Political Quotes

“I thank the gentleman from Oregon for giving me the opportunity to join my distinguished colleagues, but particularly you, my very good friend, Mr. Blumenauer. I just cannot thank you enough on behalf of this country for your leadership on this issue. This is an important opportunity to discuss the President's proposed standard to limit carbon pollution because, just last week, Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Gina McCarthy announced proposed regulations that would reduce carbon pollution by 30 percent, below 2005 levels, basically below what they were a decade ago. So that is going to help many States who have already made substantial progress, such as Oregon, toward that objective. That is a baseline that most scientists believe is absolutely necessary to prevent irreversible climate change. {time} 1300 The new standard relies heavily on the existing State and Federal Clean Air Act partnership that already exists which enables States to develop their own paths to reduce carbon emissions. States are going to have the flexibility to cut emissions based on what makes the most sense for their unique situation, including options like reducing demand to encourage production of cleaner sources of electricity, cap-and-trade programs, and a menu of other energy efficiency ideas. States can work collectively with other States to develop multi-State carbon reduction plans.…”