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BUSINESS MEETING 

MEETING 

BEFORE THE

COMMITTEE ON 

ENVIRONMENT AND PUBLIC WORKS 

UNITED STATES SENATE 

ONE HUNDRED FOURTEENTH CONGRESS 

FIRST SESSION 

JANUARY 21, 2015 

Printed for the use of the Committee on Environment and Public Works 

( 

Available via the World Wide Web: http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys 

(II) 

COMMITTEE ON ENVIRONMENT AND PUBLIC WORKS 

ONE HUNDRED FOURTEENTH CONGRESS 

FIRST SESSION 

JAMES M. INHOFE, Oklahoma, Chairman 

DAVID VITTER, Louisiana 

JOHN BARRASSO, Wyoming 

SHELLEY MOORE CAPITO, West Virginia 

MIKE CRAPO, Idaho 

JOHN BOOZMAN, Arkansas 

JEFF SESSIONS, Alabama 

ROGER WICKER, Mississippi 

DEB FISCHER, Nebraska 

MIKE ROUNDS, South Dakota 

DAN SULLIVAN, Alaska 

BARBARA BOXER, California 

THOMAS R. CARPER, Delaware 

BENJAMIN L. CARDIN, Maryland 

BERNARD SANDERS, Vermont 

SHELDON WHITEHOUSE, Rhode Island 

JEFF MERKLEY, Oregon 

KIRSTEN GILLIBRAND, New York 

CORY A. BOOKER, New Jersey 

EDWARD J. MARKEY, Massachusetts 

RYAN JACKSON, Majority Staff Director 

BETTINA POIRIER, Democratic Staff Director 

(III) 

C O N T E N T S 

Page 

JANUARY 21, 2015 

OPENING STATEMENTS 

Inhofe, Hon. James M., U.S. Senator from the State of Oklahoma .................... 21 

Boxer, Hon. Barbara, U.S. Senator from the State of California ........................ 23 

LEGISLATION 

EPW Committee Resolution, Authorizing expenditures by the Committee on 

Environment and Public Works .......................................................................... 4 

Text of the amendment by Senator Inhofe ............................................................ 10 

Senate Committee Print, Rules Adopted February 14, 2013 ............................... 13 

ADDITIONAL MATERIAL 

Colloquy between Chairman Inhofe and Senator Boxer ...................................... 27 

(1) 

BUSINESS MEETING 

WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 21, 2015 

U.S. SENATE

COMMITTEE ON ENVIRONMENT AND PUBLIC WORKS

Washington, DC. 

Committee on Environment and Public Works Washington, DC. 

The full committee met, pursuant to notice, at 10:30 a.m. in room 

406, Dirksen Senate Building, Hon. James Inhofe (chairman of the 

full committee) presiding. 

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Present: Senators Inhofe, Boxer, Barrasso, Capito, Crapo, 

Rounds, Sullivan, Wicker, Boozman, Whitehouse, Carper, Merkley, 

Booker, Merkley. 

Senator BOXER. Ladies and gentlemen of the committee, see this 

gavel? The last time it got transferred was 8 years ago and I had 

to fight Senator Inhofe for it. This time, I have to say, you and I 

are friends. 

Senator INHOFE. Of course. 

Senator BOXER. And if I was going to hand this gavel over to 

anyone, I am very happy that it is you. 

So I am going to hand that gavel to you, and when you recognize 

me I have some gifts for you, too. 

[Laughter.] 

Senator INHOFE. Oh, good. Well, let’s do this. Let’s start by bringing us to order. We will be in order. I will just go ahead and recognize you for your special awards. 

Senator BOXER. For the gift-giving, OK. 

Senator INHOFE. By the way, I remember the statement that she 

said that got everyone’s attention was that elections have consequences, and I have the gavel. 

Senator BOXER. That is right. 

Senator INHOFE. Now, I have a picture of that that she presented 

to me, and it looks like you are just about to hit me with it. 

[Laughter.] 

Senator BOXER. Well, I have no intention of doing that. But I am 

glad you reminded everyone that I gleefully said when I got that 

gavel, elections have consequences. I was gleeful, today I am not 

so gleeful. But elections have consequences. 

So my first gift is this tee-shirt that says, Elections Have Consequences. 

[Laughter.] 

Senator INHOFE. That is great. 

Senator BOXER. That is my first gift. 

Now, Jim, I think everybody knows that we work well together. 

Everybody knows that we work well together on highways, infrastructure, and on a few other things. A few. But I wanted to say 

how much I look forward to working with you on the highway bill. 

