Pete Domenici: “I want to first say to the Senate, a little over a year ago the Senate changed committees and I had the luxury of moving…”

“I want to first say to the Senate, a little over a year ago the Senate changed committees and I had the luxury of moving from the Budget Committee to the Energy Committee-- perhaps not a luxury in everyone's sense but from my standpoint it was, indeed, a great opportunity and a tremendous change for me. I took that opportunity with a great deal of relish and enthusiasm and decided I would do the very best I could to produce an energy policy, broad based, for this country. The House agreed on that conference report yesterday by an overwhelming vote. That means that one body has looked at that conference report and, with bipartisan support, said this is a good policy for the United States to follow in the future, and it will do good things for our people and for our growth and development. The United States of America spends annually $440 billion, roughly-- and that is on the low side--on energy. That energy is the underpinning of our economy and is a principal component of our quality of life.”