Political Quotes

“Senator Cardin and I serve together on the committee called Environment and Public Works in the Senate. One of the issues we deal with is clean air. This conversation about predictability and uncertainty that businesses seek is not just in health insurance, it is in all kinds of businesses across the country. I remember being in a conversation 8, 9 years ago with--I think Senator Alexander of Tennessee was with us. We met with the CEOs of a number of utilities across the country. Senator Alexander and I were pushing legislation in response to President George Bush's proposal called Clear Skies. It was designed to reduce the emission of sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxide, mercury, and CO<INF>2</INF>, carbon dioxide. We talked with these CEOs from across the country for an hour in my office. We had been talking about reductions of X percent and Y percent and so forth in the emissions from these harmful pollutants from primarily coal-fired utilities. At the end of the conversation, this one older fellow who was representing a utility in the southern part of our country--he was sort of a curmudgeon-like person--he said: Senator, this is what you need to do with respect to the restraint on emissions, reduction in emissions. Here is what you need to do. You need to tell us what the rules are going to be. You need to provide us some certainty and predictability and give us a reasonable amount of time to comply and then get out of the way. I will never forget that conversation.…”