Political Quotes

“I have laid down an amendment to the underlying Bingaman amendment, which I think sets up a classic choice for our colleagues. We have been selling this energy bill and especially the electricity section of it as promoting competition, the market economy, and deregulation. The underlying Bingaman bill is exactly the opposite of deregulation. It is reregulation by the U.S. Government in a new and extraordinary way. The amendment I have laid down is an attempt to move forward with deregulation, keeping the Federal Government out of the business of telling Americans what they have to do. The Bingaman amendment reminds me of the old Soviet-style command economy, where the Soviet government told the people of Russia what it was going to have produced and they had to buy it. It did not allow choice of production or consumption. The United States understands that is a road to ruin, but the Bingaman amendment says the U.S. Government is going to mandate, to require, to compel that 10 percent of the electricity sold at retail in this country be produced with certain fuels, certain politically correct fuels.”