Political Quotes

“I have been given a few moments this morning to share with you a concern I have over legislation that undoubtedly will be introduced at some time in the Senate. It involves the issue of ANWR, which is an area in my State of Alaska that is looked upon by many as a partial solution to our energy crisis and to others as a sacrifice of our environmental character and quality. Let me, just for reference, identify the ANWR area because, again, I think we need to keep things in perspective. This is ANWR. It is about 19 million acres, the size of the State of South Carolina. You see this area way up in the corner, that is a proportion, the proportion of how it looks in relation to the entire landmass of the State of Alaska. The point I want to bring out to my colleagues is that roughly half, 8.5 million acres, are in wilderness in perpetuity. The other portion is refuge, leaving a coastal plain of about 1.5 million acres about which only Congress can make a determination whether or not it could or should be opened. As a consequence, in our energy bill which we introduced yesterday, I found there was very little focus on the bill itself. Most of the focus seems to be on the issue of ANWR. I want to make sure everyone understands, as we look at this energy crisis, ANWR is not the answer. It is not intended to be the answer. But it is part of the solution to our energy crisis for specific reasons. A, we are 56-percent dependent on imported oil.…”