank you.
STATEMENT OF NICOLAS LORIS, DEPUTY DIRECTOR, THOMAS A. ROE
INSTITUTE OF ECONOMIC POLICY STUDIES AND HERBERT AND JOYCE
MORGAN FELLOW IN ENERGY AND ENVIRONMENTAL POLICY, THE HERITAGE
FOUNDATION
Mr. Loris. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and Representative
Higgins, for this opportunity to testify this afternoon. I want
to express that the views in this testimony are my own and
should not be construed as representing any official position
of the Heritage Foundation. With my time, I would like to offer
four brief points, the first three being what I perceive as the
scientific, economic, and political reasons why we haven't
addressed climate change at the Federal level, and the fourth
being pro-growth policy solutions that are also pro-
environment.
First, it is clear that climate change is real, and that
human activity plays a substantial role. However, there are
still many knowledge gaps and uncertainties that exist,
including the varying estimates of how a doubling of carbon
dioxide emissions in the atmosphere affects global
temperatures, and which trajectory of greenhouse gas
concentrations most accurately represent future climate
scenarios.
Furthermore, estimating the economic costs of current and
future climate change has its own set of problems. For
instance, the integrated assessment models used to justify the
social cost of carbon attempt to project costs out to the year
2300, which is problematic in and of itself. More
fundamentally, reasonable changes to the inputs of these models
produce widely different numerical results making them
unreliable in determining what the actual social costs of
carbon might be. Other cost estimates use unrealistic
forecasting or do not properly account for humans adapting to
climate change over time. All of these variables impact how
costly or not costly climate change will be.
Second, the economic justification for Federal inaction on
climate change is quite clear. The proposed policies at the
Federal level would be costly and ineffective. Policies that
restrict the use of conventional energy resources will increase
energy prices, which is just a small part of the overall costs.
Americans would pay more for food, healthcare, education,
clothes, and every other good and service that requires energy
to make and transport.
Importantly, these policies are highly regressive as they
disproportionately impact low income families who spend a
higher percentage of their budget on energy costs. With regard
to the climate benefits from Federal policy, they are
practically undetectable. Even if the U.S. achieved net zero
emissions goal, the averted warming would be less than two-
tenths of a degree Celsius by the turn of the century. To have
any impact on climate, the entire world would have to quickly
change how it consumes energy or simply remain undeveloped.
Both of these are devoid of reality. While many countries are
rapidly expanding their use of renewable power, forecasts
indicate that coal, oil, and natural gas will represent the
overwhelming majority of the world's energy needs well into the
future. For developing countries, reducing energy poverty and
improving standards of living are the higher priority.
Third, when it comes to the political obstacles, consumers'
unwillingness to pay prevents a hurdle for lawmakers. A recent
poll found that 68 percent of Americans oppose paying an
additional $10 per month to fight climate change. A separate
poll found that 43 percent wouldn't even be willing to pay an
additional dollar a month. Nor is action on climate change a
public policy priority for voters when compared to other issue
areas.
Now, to be clear, my skepticism of unpopular costly and
ineffective policies is not an excuse for complacency or a do-
nothing strategy. I believe Congress should advance pragmatic
policies that will drive energy and environmental innovation.
For instance, our national laboratories are important conduits
to spur technological advancements. We have benefited from
Department of Defense R&D and alternative energy sources that
have not only enhanced our military's mission capabilities, but
have also produced significant economic breakthroughs.
Another objective for Congress should be to eliminate
subsidies for all forms of energy to eradicate the pervasive
cronyism and corporate welfare in energy markets. Subsidies
concentrate benefits to a select group of politically connected
interests and disburse the cost amongst the rest of us.
Moreover, this preferential treatment traps valuable resources
in unproductive places.
Instead, we should make emissions-free energy sources like
nuclear and renewable power more economically desirable by
fixing the excessive regulatory burdens that plague these
industries.
Furthermore, competition in electricity markets provides
greater choice, so that if businesses and households want to go
100 percent renewable, producers can meet that demand.
Expanding technological innovation through free trade is yet
another avenue to meet the world's energy needs while reducing
emissions. Tariffs and protectionist policies are unproductive.
Last, we shouldn't dismiss the fact that access to
affordable reliable energy and continued adaptation to extreme
weather is critical to reducing risks for families and
businesses. A recent working paper in the National Bureau of
Economic Research concluded that the drop in natural gas prices
induced by the shale revolution averted 11,000 winter deaths
per year.
In addition, more resilient durable infrastructure will
protect people from climate-related vulnerabilities. Using the
best scientific and technical information available will
improve resilience and readiness for current and future
climate-related challenges, no matter what the cause. Mr.
Chairman, thank you again, and I look forward to your
questions.
Mr. Rouda. Thank you, Mr. Loris. At this time, I would like
to recognize myself for five minutes for an opening Statement.
This hearing is a first in a series of hearings on climate
change that the Oversight Subcommittee on Environment plans to
hold during the 116th Congress. It is my goal that we can work
in a bipartisan manner to examine the history of climate
change, the effects of climate change that are currently being
felt across this great Nation, and solutions to the current
climate crisis, solutions that not only will address this
critical issue but create new industries and jobs for those
countries who take a leading role.
It is our job as representatives of the American people to
prevent the effects of climate change from getting worse.
That's why I'm holding this hearing, not to point fingers at
any of my colleagues, not to chastise industry players and
executives just for the sake of it. We are here to solve a
problem of enormous magnitude, and the best solutions to big
problems have always been forged by all of us coming together
to devise sensible, feasible solutions that account for the
diversity of American interests.
Today, we will affirm that the science on climate change
has been known for decades, as we have seen from the testimony
already. In 1977, Exxon Oil Company's own in-house senior
scientist told the company's senior management that, quote,
``There is general scientific agreement that the most likely
manner in which mankind is influencing the global climate is
through carbon dioxide release from the burning of fossil
fuels.''
This same scientist went on to say in 1978 that we had a,
quote, ``time window of five to 10 years before the need for
hard decisions regarding changes in energy strategies might
become critical.'' Again, that was 1978. Exxon acted on this
information, immediately launching further research into the
effects of carbon dioxide on the planet, research that included
extensive climate modeling.
Royal Dutch Shell, in an internal document titled, "The
Greenhouse Effect," outlined Shell's extensive knowledge of
climate change implications and warned by the time global
warming became detectable it would be too late to take decisive
action. That was also in 1988. These aren't liberal
environmentalists making these dire predictions. They are oil
company's own management recognizing the scientific reality and
the need for serious action. These energy companies knew then
what we all know now, science matters.
The U.S. Government also knew. In 1988, Dr. James Hansen, a
NASA scientist, testified before the Senate Committee on Energy
and Natural Resources on a panel convened by one of our
witnesses here today, Senator Tim Wirth, another one of our
witnesses, Dr. Michael Oppenheimer, testified that Dr. Hansen--
with Dr. Hansen on that panel, and together they warned the
Senate and the American people of the dangers of a warming
planet.
America listened. President Ronald Reagan created the
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. President George
H.W. Bush helped convene the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro in
1992, and signed the United Nations Framework Convention on
Climate Change, an intergovernmental treaty recognizing the
problem of climate change and calling on all nations to take
efforts to address it. This treaty was ratified by a unanimous
vote in the Senate.
