Adam Schiff Accuses GOP Of 'Torching' Senate Rules For The Oil Industry After Undoing CA Regulation

Forbes Breaking News

During remarks on the Senate floor Thursday, Sen. Adam Schiff (D-CA) spoke about the Republicans bypassing the Senate Parliamentarian to undo California's own regulations on electric vehicles and emissions.

Transcript

00:00President. Senator from California. Madam President, members, welcome to the Roaring

00:06Twenties. Not the ones you may have read about in F. Scott Fitzgerald novels. Not the ones

00:12with jazz and liberation and industrial boom. I mean these Roaring Twenties. The ones where

00:19instead of flappers you get fossil fuel and dirty air. Where instead of innovation you

00:27get obstruction, tariffs, isolationism, blinding nostalgia for a world that no

00:32longer exists. Instead of leaders who want to tackle the climate crisis head-on

00:38you get votes to tear down the tools that we need to fight it. The reason I

00:44stand here today and was here last night until 1 32 in the morning is that Senate

00:51Republicans have pushed through resolutions to revoke California's authority to set

00:56its own vehicle emissions standards. To set its own rules about what kind of air we

01:05breathe in California. This is an authority that my state has had by statute for more

01:13than 50 years. We've had the right to deal with our unique problems of congestion, our

01:20topography, our smog. We've had the right to demand of ourselves cleaner air for ourselves and for our

01:29children. And that is under attack right now. And not just California's ability to set its standards to

01:37protect its people, but because other states have also followed California's lead, this will affect the

01:44quality quality of air all around the country. And that is the the gravamen of the

01:51problem for my colleagues in the GOP. And that is that it's not just California, it's the fact that so

01:58many other states have followed our lead. So many other states have decided they'd rather have fewer

02:05fewer cancers than more cars with the combustion engines. That was their choice. That was their

02:14right. They weren't coerced into joining California. They made the decision about what was best for their

02:21constituents. And it is not for us in this body to arrogate to ourselves to decide we know better for

02:29Californians or Californians or we know better for people in other states than what their own leaders

02:35have decided about the quality of their air. This is a direct attack not only in my state, but on our

02:42ability to innovate, to lead, and indeed to breathe clean air. This is bad policy, clearly, certainly, yes.

02:52But it is also a dangerous abuse of the process in this house that will lead to other harmful

03:01consequences. To get this done, to repeal California's statutory waiver to set its own air pollution rules,

03:09Republican leadership have decided to blow a procedural hole in the filibuster. And let's call it what it is.

03:18This is a dangerous new kind of nuclear option that dispenses with the filibuster, but they would have

03:25us believe only here, only when it's necessary to cater to the oil industry. It is the oil exception

03:34to the filibuster rule. Now, the nuclear option has been used over nominees in the past,

03:42and there has been debate about doing away with the filibuster entirely. But today what we're talking

03:50about is only carving out the oil industry from the filibuster. So not carving out protection for

03:59voting rights, not carving out protection for reproductive freedom, not carving out fundamental

04:05rights for the American people, for which there would be a strong case to have a carve-out from the

04:13filibuster, but no. Today we're talking about an oil industry-only carve-out.

04:23And they're using it to overturn some of the most successful clean air policies in American history.

04:29Since the 1960s, California has had the obligation and the ability and the authority to lead. And they've

04:36used it. We've used it to reduce pollution, to increase fuel efficiency, and drive innovation

04:42across the country. And much of the country has California to thank for the development of electric

04:49vehicles, for the improvement in fuel efficiency standards, because as we have led, others have

04:55followed, and industry has adapted. Despite the naysayers and those always saying it's too hard,

05:01it can't be done, America got cleaner cars thanks to California, and consumers got more choices thanks

05:08to California. Now, some in this chamber want to go back in time, not because the policy failed,

05:15but because it succeeded. Imagine if just after Henry Ford unveiled the Model T, Congress passed a

05:22resolution demanding we double down on bigger, stronger horses. Because that's what this is,

05:30a deliberate attempt to deny the future because it threatens the status of big oil.

