National oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the numbers from the National Academy of sciences and said they really drive me to the judgment that Climate Change is the scientific equivalent of a speeding mack truck. But, madam president , i believe numbers really dont capture this discussion fully because what people really want to know is whats the impact of Climate Change in their community . What does it really mean for them in actually their part of our country . So to get into those impacts, i want to start with one that is really shellacking my home state, and that is these wildfires that are burning longer, getting hotter and starting earlier. Drought and high temperatures from Climate Change are driving all of this. During the early part of this past year, fires and intense wildfires burned across parts of the United States, threatening Population Centers and destroying hundreds of homes, and this winter, fires have already burned in western oregon, something that used to be very rare. The number of houses that have burned in our country from wildfires has increased a staggering 400 in just the last couple of years and it is projected to get far worse. In 2012, 40 of my home state of oregon burned in just one summer, and nearly 1. 5 million acres burned across the Pacific Northwest. Wildfires, of course, have always been part of life in my home state, but the fires in recent years are getting hotter and are significantly more threatening to homes. Our countrys top Scientists Say that the conditions that cause these recent fire seasons to become more severe, including drought accompanied by above average temperatures are now more common due to human induced Climate Change. Over the past 30 years, the fire season has become two and a half months longer and both the number and severity of sylvester fires in the northwest have increased sevenfold. Scientists who have examined this issue say that Climate Change is a significant factor behind it. Now, madam president , to their credit, the Obama Administration has indicated that they want to work with senators of both Political Parties to tackle this issue, and in particular what they have suggested, and senator crapo and i, he is the republican senator from idaho, have pushed this strongly, is that instead of shorting the Prevention Fund, which is the heart of the problem, where he has to go in and thin out these overstocked stands, instead of shorting the Prevention Fund, which is what happens every year now because these fires are so big and so hot, what happens is the bureaucracy comes in and takes money from the Prevention Fund in order to suppress the fires and the problem, of course, gets worse because we dont have the funds for prevention. So the administration wants to work with democrats and republicans here in the senate, here in the other body so that the most serious fires, just the most serious ones get handled from the disaster fund, and we believe this is going to free up Additional Support for efforts to prevent these fires, and that will be beneficial to our communities. Now, second i want to focus on power sector vulnerability, the drought and high temperatures that can lead to the wildfires and make our power grid more vulnerable also raise the question of the implications for our grid and for taxpayers. Much of that vulnerability, madam president , comes from changes in water supply and water temperature. Water, of course, plays critical roles in generating electricity. Water is needed for generating hydropower, something, of course, that we do a lot of in the Pacific Northwest. Its also needed for cooling and many other types of generation like nuclear, biomass and coal. For those generators, water must not only be available in sufficient quantities, but it has to be cool enough to allow the plants to run safely and efficiently. That means that Climate Change poses a double threat to some of these facilities, and this is not a hypothetical situation. Recent history has already shown the power sectors vulnerability to both drought and high temperatures. In 2001, for example, severe drought in the Pacific Northwest and in california significantly reduced hydroelectric generation, causing tight electricity supplies and high prices throughout the west. That drought was estimated to have an Economic Impact of between 2. 5 billion and 6 billion. And high temperatures have also made water too hot to actually be able to cool some power plants. In 2007, the Tennessee Valley authority had to temporarily shut down its Browns Ferry Nuclear plant because the intake water temperatures were too high. In 2012, the millstone Nuclear Plant that powers half of connecticut had to take 40 of its capacity offline for almost two weeks because the cooling water it was getting from Long Island Sound was too warm. In that same year, the Braidwood Nuclear facility in illinois had to get an exemption to use intake water that was 102 degrees instead of shutting down during a heat wave. Let me tell you when somebody has their air conditioning on high because its over 100 degrees out, thats not a time that you can afford to be taking a base load power plant offline. So far its been possible to get through the heat and droughtrelated shutdowns at these power plants without major outages. Well, lets make no mistake about it. The ratepayers have definitely felt them in their power bills. In texas during the summer of 2011, for example, electricity was selling on the spot market for 3,000 per megawatt hour, 100 times over the normal rate. Now, next i want to talk about effects of climate on Energy Infrastructure. The power sector isnt the only bit of Energy Infrastructure thats vulnerable to Climate Change. Recently, i, along with the majority leader, senator reid and senator franken, harkin and mark udall, asked the Government Accountability office to look into the effects of Climate Change on Energy Infrastructure. Now, that report was just released, madam president. What the General Accounting Office found is that Climate Changes are projected to affect infrastructure throughout all major stages of the Energy Supply chain, and of course once again increasing the risk of disruptions. In addition to power sector vulnerabilities, the g. A. O. Also found vulnerabilities among the infrastructure for producing and extracting Natural Resources, including oil and gas platforms, refineries and processing plants. This infrastructure is often located near the coast, making it vulnerable to Severe Weather and Sea Level Rise. Geotransportation and storage infrastructure, including pipelines, railways and storage tanks is also susceptible to damage from Severe Weather, melting permafrost and increased description. So now im going to close, madam president , by outlining some of the steps that can actually be done to deal with these issues. Im sure people who are following this discussion tonight are saying all right, theyre making a good case about the nature of the problem, so what else . What comes next in terms of our ability to take action to deal with this . I have said before there are a host of areas where were going to have to work in a global kind of manner to build support with other countries for tackling Climate Change, but there is no question, madam president , that this senate can put points on the board this year in the fight against Climate Change. Im very pleased to have been able to work with our colleague, senator murkowski, the ranking republican on the energy and Natural Resources committee over this past year. Until recently, i served as chairman of the energy and Natural Resources committee, and we were able to pass a major law to