Trent Lott: “as I go around the country and around my own State, more and more people are bringing this subject up to me. People are…”

“as I go around the country and around my own State, more and more people are bringing this subject up to me. People are complaining about gasoline prices. They are complaining about their electricity bills or their natural gas bills. Out in the real world people seem to be concerned about it and mad about it, but when I come back here, I don't get the sense of urgency. In fact, there are a lot of people who seem to think all we need to do with our energy problem is provide more incentives to weatherize our houses, which is fine, and provide more money for the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program, money that we give to low-income individuals to meet their heating and air-conditioning costs. Now, I emphasize that while those are both fine in this bill, they are not an energy policy. The answer to the energy shortage is not for the Federal Government to pay the additional cost of not having an adequate supply. So I commend the Senator for including those provisions in his bill. It is comprehensive. He has more incentives for exploration and conservation, for alternative sources, and for low-income needs. I look forward to us actually getting to the floor and having a full debate and amendments. If we complete this year not having passed a major national energy policy bill, it is going to be a big mistake, a tragedy. I think it is the biggest threat to our future economic prosperity.”