Political Quotes

“For the last seven months this nation's economy has stagnated while the Republican majority has passed a litany of bills repealing environmental standards on behalf of oil and coal companies. Today we have another anti-environment bill before the House, predictably mis-named, in the finest Orwellian tradition, the ``Clean Water Cooperative Federalism Act.'' This bill is a case study in irony: After seven months of blaming economic malaise on regulatory ``uncertainty,'' this bill would eliminate predictable and consistent national clean water standards in favor of an uncertain state-based patchwork of regulations. This bill would be more appropriately titled the ``Consistency is the Hobgoblin of Small Minds Act,'' because its elimination of any regulatory certainty flies in the face of seven months of Republican rhetoric. On the other hand, as an assault on the environment which benefits Republican campaign donors, it is utterly consistent with the majority's modus operandi. The majority claims to support an ``all of the above'' energy strategy, and that is accurate if we accept the Republican premise that coal and oil constitute the totality of America's energy portfolio. After passing countless bills to repeal clean air and water regulations for oil companies, this bill is focused on repealing clean water standards for the coal and mining industry.…”