Political Quotes

“I call attention to some of the comments made in this Chamber earlier today relative to the issue of taking up a national energy security bill before this body. I spoke a little earlier on the floor today and indicated that, clearly, it is in the national interest that we in the Senate proceed with an energy bill--report it out, bring it to the floor, and vote on amendments in an orderly manner. As I further indicated earlier, the majority leader has indicated that it is his intent to develop an energy bill--in his words, a ``balanced bill''--and it would be introduced by the majority leader. Of course, this excludes the process associated with the committee reporting out a bill. Further, in the discussion that has taken place today, the issue of ANWR came up as the bone of contention. I want to address a couple points because there is a good deal of misunderstanding around this issue. There was a reference today that the accident that occurred when a bullet penetrated the pipeline earlier this week was proof that we should not rely on increasing the supply of oil that would traverse through that pipeline. I remind my colleagues that that pipeline is about 28 years old. It has provided the Nation with 25 percent of the total crude oil produced in the United States for that period of time. That volume has dropped from 25 percent to 17 percent.”