Mr. President, I thank my friend and colleague from Maine. He has enormous expertise in the area of renewable energy, and I very much appreciate his adding his expertise to this debate. Before I yield the floor, I ask unanimous consent to…

Mr. President, I am pleased to join some of my colleagues today to speak about the key role woody biomass can play in helping to meet our Nation's renewable energy needs. Last night an amendment that several of us offered was adopted by a…

Mr. President, as usual, my senior colleague from Maine has outlined this issue exceptionally well and covered the important points. I wish to add and amplify a few. The first thing I would say is that I yield to no person in this body in…

I would agree, and that is exactly where I would conclude. I am not anti-utility. I am pro-customer. I am pro-competition. I am pro-free markets. I believe the utilities have a tremendous opportunity here to modify and adapt their business…

Absolutely, and I think that is what has to be part of the discussion, because if the utilities insist on fighting and trying to overprice their storage, people are just going to say: I am going to buy my own storage, put it in the…

That is absolutely correct. That I will touch on in a moment. That potentially changes the relationship with utilities and with the grid system. This is a good thing. This provides competition. Our whole system is based upon competition…

Mr. President, the Democratic leader has just outlined the issue that is before us today. I want to put it into some context. The first thing I want to say is that what we are talking about today is the most fundamental of American…

Mr. President, I thank the Senator from Minnesota for her leadership. I, too, want to thank the two floor managers of this bill, the chairman, Senator Murkowski, and her partner, Senator Cantwell, for working so closely with us. The fact…

Mr. President, I rise to speak on an amendment that I submitted last week, amendment No. 3140, which is a tripartisan amendment to the Energy Policy Modernization Act, which is the pending legislation. I submitted the amendment last week…

Mr. President, I yield the floor. Mr. President, I suggest the absence of a quorum. The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The clerk will call the roll. The senior assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.

Mr. President, today I wish to commemorate the 200th anniversary of the Town of Weld, ME. Known today as a gateway to the rugged and beautiful Western Maine Mountains, Weld was built with a spirit of determination and resiliency that still…

Madam President, I rise today with my friend and colleague, the Senator from Missouri, Mrs. McCaskill, to inform our colleagues of an important development in the investigation underway by the Special Committee on Aging as we examine the…

Madam President, I yield now to the ranking member of the Special Committee on Aging, my colleague Senator McCaskill. The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Missouri. Mrs. McCASKILL. Madam President, first I want to compliment the…

Madam President, I rise today to speak on the fiscal year 2016 Omnibus appropriations bill. I want to highlight the Transportation and Housing and Urban Development division of the bill, which is critically important to meeting the housing…

Mr. President, I wish to join my colleague from Arizona, Senator McCain, in a colloquy regarding an aviation noise concern of particular interest to his constituents in the Phoenix area. During the floor debates on the transportation and…

To be clear, the FAA should be ensuring that local communities have a voice when decisions that affect them directly are being made by the agency. ____________________

Madam President, the cyber security bill included in the omnibus is a first step towards improving our Nation's dangerously inadequate defenses against cyber attacks. I know that the chairman and vice chairman of the Senate Intelligence…

Mr. President, tomorrow the Senate will vote on the Protecting Americans from Tax Hikes Act of 2015, which will provide needed tax certainty and predictability for our Nation's small businesses, enabling them to create more jobs and boost…