Jeff Merkley

I do not trust these companies to tell the truth about their chemicals, and I do not think the American public or you, as Senators, should either.

Is this not exactly the type of problem that the EPA is there to watch for?

Has the EPA been asleep at the switch, and has it woken up?

I must say that I was very struck by the Chicago Tribune story...

I think it is a powerful concept. We know that in some cases philanthropists have talked to kids in lower income areas, and adopted classrooms, and said, 'We will fund your college.'

This is such an important issue for our future.

I think it is worth continuing that conversation.

When I was in the State legislature, I pushed to make a financial literacy course a required part of a high school education.

One of the things that deeply disturbs me is that we are becoming the first generation of parents whose children are getting less education than we got.

Even the corporation itself doesn't know what it is doing; that is, the corporation might have 10,000 shareholders and they are the cooperation. The corporation is a legal fiction, as our colleague says, that allows a board of directors to…

To my colleague from Rhode Island, I ask this: How is it possible for 5 members of the Supreme Court to look at this issue of unlimited, secret spending and knowing that can be used to intimidate and corrupt the electoral process and…

It was 85 percent deceptive and 15 percent accurate. To the other point, this is taking one of the contests between Gingrich and Romney. You can see the red bar, the negative ads, benefiting Romney for attacks on Gingrich. Positive ads for…

I ask the Senator, when the company gets involved in that manner or a billionaire gets involved in that manner and their motive is largely to advance their financial interests, do they use that to fund ads that are an accurate…

I think back to the period when our forefathers and foremothers came here and said: We are going to set up a new set of colonies, a new set of rules. One of the things at the very heart of that was the notion that we the people, we the…

I thank my colleague from Louisiana for her remarks. Would the Senator be able to engage in a question or two?

I do think the municipalities that were involved are feeling that perhaps they were not as aware of the thumb on the scale as they might have been, but that will all be, I guess, sorted out in due course.

I think the point that my colleague Senator DeMint was making earlier was when you know that someone has a thumb on the scale, isn't there a responsibility to alert the customers about that thumb being on the scale?

We are grateful for the support of the Oregon Delegation, including your other colleague, Senator Merkley.

So in terms of the experience of the companies that have already gone down this track, would they come to this now from the viewpoint of, we did this for corporate responsibility, or would they also say that it has turned out that the…

It is urgent that we get rules in place to reduce emissions.

Well, then, let me turn to the fact that a couple of States have already adopted green completion strategies.

I think it is 2 and a half years before you would require green completion, so a 2 and a half year phase-in.

So what has their experience been? Have citizens been appreciative of the results or has the initial, if you view these kind of as pilot projects for others to observe, what lessons have been learned from that?

Just to kind of track the topic of today's discussion, that is setting standards primarily for the recovery of methane that comes from flowback.

I think that many analysts would reach the conclusion that if you would apply that Old Testament justice in 2008 and 2009, JPMorgan would have been gone down and you would have been out of a job.