Nick Rahall: “I thank the chairman for yielding the time to me, and I appreciate his and his committee's work on this legislation. Mr.…”

“I thank the chairman for yielding the time to me, and I appreciate his and his committee's work on this legislation. Mr. Chairman, I don't think anybody in this body is for dirty air or dirty water or any of the adjectives that have been used to describe the supporters of this legislation. Certainly the Clean Water Act and Clean Air Act and other worthy pieces of legislation that Congress has passed over the decades have worthy goals and have achieved tremendous progress for this country. And there is not a person in this country, I dare say, that would want to renege on a lot of the positive initiatives that have been achieved under these pieces of legislation. {time} 1510 No singular government agency, however, is sufficiently positioned to tackle the complex solution required to address carbon emissions. The answer has to be multipronged. It must involve innovation and investment in addition to reductions. It must be crafted taking into account the realities of the effect that emission reductions will have on the economic recovery this country is currently experiencing and on jobs, especially in the heartland of America. These are not matters that the EPA is required to consider or equipped to address. To simply allow the EPA to move ahead on its own in crafting a national strategy on climate change is a recipe for disaster. It assures a lopsided solution to a broad and cumbersome challenge.…”