- 7/10/2025
During remarks on the Senate floor Wednesday, Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) spoke about climate change.
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00:00President, the senator from Rhode Island.
00:04Thank you. First of all, thank you, Senator Murkowski.
00:08I rise today for the 300th time with my trustee increasingly battered time to wake up chart
00:17to try to rouse this chamber to the looming dangers caused by fossil fuel pollution.
00:25I'm not sure whether this is a triumph of persistence or an exposition of failure or a little bit of both.
00:37I will say that Speaker Pelosi, who I admire immensely, has called out my persistent and relentless work on climate.
00:46But on the other hand, it's hard, given our peril, not to feel a bitter sense of failure about where we are.
00:53The arc of these speeches has gone from climate science and warnings through effects in oceans and specific localities,
01:03particularly red state localities, to the political obstruction that went toxic in 2010,
01:11and then from that political obstruction through to the climate denial apparatus behind it,
01:16and behind that to the dark money and the creepy billionaires who have been driving the obstruction,
01:23and then exploration into the essentially covert op of climate denial and dark money and Supreme Court capture.
01:34And the result is that we've been through some eras along the way.
01:41Era one would be the science era, which lasted for quite a long time.
01:45And by the way, God bless the scientists, they got it right.
01:49Even the Exxon scientists got it right.
01:52And then that era ended, and the era of climate politics began, and that is what has been the bitter failure.
01:58We have badly let down our people with the failure in Congress to do anything significant about climate.
02:07And as the result of that failure, we've now entered the era of consequences,
02:10when the stuff that was so predicted is now starting to actually happen in people's lives.
02:18So I want to focus today on how and why we are where we are in this era of well-predicted consequences and political failure.
02:29And that takes us to this covert op that I briefly described.
02:35It is entirely possible that history will show that the three most consequential disasters for America in our lifetimes
02:44were the capture of the Supreme Court by right-wing billionaires,
02:48the influx into our elections of floods of corrupting special interest dark money,
02:56and the success of the fossil fuel climate denial operation at blockading solutions to the fossil fuel emissions crisis.
03:05It is entirely possible that fossil fuel interests were the driving force behind all three disasters.
03:12Indeed, indeed, it is likely.
03:15What makes these disasters the three worst is that their damage will be lasting and perhaps even irrecoverable.
03:26And our common failure in all three disasters as Democrats was showing up too late.
03:34Each of these disasters was a victory for the insidious political forces behind the court's capture,
03:42behind the corrupting dark money operation, and behind the climate denial fraud.
03:47Remember, those disasters didn't happen.
03:50They were done.
03:52And much of the work done by those insidious political forces was covert and clandestine.
03:58But there were plenty of signals of what was going on to anyone paying attention.
04:03If you paid attention to the court capture scheme and the dark money operation and the climate fraud,
04:09you'd quickly notice the overlap of the shadowy political forces behind all three.
04:15You'd notice the common thread, fossil fuel.
04:18Think of all three special interest campaigns as a single covert operation,
04:25a covert op run against America by forces within our country,
04:31an enemy within of creepy billionaires, fossil fuel interests, and far-right foundations,
04:38determined to impose on the country a blighted and unpopular vision
04:44that they could never achieve democratically.
04:47Up against a covert power-seizing plan like that, you need to move fast.
04:53You need to engage early.
04:54If you wait too long, you'll show up too late.
04:57Why did we always show up too late?
05:00It wasn't because these disasters were minor matters.
05:04A captured Supreme Court puts an entire branch of government under hidden political control,
05:09with no electoral remedy to its bad decisions,
05:14thanks to lifetime appointments of the captured justices.
05:16Capture of our Supreme Court has caused lasting damage already, deforming our constitutional order.
05:24The same interest, always winning, is observable, as is the statistical improbability of that.
05:31And it degrades faith in the court.
05:34Capture rots the court from within.
05:36A billionaire gifts program to reward the most amenable justices with lifestyles of the rich and famous twisted the court into knots as it tried to prevent facts from coming out,
05:50even potential tax cheating, and to defeat any real ethics code.
05:55That is all a devilish and rotten business in a great republic.
