Liz Saville Roberts: “I rise today to speak about energy prices, as have many of my colleagues, and their impact on my constituents and, for…”

“I rise today to speak about energy prices, as have many of my colleagues, and their impact on my constituents and, for that matter, the constituents of all of us nationwide. Over the last 2 weeks, the leadership of this body has decided to bring two bills to the floor that would have tremendous effects on the pocketbooks of the American people. Unfortunately, after you take a hard look at these bills, you find out that neither bill would really reduce the price of energy. In fact, both would increase prices. But I want to take time to highlight the impacts of the climate change legislation, albeit somewhat late in the debate, and to make a few commonsense points or observations. At a time when Americans are suffering from high fuel prices and high energy costs, and when fertilizer prices have increased by their largest amount in the history of fertilizer prices, it is not in America's best interest for the Senate to compound the problem. But that is precisely what the climate change bill would do. By capping the amounts of carbon emitted by coal-fired plants and natural gas processing facilities and energy-intensive manufacturing facilities, this legislation is flawed. It passes the costs of meeting these requirements down to the consumer. Kansans will be particularly hard hit.”