The new coal mining on federal lands. This briefing is 30 minutes. Good afternoon everyone, thanks for joining us today. Our new administrator likes to quote david era who said once famously the future aint what it used to be. As executive order President Trump is literally signing right now in real time will ensure that is the case, that the future and cannot be what it used to be. Be. It bans the progress addressing the threat of Climate Change, protecting Americas Health from dangerous pollutants safeguarding for the future generations. Thanks to this executive order the future is looking darker, dirtier and less prosperous. We are highlighting why the power play and President Trump is walking away from today and what went into its development. We didnt just give up like that. The clean power plant i powerplt significant step taken to address Climate Change. It establishes the National Standards to reduce pollution from existing power plants, the largest source of Greenhouse Gas and it cuts the emissions by one third by the year 2030. Its the result of outreach to the states and utilities, stakeholders and the american public. The Obama Administration spent three years developing the rule including reviewing and responding to more than 4. 3 million comments received. The final rule incorporates that and gives the states and utilities time to preserve ample, reliable power to all americans. Its expected to produce between 26 to 25 billion in benefits by 2,645,000,000,000 by 2030. The administration following the hottest years on record did their homework. Today donald trump is showing the nations responsibility disregarding the clear science and undoing the significant progress we have made to ensure what we be better for generations to come with the stroke of his pen. Despite all the rhetoric, this proves the administration is not serious about protecting jobs or our environment. Under the Obama Administration we saw the longest stretch of continuous job growth and of the longest running growth for jobs in this country i think in u. S. History, 16 million jobs and counting. Thanks to the investments we have made the, 3. 2 million peope have a job in a Clean Energy Sector today. The clean powerplant is part of that strategy as is the 20 billion to be spent investing in clean coal since 2009 i think all of which i supported and i would suspect we all have. Im a native of West Virginia and my dad worked as a coalminer as a young man. I understand the plight in todays day and age. But the clean powerplanthe cleae industrys problem. Market forces are the problem. Lets be perfectly clear, this order will not bring back the coal industry. Donald trump saying so otherwise is not true. It is an insult to the men and women voted for him. We should be looking to the future to continue to foster new Economic Opportunities that may be dependent on the old world order like the clean powerplant does. This is a time for leadership and matter of leadership. Americans dont sit back and wait for others to take the lead to address the challenges, thats what we do. We have always lead by example e addressing Climate Change should be no different. Today is a step backward, not forward, but i will continue and we will continue to fight to defend the powerplant smart policies that address the global Climate Change so that one day y weekend with our grandchildren right in the eye and tell them that we did the right thing for them to give them and the planet a Better Future and with that i will turn over to show the job growth and loss of jobs going back a couple decades and since 2010 we are off to the race with 16 million jobs and counting and we have a great picture of the brooklyn bridge. We used to go running together but the air never looked like that. Thats the way that it looks. I would run in california where it would look almost that bad and we dont want to go back to that. Let me thank the senator for his leadership not just with this issue on the powerplant rule but his leadership on behalf of the Environmental Issues and the committee. I am pleased to be here with so many of my colleagues to point out how disappointing and how wrong the action today is in reversing the clean powerplant regulation issued by the Obama Administration and the other parts of their policies they are announcing today on energy. Its wrong because it will add a great deal of uncertainty as to what our policy is going to be with regards to power plants in the country. That wont be good for anyone. Predictability is important for moving forward with Predictable Energy sources and the Trump Administration has now caused a great deal of uncertainty. We know Carbon Pollution needs to be controlled and this was a plan that was developed after careful consideration and gave maximum flexibility to the states. They could pick the way to meet their goals. I know in my state of maryland, the leaders appreciated that flexibility and could easily work with the flexibility and had the support of all the stakeholders on how we were moving forward. That is now on hold and we dont know what the rules would be. The Energy Policy for our country needs to deal with energy security, stability, the economy and the environment of Public Health. In each of these cases the actions by the Trump Administration has compromised americas interest. On security, we know the Renewable Clean Energy is an area we can be very competitive and have a stable source of energy for americas future. That is the jeopardy now by the Trump Administrations policies. We know as the senator pointed out, we create more jobs with clean energy than we do with the fossil fuels and get the Trump Administration is moving us in the wrong way as is helping our economy. And there is no dispute as to the impact of the Carbon Emissions and Greenhouse Gases to our environment and Public Health. We know how many children are at risk as more and more pollution enters the air, and we know that the largest Single Source of Carbon Emissions in the country come from fossil burning Electric City plans. We know that, thats the facts. But the Trump Administration is doing today is compromising our ability to deal with Carbon Emissions, which is not in the interest of america and it compromises americas Global Leadership on this issue of Climate Change. For all those reasons, this is a very dark day for america and the decisions made by the Trump Administration and with that i will turn to one of our greatest leaders on these issues, the senator from rhode island, senator white house. I have to run downstairs to join the senators for a few minutes and i will be back but i want to thank you and i will be back. Let me thank the Ranking Member for the powerful leadership he is showing us on the environment public works committee. I was elected to the senate in 2006. I was sworn in in 2007. The first three years i was here, there was constant activity to do something