06:02As to dark money, well, dark money influence has corrupted Congress.
06:06And dark money political spending denies citizens, American citizens,
06:13the basic information they need to do their constitutional job of policing the public square.
06:19Knowing who's out, doing what, to whom, is essential.
06:26Well, the donors, and the candidates, and the party leadership, they all know the players in the game.
06:35Donors don't spend billions without making sure the politicians know.
06:38It's America's citizenry that is left in ignorance.
06:43What citizens do see and feel is that they're not being listened to.
06:47They don't matter so much anymore.
06:50Not when tens of millions of dollars of secret funds can be dumped into an election by a billionaire.
06:57Politicians are drawn to the money inevitably.
07:01Remember the famous saying, money is the mother's milk of politics.
07:05Climate denial fraud may be the worst of the three.
07:11Climate denial fraud's success may have cost us our children's futures.
07:16The looming physical catastrophes made inevitable by fossil fuel pollution damaging Earth's natural systems,
07:24they're first prefigured economically in insurance markets.
07:29And it's happening.
07:31Insurance markets are seeing what is coming.
07:33Unlike fossil fuel, the insurance industry can't lie about our future.
07:40Insurers are under a fiduciary obligation, reinforced by trillions of dollars in bets,
07:46to predict future risk honestly and well.
07:50And they are telling us that an economic storm is coming, driven by climate upheaval.
07:55The leading edge of that economic storm is already upon us in homeowners' property insurance markets melting down in Florida
08:04and other coastal and wildfire risk areas.
08:08We're heading into that storm unprepared while being lied to at industrial scale.
08:15Three terrible things were done.
08:17Much of the scheme was covert, but there was plenty to see.
08:22So what went wrong?
08:25I'd say that my party fell into a rut.
08:28We too often allowed pollsters to determine our priorities.
08:32There are uses for pollsters in politics, but pollsters should not set priorities.
08:39Politicians worth their salt should set their own priorities, using their own judgment,
08:44based on their own interactions with their own constituents and their own powers of foresight and anticipation.
08:52Those capacities are important in politics.
08:56Depending on polls can make those capacities flabby and weak.
09:00Polling also depends on getting the questions right.
09:03When pollsters aren't asking the right questions, it leaves massive blind spots.
09:08I have seen polling presentations supposedly telling us what we should care about
09:12that didn't even ask about climate change pollution or dark money corruption.
09:19Plus, polling is inherently backward-looking,
09:23at least back to the time the survey was taken, obviously,
09:25but truly well before that,
09:28into the lived experience of the poll's audience
09:31from previous months and years that informed their answers to the poll.
09:35So polling is reverse Gretzky.
09:37It tells you where the puck was.
09:41How often have we been told in the Senate
09:43that issue isn't very high up in importance to voters?
09:47What a dumb and irresponsible way to think.
09:50That way of thinking suffers from a huge readiness problem.
09:54By the time a captured Supreme Court
09:57reveals its bad effects
09:59in voters' lives,
10:01it's too late.
10:03The court is captured.
10:05By the time dark money influence invades elections,
10:08it's too late.
10:10Dark money, the sin that makes possible
10:12all the sins dark money pays for,
10:15is devilishly hard to root out.
10:18And climate change,
10:19climate change is physics.
10:22Once that fossil fuel pollution
10:24unleashes natural forces
10:26that will destroy our climate safety,
10:28they are not always possible to call off.
10:32It's too late.
10:35The lesson here,
10:36if you wait to fight
10:37until the polls tell you an issue is important,
10:40the battle can be over before you show up.
10:44Republicans' big donors want
10:46lower taxes for the rich,
10:47freedom for polluters to pollute for free,
10:50less safety regulation of business.
10:52None of those results is politically popular.
10:55So Republicans use polling as a tool
10:57to manipulate and move public opinion.
11:00The purpose is dynamic.
11:02Democrats think of polls like goalposts.
11:04Show me where the goalposts are,
11:05and I'll kick my policy, football,
11:07through those goalposts.
11:08Static.
11:10Being static fails us.
11:13When danger looms,
11:14it's irresponsible to wait
11:16until everybody sees the danger
11:18to give warning.
