Last week the independent federal Energy Regulatory commission, even one stuffed with trump appointees, rejected secretary perrys proposed power grid reliability rule to subsidize coal and nuclear plants. The ferc commissioners found that the commission failed to meet clear and legal requirements like that the result will be just and reasonable under the federal power act. As an aside here, the theory of the coal industry was that their units provide more reliability than renewables. Well, tell that to iowas electric grid operators who have baked iowas abundant wind energy not just into their flow but into their reliability modeling. Tell that to new englands i. S. O. Which has allowed renewables into its capacity auctions to be paid for meeting base Load Capacity requirements. And of course tell that to anyone who has had to deal with scheduled and unscheduled outages at coal plants. When i went on one of my climate visits to, in this case, tennessee, i heard about a coal plant that had to be shut down because Climate Change had warmed the river and shrunk the flow so that the river used to cool the plant was no longer adequate to cool the plant, and they had to go into an unscheduled outage. Wind and solar are very reliable, and the i. S. O. s have baked the algorithms that quantify their reliability into their grid reliability planning. The coal is reliable and renewables arent argument may pass muster on talk shows, but in the real world of grid operators, its nonsense. Ferc, a as a rule of law agencys required to face that fact. Americas courts also stand in the way of the bob murray action plan agenda. Murray, for instance, has demanded that e. P. A. Overturn its 2009 endangerment finding. The administrative finding that Greenhouse Gas emissions like Carbon Dioxide and methane and so forth threaten the Public Health and welfare of current and future generations. That is their finding, that those Greenhouse Gas emissions threaten the health and welfare of current and future generations. Thats why its called an endangerment finding, because of the danger to the public. Well, good luck challenging that determination in a court of law. In fact, the United States court of appeals for the d. C. Circuit has already upheld the endangerment finding back in 2012. Even the fossil fuel flungy running the e. P. A. Now knows better than to challenge that endangerment finding. If he thought he could, he would in a heartbeat, but he is clever enough to know what an avalanche of climate evidence would fall in on his head if he tried. Witnesses from virtually every leading State University in the country, from alaska to oklahoma to georgia to maine, expert scientists from idaho or tennessee, our National Security agencies and our military, americas government watchdog agencies like the g. A. O. And the g. S. A. , and even the trump administrations own recent climate report all all would pile on the conclusive evidence of Climate Change. And on the or side would be what . Pathetic Kathleen Waite who gave one of the worst confirmation hearings. The secretly fossil fuelfunded willie soon, some Coal Company Lobbyist . Or perhaps the Heartland Institute with its proud history of comparing climate scientists to the unibomber. Mr. President , it would be a route. It would be a route, and even pruitt knows t and the the reason it would be a route is because of the rule of law. The rule of law requirements of the administrative procedures act, the rule of law specter of judicial review, and the rule of law sanctions that courts impose for false evidence. Certainly bob murray and his surrounding crowd of bad acting fossil fuel billionaires know how to throw their political weight around. We see everywhere the phony science denial apparatus they have created. We see their false and toxic message, even in outlets like the wall street journal editorial page. We see their lobbying front groups like the u. S. Chamber continuing adamantly to oppose any serious climate legislation despite the contrary position of companies on their board of directors. American elections stink with their dark money and promises and threats. Their flungies have now been their flunkie have now been but ultimately the polluters drive put profit first above the health and safety of americans will face strict scrutiny in the truthbased arena of federal courts. Ultimately it will also face the harsh test of time and the fact that they knew and the fact that they lied becomes ever more obvious and ever more odious. And ultimately the American Voter will have her say about whether this Great Republic should be under the dominion and control of the fossil fuel industry or free to address the problem of Climate Change as a rational world leader must. With that, mr. President , i yield the floor. Mr. Lankford mr. President . The presiding officer the senator from oklahoma. Mr. Lankford mr. President , a few days ago our nation stopped and remembered dr. Dr. Martin lur king jr. Its entirely appropriate for us to do. It is a holiday set aside to be able no not only remember but to reflect and to try to figure out where are we now . This year is especially significant. 