MSNBC "All In with Chris Hayes" - Transcript: Interview with Ed Markey

Interview

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Senator Markey, thanks so much for coming on the show. This bipartisan infrastructure bill that`s about to be passed in the Senate, a lot of billions of dollars for renewable energy, for electric vehicles, which is great. It also contains billions in ongoing subsidies for fossil fuel companies according to a report in the Intercept, which is bad. Is this on climate change yet again two steps forward one step back?

SEN. ED MARKEY (D-MA): No. We are going to now respond to the code red for humanity. We`re going to take this as a final warning that we must take bold, dramatic action. The planet is running a fever. There are no emergency rooms for planets, and we have to take action. So, we`re going to start the debate tomorrow or Wednesday on a green -- a green budget resolution that will respond to the code red.

And in that bill, we`re going to have tax breaks for wind and solar in all electric vehicles and for battery storage technologies. We`re going to have a clean energy standard. We`re going to have a Civilian Climate Corps. We are going to have a climate bank to fund projects in every city in town all across our country.

We`re going to go big in a green budget resolution. And it`s going to be a response within the same week that they the U.N., the climate scientists of the world say that this is the national security, the health, the economic, the moral issue of our time. We will begin to response.

HASAN: And and what you`re describing there, some of the measures in that budget reconciliation, they sound like measures that were in the Green New Deal that you were one of the architects of. Is that something you`re allowed to say or are you worried that if you say that, Republicans lose their mind because they`ve so successfully demonized a Green New Deal as somehow bad on the right.

MARKEY: No, without question, the Green New Deal is in the DNA of this green budget resolution. All of the things that are in we talked about in the Green New Deal. Now, we have to go even further in the years ahead. We can`t stop here and it includes increasing the fuel economy standards for the vehicles which we drive. It means that we have to have a big agreement in Glasgow that brings the whole world together later on this year with President Biden finally having a piece of legislation which passes so that the rest of the world sees that we`re serious, that we`re the leader and not the laggard.

You cannot preach climate temperance from a barstool. You can`t be the worst polluter in history and simultaneously tell other company -- countries to stop unless you are doing so yourself.

[20:55:25]

HASAN: And in terms of -- well said. And in terms of kind of being role models, let`s just talk about your party. How can Democrats make progress on fighting climate change? How can they set the right example? Because on the one hand, you have people like yourself speaking very well and vocally and powerfully about the threat, but then you have the office of a fellow Democratic Senator, Joe Manchin of West Virginia, reportedly meeting regularly with lobbyists from ExxonMobil. Have a listen to what one of those lobbyists said on tape.

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KEITH MCCOY, LOBBYIST, EXXONMOBIL: Joe Manchin, I talked to his office every week. He is the kingmaker. And he`s not shy about sort of staking his claim early to changing the debate.

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HASAN: When the U.N. says this is code red, that shouldn`t be acceptable, should it, ExxonMobil lobbyists bragging about meetings with a Democratic senator?

MARKEY: Look, we`re going to have to work with Joe Manchin, we`re going to have to work with all 50 Democrats to pass this bill because we don`t expect any Republican to back us. GOP now stands for Gas and Oil Party, and the leader Donald Trump is down in Mar-a-Lago not even understanding it`s turning into Mar-a-lagoon over the next 15 years unless we take dramatic climate action.

So, we`re going to have to work with Senator Manchin, we`re going to work with all 50 Democrats to get the votes to take significant dramatic climate action in the green budget resolution. And I think that we can do it.

HASAN: I mean, if GOP stand for Gas and Oil Party, then Joe Manchin fits into that, based on that clip we just saw. But let`s talk about the GOP. According to an analysis from the liberal Center for American Progress, 52 percent of House Republicans, 60 percent of Senate Republicans are climate deniers, zero Democrat, zero Independents.

How do you tackle an existential threat to our planet, to our country, to our way of life, when you have an entire political party, the majority of whom won`t even acknowledge it?

MARKEY: Well, look at if 100 senators agreed that 100 percent of the scientists in the world now agree that it`s human cause greenhouse gases that are creating this climate crisis, then we would be able to solve the problem, no problem would have a consensus, but we don`t. The Republican Party is, unfortunately, still within the grip of the fossil fuel industry. That`s what we`re battling right now. That`s why it`s been hard over the years to get these tax breaks for long periods of time on the books for wind and solar and all electric vehicles.

But we`re about to turn the corner on this, and we are going to have to do it without Republicans. That`s just the bottom line. I hate to say it. We`re going to have to do the same thing, by the way, for community college making it free tuition, for free pre K, to make sure we have a strong family leave policy. All of this is going to have to be done in this bill without Republican support.

It`s a sad commentary on the contemporary state of the Republican Party in our country, but so be it. We`ll have to work together. Chuck Schumer is doing a great job. President Biden is doing a great job. I think we can finish it off this week, and then begin the process of working with the House to put a bill on the desk of President Biden.

HASAN: Senator, there are reports that some of your so called moderate Democratic colleagues in the House are worried about the $3.5 trillion price tag on that budget reconciliation bill. Senator Kyrsten Sinema has also objected to a bill of that size, saying she can`t vote for it.

Is it still the case for progressives like yourself that the two bills, the infrastructure bill and the reconciliation bill has to pass in tandem, that there is no bipartisan bill without the much bigger reconciliation bill? Is that still non-negotiable in your view?

MARKEY: Non-negotiable. These two bills have to be welded together. They cannot be separated. They have to pass together. They have to be heading to the President`s desk together. You can`t just break off roads and bridges and broadband, as important as they are, and leave out climate and children and community college and child tax credits. You can`t do that.

So, we are going to keep it together all the way to Joe Biden`s desk. And when he signs that bill, yes, we`ll have the roads and bridges, but we`re also going to have a bridge for every family in our country to be able to survive and thrive in the 21st century and we`ll have the funding for the clean energy revolution that we need in order to lead the world.

HASAN: Non-negotiable, I love to hear it. Senator Ed Markey, thank you so much for your time tonight. I appreciate it.

MARKEY: Great to be with you. Thank you.

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