Political Quotes

“I thank the gentleman for yielding. In addition to listening to my constituents, I have been listening to my good friend from Colorado about wanting to come here to solve problems. Well, the SENSE Act is about solving a problem. I, too, have a beautiful district. I consider it the most beautiful district in the country. You get on top of some of those mountain vistas and it is breathtaking. But unlike the gentleman from Colorado, there are some scars when you look up at some of those vistas. The scars are a vestige of ages-ago mining. That is why the SENSE Act, Mr. Speaker, is a smart and important legislative fix to ensure that the coal refuse-to-energy facilities can be held to strict, but achievable, standards. Coal refuse, as some of you may know--and perhaps this is an educational moment for people in this country to learn more about what we have up there in Pennsylvania--is a byproduct of historic coal- mining operations. Anyone who has driven through coal country has seen the towering black mounds of this material that loom beside cities and towns and countrysides. These mounds catch fire, burning uncontrollably and sending hazardous smoke into the air. Rainwater leaches terrible chemicals from those mounds, polluting nearby rivers and streams. The coal refuse-to-energy industry turns this material into energy and uses the profits and beneficial residual material to remediate these formerly polluted sites at no cost to the taxpayer.…”