Political Quotes

“The gentleman from West Virginia, who just spoke, said that I was inconsistent because I voted for the Baldwin amendment in my committee, so I can't have my cake and eat it too. Well, I want to assure you that I don't want a cake made out of coal ash. Coal ash has a lot of chemicals in it that I think most people would understand raise a problem of toxicity--arsenic, antimony, barium, beryllium, cadmium, lead, mercury, hexavalent chromium, nickel, selenium, and thallium. These metals are toxic and pose both acute and chronic threats to human health and the environment. So don't give me a cake to eat made out of coal ash. It seems to me that what we're hearing, for example, from the gentleman from Illinois, that the waste in Kingston was not disposed of in a hazardous waste landfill, and he offered this as proof that these materials are not hazardous. Well, these materials contain these toxic constituents, and if they're not disposed of properly, they will harm human health and the environment. Proper disposal does not mean disposal in a hazardous waste landfill. It means disposal in dry landfills that have the necessary safeguards. Those safeguards are not in this bill. We've offered to work with the Republican majority to clarify this issue and to find a middle ground that I think in substance could solve those concerns. But they, again, are not interested in working with us, and so they're moving forward with a bill that does not live up to its billing.…”