Political Quotes

“I agree with a good deal of the editorial's comments relative to the fact the energy crisis is upon us. They indicate we cannot conserve our way to energy independence, and I agree with that. But what I find a little bit inconsistent is the reference that somehow we are going to have to interject some kind of Government control on prices. Now, they did not go into a great deal of detail suggesting that we increase supply and that the traditional increase of supply should take care of the price. Clearly, California is the victim of a situation of supply and demand because for a number of years California simply decided it was easier to buy energy outside the State of California than developing energy from sources within. Clearly, last year, California found itself depending on imported energy from other States. Those States chose to market that energy at the going price--whatever they could get for it. The difficulty, of course, is that now California finds itself in a mess. The controls on retail pricing which exist in California have resulted in the consumers taking the full brunt of what that energy costs. By having a wholesale cap on California's energy, why, it is acting to inhibit investments coming into California to build more plants. It should be noted that Vice President Cheney, in commenting on the growing electricity demand, indicated that the country is going to have to put in about 1,300 to 1,900 new powerplants during the next two decades.”