Political Quotes

“Madam President, I come here and join my fellow colleagues from West Virginia and from North Dakota to offer my strong support of the resolution offered by Senator Cramer of North Dakota. Senator Manchin has covered a lot of this, but I think I want to re- cover it because I think it is very important. The Federal Highway Administration issued the final rule, which we are challenging today, without having the necessary legal authority from Congress. The rule will force our State departments of transportation and metropolitan planning organizations to develop and set their own declining greenhouse gas emissions targets. State DOTs and MPOs are also going to be required to meet their own targets. If they fail to meet their targets or fail to make significant progress toward them, they are required to develop new plans to ensure that they do meet their targets. Senator Manchin described how difficult it will be for a sparsely populated and, basically, rural area, such as West Virginia, to make a measurable difference in our greenhouse emissions in our transportation sector because, you know, we are in pretty good shape as it is right now. The expected outcome of this requirement is that it will force State DOTs and MPOs to use their highway funding for ineffective emissions reduction projects rather than on projects that will improve the safety and efficiency of roads and bridges.…”