Christine Todd Whitman Quotes

Way back in 2000, the EPA was poised, and, in fact, had drafted a rule, to specially regulate pollution - water pollution and other types of pollution - from power plants, but the energy industry pushed back pretty significantly.

Everyone wants clean air and clean water, but my hope is that we will not regulate it to the point where we drive businesses and industries out of this country, to the point where entrepreneurs cannot start or expand their businesses because they simply can't afford to do so.

One of the first laws against air pollution came in 1300 when King Edward I decreed the death penalty for burning of coal. At least one execution for that offense is recorded. But economics triumphed over health considerations, and air pollution became an appalling problem in England.

As soon as it was clear, in Copenhagen in 2009, that the Senate was blocking Obama from introducing meaningful climate legislation, the push was for him to use executive authority, use the EPA, use the tool of federal leases, and there was just a refusal to do it.

Regulations have certainly gone too far in a number of areas, but it's important to remember that regulations are meant to be protective, and when it comes to the EPA, that means protecting human health and our world.

There is a reason to have an agency called the EPA, and it has served an historical purpose I believe is vital to this country.

Let's shut down the EPA.

Regulations about environments are going to get tougher and tougher.

What we aim to do, through public pressure, is help the environment protection bureau to enforce the law.

Lots of people say we should fly less, heat less, and put on a sweater. But it's not going to happen. People are happy to say that for other people, but not themselves.

We should restore a proper balance in environmental regulation and energy production that is based on common sense, not political agendas.

There are some things that we value as a public good that the markets can't deliver, like clean air.

Mercury pollution from power plants is a national problem that requires a national response.

We must strictly enforce the Environmental Law, closing down the polluters that fail to meet the standards.

I think people really understand that clean air and clean water and not having factories dumping their emissions into the atmosphere and into the rivers and into the sea has been a very good thing for America. EPA stands watch for very important principles that go all the way back to Teddy Roosevelt.

The current challenge facing the environmental authorities is how to properly deal with the environmental problems caused by economic development.

Coal is our country’s dirtiest energy source, from mining to burning to disposing of coal waste…. Coal is an outdated, backward, and dirty 19th-century technology…. Not only is coal burning responsible for one third of US carbon emissions—the main contributor to climate disruption—but it is also making us sick, leading to as many as 13,000 premature deaths every year and more than $100 billion in annual health costs.

As a native Oklahoman, I'm dismayed by what fossil fuel pollution has done to the Sooner State.

When you declare a 'war on coal' from a regulatory perspective, the question has to be asked: where's that in the statute? Where did Congress empower the EPA to declare a war on coal?

EPA's role is even broader than water infrastructure and cleaning up contaminated land - the agency also has a key role in allowing projects to move forward by reviewing environmental impact statements during the permitting process.

As I've said repeatedly over the last few years, the war on coal was not a result of anything Congress passed; there was no legislation.

My fear is that we are losing sight of how much we depend on the EPA to protect not just our environment but the people who live in it.

The E.P.A. is too important to treat like a reality TV show. People's lives and our country's resources are at stake.

Prediction is a mug's game, but taking the side of water polluters has not been a winning political strategy for 50 years. Presidents Reagan, Bush I, and Bush II all undertook to weaken water regulations in the name of economic growth. They left office; the regulations remained.

The EPA has performed a very important role for us all.