In an effort to provide a framework for the nation to address
global warming issues, I introduced legislation, along with Senator Ted Stevens of Alaska, to put the United States on a path to deal with the complex issues involved in climate change. This legislation creates a comprehensive
strategy based on credible science and economics that will guide American efforts to address climate change issues in our own backyard. This legislation also establishes a major research effort to invent the advanced technologies that
we will need to begin to reduce greenhouse gas emissions that contribute to global warming.Specifically, the Climate Change Strategy and Technology Innovation Act would commit more than $4 billion during the next 10 years to
vastly expand U.S. research into technology that could help to reduce the threat of global climate change. The legislation provides for the creation of an administrative structure within the federal government, including an office in
the White House to coordinate and implement a national climate change strategy.
We must invent cutting-edge technologies to utilize our diverse fuel sources and to capture and sequester greenhouse gases, and we must develop
renewable technology that is practical and cost-effective. Such an effort will require vision and leadership. We need to muster the strength and the political courage to tackle the climate change challenge in innovative ways.
The body of evidence tells us that something is occurring in our atmosphere that is changing our climate and that the human hand has played a role in affecting that change. As one who has lived 84 years, I see changes
taking place in our atmosphere and our weather patterns. The ice caps are diminishing. We can waste valuable time debating measurements, methodology, findings, and conclusions, or we accept the simple reality that global warming
is occurring.
This legislation provides the framework to address the climate challenge, reaffirms the ultimate goal of stabilizing atmospheric greenhouse gas concentrations, and leaves the technology decisions to energy experts
and the marketplace.
This legislation builds on my past efforts to address climate change. In 1997, I, together with Senator Chuck Hagel, R-Neb., authored a Senate Resolution which stated that (1) developing nations,
especially the largest emitters, must agree to binding emission reduction commitments at the same time as industrialized nations, and (2) any international climate change agreement must not result in serious harm to the U.S. economy.
The Byrd-Hagel resolution passed the Senate by a unanimous 95-0 vote.
In addition, in 1985, I started the federal Clean Coal Technology initiative by winning Congressional funding totaling $750 million to launch this research
and development effort. Since then, this successful initiative has expanded through a joint public-private investment in more than $6 billion.
