Political Quotes

“Mr. President, Moody's Investors Service is one of America's credit rating agencies. It is not an environmental organization. It doesn't have any activity in the debate over climate change. That is not what it does. What Moody's does is to analyze the ability of companies and government agencies that issue debt to meet those debt obligations. These Moody's ratings matter because they determine the interest rates that States, counties, municipalities, and companies must pay. There was some interesting news last week. Moody's declared it is time for cities, counties, and States along our coasts--Alaska is an example of a State with a lot of coast--to wake up to the growing risk of climate change. Moody's has adopted credit indicators ``to assess the exposure and overall susceptibility of U.S. States to the physical effects of climate change.'' The managing director said this: What we want people to realize is: If you're exposed, we know that. We're going to ask questions about what you're doing to mitigate that exposure. Moody's looked particularly at coasts and at the share of a State's economic activity generated by its coasts and coastal communities. It counts the amount of homes built on flood plains, and the risk of extreme weather damage in that State or community as a share of the State's economy. ``That is taken into your credit ratings,'' Moody's said. It makes sense, obviously.…”