Jerry Moran: “I do rise in opposition to this amendment because it attempts to strip half of the remaining funding for EPA's…”

“I do rise in opposition to this amendment because it attempts to strip half of the remaining funding for EPA's greenhouse gas registry program. This amendment is part of an effort to ignore what the scientists tell us is the most serious environmental problem of our time, climate change. Republicans have already passed a bill to repeal a scientific finding that greenhouse gases pose a danger to human health. The underlying bill we're considering says that no stationary source, no matter how large, or how lethal to human health, should ever have to reduce its carbon pollution. But this amendment goes even further. It says that we should not even bother to find out how much pollution is being put into the air. I guess you could call it the ``ignorance is bliss'' amendment. What we should be doing is the opposite of what the gentleman is trying to do. The bill already makes a 30 percent cut to the registry program in order to cripple the efforts of EPA with regard to greenhouse gases. The Greenhouse Gas Reporting Program simply requires the largest sources of carbon pollution, power plants, refineries, and the very largest factories, to tell EPA and the public how much they pollute. If we're ever going to deal responsibly with this pollution that is costing us billions in health care and shortening thousands of lives, we need to know where it is coming from and have some idea of how much is being emitted.…”