Political Quotes

“You are a brilliant legislator and a fine arbiter of the question. It turns out you're right. It is the oil industry. And let's take a look at this. Our tax dollars: Where do they go? Let's see here. This side is the oil industry, and this is from 2002 to 2008. So we got some numbers up here for fossil fuels between 2002 and 2008. This is the oil and a little bit of the coal: $72.5 billion of direct subsidies, our tax money, being taken out of our pocket and given to the oil industry-- $72.5 billion in just 6 years. So where does it go? Let's see here. Traditional fossil fuels. Oil and coal. There you have it. Now, on the other side, renewable energy. Well, we have the corn ethanol industry, and they have received about $16.8 billion. And then the traditional renewables, these would be solar and wind and the like, about $12.2 billion. So taken together $29 billion for renewables in the same 6-year period that the oil industry received $72.5 billion. Now the question of public policy is this: What if we flipped this over? What if we flipped this around and we took the $72.5 billion and spent it on renewables and we can continue a little bit of the subsidy if they really need it, which they really don't--not if you have $58 billion of profits. Doesn't seem to me they need much help. But, okay. We'll just flip it over, and they'll take $29 billion, and we give the renewable industry the $72 billion. What would happen?”