Bob Wise: “I am going to be the skunk at the picnic because I am not a fan, based upon personal experience, and I guess that is…”

“I am going to be the skunk at the picnic because I am not a fan, based upon personal experience, and I guess that is what we bring to the floor a lot. I am not a fan of the National Keeper's office, nor how it is conducted. Let me just say, as I unfold this tale for a second, that as this bill moves forward, I hope that some of my concerns will be incorporated in deliberations, particularly as you discuss this with the other body. Yes, the project I am about to relate to you is a controversial highway project. Those in the environmental community have opposed it assiduously for many years. Their only problem is 75 percent of everybody in an affected county supports it. Their problem is every elected official from the town council to whatever office you want to point to supports this project. So what we have done, then, over time, is we have gone through all the hurdles. We have gone through the executive branch. We have gone through the Federal Highway Administration. We have gone through the West Virginia Department of Transportation. We have gone through Federal court and won against environmentalists who want to oppose it. We have gone to the Congress, and the Congress has approved money. Every branch, I thought. And then who pops up just as we are going to bid?…”