David Vitter

What is the specific legal authority for doing something this significant by guidance?

What is your understanding of the reason they are doing this by guidance, at least first?

Given that, what is the argument for deciding this by mere guidance?

Senator Vitter has pointed out, in a transparent way; that we communicate with clarity.

Thank you, Madam Chairman. I apologize and U.S. Airways apologizes for my being a little late, but it is great to be with all of you and the nominees.

And that is re-asking a question we sent in writing 4 months ago and has not been responded to.

And this is the global equivalent, global cyclone landfalls, which is basically hurricanes, typhoons, global landfalls, is it the same story basically?

I do think it is important that we bring some rigor to the discussion and that we be precise.

OK. And Ms. Cullen, one narrative of this hearing seems to be that extreme weather is dramatically accelerating.

Well, I mean, if we take a vote in Committee about how many people agree with that, we take a vote among the witnesses how many people agree with that, everyone will raise their hand, myself included.

OK. And that directly relates to pictures of Superstorm Sandy, discussion of Hurricane Katrina, etcetera.

Would you point to any other metric besides heavy downpours?

OK. And hurricane landfalls in the U.S.?

And so you think the surface temperature increase has continued in the last 10 to 15 years?

Former Administrator Lisa Jackson testified before this Committee that U.S. action alone will not impact the climate.

President Obama announced a sweeping Climate Action Plan which will undoubtedly tighten the Federal Government's grip on our economy.

I think it is very interesting. This was outlined in email last month by Ken Berlin, a Chair of President Obama's energy and environment team.

I think it is really unfortunate that we do not have any witnesses here from the Obama administration.

It is unfortunate we don't have any witnesses here from the Obama administration.

I think on behalf of the American people we should absolutely talk about the economic impacts of these policies and have an honest discussion about that.

It is really troubling to a lot of us that the only reason we know about it is the Wall Street Journal happened to report on it.

In closing, I find that very disheartening. This is a big subject. I agree with the proponents of the bill when they say this is a big problem that needs fixing. It has been on the Senate floor for 3 weeks. The bill is well over 1,000…

I am concerned about this because Congress from the get go has separated those two roles

Can you give me a quick update on that particular investigation?

I have never met one of the plant managers or any of the chemical workers that were not willing to support the LPEC.