Lisa Murkowski

Some would suggest that we are just so far behind on this that we have no excuses.

We must ensure that tribal governments can operate without unnecessary federal interference.

I think this has to be across agencies, in terms of how we're going to place priority on this.

I need to figure out how we build this path forward for not only one icebreaker, but the six that have been recommended in the study that has been done.

We have long tried to find some flexibility, as you know, working with the community there, and it's been difficult.

As you hear, we've got a lot of work to do.

What we're talking about is trying to find the balance between protection for our environment and care and concern for the men and women who are trying to support their families in economies that make sense in their regions.

Lisa, we're counting on you. You've got to shut the EPA down, and you got to do it yesterday.

For so many of the people that we are hearing from, it's not clarifying. It is confusing and confounding and making people very angry at their government.

We need to find this balance. We want to work with you, but I think you know the pressures that are on us to just stop it cold.

I would just tell my friend from Vermont, we have been engaged in this woodstove exchange in Fairbanks as we're dealing with a particulate matter up there.

We do do a good job of picking winners and losers around here, don't we?

How can you convince me that this is a clarification?

There is no way that we can achieve what has been set out.

You're not 5 minutes over.

Absolutely. Absolutely. We're not always right, and that's the problem.

The concern, of course, is that there is no level of flexibility that will make a proposal like this work in a State like Alaska.

I have been raising the concern, the alarm about reliability of our electricity in our grids across the country and the impact of this proposed carbon rule on the aspect of reliability.

I fully support your efforts.

The heart of this debate is, is this a clarification or is this yet that overreach, that creep of an agency that so many of us are concerned with.

And of course, right now, our concern is, where is the data?

What they're doing is, they are either putting expectations that, in a place like Alaska or in places in rural America, it's impossible, if not highly unexpected, unanticipated, the costs are so high, you just can't get there from here.

I must convey the sense of frustration, because as you're saying, we must use these technologies to get us to that point where we have cleaner water, cleaner air, some of what we see come out of the agency is so confounding to common sense.

Folks back home don't think it's ludicrous. They are scared to death about what we may see with application of this rule.

I also appreciate that the budget supports programs important to New Mexico, especially uranium cleanup on Navaho lands.