Pete Domenici: “First, I wish to talk about what is going on in the Senate. I could hardly believe my friend--and he is my friend; what…”

“First, I wish to talk about what is going on in the Senate. I could hardly believe my friend--and he is my friend; what he said about our working together is true, but I could hardly believe my ears when he suggested that the Republicans are keeping us from voting in the Senate. I mean, I have a list of what has been going on for the last 3 months. You know, it is nothing. It is not because of the Republicans, but the Democrats on every issue have said they want to filibuster it. We have had more clotures in the last 3 months than any 3 months in the history of the Republic, unless there was one after another on one bill of which I am unaware. So let's talk about that in reality. Let me say to my good friend Senator Reid, if he thinks there is only one good provision in this bill that everybody might vote for, let me tick off what is in this bill and ask you if you think it would be 51 or 61 votes for it. Let me start: Encouraging the production of domestic oil without violating the environment; encouraging the development of more natural gas from three sources, all American; encourage the building of necessary infrastructure such as the Alaska natural gas pipeline; encourage more renewable energy--everybody speaks about it, this bill promotes it, and we can't pass it--promote energy efficiency; promote clean coal technology; increase R&D on a variety of technologies and improve our electricity grid. These are the things in this bill.…”