Political Quotes

“Well, I thank the Senator from Rhode Island. I think one of the great challenges is that it is one thing to misunderstand the EPA's role here; that is dangerous enough as the attorney general of a State or the head of the Republican Attorneys General Association. But when you are in the EPA and you have charge to administer the law, to discharge your duties under Federal law, to the degree and extent that you misunderstand the authorities in the Clean Air Act as either weaker than they may be or sort of optional--I mean, this is the issue in Massachusetts v. EPA. For instance, the question around carbon was resolved. There were a couple of questions. First of all, is carbon an airborne pollutant? The Supreme Court and the EPA made their finding, and they determined that it was an airborne pollutant. Once you determine that something is an airborne pollutant, it is not for the EPA, on a discretionary basis, to try to regulate that airborne pollutant. They are then required under Federal law to regulate that pollutant. So part of the misunderstanding here is the question isn't, Is the EPA authorized to regulate carbon? It is, Are they required to regulate carbon? So he has it wrong doubly--first of all, on the law and second of all, on the science.…”