50 years ago this year dr. King was assassinated, in april of 1968. A lot of things have changed in that time period. Quite frankly, as a nation weve learned a lot about race. We no longer as a nation talk about threefifths of a man anymore, rightfully so, and were appalled by our history. We no longer have separate water fan trains set up in restaurants or tell people because of their background, their family, their skin color, they can take food to go but they cant come in and sit down. Weve come a long way in hiring. Weve come to a long by that just our communities and our schools. Work is not done. We still have a long way to go, quite frankly. Martin luther king jr. Was bold enough to be able to challenge the church first and then the nation and then the world, and we have an issue around the issue of race. He was going to challenge us to confront it. Rightfully so. He challenged us on the issue of racial justice, on poverty, on education, but he also challenged us on the way that we speak out on issues. And i think we lose track of that as a culture. Quite frankly, as a senate and nation, were losin losing tracf one of the things that Martin Luther king challenged us on. There is a right way to confront issues and a wrong way to Congress Front issues. Dr. King did something revolutionary. He pushed a community to confront injustice the right w way, and he won. He made radical statements, statements like darkness cannot drive out darkness, only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate, only love can do that. Dr. King said, ive decided to stick with love. Hate is too great a burden to bear. Love is the only force capable of transitioning and transforming an enemy into a friend. For whatever reason, we lose track of dr. Kings statements about love is a powerful thing. And we start as a culture responding with hate to respond to hi hate. And when someone says something hateful, we respond with something more hateful back at them. Doesnt actually solve anything. And we lose the great model that he really set for us on that. If we want to make enemies friends, only love can do that. Only relationships can do that. Only pressing a friend to do the right thing can do that. Now, is that happening in our culture . No. It is in spots, but its not hard to go on any of our social media sites at any moment and be able to see the challenge on our social media sites is not love driving out hate. It is hate attacking hate. I just glanced at some of the things as of late as i was preparing for this conversation. I looked backwards at a few of the posts on my own sites. Controversial statements that i made when i did a post that just said, happy new year. A stinging controversial post that was responded to by someone saying, loser, liar, traitor. How much money did you take from russia, comrade . To my statement of happy new year. I made a statement about how kids that came in under daca should be treated differently. These are kids that didnt break the law. These are kids that are like the 4yearold riding in the back seat of the car when their parent was speeding. When the parent is pulled over, they dont give the kid a ticket. I made just a quick post about that. And the response to that among many, was what is with his hair color . Dude, get it done professionally. You look terrible. I just have to say to you, dude, this is done by a professional. God gave me this hair color. And so there is no bottle involved in this one. Its his work. And id call him a pro. Theres all this talk back and forth about where are we going to go as a culture . And were losing dr. Kings legacy of hate doesnt drive out hate. Only love does that. Theres a lost conversation in this body as well saying things have never been worse in the senate and in congress. I would disagree. Just after the Vice President burr left office, he challenged the secretary of treasury to a duel before he shot the secretary of the treasury dead in a duel. In 1850 in the chamber just right down the hallway here in whats called the Old Senate Chamber here, in 1850 they were work on a compromise and senator foote and senator benton were in an argument and so senator foote reached into his desk in the middle of the argument and pulled out his piss poll is while sweeping at senator benton to which senator benton jumped on one of the desks still in the room today, jumped on the desk, pulled open his coat saying i dont have a gun. Shoot me. Shoot. Which they wrestled senator foote to the floor and took his begun away from him. People can assure you its never been worse. I can assure you its been worse. What we do have responsibility for is our time, setting the tone for difficult debate in this moment. The arguments that happen on the senate floor and the violence on this senate floor including senator sumner almost being beaten to death with a cane before the civil war set a path into the civil war for the nation. Whats the path were taking the nation on right now in our debate . As a nation, i have a simple reminder thats not mine, thats of a powerful american leader named dr. King, who said, hate does not drive out hix for anyone whos look at whats happening in our culture and in politics right now, saying if only i Say Something more hateful than the last guy, this will get better, youve missed his point. Dr. King was deeply moved by scripture, and theres multiple examples of it in his writings and in his speeches. But he quoted passages over and over again like from first john. Since god so loved you we also ought to love one another. Psalm 34 8, taste and see that the lord is good. Over and over again he came back to scripture as just a simple reminder that things can be different for us and he challenged the church in moments like his letter from birmingham jail, and he challenged culture. In fact, we lose track of the fact that during the civil rights movement, dr. King was working with both parties to establish platforms for both parties that would respect the dignity of all americans. Its a good path that has been set for us. In the middle of our conversation about dr. King, i would hope that we would remember it. Let me make one quick side note as well. Its kind of a fun note for those of us in oklahoma because the