Jeff Bingaman: “This bill that I have sent to the desk is being introduced on behalf of myself and Senator Chafee. It is entitled 'The…”

“This bill that I have sent to the desk is being introduced on behalf of myself and Senator Chafee. It is entitled 'The Earth Day Act.' Its purpose is to designate April 22 as Earth Day. Today, of course, is April 22. Let me provide a little history for my colleagues or anyone listening. The first Earth Day was 29 years ago, in 1970, and I think we are all aware that Earth Day was first conceived by our former colleague, Senator Gaylord Nelson, who is universally considered the founder of Earth Day. He has written a short summary of what brought Earth Day about, how it came about. In it he points out that in a speech that he gave in Seattle in September of 1969, he announced that there would be a national environmental teach-in in the spring of 1970. And the wire services picked up that story. And the next thing he knew, there was a movement afoot to actually have that happen. That first Earth Day involved some 20 million Americans. Since then, the concept and the idea of Earth Day has focused the attention of the country, focused the attention of the world, in fact, on the importance of our environment and the importance of preserving and maintaining our environment. We have a great debt of gratitude we owe to former Senator Nelson for his leadership on this. We also owe a great debt of gratitude to the person that did the nuts and bolts work of organizing that first Earth Day, and that, of course is Denis Hayes.”