My overall point is that we have the potential to make real environmental progress if we take a moderate approach. Now I know moderation makes some people uncomfortable. Senator Eugene McCarthy once said that moderates were people who, if they saw a man drowning ten yards from shore, would throw him five yards of rope and say that they'd met the guy half way. It's a good line, but it's a better description of what the ideologues do. They're the ones who've already decided how much rope they've got no matter what the situation.
Moderates try to craft real, workable, effective solutions to genuine problems.
My hope is that moderate attitudes will prevail in Washington in the coming years. Moderates hold the balance of power in Congress enough power to block bad bills. But Republican and Democratic leaders, environmental and business groups, the President and the Congress in short, all the parties to the environmental debate are going to have to work from the center, if we're going to make progress. That's doable and that's possible, but it's hardly inevitable. It will take patience, perseverance and trust hardly the three words that first spring to mind when one mentions Washington.