Political Quotes

“As we consider funding for the Environmental Protection Agency, I would like to raise the issue of Clean Air Act carbon monoxide violations in my home town of Fairbanks with the chairman of the Environment and Public Works Committee, Senator Chafee. As the chairman knows, Fairbanks has one of the highest rates of temperature inversions in the world. When such inversions occur, pollutants from any source in the area are trapped at extremely low altitudes. For example, it is not uncommon to see the smoke from house chimneys trapped directly above a house rather than disbursed in the atmosphere as in other cities nationwide. While I would have preferred that the EPA not go forward with a bump-up on the rating of Fairbanks' air from moderate to serious, I recognize that this bill is not the place to accomplish that goal. I would like to point out that in the past 20 years, Fairbanks has reduced its violation days from 160 to as low as 1 last year. It is my hope that the EPA would work with Fairbanks to develop strategies to mitigate the pollution that is so severely magnified by the extreme cold weather of my hometown.”