Political Quotes

“I rise to speak on the stream protection rule. One of the first things we learn as kids is that if you make a mess, you are responsible to clean it up. It is good manners, but it is also a matter of ethics. It is about doing the right thing. This is the spirit, this is the idea behind the stream protection rule. It simply tells coal companies doing mountaintop mining that they need to clean up their mess if they make a mess. It seems pretty common sense to me. Opponents of this rule argue that this is somehow an unfair burden on coal companies because coal is doing poorly in the emergency markets. Opponents seem to want to say that asking companies to be responsible to clean up whatever mess may have been made makes it harder for them to compete. The truth is, coal is having a very difficult time in energy markets, but it is not because they are being required to clean up after themselves. It is because other energy resources are becoming cheaper. Solar is cheaper now than ever. The natural gas revolution is now in competition with coal. It is very difficult to get a new coal-fired powerplant on line. It may be even more difficult to recapitalize an old one. So coal is struggling, but the reason is not the stream protection rule. There is another aspect of this, which is, since when is there no cost to doing business? Since when are any companies allowed to come in, pollute, and then walk away without doing anything about it?…”