11:20If it was your house on fire,
11:21would you wait around
11:22for your family to wake up
11:24and ask for your help?
11:26Of course not.
11:28And when you're up against strategy,
11:30particularly covert strategy,
11:32you have to fight strategy with strategy.
11:35You have to prepare,
11:36not wait around.
11:39And third,
11:39if you're always meeting voters
11:41where they already are or were,
11:44they'll begin to notice over time
11:45that you never have anything new to say,
11:48that they never learn anything from you,
11:50that you're not a leader,
11:51but a follower of polls.
11:55That sense of political listlessness
11:57quietly sinks in
11:58and informs the political refrain,
12:01Republicans are shameless,
12:02Democrats are spineless.
12:04Look now at the climate mess we are in.
12:08We are sailing toward economic catastrophe
12:10kicked off by collapsing insurance markets,
12:14followed by physical catastrophe
12:16as Earth's natural systems collapse.
12:19The fossil fuel polluters
12:21who caused this mess
12:22aren't penalized.
12:24They float instead
12:25on an economic subsidy in the U.S.
12:28of $700 billion per year.
12:33That subsidy comes from getting to pollute for free,
12:36a violation of basic economic market principles.
12:41That $700 billion annual subsidy
12:44roughly reflects the annual damage
12:47fossil fuels cause,
12:50a $700 billion negative externality,
12:53as economists would say,
12:55that should be baked into the price
12:57of the product.
12:59But Republicans in Congress
13:00desperately protect
13:02that $700 billion subsidy
13:04for their fossil fuel donors.
13:08Think of how that subsidy
13:10motivates the fossil fuel industry
13:12in politics.
13:13To protect a $700 billion annual subsidy,
13:16would you spend, say,
13:17$7 billion a year
13:20in politics
13:21defending the pollute for free subsidy?
13:24$7 billion a year
13:25to defend $700 billion a year?
13:29At that rate,
13:30fossil fuels' political operation
13:31is likely the most profitable facet
13:34of the entire industry.
13:36So they have an immense,
13:39well-funded,
13:40covert,
13:42purposeful operation.
13:43And we wait until the posters tell us
13:47the public is alert to it
13:49before we do battle?
13:52Ridiculous.
13:54How do we recover?
13:56How do we recover
13:57from all the years
13:58we skated to where the puck was
14:00and ignored
14:01the massive fossil fuel covert op
14:03because the public
14:04hadn't seen it yet?
14:06Well, first,
14:07we had better get on it.
14:09We've let a lot of sand
14:10run through the hourglass
14:11as we dawdled,
14:12and we lost a lot
14:13of credibility
14:14from missing those fights.
14:16On climate,
14:17we have to face facts.
14:19The facts are grim
14:21and the stakes are high.
14:24The corporate consulting firm
14:26Deloitte has estimated
14:27a $220 trillion difference
14:31in global GDP by 2070.
14:35Depending on whether we succeed
14:37on climate,
14:39thereby generating $40 trillion
14:40of global economic growth,
14:43or continue failing
14:44and take a global $180 trillion
14:48economic hit.
14:50The spread is $220 trillion,
14:54and Deloitte's not the lone voice.
14:56The Potsdam Institute
14:57has warned of a $38 trillion
14:59annual hit
15:00to global GDP
15:01by mid-century.
15:03predictions of multi-trillion dollar hits
15:06and the International Financial Stability Board
15:10just warned the global banking sector
15:13to buckle up.
15:15The warnings focus on insurance,
15:18mortgage,
15:18and real estate markets.
15:20The Economist magazine
15:21has reported a looming $25 trillion hit
15:24just to the global real estate sector.
15:28Fed Chair Powell testified earlier this year
15:30before the Senate Banking Committee
15:31that climate change will make insurance
15:33and therefore mortgages
15:35unavailable in entire regions
15:38of the United States.
15:41Voices at Allianz and Aon
15:43have warned that climate change
15:44threaten to upend their entire industry.
15:47The former Chief Economist
15:49to Freddie Mac
15:50told the Budget Committee last Congress
15:52how insurance becomes unavailable,
15:56making mortgages unavailable,
16:00driving down the value of your home.
