washington—rhode island democratic sen. sheldon whitehouse delivered his 200th weekly climate change speech on the floor of the senate on march 13, nearly six years after beginning the series, which he calls “time to wake up.”

in his speech, whitehouse addressed the unwillingness of congress to act on climate change and said the fossil fuel industry has used campaign contributions to buy republicans’ silence on the issue climate change.

the junior senator from rhode island paced around the senate chamber tuesday evening as 20 of his democratic colleagues praised his years-long commitment to keeping the issue of climate change in the focus of the senate.

maine sen. angus king, an independent, compared whitehouse’s speeches to winston churchill’s warnings to the british parliament about the rising power of germany before world war ii, and drew parallels between the disinterest both of them faced.

“senator whitehouse has talked about climate change in terms of ocean acidification, temperature changes, sea level rise, drought, famine, the effects throughout the world,” king said. “often this chamber is empty, but his warnings are important and should be heeded nonetheless.”

other senators joined king in praising whitehouse’s determination, and relayed accounts of climate change taking place in their home states. highlighting anecdotes from fishermen about changes in the ocean as well as citing scientific research, democrats from states across the nation spoke in support of fighting climate change. 

after a string of supporting speeches from democratic sens. chuck schumer, elizabeth warren, tammy baldwin and others, whitehouse finally took the podium, focusing his remarks chiefly on fossil fuel lobbyists who he sayid have bought the compliance of republicans and stopped any attempt to discuss or legislate about climate change in its tracks.

“academic studies have looked at congress and confirmed that the views of the general public have statistically near zero influence here,” he said. “the fact that stands out for me at number 200 is the persistent failure of congress to even take up the issue of climate change. one party won’t even talk about it.”

whitehouse inveighed against citizens united v. fec, the landmark 2012 supreme court decision that ruled that corporations have first amendment free speech rights in political campaigns. the ruling opened the door for unlimited corporate contributions to campaign communications, which whitehouse said have been used to bribe and threaten politicians.

“since the moment of that decision, not one republican in this body has joined one serious piece of legislation to reduce carbon dioxide emissions,” he said. “our senate heartbeat of bipartisan activity was killed dead by the political weaponry unleashed for big special interests.”

jeremy symons, vice president of political affairs for the environmental defense fund applauded whitehouse’s 200th speech, and called for more leaders in the fight against climate change.

“sen. whitehouse understands the importance of dealing with climate change. it threatens our economy with trillions in costs, our national security, and our kids’ futures,” symons said. “we need more leaders who are as committed to this issue as sen. whitehouse has been – so we can go back to looking for solutions that cut pollution, encourage clean energy, and boost our economy.”

whitehouse has regularly introduced legislation to combat climate change, such as a measure introduced last year that would create a working group of government agency heads to conduct research and reform policy in order to combat the effects of climate change on america’s natural resources and wildlife. 

the executive branch, whitehouse said, is responsible for halting climate research and forbidding government scientists from discussing or even using the term “climate change.” last year, scientists at the usda were banned from using several terms related to climate change in their research, and the climate change webpage was taken down from the white house website.

still, whitehouse implored the president to reconsider his stance on the issue, pointing to a 2009 full-page ad in the new york times, imploring president barack obama to take action on climate change which was signed by then-businessman trump and his children donald jr. and eric and ivanka. 
 

while a report from the national renewable energy laboratory (nrel) shows wind energy is on the rise in the united states, proposed cuts to the department of energy budget cuts could deal a significant blow.

the global wind energy council released a global wind statistics report in april 2016 for wind energy by country in 2015. the report ranked the united states second in wind energy at 74,471 megawatts — behind only china. however, pushback from the house of representatives under the trump administration could cause the united states to lose that prestigious place.

