Political Quotes

“Mr. Chairman, it is a great honor to come after this bipartisan discussion between Mr. Lynch and Mr. Upton. I hope a precedent has been set, Mr. Chairman. I offered this amendment to improve the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission's public comment period and transparency process. This amendment would require FERC to issue a supplemental environmental impact statement if there is critical new information relevant to a pipeline proposal, and to require mitigation plans for adverse impacts if not already provided. The case of the Mountain Valley Pipeline demonstrated how the current FERC process has failed us and why this amendment is necessary. I recently wrote a letter to FERC on this very issue, asking that they initiate a supplemental environmental impact statement before moving forward with the issuance of a Certificate of Public Convenience and Necessity. Quite simply, the process was flawed. In response to a September 2016 draft environmental impact statement, Mountain Valley Pipeline, LLC, had to present more information and an updated route for the pipeline proposal to FERC. Originally, Mr. Chairman, they offered 1,000 pages of updates for public comment, but then their updates extended beyond the public comment period, which ended in December 2016, and included thousands of additional pages of crucially important information--20,000 pages of crucially important information. Think about how long it would take to read 20,000 pages.…”