16:04Similarly, when insurance premiums,
16:07if you can get insurance,
16:08but if the premiums double or triple,
16:10then property values fall
16:12as the carrying costs of your home
16:14dramatically increase.
16:17Average insurance costs in Florida
16:19$14,000 a year
16:21predicted to double, triple, or quadruple.
16:24What does that do to the home price?
16:26Together, the Chief Economist said,
16:29the crisis in insurance availability
16:30and affordability
16:31can cascade into a 2008-style
16:34economic meltdown
16:35that clobbers the entire economy.
16:38Many of these warnings
16:39use the word systemic.
16:42Boring-sounding word.
16:43But perhaps the most dangerous word
16:46in the economic lexicon.
16:49It means the whole system gets hit.
16:53Not just the particular sector.
16:56Like 2008, or worse, 1929.
17:00Everyone suffers as the economy implodes.
17:04The way out from this danger
17:06is clear and simple.
17:07It can't continue to be free to pollute.
17:11There must be a global price
17:13or penalty on carbon emissions.
17:15Nothing else works.
17:17Not after the time we've wasted.
17:19We have squandered every other option.
17:23Polluter pays
17:24is not just the right thing to do morally
17:27and economically
17:29and environmentally.
17:31It's our last lifeboat.
17:34And it's a lifeboat
17:35the fossil fuel industry
17:37is trying to sink.
17:39Even after pretending for years
17:40that that was the solution they wanted.
17:43Big surprise.
17:45They lied.
17:46Hydrocarbons and lies
17:48are their twin products.
17:51Our best prospect
17:52on carbon pollution right now
17:55is the European Union's
17:57carbon border adjustment mechanism
17:58called the CBAM.
18:00It's a tariff
18:01on the emissions associated
18:03with carbon-intensive goods
18:04like steel and aluminum
18:05that are imported into the EU.
18:08Our scenario for success,
18:10if we still have one,
18:12is that the EU sticks to its guns
18:14and doesn't chicken out.
18:16The UK honors its commitment
18:19to join the CBAM.
18:22The two economies, by the way,
18:23just coordinated carbon prices
18:25is a key step.
18:27And Australia and Canada
18:29and Mexico
18:30and other economies follow suit.
18:33There's actually even a sliver
18:35of Senate Republican interest
18:37in a U.S. carbon border tariff.
18:40A price on carbon pollution
18:42in international trade
18:43at last moves things.
18:45It begins to offset fossil fuel's
18:47global multi-trillion dollar
18:49free-to-pollute subsidy.
18:51It aligns market incentives properly.
18:54And it creates a revenue proposition.
18:58A revenue proposition
18:59for pollution reduction
19:00and carbon capture technologies,
19:03boosting an innovation pathway
19:05to climate safety
19:06that presently does not exist.
19:09Dark money corruption
19:10got us into this pickle.
19:12And the way out there
19:13is also clear and simple.
19:16Pass the Damned Disclose Act.
19:18Required that donors over 10 grand
19:20into a political race
19:21show the public who they are.
19:23No more front groups
19:24and shell corporations.
19:27The dark money battle
19:28is a race against time
19:29to stop the dark money
19:32influence operation
19:33before it gets its claws
19:35so deep
19:36into all three branches
19:38of government
19:38that the whole system
19:40is too corrupted
19:41to care how badly
19:42voters want transparency.
19:44When that disclosure bill
19:47passes into law,
19:48the public will feel
19:49immediate relief.
19:51People will notice
19:52the political class
19:53beginning to turn its attention
19:55back to voters
19:55rather than to the
19:57billionaire donors
19:58and the corporate polluter elite
20:00running the foul
20:01dark money operation.
20:04In political ads,
20:05the tsunami of slime
20:06will diminish
20:08as real entities
20:09would have to own
20:10political messages.
20:12Many players behind
20:14the tsunami of slime
20:15will actually back off
20:17because once
20:18voters understand
20:20who's behind a message,
20:21sometimes they get the joke
20:23and you can't
20:24go forward any longer.
20:26And even if they don't
20:27back off,
20:28at least someone
20:28can be accountable
20:29for the slime and lies
20:31that permeate our politics.
