Dianne Feinstein

“ So the goal should be to stabilize carbon dioxide at 450 parts per million by 2050. This could contain further warming to 1 to 2 degrees Fahrenheit.
The Earth has warmed 1 degree in the past century, and we are now seeing the dramatic effects:
Oceans are rising; coral reefs are dying; species are disappearing; glaciers are melting. We learned just last week that Greenland is now losing 20% more mass than it receives from new snowfall each year. And it will shrink further as the planet warms. ”

“ And Los Angeles has become a “Climate Action Leader” and has registered its greenhouse gases and will be seeking to reduce its emissions. These efforts are so important, and I want to encourage you to support them.
So that’s the electricity and transportation sectors. But America needs to become much more energy efficient as well – both in terms of green building codes and individual conservation and energy use.
An aggressive energy national efficiency program could prevent a substantial amount of carbon dioxide going into the air. ”

“ The United States emits some 25 percent of the world’s greenhouse gases, and we’re 4 percent of the world’s population. So we are the big producer.
The largest contributor to global warming is electricity generation — 33 percent – followed by transportation — 28 percent. These two sectors combine to make up 61 percent of the problem.
The remaining contributors are:
Industry – 20 percent Agriculture – 7 percent Commercial – 6.5 percent Residential – 6.5 percent Let me be clear: there is no silver bullet. There is no one thing that we can do to solve the problem. ”

“ There is broad agreement that the Earth will only get hotter. The question is how hot and why?
First, how hot?
If we act now and further temperature increases are kept to 1 to 2 degrees Fahrenheit by the end of this century, the damages – though significant – will be manageable. But if we don’t act, and warming increases by 5 to 9 degrees by the end of this century, the damage will be catastrophic and irreversible. ”

“ Last week I visited a Silicon Valley start-up — Bloom Energy — that is developing clean fuel cells that will produce both electricity and hydrogen to fuel our vehicles. The fuel cell has cathode ink on one side, anode ink on the other, separated by zirconia sand covered plastic, which becomes the catalyst. The size is about 4 inches by 4 inches. It alone can power a 30 watt light bulb for 5 years. ”

“ The fourth bill will be a national energy efficiency program — including strict appliance and building standards and requiring utilities to use energy efficiency measures to meet a portion of their demand. ”