Political Quotes

“I thank my colleague, the gentleman from California, for yielding. Mr. Chairman, I am proud to rise in strong support of this bill as someone who has had the privilege of spending 2 weeks in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge 15 years ago. It was a life-changing trip. ANWR's beauty and majesty are almost beyond description. Paddling down the Kongakut River and along the shore of the Beaufort Sea, my companions and I experienced an astounding wealth of plants and animals in a mix unique to the region, a truly iconic corner of our Earth. Anyone who says it is an empty place or that there is nothing there is committing a sacrilege as far as I am concerned. It is a sacred place to me, and it is no wonder that it is a sacred place to the Gwich'in people. The Arctic is warming twice as fast as the rest of the United States. Drilling in ANWR would exacerbate that regional effect as well as hastening catastrophic warming, generally. In short, we must prevent this administration's reckless effort to open up ANWR to oil and gas development to prevent dangerous biological, cultural, and climate impacts. We simply cannot allow this to happen on our watch. I would point out that, when I paddled down the Kongakut River, I visited these places that are planned for drilling. We were literally hiking along the plain and we came upon these drill pads.…”