'There is a new normal of new extremes and we have to be prepared for it,' says Whitehouse. Senate Dems bash climate deniers

Senate Democrats used an emotionally charged hearing Thursday on the effects of Hurricane Sandy to make an aggressive attack on climate change deniers in and out of Congress.

At a Senate Environment and Public Works Committee hearing featuring sometimes tearful reports from lawmakers representing East Coast states, some panel Democrats suggested putting customary congressional collegiality on the back burner to push more forcefully for mitigating climate change.


“There is a new normal of new extremes and we have to be prepared for it,” Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) said. “And the reason we have this new normal of new extremes is because global climate change is happening and is real. And we’ve tolerated the deniers for far too long in this body.”

Whitehouse criticized “a rear-guard action in this building led by polluters” against taking action on climate change.

“But we have to face the fact that the deniers are wrong. They are just plain dead wrong,” he said. “And we have to deal with that, and I think some of the courtesies that we have given to one another collegially really have to yield to the fact that some of the things that are being said in the Senate, and occasionally regrettably in this committee chamber, are just plain wrong.”

Committee Chairwoman Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) applauded Whitehouse’s remarks.

“The clock is ticking and Hurricane Sandy has shown us all what the scientists sitting right in this room [said] the day I got the gavel, … and they told us exactly what would happen and it’s all happening,” Boxer said. “And you can close your eyes and cover your ears and put a pillow over your head. But anyone with a heartbeat and a pulse can tell things are changing. And you are right and we’re going to do whatever we can.”

Whitehouse’s and Boxer’s remarks came after the lone Republican on the panel who attended — incoming ranking member David Vitter (R-La.) — had left. Current ranking member Jim Inhofe (R-Okla.), who labels the entire concept of climate change a “hoax,” did not attend.

The hearing featured damage reports from nine Senate Democrats, seven House Democrats and three Republicans representing areas in New York, New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, Rhode Island and Connecticut that were most damaged by the storm.

“What we’re doing here is we’re making a historic record of this storm,” Boxer said. “Because personally, I think it’s a turning point in our approach to climate change. I hope it is.”

Rep. Andy Harris (R-Md.) — one of the three House Republicans who testified at the hearing — cautioned against lumping the broader, complex debate over climate change with the need to quickly address the infrastructure shortcomings that Sandy exposed.

“I think that distracts us from the important task at hand, which is hardening infrastructure,” Harris told POLITICO after he testified. “And we don’t need distractions because we don’t have unlimited resources or assets anymore. We have to be surgical in where we designate the spending of our assets.”

Harris said there is a recent warming trend, but “I don’t understand or know, or I don’t believe anybody really knows, how to place that in historic perspective.” He also said human contribution to climate change “is also a complex question,” and that even if humans are contributing, “can you change that contribution given that we burn a lot of carbon-based products to create the energy we need to run the economy of the world?”

While Boxer’s committee has seen bipartisan cooperation on transportation and other infrastructure bills, the panel has been one of the most polarized in Congress on environmental issues.

When Vitter was still sitting near her on the dais, Boxer pledged at the hearing that the two of them are “going to have a very strong partnership” in their goal of trying to move a new Water Resources Development Act reauthorization bill in the first 30 days of the new Congress. Congress has not passed a WRDA since 2007, and before that in 2000.

“More frequent extreme weather events have become a reality as our climate continues to change. We have to build infrastructure needed to protect our people, our communities and our economy,” Boxer said.

The WRDA bill — which will serve as a blueprint for Army Corps of Engineers infrastructure projects but without earmarks this time — will include a new section on extreme weather and disaster mitigation, Boxer said.

Senate Democrats at the hearing also said the panel should deal with other environmental impacts of storms like Sandy.

Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-N.J.) introduced a bill requiring the Environmental Protection Agency to study the vulnerability of Superfund sites to weather events and develop a plan to better protect the sites from natural disasters. Lautenberg said the bill also would have Congress appropriate emergency funding to remediate damage or toxic releases at Superfund sites caused by natural disasters.

Sen. Ben Cardin (D-Md.) said the committee should look at “numerous oil spills” that resulted from the storm and “major problems on our shoreline” that require restoration. He also said it was “highly likely” that Congress will need to pass an emergency supplemental appropriations bill. “Bottom line is we can’t handle this on our own,” Cardin said.

Boxer told reporters after the hearing that after dealing with WRDA, her panel next year will plan to hold at least one hearing on the latest climate science and will look at separate bills other senators are drafting to deal with carbon pollution.

“There are several pieces of legislation that will be written on climate change,” she said. “My belief and my hope is out of all those efforts, we will put together some strong bill that has a lot of support and we’ll move it through.”