Here is something for your grandkids. 

This truck symbolizes the jobs that we will create when we work 

successfully, 3 million. And 600,000 construction workers are still 

out of work since the recession. This is for you for your grandkids. 

And now we get a little more controversial. This is a very clean 

car. It is a Prius. And I don’t know that it is your favorite model, 

but as we build our roads, we want to make sure we don’t dirty 

the air. 

Senator INHOFE. And that is why I am using CNG in my car. 

Senator BOXER. Oh, all right. I am so proud of you. 

Senator INHOFE. Which is now in Oklahoma more expensive than 

regular gasoline, did you know that, Neil? It is. 

Senator BOXER. Well, this last gift is the most controversial gift. 

And it is for your grandkids, and it is a bicycle. And it is a reminder, when we take up the highway bill, to remember that 35 

million Americans do use bicycles, a lot of them for work. I know 

4 

it is a controversial issue, but I think your grandkids would enjoy 

this. 

And Jim, I mean it when I say, handing this gavel over to you, 

I am sad I am doing it, but I am so happy for you. 

Senator INHOFE. That is good, that is good. 

[Applause.] 

Senator INHOFE. There you go, thank you. 

All right. We do have some things that we always do, and that 

is we have to at some point have to have 11 people here to pass 

our resolutions. So if staff would remind me when the 11th one 

shows up, I would appreciate it and we will go ahead and get that 

done. 

We have some great new members on this committee. I look over 

and see my friend on the Democrat side. We have a lot of issues 

where we are working together, so we are looking forward to that. 

We have three of the new members of the U.S. Senate, Senator 

Rounds, Senator Sullivan and Senator Capito. They are all very interested in this committee. They made a special request to be on 

this committee. It is going to be joyful to get their input and the 

background they have. Senator Sullivan had experiences with 

many of the things that we deal with on this committee up in Alaska. So we will be doing that. 

So let me do this. A couple of things we will be doing is, the early 

bird rule, we have done that in the past. We have deviated from 

that in the past. We are going to be adhering to that. 

We also, I am going to make an effort, and I would like to have 

all of you think about this between now and the meeting of the 

28th, a week from today when we have our highway meeting. We 

have Secretary Fox who is going to be here. And Secretary Ridley, 

I am not sure whether you are planning to be there for that one 

or not, but there will be a lot of people here. 

So I have felt that our opening statements, with as large as this 

committee is, uses up all of our time. In that particular committee 

hearing, we are going to have a bunch of Governors here, at least 

two that I know of, one from Connecticut is on a short term. So 

we are going to maybe talk about this between now and then. In 

the Senate Armed Services Committee, we have the ranking member and the chairman with opening statements and not the rest of 

them. So we are going to consider that. 

For today’s purpose, I know that we are going to both have opening statements, Senator Boxer and myself. And we will open it up 

for hopefully fairly short opening statements from the other members. 

But right now I think we have 11 here, is that correct? So if it 

is all right, I am going to go ahead and skip over to the two things 

that we have to do today in conjunction with business. One is to 

call up the EPW Committee Resolution which funds the committee 

through February 2017 in three financial periods. Those financial 

periods are between March and September, then October to October, then October to February. Not that that is significant, but this 

is the way we have divided it up before. Everyone already has this, 

and I would ask that we would approve that report. 

[The text of the resolution follows:] 

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Senator INHOFE. All in favor say aye. 

[Chorus of ayes.] 

Senator INHOFE. Opposed, no. 

[No audible response.] 

Senator INHOFE. The ayes have it and it is adopted. 

The second one is the first Inhofe amendment, and that is the 

amendment to the committee rules, that is Amendment No. 1. This 

amendment is a technical change to Rule 2(a) concerning quorums. 

In previous Congresses, the committee had 18 members and a 

quorum was one-third. In this Congress, we have 20 members, so 

the amendment simply updates the rule to require 7 members to 

meet. I would ask for that approval. 

[The text of the amendment by Senator Inhofe follows:] 

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99927.006
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Senator BOXER. Second. 

Senator INHOFE. All in favor, say aye. 

[Chorus of ayes.] 

Senator INHOFE. Opposed, no. 

[No audible response.] 

Senator INHOFE. The ayes have it and we have adopted that. 

The third one doesn’t require a change but it is what we want 

to do, this is more in the way of an announcement. We are going 

to go back to the way we were 8 years ago when I chaired this committee. We have four subcommittees. Then we increased it to five 

when we lost our majority on the Republican side. Now we are 

going to go back to four. Originally served, we had these same four 

committees. 