It seems incredible, I know, but in 1992, the U.S.
Government agreed with 154 nations that, quote, ``Human
activities have been substantially increasing the atmospheric
concentration of greenhouse gasses, that these increases
enhance the natural greenhouse effect, and that this will
result in an average in additional warming of the earth's
surface and atmosphere and may adversely affect natural
ecosystems and humankind.''
In 1997, the nations of the world met in Kyoto and decided
that the problem was serious enough that each nation needed to
go further by making binding commitments to reduce emissions.
In 2015, the parties met in Paris, and due, in large part,
to President Obama and Secretary of State John Kerry's in depth
negotiations with China, the parties came to a collective
agreement that all nations in the world would work to keep the
average global temperature rise below two degrees Celsius by
the year 2100, and ideally below 1.5 degrees Celsius. That is
the Paris Climate Accord.
The U.S. was part of this global consensus until June 1,
2017, when President Trump, contrary to overwhelming fact-based
evidence from the scientific community, and the direction set
by Presidents Reagan and George H.W. Bush, announced his
unilateral intention to withdraw the United States from the
Paris Climate Accord. This announcement was made almost 29
years to the day after Dr. Hansen testified that global warming
was a threat to this planet and to humanity.
Now here we are in 2019, and the Federal Government has
taken very little action in response to climate change. The
science hasn't changed, the scientific evidence has been there
all along, but the politics did. Political disagreements are a
hallmark of democracy, and I welcome constructive debates about
what to do about the problem of climate change. But politics
should be separate from the acknowledgment of the problem
itself. The science was clear then. It is equally clear now.
And our panel today is going to help us make sure and sense of
why the U.S. has not taken decisive action to address what we
have known for decades.
Again, I want to thank the individuals who have come to
testify. I will close with, I believe, that the U.S. can rise
to meet this challenge, and to quote John F. Kennedy, ``We will
do so not because it is easy, but because it is hard.'' As
Americans, this is our time to lead the world as we have done
many times throughout our history, for us, for our children,
and four all future generations.
At this time I would like to turn it over to my colleague,
the acting ranking member, Mr. Higgins from Louisiana. Thank
you.
Mr. Higgins. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and thank you to our
witnesses for their participation in today's hearing. There's a
couple of things that I have noted from listening very
carefully, very prayerfully, to the testimony thus far.
Everything here, everything around us is touched in two ways by
regulations of the Federal Government, and by the oil and gas
and petrochemical industry, the clothes upon our back, the
glasses that we wear, the seats upon which we lean, the carpet
under our feet.
Let's have no illusion about the point of today's hearing.
The majority has called this meeting for the sole purpose of
condemning the oil and gas and petrochemical industry. I call
for a bipartisan and candid discussion about the challenges of
climate change that we face as a species that are blessed to
inhabit this earth. It is our responsibility to address these
challenges within the parameters of our constitution, and based
upon a sober interpretation of the science as it is available
to us.
I'm old enough to recall when the science of the time
Stated that very soon, global cooling would overtake the
planet. Then the language changed to climate change. And now in
today's hearings, we have heard more about global warming
again.
So it is not the doubting of science, it is the reasonable
question of the interpretation of the scientific data. This is
what we seek, and we must recall that we are a union of 50
sovereign States, a representative republic, with
constitutional parameters, and that there's no such thing as
Federal money. It is the people's treasure.
We will, no doubt, hear of accusations and anecdotal
stories to justify inquiries into American businesses. This day
we'll hear this. By global standards, these industries are
leaders for operations conducted in the cleanest and safest
manner. American industry leads the planet in clean, efficient,
and safe operation. You will, perhaps, not hear from my
colleagues across the aisle the countless achievements for our
Nation's energy industry has made toward cleaner and more
efficient operations. In fact, since the year 2000, the oil and
gas industry has invested over $108 billion into greenhouse gas
mitigation technology.
The slide behind me based upon reporting in 2015 and 1916
alone, the oil and gas industry directly reduced emissions by
the equivalent of 57.1 million metric tons of CO2. American
industry did this, not Chinese industry, Indian industry,
Brazilian industry, American industry. For comparison purposes,
this reduction of CO2 is equal to the same amount of carbon
sequestered by 67.2 million acres of forestry.
Further, the investment in the nine hydrocarbon resources
made by the oil and gas industry, such as wind, solar, and
geothermal resources that my colleagues have made their
priority, account for over 16 percent of all our Nation's
investment into new and emerging sources. I support these
private investments by industry and by other organizations. An
all-of-the-above energy strategy should be our path. It is my
goal forward for America, and I look forward to the progress
that will be made, especially into small modular nuclear
reactor technology, solar, and other sources of clean renewable
energy, but this will come from American industrial investment,
not from bureaucrats in D.C. Every one of us wants to leave a
cleaner environment for our children and grandchildren.
However, the demonization of the fossil fuel industry and
radical calls for its abolishment are increasing from my
colleagues across the aisle as posturing takes place for the
2020 elections.
Even if we were to completely curb our Nation's CO2
emissions, which at this point would destroy our national
economy and injure countless Americans, it would not make a
dent on global emissions. Countless other nations, including
China and India, would immediately negate any progress that we
made. The American industrial model should be the model for the
world, and within the parameters of our constitutional
restraint, to recognize the rights of States and individual
citizens therein were limited in scope, what shall we do? We
will address these problems with reason and soundness of
judgment. We should not call for radical proposals that end
fossil fuel. We should be working internationally to bring
American industry, ingenuity and standards to other countries.
Mr. Chairman, I thank you for your indulgence. I look
forward to today's hearing and the testimony of our witnesses.
Mr. Rouda. Thank you, Mr. Higgins. At this time, I would
like to recognize myself for five minutes for questions. I
would also like to point out that I, too, Mr. Higgins, am
thankful for the attempts and direction that the energy
companies are leading in embracing clean energies and renewable
energies, but as they pointed out from their own studies from
the 1970's and 1980's, we need to do more, and we need to do
more sooner, and that is really the goal of these hearings is
to move in that direction, not to have discussions about
eliminating industries, but looking at how these industries can
help transform our economy and the world's economy to clean
energies and renewable energies.
This used to be a bipartisan message. In the 1970's and
1980's, we saw bipartisan support for just this purpose. In
fact, I used to be a Republican. I remember when environmental
stewardship was something that was front and center for
Republicans, and I'm hopeful that this committee, and the full
committee, as well as our entire Congress, can get back to
recognizing that it is not a debate about whether climate
change exists in humankind's influence, but what we can do
together to address it.
So with that I would like to begin my questions here today
by asking the panel, and I want to make sure I heard correctly.
None of you believe that climate change does not exist. Is that
correct? And all would agree that humankind plays a primary or
leading factor in that regard. Is that correct? Let the record
show that all three witnesses agreed with that information,
both Democratic and Republican witnesses.
That brings us to our next question, the urgency of acting
now. Senator Wirth, what role do you think the government must
play in order for the United States to meaningfully respond to
climate change?
