Political Quotes

“I rise this evening to introduce, along with my lead cosponsor, Senator Schatz of Hawaii, the American Opportunity Carbon Fee Act of 2015. We announced this legislation this afternoon at an event hosted by the American Enterprise Institute, and I want to thank the American Enterprise Institute for their hospitality. I think their interest in this idea clearly reflects the difference between core conservative economic principles and simply being pushed around by the hectoring of the fossil fuel industry. There is a difference between the two, and this bill meets legitimate conservative economic principles. I will start by saying the obvious, which is that climate change is real. It is virtually universal in peer-reviewed science that climate change is real, that carbon pollution from burning fossil fuels is causing unprecedented climate and oceanic changes. Every major scientific society in our country has said so. Our brightest scientists at NOAA and at NASA are unequivocal. The fundamental science of climate change is, indeed, settled. In the details of local application and the extent to which a particular storm is caused by or exacerbated by climate change, in the vagaries of prediction about how things are going to be 10 or 15 years out at those margins, yes--there is always room for conversation and debate at the margins, but the core science of climate change is beyond legitimate debate. It is known science, like debating gravity. Americans get it.…”