story of dr. King many people may note almost didnt happen the way that we heard it did, because in 1953, just finishing up seminary in the middle of his doctoral work when he was just Martin Luther king, not dr. Martin luther king. He was still working at boston university. He came to a small church in Oklahoma City that was well respected in the civil rights movement, Calvary Baptist church. In 1952, Calvary Baptist hosted a conference that had Thurgood Marshall there as their speaker. In 1953, dr. King was interviewed there to be one of the pastors at Calvary Baptist church. The elders of the church heard him, read about him, met him, and then turned him down. This is my favorite quote from one of the elders of the church. They said they didnt think he had enough gravy on him yet. He was too young, not experienced enough. That was in 1953. Ten years later, he was standing on the mall right down the street, saying i have a dream, leading the entire country. I say that to say sometimes we have this assumption that were in control. Were not. Gods in control. He has a path and a plan that sometimes even when we here know hard things, we find out he has a path that may look different than ours. I would only challenge us as a body to be able to do the right thing, the right way, and to see where that takes us. As it says in psalms 34, taste and see that the lord is good, to do it the right way, and lets see how this works out together. Its a simple reminder and a simple admonition to a body that could use some words from dr. King and see if we can put them into practice together. With that, mr. President , i would yield the floor. Ms. Hirono mr. President. The presiding officer the senator from hawaii. Ms. Hirono mr. President , when the sun rose last saturday in hawaii, nothing seemed out of the ordinary. People on kauai were getting ready to participate in the local march to commemorate dr. Dr. Martin luther king jr. Day. Families were sitting around the table eating breakfast. Others were sleeping in after a long week of work. At 8 07, everything changed. Mobile phones throughout hawaii received an Emergency Alert in all capital letters, informing them of a Ballistic Missile threat inbound to hawaii and that this was not a drill. The terror and panic were real, and peoples reactions reflected that. Parents passed their children through Manhole Covers into the sewers seeking safety for them. Separated family members took to the highways, driving as fast as 100 Miles Per Hour to get home. Some had to decide whether to rush to be with their spouse or their children. 38 minutes later, an Emergency Alert came through saying that there was no missile threat, false alarm. The relief was palpable. This relief gave way to real visceral anger, anger that there was a false alarm, anger that it took 38 minutes to alert the public, anger that we faced a missile threat at all. This incident has undermined the publics faith in our State Governments ability to provide timely and Accurate Information about a potential crisis. At a time when we face heightened tensions around the world and particularly with regard to north korea, it is crucial that the people of hawaii have confidence in the government to provide Accurate Information. Its why i am calling for a thorough, transparent investigation into what occurred. We need a full accounting of the human and system failures that occurred, and we need to identify and put in place the civic steps to make sure specific steps to make sure nothing like this ever happens again. What we do know is that the incident was a result of human error. An operator mistakenly triggered the alert. Although the error was discovered quickly, we need to better understand the circumstances that led up to the incident. We need to understand how the operator was trained. We need to identify and understand any other potential issues that resulted in this specific human error. The state has appointed an investigator to get to the bottom of this, and the state legislature is scheduled to be briefed on preliminary findings this friday. Once the circumstances that precipitated this error are identified, we of course need to correct them as quickly as possible. Concurrently, we need to understand the system failures that resulted both in the false alert and in the 38minute delay before the Hawaii Emergency Management Agency or hawaii e. M. A. Issued a correction. Why did hawaii e. M. A. Officials believe they needed approval from the federal Emergency Management agency, fema, to issue a correction . The secretary of Homeland Security told me at a hearing yesterday that no such permission was necessary, pointing to a need for clarity regarding agency responsibilities. State governments oversee and operate local Emergency Management alert systems, but the federal communications commission, the f. C. C. , and the department of Homeland Security through fema have a role to play to make sure that these systems are operating properly. During yesterdays hearing in the judiciary committee, secretary of Homeland SecurityKirstjen Nielsen committed to working with me to strengthen the federalstate cooperation on Emergency Alerts, assess potential failures, and improve overall readiness in hawaii and across our country. The f. C. C. Is also conducting an investigation into what happened. The entire nation will benefit in these key as these key federal agencies work with states to close gaps in training and communication, Institute Best practices, and assure states and local governments have the appropriate resources to prevent this kind of occurrence from happening again. This false alert also clarified the importance of strong coordination between the S