Mr. Wirth. Well, thank you, Mr. Chairman. I think there are
a string of activities the government should be supporting.
First of all, I think we have to remember that one of the
things that you have talked a lot about how things have changed
over the last 40 years, and one of the most important things
that has changed is the fact that so much of American industry,
and Mr. Higgins mentioned this, so much of American history has
become engaged, you know, been very supportive of climate
reduction efforts, and been very much out front, in fact, often
beyond what anybody in the government might have been doing at
the time.
So what are they asking? They're often asking for, make
sure that the rules and regulations that govern our whole
energy package, and a lot of those are Federal rules, are ones
that can facilitate, and I think a review at all times of the
regulatory apparatus is a very, very constructive step to take,
and investments in the future that R&D strategy, much more
effective than the one we have now, I would certainly recommend
that we undertake.
I think there are a variety of items in the so-called Green
New Deal that must be pursued and understood. If not very
specific items that are there, certainly the thrust that we
have to be deeply concerned about the communities and the
country and around the world that are most affected by climate
change, you know, how are they affected and what kind of
equities are built into whatever what climate solutions we
make? What kind of intergenerational compact are we leaving for
the next generation or the next two generations that come
along? And how do we make sure that those interests are
understood, which means that we have to act much more
aggressively and much more rapidly.
So in my testimony, I lay out a number of specific items
that Senator Hart and I, for example, developed in response to
the Green New Deal and all the criticism it received by way of
saying that we thought that the Green New Deal had done an
enormous amount of good by focusing attention, bringing people
to think more broadly about what has to be done.
Mr. Rouda. Thank you. Mr. Loris, some of the testimony from
Dr. Sachs, and he is not here to talk about it, but talked
about the money in politics. And H.R. 1, which was passed by
the House a few weeks ago, helped and hopes to address money in
politics. I believe some of your testimony talked about that,
as well. Can you elaborate on, if we had greater transparency,
in getting the money out of politics, especially in this
industry, how that might be able to positively impact
addressing climate change?
Second, and arguably more important, the economic
incentives could be shifted to drive renewable clean energies
and allowing energy companies to be a leader in doing so?
Mr. Loris. Yes. Well, I think the best avenue to getting
money out of politics is to reduce government intervention into
the marketplace broadly, and that comes with getting rid of all
of these subsidies that accrue to the oil and gas industry, to
the coal industry, to renewables and to nuclear, because if you
get the government out of picking winners and losers, there's
less of an incentive to lobby. There's more of an incentive to
rely on the market price and price signals to drive innovation
in the energy sector.
So I think that the root cause of some of this is just the
historical policies that we have had in the past, whether it is
subsidies for oil and gas or something like the renewable fuels
mandate, these are all policies that incentivize more lobbying
and trying to keep the entrenched special interests the status
quo, rather than trying to reform energy policies more broadly.
I think the renewal fuel standards is a very good example
because a lot of environmental activists are now against first
generation biofuels. There's a whole host of world hunger
organizations that are against first generation biofuels, yet
this policy is in place because it benefits those entrenched
special interests. So when we get the government out of the
energy sector in picking winners and losers, it reduces that
root cause of lobbying.
Mr. Rouda. Thank you. And at this time, I will yield five
minutes to you, Mr. Higgins, for questions.
Mr. Higgins. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Loris, there's
been talk in the media for quite some time about natural
disasters. I believe that is a false narrative, it is not
supported by recorded occurrences. Being from Southern
Louisiana, I'm going to focus on hurricanes. Over the past 60
years, the United States has seen a steady decline in hurricane
landfalls. This is contrary to what most Americans that pay
attention to mainstream media, or perhaps the scientific
interpretation of the day would say shifted since I have been
alive from global cooling to climate change or global warming.
That most Americans would say, surely landfalls have increased,
but the data proves otherwise. The data clearly shows the
natural disaster rates have decreased over the years.
Despite these positive projections, today's natural
disasters are more costly than ever before because of Federal,
State, and local governments have failed to invest in
infrastructure.
I'm from Louisiana, born and raised in South Louisiana I'm
no stranger to natural disasters. After Hurricane Harvey, I
went into Texas with civilians on rescue operations, and the
last rescue operation I personally participated in, I'll never
forget, we rescued an elderly gentleman from his home. When we
were getting him out of there and he was safe physically. He
found out I was a Congressman, I certainly didn't look like
one. I never forget what he told me. We should all remember
this. He said, he said, ``Congressman Higgins, I have been
living in my home since 1968. I have seen this much water fall,
but I have never seen this much water rise.''
This struck home to me in my heart, and since I have been
in Congress, we have made a focus of our office to restore
funding for proper dredging, for our water management systems,
man-made or natural, to restore their intended parameters, the
water is trying get back into the Gulf. We, as a government
entity, at the local, State, and Federal level, have failed the
American citizenry regarding the impact of disasters, which the
data clearly shows the frequency of which have decreased, but
the costliness has increased, not because God is dropping more
water on us but because we have failed as government to
maintain our water management systems.
In Louisiana, private industry, specifically the oil and
gas industry, is a private investor in coastal restoration
projects to limit the effects of hurricanes while Congress
continues to spend billions, hundreds of billions of dollars
responding reactively to disasters, the oil and gas industry
has invested proactively.
Mr. Loris, looking at some of the past hurricanes that have
impacted the Gulf Coast such as Katrina and Harvey, is it that
these storms are more powerful than ever before, or that is it
that we haven't significantly invested in mitigation
infrastructure? What investments in our infrastructure help
curb the effects of natural disasters if you would take a
portion of this minute and 30 left, and I would like the other
gentlemen to respond. Would investment in infrastructure help
our Nation?
Mr. Loris. It would. It would help our civilian
infrastructure, and it would help our military infrastructure.
I know a lot of the previous hearing focused on climate
change's impact in the military, and we have seen that no
matter what the cause is, military installations have been
impacted by flooding, coastal erosion, and other sorts of
natural disasters and extreme weather events.
What happened in Nebraska most recently is a good case
study of the Federal Government lagging on the ability to
approve infrastructure that would have helped reduce----
Mr. Higgins. So you concur that investment in
infrastructure is a realistic response to the impact of natural
events, water events, natural disasters? Doctor, do you have a
comment on that, sir?
Mr. Oppenheimer. Yes. I have a comment on a few things that
you have laid out. First of all, U.S. landfall hurricanes,
you're quite correct, there is no known long-term trend,
however, in the North Atlantic Basin, which includes the Gulf
and the East Coast of the United States, there has been,
virtually, certainly, a trend in an increase in intense
hurricanes. Now, we don't understand why hurricanes sometimes
hit the Coast and sometimes go harmlessly out to sea.
Mr. Higgins. That's a valid point, but I'm on limited time.
Would you share that data with us and the committee?
Mr. Oppenheimer. Certainly. I would also--one more point
along those lines, Hurricane Harvey has been subject to intense
analysis, which has shown that one of the reasons the flooding
was so intense was because the precipitation intensity was
enhanced by a warmer ocean feeding more moisture into the
system.
