Christopher Shays: “When I hear how partisan some of my colleagues have gotten on the other side of the aisle, it really astonishes me that…”

“When I hear how partisan some of my colleagues have gotten on the other side of the aisle, it really astonishes me that somehow it is the President's fault. The clear fact is that we had better find a way to work together, because in my judgment, we have a challenge because we are not working together, Republicans or Democrats. We all have our fingers on this. And we need to deal with it. It seems to me we need to conserve and not use so much energy to reduce demand. We also need to increase production. It is going to include alternative fuels, renewable fuel. It is going to include mining the outer slope of the continental shelf. It may include nuclear power. It is going to require increasing production and reducing demand. I think this legislation, while it is a drop in the bucket, it is a step that we need to take. But it will have minimal impact. But in the end, we can fight as much as we want to about this issue, and we are going to fool no one. There are basic laws of supply and demand that are coming into play here. And we don't seem to want to address it.”