Kay Bailey Hutchison: “over the last 30 years, we have greatly improved the environment in the United States. Our air and water in this country…”

“over the last 30 years, we have greatly improved the environment in the United States. Our air and water in this country is the cleanest it has been in 40 years. Now we are at a crossroads in environmental policy. We can preserve all of the environmental gains of the past three decades and move forward to assure our children a safer, cleaner, and healthier environment. But we will not be able to do it under the old top-down, command and control solutions from Washington, DC. This approach is outdated and counterproductive. Rather than advancing our important environmental goals, the Washington bureaucracy and its extremist allies are actually harming the environment. Timber growers have been known to cut trees on the basis of even a rumor that their property might have an endangered species to be listed. Why? In order to avoid having Washington bureaucrats tell them they cannot cut down a tree that they have spent their lifetime harvesting. In central Texas, the Fish and Wildlife Service originally suggested setting aside an area the size of the State of Rhode Island to protect the golden-cheeked warbler. In order to do that, they told the property owners they could not cut cedar trees. Now, cedar trees have another harmful impact on the people who must have water for our cultivation of lands and to drink, because cedar trees absorb water to a greater extent than most other trees.”