Political Quotes

“The point of all this is whether or not sustainability should be an objective that we work toward in our building materials. What this amendment does is it undermines the ability to get to that goal of sustainability. Now, sustainability can mean a lot of different things. Mr. Rogers focused on the aspect of how timber can be used. There is an aspect of sustainability that focuses on whether or not what you are building will enable us to sustain the planet. It is sort of widely accepted that the way we are using carbon-emitting--all kinds of different issues--is jeopardizing the health of the planet long term. That is something that we ought to think about and we ought to be concerned about. If this amendment passes, you are putting your thumb on the scale in a different way, saying the sustainability isn't important, you are going to focus on other issues. {time} 2120 Actually, Mr. Garamendi is very good on other issues. As the chairman of the Readiness Subcommittee, he always pointed out: Don't look at the upfront cost. Look at the sustainability costs. What does it cost to maintain what you are doing? What is the long- term cost going to be? The market may be very good at figuring out what is going to be cheapest right now today in this second, but then we pay over the long term. This amendment basically guts our ability to contemplate that long term, to contemplate what sustainability would look like and what those long-term costs are.…”