Political Quotes

“I yield myself such time as I may consume. To be fair, this amendment does make a few positive changes to the legislation. It adds some requirements to recordkeeping, groundwater monitoring, and runoff controls. But as with the underlying bill, this amendment makes a lot of promises and it just doesn't deliver. Some of my colleagues believe they may have reached a major concession because this amendment adds a groundwater monitoring provision. And I'd agree, adequate detection and assessment monitoring is critically important to ensuring that when coal ash is disposed of we have the opportunity to protect groundwater from toxic contamination. But Members should be aware that this amendment moves all of the groundwater monitoring provisions from paragraph (c)(1) to paragraph (c)(2). The effect of this change is to allow any State to waive the groundwater monitoring requirements at their discretion. Fugitive dust has been talked about. This dust can pose a health risk because it is particulate matter that can lodge deep in the lungs and also because it can contain the toxic constituents of coal ash. The Republicans refused to include a provision to address this issue in committee. So some of my colleagues may be pleased that this amendment includes a provision that mentions fugitive dust from coal ash disposal. But this provision is almost a tautology.…”