Jim Inhofe

Missouri families are suffering right now. Missouri families face foreclosure from the housing crisis and recession job loss.

The course of action chosen by the next Administrator will indeed determine whether people and resources are reasonably protected or, to the contrary, whether overzealous regulations pull us deeper into economic turmoil.

With new leadership, I am confident we can wake up the EPA and the CEQ to their critical mission: to protect human health and the environment.

We have an agency and a set of laws that are already in place to do what must be done.

The priorities of the leadership in these two agencies must include ensuring our drinking water quality, strong clean air safeguards, protective chemical policies, scientific integrity, transparency, toxic waste cleanup, protecting our…

The White House Council on Environmental Quality needs to reassert itself as a key advisor to the President on environmental matters.

I believe the EPA has hurt the American people, made them less safe these past 8 years.

EPA works for the American people. They don't work for a President, they don't work for us, they work for the people.

EPA must ensure that our environmental laws protect our children first and foremost, not ignore the dangerous threats that children face from pollution.

EPA must listen to its professional staff and independent experts, not lobbyists.

We look forward, frankly, to following the lead of Congress and the EPA at doing whatever is necessary to make sure something like this does not happen again.

A lot of environmental organizations, perhaps including the Southern Alliance, have called for coal combustion waste to be listed as hazardous waste under the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act, RCRA.

Coal is absolutely necessary to keep this machine called America running.

We are going to work with TVA, we are going to make sure it lives up to this, low-cost power.

I want to welcome Senators Udall and Merkley, both here.

I want to make sure that these people are taken care of and that this spill is cleaned up.

The disaster in Tennessee proves the point that we cannot avoid the costs associated with managing coal ash.

I hope that we would just concentrate on the two things that are important, that is taking care of the victims and trying to preclude something like this from happening again.

I intend to ask Lisa Jackson, our EPA nominee, about her feelings on this matter.

I want to be sure to get that in the record here, so that we will be facing that perhaps in the future.

What happened at Kingston was a tragedy, plain and simple.

Those of us, I think almost all of us up here in our opening statements said our concern is that we get there and get there quick.

We are getting bogged down in so many details here.

It is our job to ensure that the Commission is an efficient regulator, true to its mission of protecting public health and safety.

I commend Senators Carper and Voinovich for holding this hearing today, continuing the tradition of rigorous oversight.