Alex Padilla U.S. Senator for California

WASHINGTON, D.C. — This week, U.S. Senator Alex Padilla (D-Calif.) delivered remarks on the Senate Floor on California’s critical climate leadership as the U.S. faces record-breaking heat waves and air pollution caused by wildfires and continued burning of fossil fuels.

This month, over 140 million Americans were under extreme heat alerts, and the planet experienced the hottest day on record. This comes just a few weeks after New York City recorded the worst air pollution on the planet due to wildfires in Canada – a phenomenon that California has increasingly faced in recent years, as eight of the top ten largest wildfires in California history have occurred in just the last six years. 

Amidst these climate emergencies – and while House Republicans just advanced an appropriations bill filled with poison pills and draconian budget cuts that would undo our historic progress on climate action – Padilla delivered remarks defending California’s critical climate leadership, which has been bolstered by the unprecedented investments delivered by Democrats through the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA).

WATCH: Click here to view Padilla’s full remarks

Key Excerpts:

• Eight of the top ten largest wildfires in California history have occurred in just the last six years. In June, last month, New York City experienced the worst air pollution recorded on the planet, while Washington, D.C. was blanketed in smoke — not because of wildfires in California, but because of wildfires in Canada.
• And over the last several weeks, a heat wave has brought record-breaking temperatures from coast to coast, and put over 140 million Americans under heat alerts. And just today we learned that this July is set to be the hottest month in recorded history.
• Yet, even in 2023, with indisputable proof in many scientific studies, too many of our Republican colleagues remain defiant.
• They vilify President Biden and all us Democrats for having the courage to fight for bold action, for having the courage to fight for bold action — and all too often, they hold up California as the punching bag for enacting life-saving policies that they disagree with.
• So today I want to set the record straight: yes, in California we have long accepted the truth about climate change. And as a result, we’ve been trailblazers for enacting environmental protections and leading our clean energy transition.
• The net result in California’s efforts is that in 2023, our state has a diverse portfolio of clean energy resources — not hypothetical — operational solar, wind, and geothermal energy, all while fostering a growing economy that’s on its way to becoming the fourth largest in the world.
• And today, the federal government is smart to follow California’s lead.
• Last summer, we passed the Inflation Reduction Act, which is jumpstarting clean energy and clean transportation projects, providing tax credits for Americans to upgrade their appliances and homes, and making electric vehicle ownership more affordable.
• And more recently we were able to defend our hard-fought gains during the debt ceiling negotiations from Republicans who wanted to undercut our progress.
• So when we hear the defeatist attitude of Republicans who say this is gonna hurt jobs — we can show them the millions of good-paying jobs being created by the IRA.
• When we hear about an alleged overreliance on foreign imports — we’ll show them badly needed investments in domestic manufacturing and a new generation of American solar, wind, geothermal, and green hydrogen.
• When we hear cynics who prefer inaction to intervention, a planet burning to a Congress acting, we’ll show them that the audacity to lead has paid off before.
• And it can pay off again. In the end, I won’t even ask my Republican colleagues to reverse their positions and have the courage to lead.
• I’ll settle for their courage to follow — or at least get out of the way!
• Because California has already shown us the path forward.

Remarks, as delivered, are below:

Mr. President,

I also rise to speak today on this hot summer day in Washington D.C. where the forecast, as I was on the way in, showed that it was going to be 99 degrees today.

Well, 35 years ago, on a scorching, 98-degree summer day here in Washington, NASA Scientist Dr. James Hansen testified in the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee to share an alarming conclusion:

35 years ago he said this: man-made pollution was causing our climate to change.

It was one of the earliest major scientific warnings that, without action, one day our planet would be at risk of catastrophic climate events.

Colleagues, I’m here to say, that day has come.

This past May, in a report in the “Environmental Research Letters” journal, researchers found a direct correlation between increased carbon emissions and wildfires in the western United States.

Eight of the top ten largest wildfires in California history have occurred in just the last six years.

In June, last month, New York City experienced the worst air pollution recorded on the planet, while Washington, D.C. was blanketed in smoke — not because of wildfires in California, but because of wildfires in Canada.

And over the last several weeks, a heat wave has brought record-breaking temperatures from coast to coast, and put over 140 million Americans under heat alerts.

And just today we learned that this July is set to be the hottest month in recorded history.

So the question is no longer hypothetical, the question is real: how viable of a planet are we going to leave to our children?

We must act colleagues.

Yet, even in 2023, with indisputable proof in many scientific studies, too many of our Republican colleagues remain defiant.

Now, I’ll acknowledge, that the deliberate attempts to distract from the problem at hand have evolved over time.

What was once “climate change is a hoax” has become “defense of industry” or “market-based solutions.”

What was once the Republican Chair of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee bringing a snowball onto the floor of the U.S. Senate to somehow disprove the dynamic of a warming planet, has been replaced with press conferences promising energy independence if only we allow continued polluting.

It’s a new kind of climate denial — a sophisticated campaign to create delays and undermine climate progress in order to enrich major corporations’ bottom lines.

