Political Quotes

“I yield myself 2 minutes. I want to acknowledge that the gentleman from Oregon is pointing out a real problem for his district, but it is a unique problem in his district because the limestone that's used in the kiln has a high content of mercury. I understand that EPA is trying to work through that issue, but I do want to point out to my colleagues that this example should not serve as the basis for this bill that's before us. We've heard over and over again from my colleagues on the other side of the aisle that 99 percent of the mercury in America comes from nature, from outside other countries that the trade winds bring here to our land. Chairman Barton even said most mercury that's emitted is emitted by natural causes. In 2000, EPA estimated that roughly 60 percent--not 99 percent as Mr. Whitfield pointed out--of the total mercury deposited in the United States comes from anthropogenic air emission sources within the United States, such as from power plants, incinerators, boilers, cement kilns, and others, and that the remaining 40 percent comes from the combination of sources of natural emissions and remission into the United States from the wind. It hasn't changed much since the year 2000. An example is one study by the University of Michigan, which found that the majority of mercury deposited at a monitoring site in eastern Ohio came from local and regional sources.…”