Political Quotes

“In this New York Times op-ed, Bill Ruckelshaus, Christine Todd Whitman, Lee Thomas, and William Reilly wrote: A market-based approach, like a carbon tax, would be the best path to reducing greenhouse-gas emissions. I know the big carbon polluters want this issue ignored. I know that. They want to squeeze one more quarter, one more year of public subsidy for their product from the rest of us. From their point of view, lunch is good when someone else is picking up the tab. But notwithstanding the power of the big carbon polluters, I still believe this is a problem we can solve. Not long ago this would have been a bipartisan bill. Not long ago leading voices on the Republican side agreed with Democrats that the dangers of climate change were real. Not long ago leading Republican voices agreed that carbon emissions were the culprit. And it was not long ago that leading Republican voices agreed that Congress had a responsibility to act. One Republican Senator won his party's nomination for President on a solid climate change platform. Other Republican colleagues in the Senate introduced, cosponsored, or voted for meaningful climate legislation in the past. Some of the proposals were market-based, revenue-neutral solutions aligned with Republican free market values, just like my bill today. The junior Senator from Arizona--a Republican--was an original cosponsor of a carbon fee bill when he served in the House of Representatives.…”