[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 157 (2011), Part 9]
[House]
[Page 12016]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                        LAST BEST HOPE OF EARTH

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Illinois (Mr. Quigley) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. QUIGLEY. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
  ``Fellow-citizens, we cannot escape history.
  ``We of this Congress and this administration will be remembered in 
spite of ourselves. No personal significance, or insignificance, can 
spare one or another of us. The fiery trial through which we pass will 
light us down, in honor or dishonor, to the latest generation. We, even 
we here, hold the power and bear the responsibility.
  ``We shall nobly save, or meanly lose, the last best hope of Earth.''
  Lincoln, of course, was talking about the state of a Nation in peril 
on December 1 in his address to Congress in 1862.
  But if this Nation had not the leadership of that magnitude, who 
knows where we would be today. They faced terrible consequences and yet 
still had the extraordinary foresight and fortitude to charge ahead.
  Today, we too face consequences. We face consequences of 
international economic impact, environmental and ecological 
destruction.
  We consider this week a debt limit crisis that has brought out the 
best and worst amongst men and women I respect both here on this House 
floor and on the other side of this Capitol building and on cable news 
stations across the country.
  We are also considering here in this House an Interior and 
Environment appropriations bill that simply says to our children: You 
clean it up; we don't care to bear the burden. This bill does 
irreparable damage to programs that keep our air clean, our water 
drinkable, and that protect our national and natural heritage. These 
are not dollars spent without thought, nor are they investments of a 
trivial nature as some would have us believe.
  Simply put, these are science-based, pragmatic investments in public 
health. These cuts, all told, will not save the country a penny. The 
policy riders included in this bill will cost tens of thousands of 
lives. The bill will expose our children, families, and communities to 
unnecessary illness and degrade our irreplaceable natural resources.
  But this week we are not stopping at a debt ceiling quagmire and an 
Interior and Environmental appropriations abhorrence. We will continue 
to consider a measure that would deem congressional approval for the 
Keystone XL tar sands pipeline. The Keystone would flow from Alberta 
down to the gulf coast, threading right through the vast Ogallala 
Aquifer, the main drinking water source for the Midwest.
  You can ignore the dozen leaks the Keystone ``one'' system has had in 
the last year, stoking fears of a spill in the aquifer from the 
proposed expansion pipeline. You can ignore the 42,000 gallons that 
seeped from an ExxonMobil pipeline into the Yellowstone River in 
Montana earlier this month, under which Keystone XL would also run. You 
can ignore the science that says that the high energy process of 
production of tar sands increases greenhouse gas emissions, pollutes 
water sources, and harms the proposed region's boreal forests. And you 
can ignore the fact that testimony of TransCanada officials to Canadian 
regulators included the fact that the pipeline would drive gasoline 
prices in the Midwest higher, not lower.
  But let's forget all that.
  On procedure alone, this Congressional consideration of a bill that 
is currently under review by the Department of State is unnecessary and 
unprecedented, potentially negatively affecting our national security 
and safety.
  This proposed pipeline needs no congressional approval. In fact, this 
proposed expansion need not be approved at all. It has drawn criticism 
from the Environmental Protection Agency, who suggested that the State 
Department should consider how construction would affect wetlands, 
migratory birds, and communities through which it passes.
  So we stand here today to consider approving a project expansion that 
has been deemed mediocre at best. We stand here today to consider an 
environmental appropriations bill that has been deemed the worst we 
have ever seen. And we stand here today while everyone around us fights 
against a compromise that might keep our standing in the international 
economy from dipping further than we have already seen it fall.
  Indeed, ``We cannot escape history. We hold the power, and bear the 
responsibility. We shall nobly save, or meanly lose, the last best hope 
of Earth.''
  President Lincoln, truer words were never spoken.

                          ____________________