Political Quotes

“today I am joined by Senators, Gorton, Kerrey and Jeffords in introducing the Electric Power Industry Tax Modernization Act, legislation that will facilitate the opening up of the nation's energy grid to electricity competition. This landmark legislation demonstrates the good faith of the most important players in the industry--the investor owned utilities (IOUs) and the municipal utilities. In the Energy Committee, which I currently Chair, we have held more than 18 days of hearings and heard testimony from more than 160 witnesses on electricity restructuring. Although those 160 witnesses had many differing views, every witness agreed that the tax laws must be rewritten to reflect the new reality of a competitive electricity market. Already, 24 states have implemented laws deregulating their electricity markets. And the other 36 states are all considering deregulation schemes. Faced with that reality, the federal tax laws must be updated to ensure that tax laws which made sense when electricity was a regulated monopoly are not allowed to interfere with opening up the nation's electrical infrastructure to competition.”