20:33Less special interest money,
20:36less slime and lies,
20:38less secrecy,
20:40voters heard again,
20:41you might call it
20:42morning in America.
20:45Fix dark money
20:47and you break the grip
20:48of fossil fuel.
20:49Look at what fossil fuel
20:51dark money gets
20:52the Trump administration
20:53and Republicans in Congress
20:55to do for them
20:56every day.
20:58Right out of the gate,
20:59day one of his regime,
21:01Trump issued
21:01an executive order
21:02that took wind
21:03and solar power
21:04out of the definition
21:06of energy.
21:07forget the politics,
21:11that doesn't even
21:11comport with the dictionary.
21:14Trump's interior
21:15department
21:16set out to kill
21:17offshore wind,
21:18halting the permitting
21:19process,
21:20even attempting
21:21to stop projects
21:21under construction.
21:23Trump's energy
21:24department
21:25choked off loans
21:26and funding
21:26for the development
21:27and deployment
21:28of low-carbon technologies
21:29and proposed
21:30slashing research budgets
21:31at our national labs.
21:33Trump's environmental
21:34protection agency,
21:36now better called
21:37polluter protection agency,
21:39illegally terminated
21:40billions for clean
21:41energy projects
21:42around the country.
21:43It set up California's
21:45Clean Air Act
21:45vehicle emission standards
21:46to be killed
21:48by the Congressional
21:49Review Act,
21:50a gambit first floated
21:52by fossil fuel industry
21:53lawyers in an op-ed
21:55in the polluter-run
21:57Wall Street Journal
21:58editorial page.
22:00And to pull this off,
22:01my Republican colleagues
22:02even went nuclear,
22:04overruled the Senate
22:05parliamentarian.
22:07The Trump EPA
22:08announced it will
22:09repeal rules limiting
22:11air pollution
22:11from power plants
22:12and vehicles,
22:13reverse the 2009
22:14finding that greenhouse
22:15gas emissions
22:17endanger humans,
22:18suspend the collection
22:19of emissions data?
22:22They don't even
22:22want the data?
22:24And eliminate
22:25the social cost
22:26of carbon,
22:27the rule that
22:27quantifies that
22:29$700 billion
22:30in fossil fuel
22:31emissions harm.
22:33In Congress,
22:35because bad things
22:37happened here as well,
22:38here's my favorite,
22:40Republicans undid
22:41our fee
22:41on excess methane
22:43emission.
22:44You have to know
22:46that this fee
22:47only applied
22:48to emissions
22:49exceeding
22:50the industry's
22:51own industry
22:53standards.
22:53and half of those
22:56methane leaks
22:56could be eliminated
22:57at no net cost
22:59since methane,
23:02natural gas,
23:03if not leaked,
23:05can be sold.
23:07So Republicans
23:09in Congress
23:10took the side
23:11of the industry's
23:13worst leakers
23:15to relieve them
23:17of having to pay
23:18for their mess.
23:19And just last week,
23:21Republicans passed
23:22Trump's mega bill,
23:23a many-headed hydra
23:24turning the power
23:25of government
23:26to help fossil fuel
23:28billionaires throttle
23:29their clean energy
23:30competition.
23:32This will kill
23:33thousands of jobs,
23:35cede dominance
23:36of clean energy
23:38to China,
23:39drive consumers'
23:40electric prices
23:41way higher,
23:42and turbocharge
23:43the carbon pollution
23:44that's already
23:45making insurance,
23:46groceries,
23:47and electricity
23:47more expensive.
23:50There's one simple
23:51goal behind all
23:52of this.
23:53Help Republicans,
23:54fossil fuel donors,
23:56to sell more oil,
23:57natural gas,
23:58gasoline,
23:59and diesel.
24:00Every electric car
24:01that's never produced
24:02means one more
24:03internal combustion
24:04engine that will
24:05spend years
24:06consuming their
24:07gasoline.
24:08Every solar array
24:09or wind turbine
24:10that's never built
24:11will mean more
24:12of their natural gas
24:13combusted to produce
24:15electricity.
