I think that would be very bad public policy.

I don't want to see the coal companies subsidized. I don't want to see the fossil fuel subsidized.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded. The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered. The question is, Will the Senate advise and consent to the nomination of Michael Francis…

Mr. President, I am proud to join Senator Baucus from Montana and my colleagues Senator Begich of Alaska, Senator Bennet of Colorado, Senator Franken of Minnesota, Senator Johnson of South Dakota, Senator Leahy of Vermont, Senator Sanders…

Madam President, I rise to speak about an issue that is directly impacting each and every family, not just in West Virginia but throughout this whole country. It is the high gas prices. The truth is, in States all across this Nation, and…

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. To all of you, thank you for being here.

Here's my concern. We're competing with all these manufacturing, these Third World developing countries, whether it be China coming on so strong taking most of our jobs, if you will.

You're saying new coal fired plants without CCS is being built?

So CCS is about the only viable option that we have right now?

Would it be a fair statement to say that we don't have the technology in place to basically that would handle the CCS, if you will, carbon capture whether it's the storage or the--have we come close to finding any technology that would be…

That doesn't make sense to us as Americans why we would lose more jobs because of our high cost of manufacturing when we don't have the proven technology.

his belief is that CCS is not a fully-developed, commercially-available technology and, yet, EPA regulations are requiring permit applicants for coal-fired generating units to employ CCS

But basically you all agree that the Federal Government has taken a position, everything stops, nothing happens unless CCS is implemented.

But the reality is is the Federal Government is not giving any permits. We're not expanding. You can't build anything. You can't do a thing.

Indiscriminate and unthinking budget cuts seeking a short-term improvement in our deficit will leave the country's economic power at the mercy of the rest of the world's economic power.

I know that we have very hard choices to make, how Federal dollars are spent.

I don't think people appreciate that manufacturing is this country's principal source of R&D and innovation.

We must redouble our efforts to 'make it in America.' Manufacturing is critical, and it's critical to the national security.