about Climate Change. Over and over there were bills, republican john warner had a bill, Susan Collins had a bill, republican Lamar Alexander had a bill. Republican john mccain campaigned on this issue for president. Then came citizens united. January of 2010. There hasnt been a piece of the republican sponsored serious climate legislation since. The power of the fossil fuel industry made the Republican Party in congress and in fact a Banana Republic party. The call the Banana Republic the Banana Republic because of the power of the International Fruit companies who pulled the strings behind the preposterous uniforms and antics in those countries. So its sad to have the Republican Party in congress become a Banana Republic party to the fossil fuel industry. With its executive order, the executive branch of government becomes a Banana Republic executive branch tapering for their friends in the fossil fuel industry. It is ultimately probably not going to make much difference. There are lawyers and lawsuits, there is an administrative procedures act that means administrative procedures have to be on the up and up. There is a Supreme Court decision that is the law of the land. There isnt that much room to maneuver but we will lose two things, number one, we will lose time while the lawyers and lawsuits go forward, and that is not a commodity without risk. The second thing we will lose his our reputation. Go to any State University in this country, go to all of the other countries that looked to america around the world. Everybody understands perfectly well what is going on. This executive order only demeans donald trump himself, his administration, and ultimately our country. The fossil fuel Industry Needs to be held to account. They are pulling the strings that is causing this to take place. They are hiding their hand behind the front groups and lobby groups, but the American People should know that this moment of National Embarrassment is brought to you by the fossil fuel industry. And i will hand over to jeff merkley. Thank you. I am honored to be here with this group of senators that are climate champions fighting for clean water and clean air and specifically to take on the Carbon Pollution thats having such an impact. But across the city theres another group, theres Vice President mike pence and the epa director pruitt and they are standing up right now talking about how they are going to dismantle regulations on Carbon Pollution. This is a very big thing. Carbon pollution is destroying the resources of the rural america, the forests, farming and fishing. The fire season in oregon is now two months longer than it was decades ago. The streams are former and smaller because of the smaller snowpack in the mountains. Over on the coast, we have the difficulty of oysters being unable to reproduce correctly because the water is so much more acidic because the burning of fossil fuels into the Carbon Dioxide and its making it hard for the fish to start their life, not to mention the coral reefs around the world, 80 of the Great Barrier reef diving in the last few years. The list goes on and on. Wherever you look. So that group before that is assembled across the city is standing up saying we are going to try to increase the destruction of our forests can increase the destruction of the farming with less Irrigation Water ca, increased the destrucn of our fishing, and we are here to say no. We are here to say we are going to resist this in every possible way we can. And let me mention one of the things they are talking about today they are going to renew the resources we own as citizens. All of us by virtue of being citizens we own gas and oil and coal and president obama said its time to stop because we cant continue to extract it and burn it and now we have our new president standing up and saying lets increase that pollution and keep profiting off of extracting. So a group of us will be introducing the keep it in the ground bill later today to say no more extraction, no new leasing of a citizen owned fossil fuels. So we are going to keep fighting and use every strategy as my colleague indicated and we will go forward attempting to restore america as a leader in this movement because if we as a human civilization on this planet are going to stop this madness to our beautiful bluegreen earth, we need the cooperation of all nations and American Leadership and that is what we will be fighting to restore. Im delighted to introduce my colleague who has been a leader on this before people even knew there was an issue. Jeff and sheldon and tom, we stand here not as five people who are fighting the trump executive order but really with the vast majority of the American People to accept the science of Climate Change, to accept the need to move to clean energy. This is an issue that has overwhelming public support and so but sheldon is talking about and what jeff is talking about is issues that are now agreed upon by the vast majority of the American People. President tromp had in issue in the executive order he issued a declaration of the war on americas climate leadership and Clean Energy Future. This executive order isnt about energy security, it is about climate denial. It is the wholesale dismantling of every policy and rule president obama put on the books to cut Carbon Pollution and address Climate Change. This executive order is one massive giveaway to corporations at the expense of decades of progress on Climate Change, clean energy and Public Health protections. President donald trump last week released a budget that ends federal research and Development Funding for 21st century Innovative Technologies and now he wants to send us back to the 19th century of energy science. That is the Trump Administration formula on Climate Change, deny, delay, the fund, and that would be a disaster. If he were committed to energy security, he wouldnt have signed an executive order last week to week in the fuel economy standards in the vehicles we drive. He wouldnt have signed an executive order to advance the access and Keystone Pipeline without ensuring it stays in america and is not just exported. We still import more than 3 Million Barrels of oil per day for all the nations. Keeping strong fuel economy standards in place is the best way to increase carbon American Security and decrease pollution. One is to be sure the oil wont simply be exported abroad, but promised it will help the security. All risk, no reward for the United States. We need to put america on a path towards a 100 clean and Renewable Energy future, and that is what jeff merkley and Sheldon Whitehouse represent as we stand here today. Climate change is threatening the health of American Families now. Global warming gets personal and air pollution harms the children of the country and risks the food and water and diseases around the world. As a nation we have a choice. We can continue to pump harmful Carbon Pollution