Political Quotes

“It was exciting to hear the President make climate change a major focus of his inaugural address, and appropriately so. Mr. Obama's first term provided stark evidence of the peril to the planet: record-breaking heat waves, drought, hurricanes, forest fires, disappearing polar ice, all in accord with a prediction of the climate scientists, but the effects were happening faster and more severely than predicted. The good news is that you don't have to believe the climate scientists to reduce carbon pollution and energy waste while reasserting American global energy leadership. Even balancing the budget could be made easier with this initiative. Congress and the administration should begin serious conversation about a broad-based carbon tax. This would give the right signals on energy sources and use. It could raise money to reduce the deficit, restore our badly damaged infrastructure, speed and finance conservation while cushioning the impact on lower-income families and small business. There are a number of other commonsense steps that would make progress on carbon pollution and energy conservation goals much more significant. First, the EPA should stop dragging its feet, permitting old, polluting, inefficient coal plants to continue to spew forth toxic waste harming not just the environment but the health of our citizens. It's past time that the Clean Air Act should be enforced.…”