But make no mistake, the result is the same: Republicans continue to obstruct desperately needed solutions.

They vilify President Biden and all us Democrats for having the courage to fight for bold action, for having the courage to fight for bold action — and all too often, they hold up California as the punching bag for enacting life-saving policies that they disagree with.

That’s right. They bash California for having the audacity to lead.

So today I want to set the record straight: yes, in California we have long accepted the truth about climate change.

And as a result, we’ve been trailblazers for enacting environmental protections and leading our clean energy transition.

As far back as 1966, California established the first tailpipe emissions standard for passenger vehicles in the nation.

Three years later, after a catastrophic oil spill off the coast of Santa Barbara, Californians rose up and demanded environmental protections, spurring the birth of the modern environmental movement and eventually creating the very first Earth Day, which we now celebrate every year.

Flash forward to 2006, when California passed AB32, the Global Warming Solutions Act, legislation with the bold goal of reducing emissions to 1990 levels by the year 2020.

I was elected to the state senate that year, eager to be part of implementation of that measure, and I went on to serve for six years as Chair of the State Senate Committee on Energy.

Now since then, California has continued to lead the nation with increasingly ambitious goals for cutting emissions, conserving public lands — becoming the first state committed to conserving 30 percent of our lands and water by the year 2030, a goal President Biden has called for nationally.

And just this month, California’s environmental leadership came in the form of the nation’s heavy-duty truck manufacturers agreeing to comply with California’s first-in-the-nation zero-emission truck standards, which will advance the adoption of 100% zero-emission trucks by 2036 — a truly historic achievement.

And I think it’s important to repeat and emphasize here, I’m talking about a standard that truck manufacturers have agreed to.

But let me make another point Mr. President, just to demonstrate just how partisan this conversation ought not to be.

It has not just been Democrats in California that have led the way.

As President, former California Senator Richard Nixon signed into law landmark legislation including the National Environmental Policy Act, the Clean Air Act of 1970, the Endangered Species Act, and the creation of the EPA.

That’s right, a Republican president did that.

As President, former California Governor Ronald Reagan built on California’s leadership when he signed the first national energy efficiency standards for appliances into law.

That’s right, a Republican president did that.

It was Republican Governor Pete Wilson who established California EPA.

And it was Republican Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger who signed the 2006 Global Warming Solutions Act.

The net result in California’s efforts is that in 2023, our state has a diverse portfolio of clean energy resources — not hypothetical — operational solar, wind, and geothermal energy, all while fostering a growing economy that’s on its way to becoming the fourth largest in the world.

It is that long-term vision and commitment to clean energy, and a transition to it, that will bring the first ever transition to Caltrain’s all new electric fleet in 2024 — a three-decade long project that will result in the first transition from diesel trains in the West.

It’s that same vision that diversified our energy sources so that after a winter of extreme storms like we saw this last year, we can take advantage of the torrential rains with hydropower capabilities, or reap the benefits of our expanded solar capacity and battery storage.

I raise these examples, colleagues, not just to showcase California’s leadership, but to prove that these aren’t just lofty climate aspirations — California is proving that a clean energy transition is not only possible, it is actually good for our economy. 

And today, the federal government is smart to follow California’s lead.

Over the last two years, we’ve made huge strides toward transitioning our nation’s energy sector to clean, renewable sources and adopting California’s clean vehicle emission standards.

When we passed the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, we also chose to invest in clean school buses, to invest in electrifying public transit across the country, and we chose to invest in electric vehicle charging stations to make the switch to electric vehicles that much more convenient for Americans.

Last summer, we passed the Inflation Reduction Act, which is jumpstarting clean energy and clean transportation projects, providing tax credits for Americans to upgrade their appliances and homes, and making electric vehicle ownership more affordable.

And more recently we were able to defend our hard-fought gains during the debt ceiling negotiations from Republicans who wanted to undercut our progress.

Now part of making sure we fully realize the investments in the IRA is speeding up the permitting process for transmission lines that are needed to deliver renewable energy from where it occurs as a natural resource to the communities where it’s need.

It also means pushing agencies like the EPA to embark on ambitious regulatory efforts on light and heavy-duty vehicles, trains, and ships, thanks to investments in the IRA.

So when we hear the defeatist attitude of Republicans who say this is gonna hurt jobs — we can show them the millions of good-paying jobs being created by the IRA.

When we hear about an alleged overreliance on foreign imports — we’ll show them badly needed investments in domestic manufacturing and a new generation of American solar, wind, geothermal, and green hydrogen.

When we hear cynics who prefer inaction to intervention, a planet burning to a Congress acting, we’ll show them that the audacity to lead has paid off before.

And it can pay off again.

Now, I’m willing forgive all that’s been said — all the misinformation about climate change, all the ranting about California — if my Republican colleagues were just willing to do what’s right today.

In the end, I won’t even ask my Republican colleagues to reverse their positions and have the courage to lead.

I’ll settle for their courage to follow — or at least get out of the way!

Because California has already shown us the path forward.

Have the courage, colleagues, have the courage for the sake of our children and future generations.

Thank you, Mr. President, I yield the floor.

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