Political Quotes

“I urge all my colleagues to support this amendment. Hon. Fred Upton, Chairman, House Energy and Commerce Committee, House of Representatives, Washington, DC. Dear Mr. Chairman: Tomorrow, we understand that your committee will vote on a bill that would leave oversight of coal ash dumps to the states, and prevent EPA from taking action against polluters who threaten Our groundwater. We know Congress has already heard from industry lobbyists, big contributors, and bureaucrats. But please hear our voices, since we live near these dumps, and put up with their pollution year after year. We know what it is like to suffer through the daily onslaught of blowing ash, drink water from faucets contaminated with ash leachate, and see our wetlands and creeks poisoned with toxic metals like arsenic. We have complained again and again about the endless noise, dust and pollution from trucks dumping coal ash near us while we become more stressed out or sick and the value of our property plummets, with no real response from our states. Two years ago, we were promised that the US Environmental Protection Agency would finally set national standards to clean up these sites, and close the most dangerous ones. Now we face legislation that would stop EPA in its tracks, and replace real standards with state ``plans'' that polluters could ignore without fear of enforcement by EPA.…”