into the sky or new life into the economy creating Clean Energy Jobs and saving americans money on their energy cost. We need a job creation that is good for all. We know that by cutting the Carbon Pollution we can grow the economy, save American Families money and protect the health of children and seniors and we know that the competition to create Clean Energy Jobs as global. Presidenpresident tromps actiol put america west and the Global Clean Energy raising o energy re out on jobs here at home. President tromp is more committed to the oil, gas and Coal Industries at the expense of all in the Clean Energy Future for all americans. Thats what today represents in this fight to have a 21st century Innovation Energy industry that is led by the United States. Im going to ask you to give a little more detail. Are there any other proactive actions you can take . The heart of the battle is going to be litigation if you look at the power plant you start at the top and follow that with a decision by the epa that its a dangerous pollutant that has been made and it was promised by the administrator that he would leave it intact and i trust him on this because if they try to open the question they would get slaughtered so there you have the law of the land and the requisite finding. Unless he wishes to behave illegally, he has to come up with something and i dont think there is more he could come up with that would be more amenable to the industry than the power plant so i dont think that he has a lot of running room other than to delay for a bit and force the litigation. The problem is if you are acting in bad faith is a variety of consequences that can ensue in a courtroom. So they are playing with fire and i think that we will find they will be burning their fingers in the weeks and months ahead but i think it is mostly going to be litigation. The strongest thing for us will be holding the agencies through the process. I dont think that they will have to either the courage or the bad judgment to shut down the government over trying to defend the protection for the american citizens on Environmental Issues so that means we will outflank them when it comes to the issue and you will see how this affects all of our agencies. We are going to see the battle continue at the federal level but also a shift to the grassroots. All across america the ports off colleges and the city councils, Many Organizations are starting to see how can we take the responsibility to clean up Carbon Pollution in our own hands and that means developing the 100 clean and Renewable Energy by 2050. We will be introducing 150 here on capitol hill but we understand with the republicancontrolled house and senate and the fact that a coke brothers are the puppet masters behind what happens in this body those bills will not be considered but its a way of also rooting for, encouraging and weighing a petition for every organization in america and every college city to say lets do it ourselves. Lets develop our own 100 by 50 resolution. It hangs on the endangerment was made just for automobiles. Your response . The endangerment finding addresses the question of what co2 does in the atmosphere whether it comes from the tailpipe of an automobile or the smokestack of a factory, it is chemically the same and the finding has the same application across the board. We know that it creates a greenhouse environment that warms up the planet and when it interacts with the surface of the ce sea, it specifies the wa. Not only do we know that as a theory that we are measuring the changes taking place in practice exact a consistent with the theory. If they want to try to litigate that point, god bless them, but there is a reason that he said he would not litigate when he spoke to us and the public works committee. He knows that conversation would be a catastrophic loser or the phony clai climate denial appar. So youre saying the white house is wrong . Yes. This executive order has a lot of other power plants including making the agencies take into account the impact from these projects and i was just wondering if we are looking at a infrastructure plan do you think that they would try to put some life into the funding to look for the requirement . I dont want to prejudge that but keep in mind under the act, an agency that is bound to follow first the United States of america and factual sworn evidence to make a standard that is arbitrary and capricious has limits on what it can do. They are not bound to do with the president tells them to do but they are bound to follow the law and on many of these issues, the wall and the facts into standards will keep them close to where they now are because that is where reality is. Its going to take a lot of litigation to force a punt but i think they will find themselves more or less in the place they already are because thats where the facts require them to the end where the law requires them to be. Working with republicans on that so far what are the chances of a Government Shutdown . That is a prospect particularly after the debacle on health care that the republicans dont want. They want a lot more out of this budget confrontation than we do. So i think we have a strong negotiating position. They just passed Appropriations Bills led by the republican majority and if we ask for a simple continuing resolution, which is a customary default proposition or if we ask them to go to the spending levels that they agreed to in their appropriation measures i think that we are in good shape with the American People and they say that democrats arthe democrats g unreasonable holding the republicans what they just agreed to. So, i doubt that this is a confrontation that they want. To a significant degree it is a circumstance the Republican Party getting past what theyve been chasing for a long time. Health and Human Services secretary tom price testifies on the white house hhs budget request for 2018. Live coverage from the House Appropriations subcommittee at 10 a. M. Eastern on cspan three. You can also follow live coverage on cspan. Org and on the radio app. The most important is starting with the days and congress with the relationship and the United States department of agriculture. He was constantly corresponding with officials and constantly receiving from them different crops they wanted to test it out in the soil climate and they used it as one of their experimental. Its the number one industry in california and we are the number one state in the nation in terms of our culture. And theres 23 campuses but only four of them have agriculture. Essentially it represents the northern part of the stat statet we brought students from all over california to get experience in agriculture. Working with our cable affiliates and visiting cities across the country. Three former athletes testify about protecting Young Athletes from abuse. 1996 Gold Medalist gymnast Dominique Mocenau testified the