Chellie Pingree: “I will point out one thing that my colleague said in what I thought was a very misguided argument. He said the benefits…”

“I will point out one thing that my colleague said in what I thought was a very misguided argument. He said the benefits of using our resources outweigh the costs. He said we ignore the benefits of fossil fuels by only focusing on rising temperatures and that this is our agenda. I want to be perfectly clear. Climate change is not my agenda. It is not the Democrats' agenda. It is the majority of all scientists' agenda around the world. It is the majority of facts based on what is going on with adverse weather, warming oceans, warming temperatures, and the hottest summer on record. To say we are just looking at our agenda completely denies the challenges that we are facing today. There are plenty of benefits of fossil fuels. In fact, we have benefited from fossil fuels for generations. We have become an incredibly wealthy Nation. I don't deny that. For all of us, we would rather continue with the status quo, but the fact is that we know how to create renewable energy, how to reduce our dependence on fossil fuels, and how to reduce the warming of our planet. It is our responsibility. It is not an agenda or sort of a whim or a fad. It is our responsibility. That is what we are here to do, to protect the American public, to protect it for future generations. I don't know about my colleague, but I have three children and seven grandchildren.…”