Political Quotes

“I know the Senator from Texas is waiting to speak. I wish to, first of all, thank the Senator from Maryland, who is such a wonderful leader and ally and friend. He is very loyal to the needs and concerns of Maryland in this area. He has been terrific. Earlier, the Senator from Oklahoma said--I think I am quoting him correctly--that in the past 15 years, there has not been any increase in temperature--I guess to suggest this isn't a real problem and we don't have to worry about it. I tried to get the figure right, but I have double-checked it, and I would like to correct myself. In the past 15 years, 13 of those 15 years are the 13 hottest years on record. So the past 15 years has been a period of very unusual heat. What happens when you have that type of unusual heat? What happens when you have the climate disruption--to use the good phrase of Senator Blumenthal. You end up with added storms. This is a graph prepared by the insurance industry--not exactly a bunch of liberals. This is how they make their money. They want to get it right. They have graphed the storm activity, starting all the way over there in 1980, coming here to 2012. So if you go back in the last 15 years here, you will see a significant increase in storm activity--the type of major storms the insurance industry has to pay for, so they care very deeply about this. They get their data right, and I think they can be trusted.…”