My name is Dianne Feinstein, and I am representing the state of California.

Mr. President, today I stand here with concern about the future of our environment. I want to talk
about bill number 2-2015, quite effectively titled the Hold It All In bill. Weve seen catastrophic
damage done to our worlds sensitive, delicately balanced ecosystems in the last three
decades, and we are on track to obliterate our earths natural resources in the next two. The bill
that is being proposed today is our retaliation, the metaphorical life preserver were throwing to
the future generations who are inevitably going to have to live with our dying planet. The rise in
industrialism, fossil fuel-based transportation, and expansion of oil wells have skyrocketed our
CO2 and methane contributions, the two main materials that are worsening global warming.
29% of the U.S.s greenhouse gas emissions come from the oil and gas sector. Its no longer
optional to acknowledge that this is man-made, and its no longer optional to wait to act.
All across the country, weve experienced the drastic changes that have been brought on by
climate change. In California, we are experiencing the biggest drought in history; we have
resorted to desperate measures to combat the impact our changing ecology. We can directly
see these effects, and can only imagine how much worse it can get.
The proposed bill is not a step, but a leap in the right direction. With this bill, we will cease
renewing oil well leases on federal land and in the pacific ocean. It ceases distributing well
leases for new operations, and it discontinues current operating leases. It will exponentially
reduce the expansion of the fossil-fuel energy production industry, where we should be
spending more money expanding our green-energy sources. On top of the other benefits, it
would put the biggest dent in the Obama administrations 40-45% methane reduction goal. Wed
be getting a jump start on this program, which will encourage our allied countries to do the
same.
This bill seemed drastic, I acknowledge that. I had my own set of reservations when I first read
it, but I thought a grand movement like this was necessary and crucial. If we made amendments
that fill in the possible energy shortage and help implement this more gradually, I believe that it
would have worked fantastically. This bill was the type of legislation our constituents have been
waiting for- something that gets things done now. We needed show the disheartened American
people whom weve been appointed to represent that we can and will make changes to save
our world. Instead, we decided to let it die, leaving out partisan differences in the way to yet
again leave our constituents to fend for themselves.
Im extremely disappointed in our republican counterparts. This bill deserved to be passed, and
we can only hope that a conclusion can be drawn before our planet is too far gone to be saved.