24:16It doesn't matter
24:17to the creepy
24:18billionaires that
24:19the ownership costs
24:20of an EV are already
24:21less than those
24:23of a combustion
24:23engine car,
24:25or that solar power
24:26is now the cheapest
24:27form of energy
24:28there is.
24:30All that matters
24:31is the narrow
24:32self-interest of the
24:33polluting fossil fuel
24:34industry that funds
24:35and controls
24:37the Republican Party.
24:39Every indication
24:40is that the
24:41fossil fuel industry
24:41dark money operation
24:43orchestrated the
24:44Republicans'
24:45energy agenda.
24:47Every indication
24:48is that they have
24:49burrowed into the
24:50executive branch
24:51and are running it
24:52from the inside.
24:54Russell Vogt,
24:55for instance,
24:56running OMB,
24:57has spent essentially
24:58his entire career
24:59on fossil fuels
25:01dark money payroll.
25:03His counsel there
25:04is Mark Paoletta
25:06from that infamous
25:07painting of the
25:08court fixer Leonard
25:09Leo,
25:11billionaire donor
25:12Harlan Crowe,
25:13and their pet
25:13Supreme Court
25:14Justice Clarence Thomas
25:16from the court
25:17capture operation.
25:19Which brings us
25:20to the captured court,
25:22the court that
25:22dark money built.
25:24Freeing the Supreme
25:24Court from its
25:25captured state
25:26will not be easy.
25:28Too many justices
25:29are willing participants
25:30in the capture scheme.
25:32If the Supreme Court
25:33justices wanted
25:34to redeem their court,
25:36they could have
25:36done it already.
25:37They could do it
25:38on their own any day.
25:40But captured is,
25:41as captured does,
25:42they don't want to.
25:44It matters on climate.
25:46A rejuvenated court
25:48would take the evidence
25:49of climate harm
25:49seriously.
25:51Over and over,
25:52the court that
25:53dark money built
25:54has favored
25:55fossil fuel interests.
25:57For instance,
25:57it threw out
25:58the Clean Power Plan.
25:59saving industry
26:01tens of billions
26:02in compliance costs
26:03and allowing
26:04more than a dozen years
26:06of continued pollution.
26:08Let's say
26:09that $700 billion
26:10fossil fuel subsidy
26:11number is close to right.
26:14If the Clean Power Plan
26:16would only have shaved
26:1710% off the harm,
26:20that one decision
26:22cost Americans
26:25nearly $1 trillion
26:26in pollution harm.
26:29That's worth capturing
26:30a court for
26:31if you're the fossil fuel industry.
26:33The court created
26:34the Major Questions Doctrine
26:35to give the fossil fuel industry
26:37a legal weapon
26:38to stop future
26:39climate regulations.
26:41The court withdrew
26:42the Chevron Doctrine,
26:43taking away from experts
26:44in the regulatory process
26:46the benefit of the doubt.
26:47In all these cases,
26:50the fossil fuel industry
26:51got free legal services
26:53from Republican
26:54attorneys general,
26:57undoubtedly grateful
26:58for their fossil fuel
27:00political funding.
27:01What a rotten misuse
27:03of that badge of office.
27:05To reform the court,
27:06Congress will have to
27:07act on two fronts.
27:09One is to require
27:10a proper ethics code
27:11for the court,
27:12including the essential elements
27:13of proper legal process,
27:15actual fact-finding
27:16and neutral decision-making.
27:19Not complicated stuff.
27:20Rule of law is based
27:21on those two principles.
27:24The justices
27:25shield themselves from both.
27:27The present court
27:28and its political defenders
27:29pretend that fixing this
27:30is impossible.
27:32But it's not.
27:33Every state Supreme Court
27:35faces the issue
27:36of administering
27:37a proper ethics code
27:38for itself,
27:39and every single one
27:41has figured it out.
27:43Forget impossible,
27:44it's not even hard.
27:46The problem is
27:47that the justices,
27:48or certain of them,
27:50enjoy being the only
27:52nine people in government
27:53immune from proper
27:56ethics scrutiny.
27:58Look at that
27:58billionaire gift program,
28:00and you might see why.
28:02They violate an ancient principle
28:04so ancient it's in Latin.
