On the eve of a Senate hearing on global warming, Sen. Bernie Sanders on Wednesday took to the Senate floor to discuss his bill to tax the carbon and methane emissions that cause climate change. “Even though fossil fuels are the most expensive fuels on earth, the fossil fuel industry for too long has shifted these enormous costs onto the public, walking away with billions in profits while the American people have to bear the real costs of rising seas, more monster storms, devastating droughts, heat waves and other extreme weather,” Sanders said. “As we transform our energy system away from fossil fuels, we must finally begin pricing carbon pollution emissions so that polluters themselves begin carrying the costs instead of passing them on to our children and our grandchildren.”

Sanders and Sen. Barbara Boxer, the chairman of the Senate environment committee, introduced the Climate Protection Act earlier this year. Their bill would put a fee on carbon pollution emissions, an approach endorsed by liberals, moderates, and even prominent conservatives like George Schultz and Nobel prize winning economist Gary Becker and others. “Our bill returns 60 percent of the revenue raised directly to taxpayers,” Sanders said. The rest would support sustainable energy research, pay for weatherizing homes, help businesses save money through energy efficiency.

Watch the Senate floor speech »