Your third point about infrastructure--I think you're
absolutely right, that we need to be ready for nastier and
nastier climate-extreme events, and we're going to, in many
cases, need an enhanced investment in infrastructure.
Mr. Higgins. Thank you for your clarification. And, Mr.
Chairman, I would like to thank you for the tone that you have
set for this hearing, sir. It is quite bipartisan, and I think
helpful for us all.
Mr. Rouda. Thank you. I would like to recognize the
gentlewoman from California, Katie Hill, for five minutes and
also ask that she chair for me while I step out for a moment.
Thank you.
Ms. Hill.[Presiding.] Thank you. And thank you all for
being here today. Senator Wirth, you spent much of your life in
public service serving your country, and I want to thank you
for that, including as a Member of this body. You were on the
landmark panel in 1988, which included Dr. Hansen and Dr.
Oppenheimer, where the alarms were first sounded on climate
change. Do you happen to remember if there was much talk about
the next generation on that panel, and about protecting our
kids and doing something for our kids?
Mr. Wirth. Well, there were two scientists on the panel,
Oppenheimer and Hansen, and I was just a convener, I was the
political hack putting it all together. But the discussion
afterwards was truly intense. I think people were very
surprised to hear somebody say this is not something that's
theoretical, but it reached over from the theoretical into the
practical. This is something that we observed, and the impact
that then began to engage for people was significant, and was
there focus on young people? Yes, because we began to
understand this wasn't going to be an intergenerational battle,
and we're not going to be able to solve it in one generation,
but we're leaving for the next generation an enormous legacy of
damage that's been done to the environment and the living
community.
So it is our obligation to really move on it much more
aggressively than we might have otherwise.
Ms. Hill. The reason I ask is because I was born in 1987,
so when you had that panel in June 1988 I was in diapers, and I
was nine months old. I hadn't walked yet, and so----
Mr. Oppenheimer. We would have welcomed you.
Ms. Hill. So now I'm the generation that's here, and I have
kids literally coming into my office almost every day who are
seven, eight years old. Their parents are telling me that they
have nightmares, they can't sleep because they're worried about
climate change, and they're worried about whether there is
going to be planet. And so, you know, I feel obligated to be
the voice of the next generation who is standing here saying
nothing was done or not enough was done, and I know that's not
on you, per se, but I do think that this is a mandate that we
have to act now.
I'm also--I come from a district that's very split between
Democrats and Republicans, and one thing that I have learned
recently is that Democrats and Republicans didn't seem to be so
far apart as they were previously. Can you tell us if Democrats
and Republicans on the committee shared a belief in the science
on climate change?
Mr. Wirth. Oh, at that point, as I pointed out earlier, we
introduced a major climate bill the first big one right after
the Hansen hearing, and 16 titles that ranged all across
everything we have talked about today and more. And at the time
of introduction there were, 20 Members of the Senate who
sponsored the bill and its introduction, and those were 12
Democrats and eight Republicans. I mean, we were following in
the footsteps of Dole and Mitchell, who had a very tight
partnership in thinking about what had to be done in the world
of clean air, and the Clean Air Act amendments were just coming
up. There were any number of partnerships between members of
both parties. So there was a real feeling of cooperative
endeavor.
Now, how that got broken up is something worthwhile you all
thinking about, and coming to understand, because I think
that's a very important lesson in that, and from that, we might
get a better sense of how we bring people back together again.
You understand our history is always a helpful thing to do, I
think.
Ms. Hill. Absolutely. Thank you. And, Dr. Oppenheimer,
would you agree?
Mr. Oppenheimer. On bipartisanship?
Ms. Hill. Yes, with his impression.
Mr. Oppenheimer. Of course. Many of the political leaders I
dealt with over the years were Republicans and were exerting
strong leadership on this issue going back to Senator--Rhode
Island Senator Chafee, and we would love to see those days
return.
Ms. Hill. So, Senator, you attended the Earth Summit in Rio
in 1992, where over 100 State--heads of State assembled to
address global warming for the first time in history, and the
U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change, the treaty that
came out of that summit, the parties, including the United
States, bound themselves to, quote, ``Stabilize greenhouse gas
concentrations at a level that would prevent dangerous
anthropogenic human-induced interference with the climate
system. That treaty was supported by both''--``by President
George H.W. Bush, and ratified unanimously by the Senate in
1992.''
Senator Wirth, how did we get from that place to, you know,
with unanimous ratification to the Senate's rejection of the
Kyoto Protocol just five years later, it seems like a very
quick turnaround.
Mr. Wirth. Well, I think at that point, things were moving
very rapidly both among the advocates and the opponents of
doing anything in terms of climate change. I think that the
people who were very concerned about the Clean Air Act
amendments, about the Kyoto--about the ozone treaty that came
out of Montreal, there were a number of major national and
international actions at that point that I think caught many in
the industry by surprise. It happened so quickly, and out of
that, I think they decided to mobilize and out of that came
their very effective from my perspective, unfortunately, the
effect of the Global Climate Coalition, and that lasted for
about 20 years, engaging almost every major industry in the
country until they dropped off slowly but surely, and the
Global Climate Coalition faded out in the early part of the
21st century.
Ms. Hill. I know I'm out of time, but I just want to sum up
quickly and tell me if I'm right or wrong, but it sounds like
the fossil fuel industry got scared of rapid changes happening,
and kind of mobilized and left the next generation, my
generation, in the dust, and left us with a lack of action
entirely.
Mr. Wirth. And the advocates on the other side were caught
by surprise themselves at the vitriolic and incredibly well-
organized and highly funded efforts on the other side. So
suddenly, both sides who had been spending an enormous amount
of time and energy together for the last 25 years were split
asunder by, you know, a rapidly changing political environment.
Ms. Hill. Well, I would argue that we now have to make sure
that the time is now to not be caught by surprise. We have had
30 years to try and figure out action moving forward, and I
thank you for your testimony, and we will carry the torch. I
yield to my colleague over there.
Mr. Armstrong. Thank you, Madam Chair. So when we're
talking about how we move forward, when we talk about clean
energy, and I talked about this a little briefly this morning
and--but the conversation that we have to continue to have is
as we move to these new forms and continue to use them more
such as wind and solar, we have to recognize that in order for
those to work--more efficiency in buildings, those things all
are great, but the highest driver of carbon pollution in the
United States right now is transportation, and so as we move to
wind and solar and electric powered vehicles, we are moving
toward batteries. Batteries are a part of this conversation,
and the metals we use in batteries are--I'm just going to use
two examples, because China essentially controls about 90
percent of the world market in rare earth metals, and then
cobalt is actually incredibly important for electric vehicles,
and that's mined in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
So as we move forward with this, and we have done a lot
over the last decade to become energy independent in this
country, but are we having conversations about that
infrastructure and what we're doing, because I'm not aware of a
lot of rare earth mines being permitted in the United States,
and I know for a fact that China doesn't always have our best
economic interests at heart.
