Frank Pallone: “I am so glad that the previous speaker, the chairman of the committee, brought up this job-versus-the-environment issue…”

“I am so glad that the previous speaker, the chairman of the committee, brought up this job-versus-the-environment issue, because I think it is really crucial. The fact of the matter is that a good environment mean good jobs and better jobs and a better economy. No better illustration of that took place than in 1988 when I was first elected to Congress. We had medical waste, we had sewage sludge washing up on the Jersey shore. Our beaches were closed. Billions of dollars were lost to the New Jersey tourism industry because we had dirty water. The Clean Water Act made it possible for us to clean up those beaches and provided the funding to do so by upgrading sewage treatment plants. Now that tourism is back, the people are back, the jobs are back. A good environment and a clean ocean means good jobs, and it means a bigger economy. Do not let anybody from the other side or anybody try to kid and to say that there is an issue here of jobs versus the environment. The two go together, and a clean environment means more and better jobs.”