Paul Tonko: “And people have asked, they said, Well, what are these emissions? What are these particulates that may be harmful to us…”

“And people have asked, they said, Well, what are these emissions? What are these particulates that may be harmful to us or our children? And when you start talking, Representative Inslee, about mercury poisoning, when you start talking about carbon emission, when there is the talk about arsenic and lead poisoning, people begin to see it as something very real, something they've heard of, that they know people have been impacted by. So of course people want to protect their children. They are our most sacred commodity. They are a precious commodity. And with so much track record here, 40 years of success, of strong public health standards, it's very difficult to imagine that someone wants to take that backward. I think of the innovation that I saw when I served as the leader of NYSERDA, the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority, which was my last workstation before entering the House. I saw what R&D and basic research, research and development can mean in the new shelf opportunities that come our way that are science and tech associated.”