Political Quotes

“I think our opponents on this piece of legislation are confused as to actually what the debate is truly about. If it is about jobs, if it is about the American people, if it is about providing energy certainty, and if it is about reducing the carbon footprint in this country, then 2842 is a good piece of legislation. They say conceptually they embrace it, but they want to put on the backs of hardworking Americans more cost and more uncertainty at a time when we need to create certainty and when we need to be able to have that opportunity to be able to reduce costs. Our opponent commented that we see no evidence that projects are being delayed. Well, the fact of the matter is, when we had testimony, Chris Trees of the Colorado Water District noted that it took well over a year for a project to be approved. Many projects were not being considered simply because of the regulatory costs. When we look at this chart on a projected cost to build a small hydropower installation, the actual cost to build the unit is $20,000. By the time that we concur with our Democrat colleagues' insistence that we expand bureaucracy and have more government, we are going to add an additional $50,000 in cost. What's the challenge for rural America? It is dollars. We have struggling communities of people that need jobs. People need to be able to be put back to work.…”