Political Quotes

“I am here for my 132nd ``Time to Wake Up'' speech. We are now back from recess, and while we were away, one little thing and three really big things happened. The little thing has to do with the so-called war on coal which we have heard so much nonsense about in this Chamber. There was this article, which I am showing on this chart, saying: ``Natural gas has been waging a war on coal for more than a decade, and this is the year it plants the flag.'' Natural gas has been waging a war on coal. Not Obama. Not liberals. Natural gas. The article predicts a resulting ``wave'' of coal plant retirements. Who wrote this? Some green, lefty publication? Actually, it was the Wall Street Journal news department. So as coal companies go bankrupt left and right, there is the coal story. Natural gas has been waging war on coal for more than a decade. Spinning this against the President has been easy politics, but false, and that false political strategy has left coal country with what? Nothing. A carbon fee could produce revenues that could power wealth into coal country, but, no, what they got instead was someone to blame--someone to blame wrongly. Great job. Now to the three big things that happened during our recess. First, a group of very distinguished scientists, led by legendary climate scientist Dr. James Hansen, warned us that this climate change thing is likely to be a lot worse than we thought.…”