Political Quotes

“Mr. President, as usual, my senior colleague from Maine has outlined this issue exceptionally well and covered the important points. I wish to add and amplify a few. The first thing I would say is that I yield to no person in this body in terms of their commitment to the environment, their commitment to ending our dependence upon fossil fuel, and our facing of the challenge of climate change. This biomass discussion is a way of helping with that problem rather than hindering it. The important term in all of this discussion is the word ``fossil.'' The issue we are facing now with climate change and with increased CO<INF>2</INF> in the atmosphere is because we are releasing CO<INF>2</INF>. We are releasing carbon that has been trapped in the Earth's crust for millions of years, and we are adding to the carbon budget of the atmosphere. Biomass is carbon that is already here. It is already in the environment. It is in the trees. It is simply being circulated, and there is no net addition of carbon to the atmosphere because of the use of biomass. I have been in the renewable energy business now for more than 30 years and have worked in hydro, biomass, energy conservation on a large scale and wind power. So I have some background in this. A biomass plant typically burns fuel that would not otherwise enter into the economic stream of timber.…”