Those subcommittees will be Transportation and Infrastructure, 

and that will be chaired by Senator Vitter. The second one is Clean 

Air and Nuclear Safety. That will be chaired by Senator Capito. 

The third is Waste Management and Regulation Oversight. That 

will be chaired by Senator Rounds. And the last one is Fisheries, 

Wildlife and Water, chaired by Senator Sullivan. 

The interesting thing here is that three of the four subcommittees are chaired by people who are brand new, the newly elected 

ones. So we will great new input and also great new talent. 

With that, let me just go ahead do an opening statement. 

Senator BOXER. Mr. Chairman, before you move to that, we had 

gone over colloquy. Would this be the appropriate time to do it? 

Senator INHOFE. Sure. Am I a part of this colloquy? 

Senator BOXER. A big part. You keep saying, ‘‘That’s correct.’’ 

[Laughter.] 

Senator BOXER. And I may change what I ask you. 

[Laughter.] 

Senator BOXER. I am sure you have seen this. 

Senator INHOFE. OK, that is fine. 

Senator BOXER. I also want to thank the new members for choosing this committee. I am excited to be working with you. Really, 

we do have, in this committee, the opportunity to work across party 

lines on some things. On other things, we will go toe to toe and it 

won’t be happy. It won’t be happy for you. 

Senator INHOFE. I believe Senator Booker is the first, you just 

got on this committee? 

Senator BOXER. No, he was here. 

Senator INHOFE. Do you have any new members on your side? 

Senator BOXER. No. 

Senator INHOFE. They have all been there before, OK. 

Senator BOXER. That is right. 

Senator INHOFE. Good. 

Senator BOXER. So let me just again welcome the new members. 

Mr. Chairman, it is my understanding that in keeping with the 

practice of the committee, you and the subcommittee chairmen will 

make every effort to consult with me and the subcommittee ranking members prior to announcing a committee or subcommittee 

hearing and prior to setting the agenda for a committee or subcommittee meeting. 

Senator INHOFE. That is correct. 

13 

Senator BOXER. And further, Mr. Chairman, it is my understanding that in keeping with our committee practice, you and the 

subcommittee chairmen will make every effort to provide me and 

the subcommittee ranking member opportunity for topic and schedule consultation at least 2 weeks prior to any hearing. 

Senator INHOFE. That is correct. 

Senator BOXER. And again in keeping with our practice, the 

chairman and ranking members will strive to attain a balance of 

interests of the majority and minority in selecting the witnesses for 

hearings. 

Senator INHOFE. Yes, we will make that effort. 

Senator BOXER. All right. 

Senator INHOFE. I would like to ask for a motion to approve the 

rules as amended. 

Senator BOXER. So moved. 

Senator INHOFE. Second? 

Senator ROUNDS. Seconded. 

Senator INHOFE. All those in favor, say aye. 

[Chorus of ayes.] 

Senator INHOFE. Opposed, no. 

[No audible response.] 

Senator INHOFE. The ayes have it. 

[The Senate Committee Print, Rules Adopted February 14, 2013 

follows.] 

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OPENING STATEMENT OF HON. JAMES INHOFE, 

U.S. SENATOR FROM THE STATE OF OKLAHOMA 

Senator INHOFE. Well, first of all, we have already welcomed the 

new members. Senator Boxer and I have a long history of working 

together, particularly in the areas that she mentioned on highways. 

That is going to be our thing coming right out of the chute, the first 

thing we do. 

In fact, our first hearing will be a week from today, the 28th. 

And it will be a hearing on highways. We are going to have Secretary Fox, which has been a good appointment. I have enjoyed 

working with him. He is going to be here with, I believe four Governors. So we will look forward to that. That is going to be a very 

significant one. 

It is one of the things we have to do. We have had some great 

progress that we have made. We had a lot of objection on the Republican side last time we had our 27-month bill that we had. That 

was a problem. And I had a hard time explaining to some of the 

Republicans that the conservative position is to pass a highway reauthorization bill. Because the only alternative to that is to have 

short-term extensions. And as Secretary Ridley will say, it costs us 

about 30 percent off the top in order to have those short-terms, and 

you can’t get any reforms. The reforms that we had in the bill, the 

27-month bill, I was very appreciative of Senator Boxer in going 

along with some of the streamlining aspects that really were very 

favorable. So that is what we are going to be doing. 

