Keystone XL Pipeline Act

Floor Speech

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Mr. COONS. Mr. President, I come to the floor this evening to speak
about our ongoing debate about the Keystone XL Pipeline and the need
for this debate to shift to a much larger conversation.

Tonight, as we are continuing in what has been 1\1/2\ weeks of debate
in our Senate about this single, foreign-owned pipeline, it is my hope
that we will begin a larger, broader conversation about America's
energy and climate needs.

We have so far voted on amendments confirming that climate change is
real, on the future of natural gas and oil exports, on energy
efficiency provisions, on rules to ensure that we buy American, and on
funding for the Land and Water Conservation Fund and the oilspill fund.

I, myself, have an amendment, No. 115, that I am hoping we will have
a chance to take up, debate, vote on, and pass--one that recognizes
that given that the Senate has acknowledged the reality of climate
change, we must now move forward to take action to prepare to adapt to
those changes--changes that have already begun.

I come from the State of Delaware, the lowest mean-elevation State in
America, where our Governor, Jack Markell, has led a community-driven
process of preparing for adapting to the coming impact on our
infrastructure--our public, private, State, local, and Federal
infrastructure in Delaware.

We have to recognize that our Federal Government will have financial
liabilities to help State, local, and tribal governments prepare for
the impacts of climate change on their infrastructure and to prepare
for the impacts of climate change on our Federal infrastructure.

My amendment, I hope, will be taken up, debated, and passed, but the
larger point I want to make is this is just the beginning of the much
larger debate we need to have about our Nation's energy and climate
future.

Energy has long been and will remain central to a strong, diverse,
and vibrant economy for our Nation. Throughout our history, Americans
have benefited greatly from abundant sources of energy at home. From
coal to oil to natural gas, we have been blessed by natural resources
that have powered our economy. But new challenges today require new
approaches. As human-generated greenhouse gas pollution wreaks havoc on
our global climate, we need to come together to create a cleaner and
lower-carbon energy future.

There is no single pathway to stop climate change or to deal with it,
but there are a number of approaches we need to look at and that I hope
we will consider taking.

Tonight I wish to briefly mention four different areas where there
were bipartisan bills in the last Congress--areas that I hope, in the
spirit of comity and debate in the Senate, we could reconsider and make
them part of this broader energy and climate debate.

First, we could start by establishing and implementing a national
quadrennial energy review which would ensure that every administration,
current and future, takes a hard look at our Nation's energy landscape,
the challenges that we face, and to build a blue print for how we will
deal with these challenges and overcome them.

Today we already conduct these kinds of quadrennial reviews for the
Pentagon, for the State Department, and for the Department of Homeland
Security. They allow us to take a big picture and strategic look at our
policies, our challenges, and to chart a predictable, longer term path
forward

It is time we did the same for our country's energy challenges. This
administration is already at work doing this, but Congress needs to act
to ensure that future administrations will continue this practice.

Second, we can invest in clean and renewable energy and in energy
efficiency technology so that we can out-innovate the rest of the world
and lay the groundwork for job creation, not only for today but for
tomorrow. We can do this through sustained, annual program funding and
through smart and innovative financing models that lower the cost of
clean energy, such as expanded master limited partnerships.

Third, we can improve the way our national labs collaborate with the
private sector so that the innovation pipeline that takes ideas from
the lab to the market is smooth, efficient, and predictable so that
today's discoveries are tomorrow's world-changing products.

And, fourth, we can improve STEM education and skills training
throughout America so that every day we are training tomorrow's future
energy innovators.

We can do this. We need to do these things.

I will admit that at times it can seem quite daunting. But in this
country we should have no doubt that if we focus our greatest minds on
these challenges, there is no limit to what we can achieve. The bottom
line to all this is that we don't have a choice. Pretending otherwise
is an exercise in denial.

We need to curb emissions from transportation. We need to reduce
pollution from powerplants. We need to better finance clean energy
solutions. We need to strengthen our infrastructure so we are more
resilient in the face of coming climate challenges. We need to address
the real challenges of energy and water demand. We need to improve our
regulations so that we do more to protect and conserve our land. And we
need to invest in research, development, and the demonstration of new
and innovative technologies. Overall, we can and should institute smart
and market-based regional and national policies that will lower carbon
pollution and send businesses and households the signal that the future
is in cleaner not in dirtier energy technology.

We need to do all this and bring the rest of the world along as well
because our national energy and climate challenges are not just ours,
they are the world's, and we need to come together around the world to
get this done. The administration's clean power plan rules and the
recently announced accord with China are all great initial steps in
this direction. It is my hope as we continue this debate that we will
come together in the Senate to show we are willing to rise to these
challenges as a nation as well.

Mr. President, for me, all of this ultimately comes down to our
obligations--yes, of course, to our Nation, to our constituents, to our
home States, but particularly as parents to our children and to future
generations. Every day when I get to return home from the train station
after taking what is often a late-evening train from Washington to
Delaware, I get to see my family, and it is my children who leave me
most concerned about the question of whether I will be leaving them a
safer and healthier world than we received.

My daughter Maggie in particular is passionate about the environment
and is concerned about whether what we do here is not just helping to
create jobs today--although that is an important issue for us to turn
to--but whether we are helping to preserve our world for tomorrow.
Maggie helps keep me focused not just on this quarter, this month, this
election, or this term, but on the next 50 years and on whether what we
do here leaves to our children and their children a cleaner and a
better and brighter future. That is what our focus should be--on the
future, on what we are doing not just for today but for tomorrow and
all the days after that.

I hope when the debate about this one pipeline is over we will
refocus our energies on the bigger picture and on the great and big
challenges we face together. That is what we get elected to do, and
that is what our time demands.

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