So as we continue to transition into these things, don't we
have--I mean, because we're off-shoring pollution doesn't
necessarily mean--I mean, we're dealing with carbon emissions,
but at what expense, and that's my question. And I'll start
with Mr. Loris, and then but really, ask everyone, because most
of these places would be qualified as Superfund sites in the
United States. I mean, they're incredibly toxic to ground rot,
they're incredibly toxic to the environment. So in our quest
for cleaner energy it doesn't do us a lot of good if we're
exporting pollution, whether that means we're exporting oil,
natural gas, coal to countries that don't have our regulations
are creating a market in countries that have an economic
incentive to mine these products as fast as possible, and not
in the cleanest way possible. And then from a national security
and economic security standpoint, do we have to be concerned
that one country will control 90 percent of essential materials
we need to create these batteries?
Mr. Loris. Well, I think from an environmental efficiency
standpoint your point is well taken. If you look across the
board as to what the United States does with regards to mining
and operations or cement manufacturing our energy intensity is
far better than developing countries and our emissions per unit
of output is far lower than developing countries. And so, if we
enact expensive regulations that are going to drive these
companies overseas, you are essentially exporting those CO2
emissions and making no noticeable impact in climate, you're
actually making things worse, so that's problematic.
Second, I think the environmental review and the permitting
processes for all energy infrastructure projects are in need of
reform, whether it is for rare earth mining, whether it is
renewable projects and transmission lines and citing, the more
we have competitive regulatory reform that allows these
technologies to come online, that allows these mines to be
developed, the better off we'll be in terms of an economic
efficiency standpoint, but also just from an energy access
standpoint.
Mr. Oppenheimer. I think both concerns are valid. If we are
fortunate and make an energy transition quickly, that will
probably involve electrification of transportation. That
implies if it is going to work and reduce carbon dioxide
emissions at the same time, a grid with higher levels of
storage and a smart advanced grid that can wield the
intermittent renewable power, merge it with remnant amounts of
fossil fuel power over time.
Mr. Armstrong. I want to just briefly--storage requires
batteries.
Mr. Oppenheimer. That is correct. Storage--these issues
about rare earth metals, et cetera, are issues of batteries,
too, but it is not a solution to the problem to let an industry
develop here, which would maybe satisfy security concerns and
let it be as dirty as the same industry is in China. It is a
healthy, strong, reasonable regulatory system that we need to
make sure we don't wind up with a cesspool here the way it is
in some other countries.
Mr. Armstrong. Well, and I don't disagree with that, I
mean, we talk about permitting for solar and wind and the
problems we run into in that whether it is at the State or the
Federal level--I mean, I can't imagine--I mean, in all reality,
the permitting for rare earth mine, I mean we are not going--I
mean, we--developing these quickly is not--I hope we do develop
them, but I'm a little skeptical that we can develop them
quickly. I'm more concerned about reliance on a lot of these
countries to provide our energy after working hard to become
energy independent, but with that I know I'm past my time, so
thank you, Mr. Chair.
Mr. Rouda. Thank you. And now I recognize the gentlelady
from Michigan, Congresswoman Tlaib.
Ms. Tlaib. Thank you, Chairman. In my district, we have
been fighting for years to hold corporate fossil fuel
polluters, like Marathon Petroleum, the coal carbon industry
accountable. When black piles--I don't know if you heard this
story, but black piles of what they call petroleum coke started
showing up on a Detroit riverfront blowing into people's homes,
and many of us organized around that, even though the State and
everyone said it wasn't toxic we had it independently tested
and it had carcinogenic, and all these other toxins in there
that cause cancer and respiratory issues, and we fought
extremely hard to get it removed, but it was because of land
use, not because of environmental protections.
It was, you know, for many of us that live in these
communities for us, you know, it is not 12 years. Our 12 years
is here now, and that's how I feel when we talk about climate
change. If folks want to see really what it looks like not to
do anything, you should come to my district, where I think the
smell sometimes--growing up I thought that smell was normal,
and one in five children have asthma. I have some of the
highest rates of cancer and respiratory issues in some of my
ZIP Codes within the 13th congressional District.
So I'm really concerned about the fossil fuel industry and
others, which are continued to poison our national conversation
and stop meaningful Federal action on climate change.
So I would like to go right to the panel and to ask each of
you, are you aware of any organizations that are currently
working to spread misinformation, or sow unreasonable doubt
about the science of climate change?
Mr. Wirth. Well, I think the organizations that are in
opposition have become much more subtle and sophisticated than
they were before. You know, they're not coming out and
confronting the issue of climate change.
Ms. Tlaib. You mean they're hiding?
Mr. Wirth. Well, hiding, to use your language. They are
hiding, but they're much more sophisticated about it. And, you
know, they're funding university laboratories for example,
which is a way of insinuating themselves and legitimizing a lot
of the work that they do, some of which is very valuable, by
the way, but not to be perfectly straightforward and honest
about what's going on.
I'll give you an example. In my backyard, the oil shale and
industry has just boomed, you know, and the amount of fracking
looks like measles on some of the counties in Colorado. And one
of the key issues going to what you were talking about in terms
of health is methane emissions, and what we're now learning
about methane emissions and children's health and endocrine
disrupters and what happens, you know, it is a very, very
subtle kind of science, and that's enormously important and has
to be also part of what we think about. That's what you're
seeing in Detroit. That's what we're seeing in north of Denver
and that whole--in the whole shale area. You have to figure out
how we're going to set the other rules related to methane just
like you're looking for how do you set rules related to coal
emissions.
Ms. Tlaib. So, and I don't want to--there's organizations
like Heartland Institute, the Cooler Heads Coalition, the
Competitive Enterprise Institute, and ALEC, the American
Legislative Exchange Council, are still promoting these climate
misinformation campaigns as you know. So, for example, in 2011,
ALEC made a submission to the EPA docket, which I would like,
Mr. Chairman, without any objection I would like to submit for
the record of the committee, where they said, quote, ``Carbon
dioxide is a natural occurring, nontoxic, and beneficial gas,
and it poses no direct threat to the public health.''
Statements like these are false and misleading. It makes me so
angry because I have so many children that are directly
impacted by doing nothing.
Do not take--you know, many of them do not just take, you
know--I wouldn't just take my word for it. Take the word of
Eric Schmidt, the chairman of Google who vowed to disassociate
his company from ALEC because, quote, ``The facts of climate
change are not in question anymore.'' And Mr. Schmidt went on
to say, ``and so we should not be aligned with such people that
are just literally lying.''
And so, Mr. Loris, is it true that your organization, the
Heritage Foundation, has received funding from petroleum
industry sources like the Koch brothers?
Mr. Loris. We have in the past. I don't know when the last
time they gave us money. But can I clarify one thing? Never has
any donation or contribution to my organization ever influenced
what I write or how I view energy economics.
Ms. Tlaib. Okay. And you're a former employee of the Koch
Charitable Foundation, correct?
Mr. Loris. That's correct.
Ms. Tlaib. According to a reporting, the Koch brothers have
donated more than $100,000,000 since 1997 to dozens of groups
that spread climate misinformation. According to reporting in
the New Yorker, the Koch brothers have, quote, ``funded many
sources of environmental skepticism, such as Heritage
Foundation, which has argued that scientific facts gathered in
the past 10 years do not support the notion of catastrophic
human-made warming.'' Is that correct?