On water, the oversight is going to be started as early as February 4th, when this committee will hold a joint hearing with the 

House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee on the EPA’s 

Waters of the United States proposed rule. This is very significant. 

Probably this is singled out by the farmers, through their organizations like the Farmers Union and the National Farm Bureau, as 

being the most significant thing to farmers. I have talked to each 

of our new members about this. They all are fully aware of the 

problems there. 

On climate, another top priority we will be conducting rigorous 

oversight of the EPA regulations. I strongly believe the President’s 

misguided agenda on climate change has led to an onslaught of 

new regulations that is endangering the future of job creation, energy independence and reliability of the power grid. We will be 

talking about that today and I understand we are going to have 

some amendments today. 

As we approach the oversight of the President’s climate action 

bill, it is important for the committee to note that the Nation’s 

gross, since 1970, this is significant, nobody ever talks about this, 

the Nation’s gross domestic product has increased by 234 percent. 

The miles Americans have traveled has increased by 168 percent. 

The population has increased by 54 percent. This is all since 1970. 

And also since 1970, according to the EPA, emissions from pollutants such as SOx and NOx and PM have decreased by 68 percent. 

So think about the success of that. I can remember when the 

amendments, back in 1989, I guess it was, they were the amendments, and Senator Boxer and I were both original co-sponsors of 

the amendments to the Clean Air Act that has been so successful. 

So that was a good start. 

23 

So despite this success, they are talking about the significant 

greenhouse gas regulation package scheduled for this summer. As 

proposed, EPA’s regulations would raise energy prices, destroy jobs 

and impose billions of dollars in costs. 

I always go back to the statement that we had when the first 

designee or the first nomination that the President made, President Obama, was to the EPA, Lisa Jackson. I recall sitting right 

here in this room with her as a witness and saying, Madam Administrator, if we were to pass some of the cap and trade bills that we 

are talking about today, or the regulations that would bring us cap 

and trade, would this have a reduction in overall CO2 emissions. 

She said, no, it wouldn’t, because this isn’t where the problem is. 

The problem is in China, it is in India, it is in Mexico. And you 

could carry that argument out further and say if we reduce them 

here, and our jobs are chased offshore, you could have the result 

of increasing, not decreasing, CO2 emissions. 

The Wall Street Journal in June called the proposal when it 

came out, just came out from the Administration, ‘‘a huge indirect 

tax and wealth redistribution scheme that the EPA is imposing by 

fiat will profoundly touch every American.’’ 

NERA agrees, by the way, you quote them quote often. In its October analysis, it is a non-partisan economic analysis firm, it 

projects that the costs to comply with EPA’s plan would be $479 

billion. We know of course that that is one of the main reasons, 

that was the wake-up call back in 2002, when everyone kind of 

thought, well, global warming must be real, therefore everyone 

thought that was the fast ticket to the White House, to introduce 

a bill for cap and trade, until they found out what the cost was 

going to be. 

At that time, it was the Charles Rivers Associates, MIT, the 

Wharton School and others that came out with cost ranges as to 

what it would cost for cap and trade. The range was always between $300 billion and $400 billion a year. That is when people 

started looking at the science and realizing there was another side 

to it. 

So NAAQS, we are going to be talking about NAAQS right now 

with the proposal, of those NAAQS that will have the effect of placing over 600 counties in non-attainment. Everyone of my 77 counties in Oklahoma would be out of attainment. The TSCA, we know 

we have been working on that for quite a while and we will be 

working on that bill. Endangered species, finally, for the first time 

in a long while we will place a focus on needed oversight for implement of the Endangered Species Act. 

So that, along with nuclear, we are going to be very busy on this 

committee. 

In closing, I want to briefly review and get into the record the 

three guiding principles this committee will follow when conducting 

oversight and reporting legislation from this committee. These are 

the same ones that we put in in 2003 when I became chairman of 

this committee 12 years ago this day. No. 1 is, does the proposal 

make the bureaucracy more efficient, effective and accountable? 

No. 2, is the proposal fiscally responsible, based on sound science, 

and do we know the true benefits and costs to American conVerDate Aug 31 2005 11:47 May 18, 2016 Jkt 000000 PO 00000 Frm 00027 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6633 S:\_EPW\DOCS\99927.TXT VERN
24 

sumers? And No. 3, finally, how does the proposal affect property 

owners, local communities and taxpayers? 

So those are what the guiding principles will be as we have had 

in the past. 

Senator BOXER. 

