Robert Bilott Quotes

Chemical plants should not be allowed to regulate their own security.

It is the duty of Congress to ensure our lead regulations are up to date and consistent with modern detection methods so that we can better protect children from the harmful consequences of exposure.

Americans are willing to cheer on politicians who denounce bureaucratic overreach and job-killing red tape in abstract terms. But they turn out to like specific regulations against toxic chemicals in their drinking water.

It should be noted that the EPA's banning of methanol is categorically absurd from the point of view of environmental protection.

We have some real political differences among us, but we all share the same goals: clean air and water, injury free workplaces, safe transportation systems, to name a few of the good things that can come from regulation.

There is a risk between toxicity and hazard. Just because it is a risk doesn't mean you are in danger.

We have rules about the environment and rules about worker safety and rules about consumer protection.

I'm going to have a very thoughtful and meaningful enforcement response to Superfund to make sure that we are achieving good outcomes for citizens across the country with respect to that entire portfolio of 1,336 or so sites.

We need to put a priority on environment, health, and safety protections.

I had spent the prior eight years working at my firm primarily representing big chemical companies, helping them comply with all the different state and federal laws.

In 1976 the Toxic Substances Control Act was passed, sending the EPA on a 30-year-plus odyssey chasing down the chemical industry in a fruitless quest for responsibility.

So when you see a regulation against lead, because lead is a bad in a regulators mind, what does that mean? You are not telling us what is good, you are just tell us what you don't want, not what you do want.

By adopting the control strategy, the nation's environmental program has created a built-in antagonism between environmental quality and economic growth.

With my biology degree, I got this job at an environmental lab. We tested sewage runoff, we tested chemical warfare waste runoff. It's a job I'll never do again and I would never wish upon anybody.

Regulations about environments are going to get tougher and tougher.

The public should always be notified as soon as possible in the event of a leak or other emergency at a nuclear facility.

The mercury rule writers also ignored mercury's special qualities.

I'm pleased the administration is endorsing the need for legislation dealing with the chemical sector. In the past, the administration's position has been ambiguous.

These are the same people who believe, in some cases, the federal government should not play any role in providing health care to our people or protecting the environment.

When a company creates a product that directly or indirectly adversely impacts the health of people, that product must be regulated. The process by which it's created must be regulated. No company has the right to injure people. No company.

Getting toxic lead out of gasoline, the oil industry shouted, would cost a dollar a gallon. It turned out to cost just a penny a gallon to protect hundreds of thousands of kids from lead-induced brain damage.

All Americans have benefited from the dedicated service of Representative Henry Waxman. In every battle and in every moment that mattered most, Rep. Waxman stood up for the air we breathe, the water we drink, and the wild places we cherish.

If you own a chemical plant and leak a little benzene, you're in big trouble because everyone knows how carcinogenic it is. But coming out of a tailpipe? The government never does anything about that.

Moreover, environmental health at the local level has become narrowly focused, very much defined around regulations and the attendant regulatory debates.

Does your desire to smoke anywhere, at any time, trump the right of others to breathe clean air … ? … The need to breathe clean air is more important than the license to pollute it.