05:36The president says that he is for energy independence. That's their mantra. Make energy,

05:42make America energy independent. But that is not what they're doing.

05:46They're killing clean energy all over the country. You know what just came out of the house in the

05:52dead of night last night in their reconciliation bill, their big ugly bill? A provision to essentially

05:59kill every clean energy project in the country that's not almost all finished. If it isn't going

06:08to be operational in a very short period of time, they want to pull the plug. Now, why would they do

06:14that? Why would they do that when, in fact, most of those projects are in red states, not blue ones?

06:21Not states like California, but states like Indiana and Kentucky. Why would they do that?

06:29Because the obligation here is not to their state or constituents. The obligation here is to the

06:39oil industry. They would sacrifice the jobs in the clean energy industry all over the country to

06:45their own constituents. They would put those people out of work. And why? Because of fealty to the oil

06:52industry. This is not about energy independence. It is about oil dependence. Today we are in a full

07:01transition to a clean transportation future. Or we could be. And Senate Republicans are trying to bring

07:08back the smog. They're trying to make America smoggy again. We're seeing the climate crisis, and they're

07:16trying to cut the brake lines on progress. We're literally standing at the gates of the future, a future

07:24that we will lead or China will lead, a renewable energy future, and some would rather turn it all

07:31around and ride off in a horse and buggy. Because that's what this vote means. That's what these votes

07:38mean. Not just being stuck in a past technology behold to an old way of doing things, but also stuck in a

07:45dirtier and more toxic world. Millions will be stuck breathing in hazardous emissions unnecessarily.

07:53What is the pay-for here? What is the pay-for for this gift to the oil industry? Cancer. Cancer is the pay-for.

08:06We will pay for this repeal of clean air rules with cancer. Maybe your cancer. Maybe your father's

08:15cancer. Maybe your sister's cancer. Maybe your child's cancer. That will be the pay-for.

08:22Because this is about power. And it's about profit. And it's about punishing states that dare to lead.

08:30It's about undermining the Senate's own rules to score a short-term win that will do long-term damage

08:37but will placate the oil industry. Because once you start twisting the CRA into a weapon to attack

08:44anything you don't like, rules, waivers, facts, you don't just hurt California, you hurt the country.

08:52Because don't think for a second it ends here. If this gambit works, it will not be the last time

08:57this tactic is used. Today we blow a hole in the filibuster for the oil industry. Tomorrow we blow

09:05another hole in the filibuster for what other polluting industry? Or more broadly, should we

09:13expect this majority to use it to strip away protections for workers or privacy rights or

09:18reproductive freedom? This is the real fight here, not just over emissions or waivers or vehicles,

09:26but whether we are a nation led by and empowered to shape the future or held hostage by the past.

09:32The Roaring Twenties were a time of reckless optimism. The stock market soared, inequality deepened,

09:41and political leaders told Americans not to worry, everything was under control. Until it wasn't.

09:48Because the same decade that gave us jazz and swing also gave us the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act,

09:55a disastrous attempt to protect American industry by walling off our economy to the rest of the world.

10:01It sparked global retaliation, strangled trade, and helped turn a market crash into a full-blown

10:08depression. And what are we seeing now? New tariffs, retaliation threats, political tax

10:15on states that lead, and now an attempt to tear down environmental progress and green innovation,

10:21just as the global economy is demanding more of it, much more of it. The Roaring Twenties gave us

10:29this invention, yes, but also illusion. A false belief that we could grow forever without rules

10:34and without consequences. We are in danger of making the same mistake again. We should be building the

10:40EV infrastructure for the future, not dismantling climate progress. We should be investing in clean

10:46energy, not clinging to combustion engines. We should be protecting the rules of this chamber,

10:52not torching them when they become inconvenient to the oil industry. The gutting of these norms doesn't

11:00end in prosperity. The sacrifice of clean air doesn't end in making us healthy again.

11:08It ends in cancer. It ends in an enfeebled economy. It ends in a country going backward and shrinking in

11:18on itself. It ends in crisis. Let's not go there. I yield back.

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