Mr. Loris. The catastrophic part is what's correct. In my
opening Statement as well as my written testimony I acknowledge
that man-made emissions are contributing to warming. You know,
from 1951 to 2010 you have seen over 50 percent of the warming
likely attributed to man-made emissions. What I think is
irresponsible is those climate catastrophe scenarios that are
borderline impossible. If you look at what the IBCC looks at
the national climate assessment with regard to different
representative concentration pathways of greenhouse emissions,
where you get the really scary climate scenarios, is if you
have every ounce of coal extracted from the world, if you have
low technological development, if you have low economic growth,
and you have a tripling of our population essentially, and I
don't think those scenarios are all that realistic. And so,
yes, I think some of that climate catastrophe scenarios are not
grounded in reality. That's not to say that climate change
isn't occurring and that there aren't costs, but those high end
scenarios are very unlikely.
Mr. Rouda. At this time, I would like to recognize the
gentlewoman from New York, Congresswoman Ocasio-Cortez.
Ms. Ocasio-Cortez. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. One of my
larger concerns is that climate change is not just an
environmental issue. It is also a crisis created by massive
corporate corruption and misconduct. In fact, ExxonMobil is
currently the subject of a massive New York lawsuit alleging
that the company defrauded and deceived its own investors by
engaging in a, quote, ``longstanding fraudulent scheme,''
unquote, to downplay the risks posed to its businesses by
necessary climate change regulations.
What is concerning to me overall is this is part of a
pattern, private and public, that it is about the role, the
knowing, deliberate, and aggressive role of the fossil fuel
industry and corporate lobbyists and misleading the public
about the scientific consensus on climate change. For decades,
there's been a coordinated effort to confuse the American
public about dire threats to their threat--to their health and
livelihoods. In fact, the fossil fuel industry and lobbyists
have funded third-party groups often with misleading names in
order to confuse, and so debate where the scientific consensus
is established.
So, Dr. Oppenheimer, I have a question. One of these groups
it seems was called the Global Climate Coalition, the GCC. I
mean, it was an international lobbyist group that opposed
action to reduce emissions. Can you tell me anything about this
group, including who funded their efforts?
Mr. Oppenheimer. The Global Climate Coalition went out of
business, first of all, in 2002, I think. So we're talking
about history. I was very familiar with the activities of the
Global Climate Coalition, because I attended many of the
international negotiating sessions that resulted in the first
U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change, and then the Kyoto
Protocol and which continued beyond that. They were active
players at that time, and appeared to be quite influential with
some of the delegations from various countries, particularly
those that had strong interest in the fossil fuel industry.
Ms. Ocasio-Cortez. So would you say----
Mr. Oppenheimer. And they, at that time, themselves, put
out some Statements, which were flat out distortions, lies,
characterize them in a number of ways about the science, which
is what I focus on the most. Go ahead.
Ms. Ocasio-Cortez. Thank you. I apologize, it is just
because we have limited time.
Mr. Oppenheimer. I can't tell you who funded them, because
I don't know.
Ms. Ocasio-Cortez. Sure. Sure. So it seems here what we
have evidence of is that the GCC, the Global Climate Coalition,
they knew about the scientific basis of the greenhouse effect.
They knew that this was true, but--and they knew that they
could not deny the scientific consensus, so instead, their
primary goal was to sow doubt. It seems as though here that the
Global Climate Coalition was actually largely funded by
lobbyist groups and business--and fossil fuel business
interests. Does that--does their advocacy seem to align with
that?
Mr. Oppenheimer. Yes, but let me be a little more specific,
to make it clear. I knew several scientists from, for instance,
ExxonMobil, at that time. I worked with them closely at the
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. They were smart,
they were knowledgeable. They never, in the scientific
deliberations, ever said a word, which led me to believe they
were biased because of their companies. But it seems to me the
people who paid them didn't listen to what they said when they
went home, because I know those people knew the truth.
Ms. Ocasio-Cortez. Yes, absolutely. And it seems from what
we have dug up in history, that is absolutely true, is that
some of the first scientists to sound the alarm about climate
change came from within ExxonMobil, and once they found out,
and once the fossil fuel industry found out from their own
scientists that they were responsible, in large part, for
climate change, they then started to contract lobbyists groups
and third-party organizations.
In fact, in 1988 and 1989, when the Federal Government
first started to realize the extent and the damage and the
great threat that climate change posed, we moved immediately
very quickly to the Kyoto Protocol. It was in 1992. And it
seemed like we were well on our way to address this issue,
until, according to a report by the Guardian, that former
President Bush rejected the Kyoto Protocol, and I quote,
``based on input from the Global Climate Coalition,'' this
lobbyist-funded group.
Senator Wirth, did you have any experience with industry
attempts to undermine the Kyoto Protocol or any international
climate agreements?
Mr. Wirth. Oh, yes. We thought we were putting together a
pretty good agreement. The Kyoto Protocol was the first time to
make specific instructions for what would come out of the Earth
Summit in 1992. So it would put very real restrictions in
various places.
Ms. Ocasio-Cortez. So would you say that it is fair to
conclude that industry--fossil fuel industry lobbyists are
largely responsible for our failure to act on climate change a
generation ago?
Mr. Wirth. Well, it certainly made an enormous
contribution. And let me just tell you one story. At one of the
major international meetings we were working, and the
automobile, American Petroleum Institute, and there was one
third very large lobbyist sat right outside of the negotiation
room, and it was threatening them. They were clearly trying to
bully delegates coming in and out and grabbed them as they came
out. It was astonishing to me. Now, this is the first time I
had seen this, and it was as if, you know, they had hired real
shock troops.
Well, they backed off of this kind of tactic later on, and
then they faded out of existence, but they were right into it
and, you know, were very, very effective in terms of getting
people worries and concerns about who they were and what they
were doing, and so on.
Ms. Ocasio-Cortez. So these lobbyists were literally
sitting right outside?
Mr. Wirth. Just sitting right outside the door.
Ms. Ocasio-Cortez. Watching the lawmakers come in?
Mr. Wirth. There were three chairs right outside the door.
I'll never forget it, you know, and I happened to know, you
meet all these guys in the process, and I went over and said,
What are you doing? And they sort of laugh and they kind of
buttonhole somebody again. You know, it was maybe the low point
of all of that, but it was very real.
Ms. Ocasio-Cortez. Thank you.
Mr. Rouda. Congresswoman Ocasio-Cortez, I'm actually going
to give you a little bit more time. We are trying to
accommodate another member coming.
Ms. Ocasio-Cortez. Fabulous.
Mr. Rouda. So I am going to let the acting ranking member
follow you for a minute or two while another member gets here.
Ms. Ocasio-Cortez. Thank you. It is my lucky day.
Mr. Rouda. So you have got approximately 30 seconds to ask
one more question.
Ms. Ocasio-Cortez. Great. So I have another question here.
Dr. Oppenheimer, can you tell us about the climate
misinformation campaigns of the American Petroleum Institute?
Mr. Oppenheimer. They never showed me their plans, although
I do remember that some of them accidentally became public some
time during the second Bush Administration. And the name of API
appears in many of the groups that have been identified today
as members, supporters, funders, and my interactions with the
representatives of API at the climate negotiations at, I think,
meetings of the plenary sessions of the Intergovernmental Panel
on Climate Change made it quite clear that they were there to
influence the delegations, which they have a right to do, by
the way.
