Political Quotes

“I believe the Senator from Maine seeks recognition, Ms. Collins. She represents a part of the country that has been very hard hit by high heating oil prices with a cold winter. While we have seen excuses made relative to certain volumes of storage capacity being taken out of existence for heating oil because of age and the fact that they did not comply with current environmental requirements for fuel oil storage, we have seen refineries go out of existence. But the constituents in her area have been hit very hard. It is my understanding that this year in the Northeast corridor there is a potential threat associated with high electric prices as a consequence of the likelihood that, indeed, some of the oil-fired plants are going to have to be put on line to meet peak demand. The costs associated with the high price of oil to fuel those plants will be passed on to the consumers in her areas, which puts a further burden on the residents of the Northeast corridor. As a consequence, that addresses the dilemma we have: Whether we are going to continue to rely on imports of energy or finally develop a balance with domestic alternatives.”