Political Quotes

“Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Oregon (Mr. DeFazio), my friend. Mr. DeFAZIO. Mr. Speaker, I have been involved for 28 years on the Natural Resources Committee on these issues. What we are talking about today is simple here. Yes, it is cheaper. If you blow the top off a mountain and you dump it in the valley and you bury a stream, it is cheaper. Okay. Is that what we are all about here? The most destructive, least environmentally responsible, but cheapest way of doing things? If we are going to set the precedent here, I can think of a whole lot of other areas that relate to clean water, clean air, and things that are important to the American people and the sustainability of our environment that will go away because it would be cheaper. If we can just dump the waste out the back door of the factory, that is cheaper. {time} 1500 If we can just put whatever we want up the stack and people wear gas masks, that is cheaper. That is the major argument we are hearing today. This rule, a 100-foot buffer--a 100-foot buffer--for toxic materials around streams is too expensive. It is cheaper to blow the top off the mountain, get the coal out, and take all the overburden and other assorted stuff and dump it in the valley and bury the stream. The only problem is then it rains. What happens when it rains?…”