Political Quotes

On the recordApril 6, 2022
I rise again, with my increasingly battered poster, to call on this body and in particular on corporate America to wake up to the threat of climate change. Just this week, the IPCC report came out saying that we are now at the do-or-die, last-chance moment. The other interesting thing about that IPCC report was that it, for the first time, focused on the role of malicious fossil fuel political influence in preventing the solution. Political influence is actually contributing to the climate change problem, and it is the scientists who are now pointing this out. Well, one of the worst expositors of that political influence, the monster in the middle of that political influence campaign here in the United States, is the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. And I want to talk about them in a minute; but, first, let's do just a quick recap because we have known about climate change for a long time. Scientists knew about the greenhouse effect back when Abraham Lincoln was riding around Washington in his tophat. In the 1950s--in the 1950s--the oil industry began research on the effects of greenhouse gas pollution.…
Said by
Sheldon Whitehouse
Democratic · Rhode Island

Share

More from Sheldon Whitehouse

Jun 12, 2026

DHS and ICE have deployed recruitment ads featuring white nationalist slogans, songs, and imagery while lowering recruitment standards—facilitating the hiring of agents with histories of violent extremism.

theintercept.com
Jul 16, 2026

We're actually somewhat generous about letting [the oil companies] keep half of the excess profits, but we want at least half of it to go back.

npr.org
Jun 12, 2026

I cannot believe that you support the messages associated with these recruitment campaigns, or want anyone under your supervision to use the imprimatur of the United States Government to promote those messages.

theintercept.com
Jul 12, 2026

This is waste, and it treats a national memorial to President Kennedy as if it were a private renovation project.

theguardian.com

Other voices in this conversation