thus far, attempts to undermine the budget of the department of energy have proved unsuccessful. according to a science magazine article, the house of representatives under the trump administration proposed on june 27, 2017, for the 2018 budget starting on oct. 1 to eliminate the advanced research projects agency energy (arpa-e). the proposed budget did not go through, due to a lack of support from the senate. sen. lamar alexander (r.-tenn.), who lead the senate committee on appropriations that issued the fiscal year 2018 budget, according to a science magazine article, stood up to this to say “this is not what we are going to do.”

in a bipartisan effort, the gop-controlled senate fought back against the budget the house proposed in june with a bill on july 18 to actually increase basic research funding of the arpa-e by 8%. arpa-e projects include the metacapacitors for led lighting at the city university of new york (cuny) energy institute and temperature-regulated batteries at the oak ridge national laboratory (ornl) in tennessee.

    “…that is not what we are going to do.”

while the senate has pushed back against cuts that could threaten clean energy innovation this past july, wind energy has a long way to go. the wind energy sphere is a “material intensive industry,” according to dr. stephen hsu of george washington university’s department of mechanical & aerospace engineering.

wind turbines present an issue of cost effectiveness to repair. hsu explained that, in simple terms, it’s not exactly appealing to need to fix turbines with propellers 200 to 300 feet in the air.

this means, according to hsu, one of the biggest deterrents for a business to purchase wind turbines is damage caused by the external environment.

in the early 2000’s, there was a huge push for wind turbines, and now some of those wind turbines are coming up on the expiration of their 20-year warranties. these potential repairs are a turnoff to investing in wind energy. to tackle the challenge presented by environmental and age-related damage to turbines, hsu’s lab is focusing on technology involving cell healing for blade repair.

hsu said he thought, “maybe we can make the need for repair much less,” and that would reduce the risks of purchasing owning and operating wind turbines. so, hsu created a wind energy 2022年世界杯亚洲预选赛结果 at gw’s virginia science and technology campus. his team is currently putting research efforts into microtechnology, and his lab is focusing on technology involving cell healing for blade repair.

in a 2010 gw today article, rachel muir wrote about how “many of the new materials required to revolutionize the wind turbine industry will be engineered at the nanoscales.” revolutionizing the industry will be crucial in order to get businesses on board with buying wind turbines, and self-repairing turbines could be the innovation that builds the bridge toward a cleaner future over the economic gap.

“it’s not science fiction. it is actually feasible microtechnology,” hsu said, yet “it’s kind of a risk, because it’s untested.”

“…it’s not science fiction, it is actually feasible microtechnology.”

risky though it may be, companies have shown interest in the proposal. the 11 companies of the wind energy 2022年世界杯亚洲预选赛结果 , including ari wind, generation energy, and viryd, contributed more than $1 million to support research of the technology.

however, even with corporate funding, government support remains the key factor that could make wind energy boom. katherine dykes of the national renewable energy laboratory wrote in her paper, “enabling the smart wind power plant of the future through science-based innovation,” that “the scenario we projected in the study relies on scientific innovation and thus there is a dependency on research funding.”

hsu explained how, globally, wind energy is on the rise. thus, if funding for the department of energy decreases significantly under the trump administration, then in terms of wind energy, “after four or eight years, we could be way behind europe,” he said.

nuclear physicist and former u.s. secretary of energy ernest moniz called the proposed budget “a retreat from our nation’s commitment to clean energy research,” according to a press release from the national treasury employees union from may 26 this year. he went on to say the house’s proposed budget “would put us behind china and europe, blunting our competitive edge in a multi-trillion-dollar developing clean energy global market.”

the house and the senate remain locked in conflict. while the senate voted in july on the bill to increase arpa-e funding, the house wants to get rid of the agency altogether.

 “…after four or eight years, we could be way behind europe.”

still, hsu is unswayed by the economic circumstances. “wind energy will rise,” he said. it’s not a question of whether or not wind energy will expand ahead, it’s a question of whether the united states will invest in it.

“we have a lead,” hsu said. “why waste it?”