Political Quotes

“Mr. Chair, the gentleman appears to be fixated on undermining key EPA safeguards put in place over the last 15 years under the guise of being too costly, while the history of environmental protection, especially under the Clean Air Act, shows this is simply untrue. The United States can have both a clean environment and a strong economy. It is a false choice to assume otherwise. Republicans who claim that ambitious climate action and economic prosperity are at odds are simply ignoring the facts. This is the same argument that industry has used every time the Clean Air Act has been strengthened, and it has been debunked each and every time. When Congress debated the 1990 Clean Air Act amendments, the oil industry said, ``The technology to meet these standards simply does not exist today,'' and predicted major supply disruptions, while chemical companies said the law would cause severe economic and social disruption. None of these gloom-and-doom predictions has ever come true. Instead, our air got cleaner, and our economy flourished. The history of the Clean Air Act shows that the United States can reduce carbon pollution while creating jobs and strengthening our economy. Since its adoption in 1970, the Clean Air Act has reduced key air pollutants by roughly 78 percent, while the economy has almost quadrupled in size. By EPA's own estimates, the benefits derived from the Clean Air Act exceed costs by a factor of more than 30-1. Let that sink in for a minute.…”