28:06Nemo judex in sua causa.
28:10No one should judge
28:11their own case.
28:12As an ethics scholar
28:14recently put it,
28:15it's a conflict of interest
28:16to judge one's own
28:18conflict of interest.
28:20The public is ready
28:21for more than just
28:22real ethics, however.
28:23The present court's legacy
28:25of scandals,
28:26destruction of precedent,
28:28doctrinal leaps,
28:29false fact-finding
28:30in cases,
28:31and striking,
28:33striking patterns
28:34in what interests
28:35always win
28:36is damning.
28:38Add the unhealthy secrets
28:40around who chose justices
28:42and why,
28:43and around the billionaire's
28:44campaign of gifts
28:45to amenable justices,
28:46and around tax mischief
28:48related to those gifts,
28:49and it is a mess.
28:51The public is ready
28:52for term limits
28:53and turnover.
28:55A court rejuvenated
28:57with regular turnover,
28:58with its secrets disclosed,
29:00and a proper ethics procedure
29:01going forward,
29:02is a court that can again
29:03merit the confidence
29:04of the American people
29:05and perform the judicial
29:07function honorably.
29:08So,
29:10can we win
29:11a pathway to climate safety,
29:13rid our politics
29:14of dark money,
29:15and liberate
29:16a captured court?
29:18Yes,
29:19we actually can.
29:21But it won't be easy.
29:23The successful fraud
29:24of climate denial,
29:26the insidious corruption
29:27of our politics
29:27by dark money,
29:28and the special interest
29:29capture of the court,
29:31all are political prizes
29:33that will be defended
29:34to the death
29:35by the fossil fuel industry.
29:37The fossil fuel-funded
29:38infrastructure
29:39of front groups
29:40that propagates
29:41the climate lies,
29:43that launders and funnels
29:44the dark money,
29:46and that captured,
29:47and now cossets
29:48and guides the justices,
29:50will be fighting
29:51for its very survival.
29:53The front groups
29:54are many,
29:56but like keys on a piano,
29:58they are part
29:58of a larger instrument,
30:00a fossil fuel instrument
30:02of secret influence
30:03and corruption
30:03now operating
30:04our government
30:05from within.
30:06That instrument
30:07must be defanged
30:09to revive
30:10American popular democracy.
30:14In this battle,
30:15yes,
30:15we have disadvantages.
30:17The infrastructure
30:18built for Republicans
30:19by their fossil fuel
30:20billionaire backers
30:21is immense.
30:23They can run media operations
30:24that drown us out.
30:26They have unlimited money.
30:27They plan years in advance.
30:29They've whipped
30:30the Republican Party
30:31into exceptional
30:32battle discipline.
30:34Don't get me wrong.
30:35We have some super talent
30:37on the Democratic side,
30:39but it's ballet dancers
30:40against centurions.
30:43Ballet dancers
30:44may be better athletes
30:45than centurions,
30:46but 100 centurions
30:47against 100 ballet dancers
30:48will end predictably.
30:51We don't have much muscle memory
30:53for fighting either.
30:54The recent Democratic administrations
30:56have tended to be
30:57conflict-averse.
30:58We've been less aggressive.
31:01Lambs versus wolves.
31:03The wolf doesn't much fear
31:05the bite of the lamb,
31:07and they don't much fear us.
31:11Imagine Winston Churchill
31:12trying to defend Britain
31:13without radar,
31:14or Spitfires,
31:16or his war room
31:17under the streets of London.
31:19Proper defense infrastructure
31:21can be outcome determinative,
31:23and we haven't had that.
31:25We do have one big advantage.
31:29The whole crooked apparatus
31:30of the right-wing fossil fuel billionaires
31:32depends on secrecy
31:34to work its evils.
31:36We don't have to match
31:37fossil fuel front group
31:40for front group.
31:42Propaganda mouthpiece
31:43for propaganda mouthpiece.
31:45Lie for lie.
31:46Even dollar for dollar.
31:48It doesn't have to take
31:49seven billion dollars
31:51on our side.
31:52Our cause can win
31:54by shining a bright light
31:56on their mischief
31:57and their motives.
