Earl Blumenauer: “this evening I wanted to take the opportunity to deal with the critical issue of our Environmental Protection Agency…”

“this evening I wanted to take the opportunity to deal with the critical issue of our Environmental Protection Agency, the key Federal agency dealing with the environment and of great import to citizens all across this country. Recently, we have seen the resignation of Christine Todd Whitman as the administrator. Ms. Whitman was a former moderate Governor of New Jersey and was hailed by some as an important signal, when she was appointed by the Bush administration, of perhaps some environmental moderation and balance, that there would be an opportunity for the administration to use the appointment of someone like Ms. Whitman to send a signal that it was going to try and operationalize some of the rhetoric that was used by then-Governor Bush in his Presidential campaign where at times, in some of the debates with Vice President Gore, he was actually making even stronger statements in support of the environment. My colleagues will remember he was going to deal with all four of the air pollutants dealing with, in the debate, in terms of the regulation. What we have seen in the course of the past 32 rac{1}{2} ext{ months, sadly, has been a rather extreme disappointment on the part of those who follow the environmental developments and, in fact, has been rather unnerving for many Americans.”