What is unseemly is the kind of thing that Senator Wirth
indicated, which I was witness to, too, these people would sit
in the meetings, send hand signals sometimes to delegates, and
essentially seem to be instructing, I remember in one episode,
the delegates from Saudi Arabia.
Ms. Ocasio-Cortez. Wow. Well, so it was almost like the
lobbyists were the pitcher, and they were kind of giving these
hand signals letting the delegates know what they can and
cannot vote on based on lobbyists' interests.
Mr. Oppenheimer. Absolutely. And it was widely observed and
widely known.
Ms. Ocasio-Cortez. Shocking.
Mr. Wirth. It is important to point out, also, if I might,
that the companies quickly faded out. No longer could you find
companies as members of the Global Climate Coalition, but
rather, they were trade groups, the Farm Bureau, the Edison
Electric, the American Forest Products, the Chamber of
Commerce, so that was their cover group, so those were the
dominant members.
Ms. Ocasio-Cortez. So they were kind of creating these
second and third degree organizations so that they could
distance themselves from the political damage of climate
denial, but still fully participate and fund it.
Mr. Wirth. That was always my opinion, yes.
Ms. Ocasio-Cortez. One last question with the API. In 1998
the American Petroleum Institute created a multimillion dollar
multiyear communications plan to create climate skepticism. Mr.
Chairman, I ask unanimous consent to add these documents, which
we have obtained, to the record.
Mr. Rouda. So moved. And you are out of time.
Ms. Ocasio-Cortez. Thank you very much.
Mr. Rouda. With that, I would like to turn it over to the
active ranking member, Mr. Higgins from Louisiana, for two
minutes.
Mr. Higgins. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Gentlemen, you all
have struck me as an excellent cross-section of reflective of
the very best of American intellect. Senator, what a wonderful
statesman you are. Sir, and you have struck a tone here that
has made me smile.
Mr. Wirth. You're very kind. Thank you.
Mr. Higgins. Doctor, and Mr. Loris, your scientific
observations have been enlightening. I would just like to--I
would just like to challenge this body, and I would like you
gentlemen to respond. By what measure would you advise us to
move forward with reason and seeking truth within the
parameters of our constitutional authority, and in recognition
of states' and individual rights, and within that context would
you agree that scientific consensus changes through the years
what was once considered scientifically unviable is in the next
scientific journal found viable. What was once believed to be
absolutely true is discovered to be not true.
So within the context of a bipartisan, bicameral Congress
with a sworn duty to serve the people and the representative
republic of these United States, by what measure may we move
forward? And I'll begin with you, Senator.
Mr. Wirth. Well, I think one of the first things I would
do, Mr. Chairman, is to convene some of these other experts who
have really dealt directly with this. For example, Chad
Holliday, who is the chairman of Shell, may be one of the most
reasonable executives you ever met, and he is working very hard
to get his colleagues among the very big oil companies to come
kind of get on board and what can they do to advance the goals
of Paris and get to the 2050 goals. And he is a remarkable man
who previously was the head of DuPont and was chairman of the
board of the Bank of America before assuming his
responsibilities at Shell, which I think is now the largest
American oil company.
But anyway, I would have him come. I would have Naomi
Oreskes from Harvard come, who has done the best research that
I know of in terms of who was trying to influence opinion and
how did they do it, and when did they do it? You know, when did
they know and when did they do it? She is absolutely terrific.
It is getting people like that, at some length, so you have a
chance to talk to. You know, these five-minute things are
great, I understand that, and----
Mr. Higgins. I'm quite sure that with the chairman's
leadership and the ranking member for whom I sit today with
their leadership, that's the formula we shall seek, and perhaps
the gentleman can answer questions in writing. Mr. Chairman, my
time has expired.
Mr. Rouda. Thank you. At this time I would like to
recognize from the state of Kentucky, Congressman James Comer,
also the ranking member of this subcommittee. Welcome.
Mr. Comer. Thank you, Mr. Chair, and I know that this
committee has gone long, and I just wanted to clarify something
from the full committee meeting this morning with respect to
some statements that were made regarding the questions that I
asked Senator Kerry.
You know, I don't think anyone on our side denies climate
change. We just basically had questions about how we're going
to pay for this legislation. That was the first part of the
question that I wanted to ask Secretary Kerry and Senator
Hagel. And I didn't get to the next part of the question, or, I
guess, rather, statement that I wanted to make was that with
respect to agriculture and coal, two industries that are huge
in my Southern and Western Kentucky District of Kentucky. With
respect to coal, I don't disagree that the natural gas is
cheaper than coal today.
I just feel that we need to have a diverse energy portfolio
in America, and I believe that there are negative implications
that are affecting communities that a lot of people in
Washington don't realize, with respect to agriculture.
And with all due respect to John Kerry, he was talking
about crop yields and things like that. I doubt he's grown a
lot of crops in his lifetime, and I'm a farmer, former
Commissioner of Agriculture. I believe that every year, yields
have significantly increased, and I believe agriculture doesn't
get the credit it deserves in making efforts to reduce its
carbon footprint.
We in agriculture want to pass the land to the next
generation in better shape than it was when we received it. And
those are some of the statements that I wanted to make that I
didn't have time to make today because we were arguing over the
cost of the first proposal that's received a lot of attention
with respect to climate change the Green New Deal.
But I look forward, ranking member and chairman, to be able
to have dialog on this issue. I do think it is an important
issue, but I think that it has been heavily politicized in a
way that is creating unrealistic expectations for people that
believe passionately in the issue. So, hopefully, we'll have
good dialog as we move forward, and we'll be able to address
the concern, and figure out a realistic path forward in a way
to pay for any major proposed changes that don't put the United
States at a competitive disadvantage.
There was a lot of knocking by Senator Kerry on President
Trump's leadership. One thing that I think the American people
support, or at least they do in my district, is the President's
leadership in trying to put America back on a level playing
field to create manufacturing jobs, to bring back manufacturing
jobs.
One reason we lost manufacturing jobs to China and other
countries is they have much more lenient environmental laws,
and when you poll the American people, the issue that
consistently rises to the top of their concern, whether they're
liberal or conservative, whether they're rich or poor is the
economy. So I applaud the President's leadership in trying to
do that, and I look forward to having open dialog with both
sides as we come to solutions that are affordable and
achievable for the American public. With that, Mr. Chairman, I
thank you and yield back.
Mr. Wirth. Mr. Chairman?
Mr. Rouda. Yes.
Mr. Wirth. Can I just comment very briefly on this, the two
points that are made at the beginning? I think those are
grounds for two really good hearings going back to the question
of where you go from here. One, the impact on coal communities
is something that is very seldom I think really drilled down
on. People are like only so many jobs for coal miners, but
that's not the point. There are truck drivers and restaurants
and whole communities that are dependent upon this, and how do
we make that transition? I don't think we know how to do that,
and I think that's a real contribution that can be made by this
committee.
