Political Quotes

“Mr. President, I wish to thank the Senator from Alaska for her leadership on this issue. This is an important debate to have, and I wish to remind my colleagues what this debate is about because I have heard lots of discussion on the floor today about how this is somehow about the science of climate change. This isn't about the science of climate change. Maybe we ought to have that debate. Perhaps that is something we should debate, but that is not what this debate is about. This debate is also not about some of the other issues that have been thrown out here--that this is about big oil or this is about the Republicans wanting to delay or protect somehow the status quo. That is not what this debate is about. This is a very simple, straightforward question. That question is, Do we, the U.S. Senate, want to be on the record with regard to the issue of whether the EPA ought to move forward and try to regulate CO<INF>2</INF> emissions under the Clean Air Act or should we wait until Congress takes up and deals with that issue? What is ironic about what my colleagues on the other side are suggesting is that a lot of people have said that Republicans just want to delay; they want to delay because they do not believe in the science. Well, we don't control the agenda; the Democratic leader controls the agenda. They have a climate change bill they could bring to the floor and we could debate it.…”