Political Quotes

“Mr. President, I want to thank Senator Udall for his work bringing attention to this important issue. To me, this issue is simple: Alternative energy, including wind power, is not only a vital component of our environmental protection efforts, but to growing our economy and creating jobs for the middle class. Michigan is the State that put the world on wheels. Through innovation and dedication, entrepreneurs, engineers, and Michigan workers combined their efforts not just to revolutionize transportation, but to create an explosion of manufacturing employment that helped create and sustain the American middle class. Today, a new generation of Michigan innovators is harnessing the power of wind, the promise of biofuels, the power of advanced batteries. Earlier this year, I visited a wind farm in Breckenridge, MI, that is a marvel of technology, as far removed from the farmstead windmills of days past as a jet fighter is from the Wright Brothers' plane. That wind farm is a textbook example of how the advance of technology is helping Michigan's economy, enabling us not just to recover from the setbacks of the past, but to lead us into a brighter economic future. Wind power is an important part of that advance. It is a rapidly growing sector of our State's electrical generating system. Wind- generating capacity more than doubled in 2011, and projects under construction or in the development pipeline could increase capacity tenfold or more.…”