Three cheers for Senator Boxer..
Gore Urges Congress to Act on Global Warming
By Debbi Wilgoren, Shailagh Murray and Bill Brubaker
Washington Post Staff Writers
Wednesday, March 21, 2007; 6:40 PM
Weeks after he wowed moviegoers and Hollywood elites with his Oscar-winning documentary on global warming, Al Gore returned to Congress today and urged lawmakers to take drastic measures to address what he called "a true planetary emergency."
He faced a far tougher audience, however, than he had at the Academy Awards.
"Global warming science is uneven and evolving," said Rep. Joe L. Barton (R-Tex.), the ranking minority member of the House Energy and Commerce Committee.
Barton questioned evidence presented in Gore's hit film, "An Inconvenient Truth," and said measures Gore was recommending to curb carbon emissions "fail the common sense test -- they provide little benefit at a huge cost."
Later, Gore squared off with Sen. James M. Inhofe (Okla.), senior Republican on the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, who once called global warming "the greatest hoax ever perpetuated on the American people."
But the former congressman, senator, vice president and 2000 Democratic presidential nominee argued that the scientific community has overwhelmingly agreed that climate change is a genuine threat.
"The planet has a fever," Gore told the House committee, sounding incredulous at Barton's skepticism. "If your baby has a fever, you go to the doctor. If the doctor says, 'You have to intervene here,' you don't say, 'Well, I read a science fiction novel that says this isn't important.' "
"Nature is on the run," Gore told the Senate committee, relating how a manatee turned up in Memphis last summer because "it got too hot in southern Florida."
"I'm not making this up," Gore assured the panel.
Gore began the day at the joint hearing of the House Energy and Commerce Committee and the Science and Technology Committee, many of whose members come from oil- and car-producing states that are wary of new environmental protections.
Gore told the committee that global warning "is a crisis that is by far the most serious we've ever faced," dwarfing the post-World War II reconstruction of Europe, the rise of Communism and the ravages of disease and civil war in the developing world.
"A day will come when our children and grandchildren will look back and they'll ask one of two questions," Gore said. "Either they will ask what in God's name were they doing? Didn't they see the evidence . . . Were they too blinded and numbed by the business of political life and daily life to take a deep breath and look at the reality of what we're facing?
" . . . Or they'll ask another question -- they may look back, and they'll say, 'How did they find the uncommon courage to rise above politics and redeem the promise of American democracy and do what some said was impossible?' "
In the afternoon, the Senate's normally low-profile Environment and Public Works Committeeborrowed a larger hearing room from the Senate Appropriations Committee to squeeze in activists, VIPs and reporters.
Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.), who replaced Inhofe as committee chair when Democrats took control of Congress after the November elections, called Gore's opening statement "very moving and very important." And she noted that every Democrat on the committee had showed up for the hearing--an attendance record she called "rare."
Gore's appearance is part of an ambitious Democratic effort to elevate energy as a top-tier domestic policy cause, alongside health care. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) created the Select Committee on Climate Change when Democrats took over in January. Nine bills related to climate change have been introduced in the Senate in the past two months. Yesterday, Democratic presidential hopeful John Edwards, who ran for vice president on the 2004 ticket with Sen. John F. Kerry (Mass.), announced his energy plan. Its lofty goals: to stop "climate change, create 1 million new jobs in a new, clean energy economy and freeze our growing demand for electricity."
But Gore is the party's chief environmental spokesman. As a senator from Tennessee, he called the Senate's first climate-change hearing 20 years ago. But the surprise success of "An Inconvenient Truth," the documentary about his vividly delivered lecture on the dangers of global warming, has turned Gore into an international eco-celebrity.
The former vice president's new stature has stirred speculation that he may yet seek the 2008 Democratic nomination.
Gore today said he brought with him some 516,000 signatures on petitions "demanding immediate action to solve the climate crisis."
"He's the leader on global warming," said Boxer, who invited Gore to testify before her committee.
"He's world-famous," said Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.), another fan, who attended the premiere of "An Inconvenient Truth" and requested a personal photo op with Gore this afternoon.
In the House, Gore was greeted warmly by Rep. John D. Dingell, a Democrat from the auto-industry state of Michigan and energy committee chairman, who has resisted federal increases in fuel-efficiency standards.
"Welcome back," said Dingell, whose father served in Congress with Gore's father.
But the commitee also invited testimony from Bjorn Lomborg, a Danish political scientist and author of "The Skeptical Environmentalist," who has argued that combating AIDS and poverty may carry a greater social value than tackling climate change.
Republicans signaled even before the hearings that they would be waiting with tough questions.
Two senior GOP lawmakers, Barton and former House speaker J. Dennis Hastert of Illinois, said yesterday they wanted Gore to use his 30-minute opening statement to address a comment last year that "it is appropriate to have an over-representation of factual presentations" in his lecture.
"What is your motive for the 'over-representation?' " Barton and Hastert asked in a letter delivered to Gore yesterday. "Are you worried that your issue must compete for attention and resources with those other global issues that are already compelling and do not need Hollywood hyperbole?"
The Senate session marked the fifth time the committee has heard testimony on global warming under the tenure of Boxer, an ardent environmentalist and backer of one of the most aggressive global-warming bills now pending. The first hearing, on Jan. 30, was an open forum for senators to weigh in on the subject. It drew comments from 34 members. Other witnesses to appear in recent weeks included representatives from major industries and state and local governments; wildlife experts; and United Nations officials.
None of their comments attracted much media attention. But as big a draw as Gore may be for Democrats, for Republicans, his appearance provided a rare high-profile forum to air dissenting views.
One of Gore's toughest Republican critics is Inhofe. In December, during his last days as committee chairman, Inhofe released a 64-page booklet titled "A Skeptic's Guide to Debunking Global Warming Alarmism." He dismisses Democratic proposals to cap greenhouse gas emissions as "the largest tax increase in American history."
Inhofe pointed out before the hearing that Gore usually faces friendly audiences. But he promised the tone at the hearing would be collegial. "He's still a senator in our minds," Inhofe said.
The tone was collegial, to a point.
Inhofe demanded this afternoon that Gore respond to four questions with "yes" or "no" answers. One question highlighted a recent allegation by a Tennessee think tank that Gore's house in the state uses 20 times as much electricity as the average house nationwide.
Inhofe asked Gore to pledge he would consume no more energy in his house than the average American household.
"Are you willing to change the way you live?" Inhofe asked.
When Gore's response didn't immediately answer the question, Inhofe interrupted him, drawing a rebuke from committee chair Boxer.
"How can you ask the question and not give a man a minute to answer?" Boxer said, later reminding Inhofe that he no longer chairs the committee.
"Elections have consequences," she said pointedly. "So I make the rules."
Gore didn't make the pledge Inhofe had sought. But he noted that his family "purchases wind energy and other green energy that does not produce carbon dioxide."
Inhofe didn't back off. In his next question, he reminded Gore that some scientists have criticized him for being an alarmist.
The hearing ended with Boxer heaping praise on her fellow Democrat.
"You really are, in so many ways, a role model for us all," she said.
It was almost too much for Gore, who interrupted Boxer.
"You don't give out any kind of statue or anything?" he asked, as the room erupted in laughter.
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