32:00Americans love solving mysteries,
32:02love to hear
32:03what Paul Harvey called
32:04the end of the story.
32:06Fossil fuel has to lie
32:07and connive
32:08and hide behind masks
32:09to win.
32:10We can be truth-tellers
32:12and win.
32:13People don't like
32:14being lied to.
32:16The truth?
32:17That's our superpower.
32:19Even with that superpower,
32:21it's still not going to be easy.
32:23We have to face
32:24that there's some real work
32:25ahead of us.
32:26I was a prosecutor.
32:28You've seen the TV shows.
32:29Prosecutors investigating gangs
32:31build careful diagrams
32:32of all the gang's members,
32:34showing who reports to whom,
32:36who's connected to whom,
32:37and what phone numbers
32:38and addresses we have,
32:39and what evidence we've got,
32:40and where they get their guns,
32:42and where they distribute the drugs.
32:43All of that goes up
32:45on the corkboard,
32:47because you have to
32:49know your adversary.
32:51Intelligence agencies
32:52do deep research
32:53into the personnel
32:54of opposing services.
32:56Know your adversary.
32:58We don't.
33:00Until recently,
33:01few Democrats even knew
33:02who Leonard Leo was,
33:03the top operative
33:05of the billionaire's
33:06court capture scheme.
33:08Most Democrats
33:08couldn't pass a basic test
33:10of what front groups
33:10are arrayed against us.
33:12That's not the fault
33:14of individual members
33:15of Congress.
33:16We've just had no war room
33:17to organize the information.
33:19No offense coordinator
33:22to plan strategy.
33:23No batter's book
33:24to tell us
33:25who can't hit inside pitches.
33:27No corkboard
33:28to pin up the gang information.
33:32Corporations do better research
33:34on rivals
33:35when prepping
33:36a corporate takeover
33:37than we did
33:39trying to defend our country
33:40from this political takeover.
33:43The idea of a real-time
33:45anti-fraud
33:46climate cleanup
33:47operations center
33:48calling out the lies,
33:50following the money,
33:51and spotlighting
33:52who's behind the front groups
33:54may seem beyond our reach,
33:56but it's not.
33:58The military has had
33:59op centers for years.
34:00You've seen
34:01the Hollywood versions
34:02with the TV screens
34:03up on the walls
34:03and the satellite feeds
34:05and the drone feeds
34:06coming in.
34:07and the RAF
34:09back in World War II
34:10had a simpler one
34:12during the Battle of Britain
34:13with those little ships
34:14and plane models
34:15being pushed around
34:16with the long sticks
34:17on the big map table.
34:18radar told the RAF war room
34:22when to scramble
34:23the Spitfires,
34:24where to send them,
34:26and what enemy
34:27to expect when they got there.
34:28We haven't built that.
34:30No radar,
34:31no Spitfires,
34:32no war room under London.
34:34But we can.
34:37Remember
34:38those three evils,
34:41the fossil fuel industry's
34:42climate denial fraud,
34:43the capture of the Supreme Court,
34:46that dark money infiltration
34:48of our politics?
34:49They didn't happen.
34:52They were all done
34:54very deliberately
34:56using an armada of front groups
34:58and carefully scripted fakery.
35:01It is best
35:02to think of it all
35:04as a single beast.
35:07A beast that is now
35:09burrowed in
35:10and is running
35:11the government for
35:12Trump.
35:15It's a takeover
35:16by a shadow government
35:18working for right-wing extremists
35:20and fossil fuel polluters.
35:22If we don't see it
35:23for what it is
35:24and call it out
35:26for what it is,
35:27how can we warn people
35:29of what's happening?
35:30And if we don't warn people
35:32of what's happening,
35:33how can we possibly believe
35:34we have done our duty
35:36in this moment of peril?
35:40Climate change
35:41makes this a battle
35:43with a ratchet.
35:46There are some things
35:48you just can't come back from.
35:51The ratchet has clicked
35:52and there's no return.
35:55So it is urgent.
35:59It is time
35:59for us all
36:01to wake up
36:02and fight.
36:05and there's no return.
36:07Let's see.
36:08Let's see.
36:13Let's see.