spur development of hydropower, which is really one of americas forgotten renewables. Hydropower already makes up twothirds of our countrys renewable power, so this is obviously a vital renewable source of energy, so our legislation makes it easier to put hydroon existing dams, irrigation canals and conduits, and we believe its going to spark Big Investments in clean renewable power. Madam president , the National HydropowerAssociation Estimates that there are 60,000 megawatts of potential knew hydropower in our country yet to be harnessed. In addition, our committee passed an important bill to cut red tape associated with developing Geothermal Power on public lands. My colleagues and i urged the administration to take steps to have tools at their disposal to invest in Energy Efficiency and use the savings to pay for those upgrades. And im looking forward, madam president , out here on the floor of the United States senate to be able to pass what i would call the platonic ideal of Consensus Energy legislation, and that is the bill that has been sponsored by our colleagues, senator shaheen and senator portman, and im very pleased that we had a very Promising Development over the last few weeks where we have brought together those who care about trying to promote clean, Renewable Energy in federal buildings. We have been able to get Common Ground between senators of differing views, and i look forward to seeing that bill, the shaheenportman bill out on the floor of the United States senate. Now, the fact is a number of our Renewable Energy sources have been on a roll over the past several years, demonstrating their potential. For example, onshore wind has installed tens of thousands of megawatts of capacity in recent years when the policy support has been in place. As expected, the costs have come down with Technology Improvements and experience, economies of scale and as a deep domestic supply chain has built up to manufacture all of the components of the Wind Turbines and towers. The policy support has been working and wind is now knocking at the door of competitiveness with fossil technologies. Offshore wind is also picking up steam, even off the coast of my home state where the waters have always been too deep for offshore wind to be possible. A Company Called principal power is trying to solve that problem by demonstrating floating offshore Wind Turbines just off the coast of coos bay in my home state. Putting a turbine on a floating platform instead of mounting it on a tower on the ocean floor has the potential to truly dramatically change the potential for offshore wind. It will let developers tap into the huge, windy resource above the deep waters off the coast of oregon and elsewhere but without the footprint on the ocean floor and without affecting views from the coast. Its a promising technology, but like all first of a kind technologies, it is going to cost a bit more, and thats why it ought to get policy support so that we can realize the potential of commercial scale energy. Finally, the cost of solar power have also been dropping like a rock, and the potential for sustainable biomass to provide quadruple wind of low carbon energy, reduced forest health, reduced danger of forest fires and Economic Growth is still out there waiting to be fully developed. Madam president , i want to touch on two remaining issues, and one is before the Senate Finance committee. Its my strong view that the tax treatment of all Energy Production in the United States ought to be modified so that all Energy Sources compete on a technologyneutral level playing field, and that, i would say, madam president and colleagues, that ought to be one of the major goals, one of the major goals of comprehensive tax reform, which in my view is really the grand bipartisan prize for Senate Finance committee members. Now, in the short term, we have another challenge. We shouldnt let the Renewable Energy industries that are so important simply fall off the cliff just when the supply chains have been developed and just when they are reaching a level of competitiveness where they can really take off. So its my hope, madam president , that its possible to work in a bipartisan way, and i intend to talk to senator hatch, the ranking republican of the finance committee and colleagues on both sides of the aisle to work on a tax extenders package that includes a variety of clean energy and efficiency credits. Senator hatch and i have been interested in moving forward this spring through the regular order and mark up this kind of Energy Package in the finance committee. And ill close by talking about natural gas because to capture all of the climate benefits, we also have to factor in the dramatic shale gas revolution. We understand that natural gas has turned the Energy Equation upsidedown over the past few years. Along the way, it has provided a lowcost way to reduce Greenhouse Gas emissions at the same time. Increased usage of natural gas has helped our country to reach its lowest level of Greenhouse Gas emissions since 1994, even as the economy has been picking up steam. Manufacturing and industrial operations have been moving back to the United States to take advantage of cheap, reliable g gas. This is good news that was almost unimaginable just a few years ago. But we have some major challenges as well, madam president. Im concerned that methane emissions from leaky compressors and leaky pipes could undermine the emission benefits of natural gas in a way that isnt being accounted for. A recent report showed that a leakage rate of just 3 through the entire natural Gas Supply Chain could make burning natural gas the same as burning coal from a climate perspective. So i have been pushing hard with colleagues here in the senate to keep that leakage rate below 1 from production to usage to make sure the climate benefits come to reality. Now, there are technology as that can address the issue of leakage and they already exist. They can be put in place at almost no net cost with many of the measures paying for themselves. Theres been a comprehensive study in the measures for reducing methane leaks through the Natural Gas Usage change and it found that emissions could be reduced by 40 with technologies that already exist and are practical today. The scale of this problem, madam president , is, of course, so immense and its what senators are talking about here tonight, that its going to take everyone pulling together at every level to make the meaningful change actually happen. Were going to need continued leadership from our entrepreneurs who arent settling sitting idly by but are innovating to come up with solutions to Climate Change. Were going to need savvy consumers demanding lower carbon, more efficient goods and services. Well need leadership from retailers who are going to ask more of their suppliers and supply chains to give them products to sell to those consumers. And, of course, the key is always innovation in the private sector. Privatesector leaders working with our National Labs and universities. Im very proud that my home state of oregon is especially going to lead the state efforts in trying to promote sustainability, renewables and efficiency at the local level. And to wrap up my remarks, let me state the obvious, madam president. It is going to take new leadership from the congress of the United States. The congress of the United States is going to have to lead if were going to get a longterm framework for a lowcarbon economy that innovators, entrepreneurs and others can use in the days ahead to address this Global Nature of this problem. And i think were up to it here in the senate, madam president. I think were up to doin