Lisa Murkowski: “Wednesday is Earth Day--a good time to reflect on our responsibilities to preserve and protect the environment that we…”

“Wednesday is Earth Day--a good time to reflect on our responsibilities to preserve and protect the environment that we will pass on to our children and grandchildren. I have six children, and, at last count, eleven grandchildren. I obviously care about the environment they will grow up in. I am encouraged by the fact that the air we breathe and the water that flows though America's rivers are far cleaner today than they were on the first Earth Day in 1970. You might not know that is the case if you listen exclusively to the gloom and doom pronouncements of many institutional environmental groups. Sometimes, these groups place my name on a list or issue a ``report card'' on my voting record that might lead one to believe that I do not care about the environment. This is, of course, nonsense. You cannot have eleven grand kids at the center of your life while working to shortchange the environment. Having said that, I must join my colleagues in reporting to the Senate that Vice President Gore returned from Kyoto with a climate treaty so fatally flawed that it will never be ratified by the Senate or enter into force. Nor should it.”