Political Quotes

“This congressional session is not even a year old and the Republican leadership has already tried to pass more than 125 anti-environmental bills, amendments, and riders. They started by attacking public health standards to reduce carbon dioxide pollution on the premise that we should trust oil-funded soothsayers over climatologists and reject the overwhelming scientific consensus that global warming is already occurring and threatens our environment and public health. When the Republicans attacked greenhouse gas standards, they claimed that they, nonetheless, supported Clean Air Act standards to reduce toxic pollutants like mercury. After all, it was a Republican President who signed this legislation creating the Environmental Protection Agency more than 40 years ago. A Republican President signed the Clean Air Act of 1970, which established the process that the EPA is using today to reduce toxic pollution, including mercury and dioxin. A Republican President signed the Clean Air Act amendments of 1990 establishing--steel yourself--a cap-and-trade program to reduce sulfur dioxide pollution. That Clean Air Act bill of 1990 also accelerated reductions of other toxic pollutants because Congress believed that the EPA was not moving quickly enough to reduce toxic pollution. {time} 1710 All of these major clean air bills were passed by Democratic Congresses with Republican Presidents.…”