Ed Markey

We can talk about cutting the clean car factory funds.

The planet is warming and the weather is worsening.

We are having 100-year floods every few years. We have had tornados rip through the country, killing people and destroying property.

This week, the Republicans have stepped up their assault on clean air and clean energy.

If I may, Mr. Chairman, just to say I felt that we needed this hearing so that the deficit reduction aspect of that hearing that we have already had was properly inserted into the record.

I think President Obama needs to sign an Executive Order creating a national monument for further Federal protection within the Arctic Refuge.

What price? How buyable are Americans? How low do we get when we start taking our key heirlooms and we start selling them to Dutch Royal Shell or British Petroleum?

Do you want to drill ANWR? Yes. Do you want to molest Eisenhower's great wildlife reserve? No.

The oil industry and the mining industry, as they right now get away without paying their fair share of the dues to live in our country.

The 1872 Mining Law is perhaps the grandfather of all anti-environmental giveaways.

I urge Congress not to accept a bad deal that extends the Bush tax cuts or weakens important parts of our social safety net.

The U.S. Currently lags behind countries like Norway, China, Australia, and Nigeria in capturing taxpayer revenue for oil and gas resources.

While I believe that the supercommittee process is deeply flawed, the Natural Resources Committee has the opportunity to do something positive for the environment and taxpayers.

I believe it should remain an unmolested U.S. wilderness sanctuary, public land used for outdoors recreation by world citizens.

Upwards of $300 billion can be collected from going down that route, whereas only $600 million can be collected from the route that the majority is proposing over the next 10 years.

I think that is directly pertinent because they both offered an alternative to the proposal which the majority has before the Committee.

A $200 million reclamation fee similar to the one that is in Mr. Markey's new legislation, H.R. 3446, would clean up mines and also create at least 13,000 jobs.

Repealing the depletion allowance for hardrock mining would save the taxpayer almost $800 million a year.

Hardrock mining companies should be required to pay a royalty similar to what other extractive industries pay, a 12.5 percent royalty.

Real and meaningful reform of the 1872 Mining Law is needed to protect both taxpayers and the environment.

Progressive tax, economic and financial policies are not only critical for our environment, but are also fairer and more equitable for our society.

We need to not only end polluter subsidies, but also end of the Bush tax cuts that are largely responsible for our current budget crunch.

A royalty rate of just 12.5% would return $300 million to taxpayers annually.

At minimum, we should increase the grazing fees to market prices.

The 1872 Mining law allows corporations to take valuable minerals such as gold, silver and copper from our land for free.