Political Quotes

“All of us certainly are concerned about impacts on children. One of the problems that we have with this amendment is that when you try to determine specifically what causes a birth defect, for example, there are lots of different reasons. Folic acid is a B vitamin. Taking folic acid supplements before getting pregnant and in early pregnancy lowers the risk of having a baby with serious birth defects. Drinking alcohol increases the likelihood of serious birth defects. Smoking. Women who are obese when they get pregnant are at higher risk of having a baby with serious birth defects. Poor control of diabetes in pregnant women increases the chance of having a birth defect. So there's lots of different reasons, and it's difficult to set out a causal reason. I would say to the gentlelady from California who we know is genuinely concerned about these health issues and has distinguished her career by raising them frequently, the EPA did extensive analysis of the health benefits of all of these rules with the exception of greenhouse gas. They didn't do any study on anything there. So we have a lot of information about the health benefits. As far as the mercury issue, I would say to the gentlelady that the Utility MACT, EPA itself said that this would reduce mercury by such a small amount that it would represent only 0.004 percent of the total claimed benefits of the rule, and the remaining 99.996 percent would be due to particulate matter reduction.…”