If you go back and look at the records of the Virginia Department of Health you can see water temperature of the Chesapeake Bay going up. If you look at average bloom times for forsythia, for daffodils or for any native plant - they are getting earlier. If you look at migration times in the fall, they are getting later.
Despite some facts that some scientists have said some very stupid things, it is all but an established fact that man's activities have contributed to such warming. Just because a televangelist is an adulterer doesn't negate the Good News of the Bible.
Quite simply, as we release carbon that was sequestered over hundreds of millions of years, we are returning the earth to its previous, earlier, temperature. For the Attorney General to argue anything else is simply him taking a knife to an intellectual gun fight and a waste of the taxpayer money.
Mr. Speaker, the reason the EPA's role in this case is appropriate is because of something known as the Tragedy of the Commons -- it is because we make rational economic decisions.
As a capitalist, I believe the most efficient delivery of goods and service is the free market. However, because the resource our air and water are held in trust for the benefit of all, natural resource protection follows a different set of economic rules.
The Tragedy of the Commons refers land tenure in England in the Middle Ages when of herders of sheep shared a common parcel of land. It was in each herder's interest to put the next sheep he acquires on the land even if it exceeds the carrying capacity of that land.
The herder receives all of the benefits from an additional sheep, while the damage to the common is shared by the entire group of Sheppard's.
In other words the cost of taking a sheep off of the land is borne by one person and the undeniable benefits are broadly felt.
In cases such as this, the role of government regulation is appropriate because - unlike with private industry -- we can't have a desirable outcome if we act in our own best interest.
In conclusion, I look forward to working with the Attorney General to stop Federal overreach where it is appropriate -- but hope that in the meantime he suspends this frivolous action.