Similarly, in the area of agriculture, there has been much
talk about the impact that agriculture can have in working on
the climate issue, and sequestering carbon and so on, but it
has been skin deep in terms of, I think, for the most part, the
analysis. And so that's a second area that I think you can very
constructively delve into and, you know, come up with a set of
recommendations that really haven't been as deeply probed as I
think they have to be. So thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Mr. Oppenheimer. Could I add to that, Mr. Chairman?
Mr. Rouda. I'm sorry, Dr. Oppenheimer, is that you?
Mr. Oppenheimer. With regard to the two points you made
about coal and agriculture also, and I greatly support what
Senator Wirth said, globally, that includes the United States,
also. I don't know about the situation in Kentucky. Crop yields
have actually slowed. The growth in crop yields is not what it
was several decades ago, and it slowed because the benefits of
the green revolution have basically run out, they have spread
worldwide. And in addition, there's another headwind, that is,
that there's evidence that the climate changes that have
occurred have marginally started to reduce crop yields of the
major cereal grains in many areas. I'm not asserting that it
has affected Kentucky yet. It is to be of concern for the
future.
So we welcome the engagement of farmers both in the issue
of how to adapt to these changes and how they can contribute to
enhanced carbon sequestration, for instance.
The other is, you know, it is perfectly plausible that a
technology, technologies that exist, to capture carbon dioxide
emissions from coal burning power plants and scrub them and
sequester them, could be part of the long-term solution.
So I think we ought to work together to try to figure out
which of these opportunities are the most economical, which
will solve the problem across the board, which will bring co-
benefits of reduced air pollution, and, you know, I don't think
we need to write anything off completely.
Mr. Rouda. Thank you, Dr. Oppenheimer, and thank you
Senator Wirth, and thank you Ranking Member Comer for your
comments, as well. At this time I would like to recognize the
gentleman from California, Congressman Gomez, for five minutes.
Mr. Gomez. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. In light of this
history of climate denials, I'm deeply concerned about
President Trump's dangerous statements on climate change, and
how they can lead to another 30 years of inaction on this
issue. It might come as a surprise to many that President Trump
did not always hold these anti-climate change beliefs. In 2009,
along with Deepak Chopra, Ben and Jerry, and his three
children, the current President signed on to a full-page ad in
the New York Times calling on President Obama and Congress to
pass legislation restricting greenhouse gas emissions. It read,
quote, ``We support your effort to ensure meaningful and
effective measures to control climate change, an immediate
challenge facing the United States and the whole world today.''
It goes on, quote, ``If we fail to act now it is scientifically
irrefutable that there will be catastrophic and irreversible
consequences for humanity and our planet.''
But as we sit here today, the President regularly goes on
unhinged and on rants about climate change that could be pulled
straight out of the industry playbook, making statements that
are clearly scientifically inaccurate, to say the least.
Dr. Oppenheimer, I would like to run a couple of the
President's statements by you to assess their validity. Leading
up to and during his campaign, the President dubbed climate
change, quote, ``a hoax,'' ``a total hoax,'' ``an expensive
hoax,'' and ``a total and very expensive hoax.'' I guess we got
his point. He believes it is a hoax. Is climate change a hoax,
Dr. Oppenheimer?
Mr. Oppenheimer. Decidedly not.
Mr. Gomez. The President has accused climate scientists as
having, quote, ``a political agenda.'' Are your scientific
opinions and those of your colleagues based on a political
agenda?
Mr. Oppenheimer. A good scientist can separate his
political and personal biases from his scientific
understanding, his or her. If you can't do that, you shouldn't
be a scientist. My colleagues work hard to do that.
Mr. Gomez. Is to say the world is round, and again it
circles the sun a political agenda?
Mr. Oppenheimer. Not as far as I can tell.
Mr. Gomez. Science. In an interview with 60 Minutes in
October 2016, the President said, though he no longer thinks
global warming is a hoax, quote, ``I think something's
happening, something is changing, and it will change back
again.'' Wow, he changes his mind a lot.
Dr. Oppenheimer, if we do not take any action to decrease
our emissions is it likely that climate change will change back
again, that it won't occur?
Mr. Oppenheimer. No. The climate does vary. It does vary
due to many factors, including variations in earth's orbit,
which are very slow, and variations in the sun's intensity,
which are small, however. What we know now is that human beings
have taken control of the climate machine, so to speak. The
largest variations in climate are going to be the global
warming trend for as far in the future as we can see.
Mr. Gomez. Thank you. In the same interview, this was a
doozy of an interview referring to sheets of ice melting into
the ocean in Greenland, the President said, You don't know
whether that was--that would have happened with or without man.
Dr. Oppenheimer, how sure are scientists that these changes in
our climate are due to human activity?
Mr. Oppenheimer. We are sure that most of the climate
change over the past 50 years is due to human activity. With
regard to the ice sheets, they're complicated. Certain parts of
them are clearly melting due to climate change, due to the
human-induced climate change. With other parts, the changes are
not fully understood by us.
Mr. Gomez. Thank you. Dr. Oppenheimer, this kind of
rhetoric, I believe, is really designed to mislead the American
people, and will delay critical congressional action in order
to maintain the profits of polluters.
Senator Wirth, would you agree that in order to address the
climate change at a global level, the United States must play a
leading role?
Mr. Oppenheimer. No question about it, and the world at
every one of these--every meeting that I went to over a 30-year
period of time, you walk into a room, the first question you
can feel among your colleagues is what does the United States
think about this? That was so important. It was thrilling to be
a U.S. Representative, but also you recognize the enormous
responsibility the United States had as we had the research, we
had the capacities to lead and to persuade and to become
engaged. It was a wonderful time, and we have to get back to
that again.
Mr. Gomez. I agree with you. I believe that the U.S. role
and its leadership on this issue can't be overstated.
Before I yield, Mr. Chairman, I would like to ask for a
unanimous consent to regarding the ad that I mentioned. It
reads, ``Dear President Obama and the U.S. Congress, Tomorrow
leaders from 192 countries will gather at the U.N. Climate
Change Conference in Copenhagen to determine the fate of our
planet,'' and it was signed by Donald J. Trump, Chairman and
President, Donald J. Trump, Jr., Eric Trump, as well as Ivanka
Trump and the Trump organization.
Mr. Rouda. So moved.
Mr. Gomez. Thank you so much. I yield back.
Mr. Rouda. I would like to thank our witnesses for coming
today. I know it has been a long day with a few interruptions
along the way, as well.
Without objection, all members will have five legislative
days within which to submit additional written questions for
the witnesses to the chair, which will be forwarded to the
witnesses for their response. I ask our witnesses to please
respond as promptly as you are able.
I would also like to thank my colleagues here for attending
this hearing, this very important hearing. This is a first of
three phases. Today was focused on the historical evidence at
hand. We'll also be talking about the current situation, as
well as the future and the opportunity to address climate
change. I am encouraged that I do believe that smart capitalism
and good government can provide the innovation and advancement
to address these issues, and I am looking forward to working
with the colleagues across both parties and accomplishing that
outcome. With that being said, this hearing is adjourned. Thank
you.
[Whereupon, at 4:45 p.m., the subcommittee was adjourned.]
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