Political Quotes

“I am back to again urge my colleagues to wake up to the stark reality of climate change. We often hear in this Chamber colleagues extolling the virtues of the marketplace. Indeed, a fair and open marketplace is the cornerstone of our economy. Markets work--not perfectly always but better than any other mechanism. Paraphrasing Winston Churchill, one might say that markets are the worst form of setting prices and exchanging goods, except all of the other methods that have been tried. But markets only work when they are fair. Markets are not fair if the price of goods does not take all the costs into account. A grocery store, for instance, has to pay to have its garbage removed. It has to build that garbage removal into its prices. And that is the right thing. That is the market working. If that grocery store can recycle or compact or composite its trash and make removal cheaper and lower its prices, then that is right too. That is the market working. But if a second grocery store down the street breaks the law and throws its garbage into the park next door and then competes with lower prices, that is not a market in proper operation. That is not a fair market. That is just one person cheating another. If a factory makes a product and treats its waste, that is part of its cost. That is good. That is how it is supposed to be. If the factory can figure out how to treat its waste more efficiently and lower prices, terrific. That is also the market at work.…”