OPENING STATEMENT OF HON. BARBARA BOXER, 

U.S. SENATOR FROM THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA 

Senator BOXER. Thank you so much, Mr. Chairman. 

I really appreciate your proving the point that clean air regulation works. You lauded the Clean Air Act Amendments of 1990. It 

is important to go back and look at the record, the polluters predicted a disaster. But George Herbert Walker Bush signed those, 

and we have had huge growth since then. And in the 1970’s that 

you mentioned, Richard Nixon signed it. 

So cleaning up the environment in the past has always been a 

bipartisan effort. Let’s face facts: it has changed. The very things 

that you are saying about the disaster of the climate change plan 

of the President, they echo those words of the polluters back then. 

And I have to say, we did get 56 votes when all is said and done 

for our cap and trade, but it did fail. And I know you were glad, 

because you do believe it would be terrible for America. 

I disagree strongly, because I come from a State that has an incredible climate change program. And we are thriving. And our 

budgets are balanced. And everybody is excited to partake. When 

the polluters came in, the oil companies, and tried to overturn the 

cap and trade system, the voters said, no, we like it, we like clean 

air, it is important. 

I want to point out, we will continue to argue about this and I 

am so respectful of your views, and I ask that you be respectful of 

mine. Ninety-eight percent of the scientists are now saying the following. We now face a choice between an unpleasant planet, unpleasant planet, and an uninhabitable planet. And I will tell you, 

we won’t be around in 56 years unless there is a miracle. And it 

is going to be our great grandkids, our grandkids. 

I just want the record to show that sitting back and saying, we 

are not going to do anything on this because, a, it is a hoax, which 

makes no sense to me, and b, it is going to cost us jobs, which 

makes no sense to me, given the record of environmental regulation, I just think it is sad to be on that side of the coin. We will 

continue to push on this side. Now, that is the controversy. 

On the infrastructure, Mr. Chairman, there is very little distance 

between us. We may argue around the edges, and that is fine, we 

will compromise on those things. But I am going to work with you 

as hard as I can, because as you know, I announced that I won’t 

be running in 2016. What I want to do is have a legacy of working 

with you on infrastructure. I think we can bring everybody together on this committee and in the Senate. So I am going to work 

my heart out with you on that. 

I want to put up a cautionary note here. Your wonderful people 

are here from your State to celebrate with you today. And they 

know that this uncertainty that we are facing with the Highway 

Trust Fund is dangerous for our businesses and dangerous for our 

workers. I am very concerned that the whole Trust Fund expires 

25 

in three and a half months or so. We know how long it takes to 

get one of these bills done. You and I had agreed on the last bill, 

Senator Vitter did as well, Senator Carper, all of us working together. So we have a place to start. 

And I want to urge you, and I think it is, all the things that you 

outlined are very important issues, I have no problem with that. 

I think it is going to be exciting, some of the issues that you are 

bringing up. Not necessarily uncontroversial but important that we 

do them. But nothing could be more important. Do you know there 

are still 600,000 construction workers that haven’t been working 

since the great recession? That is down from 2 million. 

So we have done well here in what we have done on the Highway 

Bill. I am a little bit concerned about the House, every time I try 

to see where they are coming from. That is why I so value Senator 

Capito being here, because she knows how to work with the House 

people, because she just came from there. I am a little concerned 

that they don’t sense that urgency and that they are looking for 

more and more of these short-term extensions. The only way for us 

to take a stand against that philosophy is to pass a bill here. 

So I would urge you to take the bill that we passed out of here 

the last time, make some changes. I will work with you on it, others will. And let’s get going, because really, we all care about jobs, 

both sides of the aisle. There is no disagreement. 

And I think on this committee we all know we want a bill. So 

whereas everything else you talked about is a bit more controversial, the infrastructure is not. I am excited to work with you on 

that highway bill. 

And again, Mr. Chairman, congratulations, and I really look forward to our ongoing work together. 

Senator INHOFE. Let me just respond to one thing. And I am not 

going to make a habit of this, but let me allay your fears about the 

House. Because after we had that bill vote in the Senate, that day 

I went over and requested an audience with the T&I Republicans, 

33 of them. I explained to them the same thing I just said here, 

what the conservative position was. Every one of the 33 voted for 

it. So I think the House is going to be very cooperative. 

Senator BOXER. I hope so. 

Senator INHOFE. OK, we are going to follow the early bird rule. 

The first one to show up, who will be No. 1, is Senator Capito. 

