CBS "Face the Nation" interviews during 2018: on Environment

Lindsey Graham: Manage forest underbrush better, to avoid raging wildfires

GRAHAM: Well, #1, my heart goes out to the people who lost their homes These are historically large wildfires in California. But we do have a forest management problem all over the country we need to address. But California will receive the money they need. But going forward, we need to look at some of the underlying causes of these fires and it's just not California we need to look at better forest management in terms of federal lands all over the country.

Q: So you agree with the sentiment, but, perhaps, not the tone?

GRAHAM: Yeah. This has been a debate for a while about underbrush clearing in federally owned lands, but now is not time to talk about cutting off money. With all due respect we're going to help our friends in California. They need help.

Mike Bloomberg: EPA failing to focus on clean air and clean water

BLOOMBERG: His policies are not good for the world. To debunk science and walk away from it is just ridiculous. Even if you don't believe it, if there's a possibility that it's right, you have to take prophylactic actions to prevent a disaster. And what I do know is that a lot of kids go to the hospital with asthma attacks because we have a lot of junk we put in the air. A lot of people come down with stomach cancers because there's a lot of stuff that goes into the water.

Q: It sounds like you're saying he's not doing the job that he should be doing.

BLOOMBERG: I don't think there's any question about that. His job is to protect the environment and he has walked away 100% from that, saying "the environment doesn't need protection, I'm going to try to protect jobs." That's not his job.

Q: Should he be fired?

BLOOMBERG: The issue is that what he's doing is very damaging to your health and your children's health and mine.

Bernie Sanders: Leave a planet to our kids that is healthy & habitable

SANDERS: The issue goes well beyond that problem. Climate change is already devastating, and yet we have a president and a head of the EPA who do not even recognize reality of climate change. And over the last number of years we have made success against air pollution and against water pollution. We have made some success in transforming our energy system. And the idea to go back and listen to the short term needs of the coal industry or the oil industry makes no sense to me at all. Look, here is the truth. What the scientific community is telling us is that climate change is one of the great environmental crises facing this planet. And if we don't get a handle on that, we're going to leave a planet to our kids that is not healthy or habitable. We've got to address that. The Trump administration is moving in exactly the wrong direction.