Political Quotes

“No. I intend to give my remarks, but I appreciate the Senator's intervention. Before the Citizens United decision was delivered up by the five Republican appointees on the Supreme Court--a decision, by the way, that deserves a place on the trash heap of judicial history--we were actually doing quite a lot about climate change in the Senate. There were bipartisan hearings. There were bipartisan bills. There were bipartisan negotiations. Senator McCain campaigned for President under the Republican banner on a strong climate platform. What happened? Here is what I saw happen: The fossil fuel industry went over and importuned the Supreme Court for the Citizens United decision; the five Republican-appointed judges on the Court delivered the Citizens United decision; and the fossil fuel industry was ready and set at the mark when that decision came down. Since the moment of that decision, not one Republican in this body has joined one serious piece of legislation to reduce carbon dioxide emissions. Our Senate heartbeat of bipartisan activity was killed dead by the political weaponry unleashed for big special interests by those five judges. The fossil fuel industry then made a clever play. It determined to control one party on this question. It determined to silence or punish or remove any dissent in one political party. This created for the fossil fuel industry two advantages. First, it got to use that party as its tool to stop climate legislation, and it has.…”