Senator CAPITO. Mr. Chairman and Ranking Member, it is wonderful to be on the committee, and an honor to serve. I have no real 

opening statement, except I am very appreciative of the areas that 

we are going to be looking at. Obviously there are heavy impacts, 

different impacts in a State like mine, such as West Virginia and 

California. I am very thrilled to be chairing the subcommittee as 

well, I appreciate that. 

Just as a mote of interest, I am not the only native West Virginian on the committee. My compatriot, Senator Carper, was born 

in West Virginia. 

Senator CARPER. Haven’t been there since Saturday. 

[Laughter.] 

Senator CAPITO. Yes, your aunt, I think you told me you were 

going to your aunt’s funeral. So with that, I would just say thank 

26 

you very much, I think it is going to be a great couple of years and 

I appreciate the opportunity to serve. Thank you. 

Senator INHOFE. Thank you. 

Senator Booker. 

Senator BOOKER. Three things. One, I want to congratulate Senator Inhofe, with your gavel. I really look forward to working with 

you. I am glad that we have some history already working together, and I think there is so much space, as you said, for bipartisan agreement. There is urgency for it. 

No. 2, I want to say to Senator Boxer, my heart aches, not just 

about the passing of the gavel, but more importantly about your 

announcement that this will be your last 2 years in the U.S. Senate. I will savor every single day I get a chance to serve with you. 

Then finally, I want to say to Senator Inhofe, I think it is really, 

really good that you are eliminating opening statements. 

[Laughter.] 

Senator INHOFE. Thank you very much. 

Senator Rounds. 

Senator ROUNDS. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I would simply say, 

brevity is critical and I will yield my time. 

Senator INHOFE. Good. We appreciate that. 

Senator Carper. 

Senator CARPER. Thanks, Mr. Chairman. Congratulations on assuming the leadership of this committee again. I look forward to 

working with you. The four of us served together in the House a 

few years ago, and it is great to be able to serve with each of you 

again in these roles. 

I am happy to welcome our new Senator from West Virginia. I 

was driving to West Virginia on the way to the funeral Saturday, 

Shelley, and it was just a beautiful, sunshiny day. Abundant sunshine, blue skies. We were driving through West Virginia, and it 

says Wild and Wonderful. I think, boy, what a glorious place. 

Happy to be here, happy to be home with my family. 

To all the new members, welcome. We are happy for you to join 

us. 

The message for me coming out of the election was that folks in 

our States want us to work together, they want us to make 

progress on real issues and they want us to strengthen the economic recovery. As both Senator Inhofe and Senator Boxer have 

said, one of the best ways to strengthen the economic recovery is 

to come to agreement on a robust, fulsome transportation investment program for our Nation. 

And as Democrats, a lot of times we think about other people 

who could be working to build roads, highways, bridges, transit 

systems. As Barbara said, 600,000 or 700,000 is a lot of people who 

would love to be back working. There real benefit, though, from us 

coming to agreement not only on the authorization but also on the 

funding for the bill, which I will be working on as a member of the 

Finance Committee with a number of you, but the real payoff 

comes from our ability to just in time economy, to be able to move 

goods and products throughout our Country, throughout our Nation 

and to export markets as well. That is one of the reasons why we 

get the real GDP growth from transportation investment. So I am 

anxious to work with you on that. 

27 

One of my takeaways from the President last night is there are 

a bunch of areas where we actually have some agreement, a bunch 

of areas where we have some agreement. What Mike Enzi likes to 

say, he has this 80–20 rule. He says, we agree on 80 percent of the 

stuff, we disagree on 20 percent of the stuff. Let’s focus on the 80 

percent that we agree on and we will come back to the other 20 

percent some other time. 

Not everybody agreed with George Herbert Walker Bush some 20 

years ago, over 20 years ago, when he was President. He came up 

with this idea of a cap and trade system to address the emissions 

of sulfur dioxide. Cap and trade, since I first heard about it, I 

thought, well, what is this? 

But actually he pushed it hard, and I ended up thinking, maybe 

that makes sense, we ought to try it. And there were people who 

said, this will create havoc in the economy, this will never work. 

And it turned out, we ended up meeting our reduction goals in sulfur dioxide in half the time, half the time it was for gas and at 

about less than half the cost. 

So let’s keep that in mind. Sometimes we might want to be 

dismissive of new ideas. That is just an old idea that actually 

worked pretty well not that long ago. 

Thank you. 

Senator INHOFE. Good. Any other comments? 

We are adjourned. 

[Whereupon, at 10:58 a.m., the meeting was adjourned.] 

[Additional material submitted for the record follows.] 

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