Political Quotes

“Let's take another example. And this comes up on the energy policies of this Nation. I think we all understand that the oil industry has done rather well, and we continue to subsidize the oil industry. Efforts to eliminate those subsidies and to shift those to the new green technologies have been blocked by our Republican friends. Now, we do have money going to subsidize, to provide incentives for the clean energy industry, wind turbines and solar photovoltaic systems. I have a bill in, actually two bills, that say that our tax money must be spent on American-made equipment. For example, I have two big wind farms in my district, the Altamont and the Solano wind farms. They're huge, huge pieces of equipment, towers 400 feet high with blades that are a football field across, made overseas in Europe and China. And I'm looking at it and I'm going, wait a minute; our tax money's being used to help build these systems? And yet they're not American-made? I said, no, no, no, no. If our tax money's going to be used in this way, it's going to be used to buy American-made equipment. That bill is in. It's now being slowed down, blocked in the various Republican committees here. But it seems to me foolishness to allow our tax money to be sent offshore. We also, all of us, pay 18\1/2\ cents excise tax for gasoline. That money is used to build roads, highways, bridges, and to buy trains and buses and light rail systems.…”