This has truly been a commitment in which the States and the District of Columbia have taken on the real responsibility and have brought in the Federal Government as a partner.

It is a pleasure to have you before the United States Senate.

We need to think in terms of a basin approach, not simply a Bay approach.

I think the era of general volunteerism has to be over.

Regulation, in my opinion, is not a four-letter word.

I think the way you said it, that they want sensible regulations, they want predictable regulations, achievable standards.

I think, though, that we want to have the numbers make good science that is achievable.

If we do this right, it will also be good for our national security.

The consequences of failure to deal with these issues will fall squarely on the national security costs to our country.

That is why we have made it clear that that is an unacceptable outcome, for Iran to become a nuclear weapons power.

I think the science information is clear that carbon emissions, greenhouse gases, have a significant impact on global climate change and that we have the technology to do something about that, that we can reverse that.

I do believe there are some positive signs with China.

It should not drive the Senate's decisionmaking on what is one of the most important foreign policy issues of our time.

Research has shown an interesting correlation between traumatic climate events and political strife around the world.

We know that just a slight change in climate has a dramatic impact on the stability of many regions in the world.

We have a direct interest in dealing with global climate change from a national security perspective.

We do have a security issue because of dependency on foreign oil.

We must take action to protect our environment for future generations.