Wendy Sherman: “I am so focused on the short-term disaster in California that so far I have not mentioned the long term. Some of the…”

“I am so focused on the short-term disaster in California that so far I have not mentioned the long term. Some of the less progressive elements in the energy industry have sought to crush the alternatives. They have sought to eliminate conservation as a way to go, to eliminate research and to slash renewables. The President's budget reflects these worst elements in the energy industry. He cut by an average of one-third, here in the middle of an energy crisis, cut the precrisis efforts for renewables, research, and conservation. That is the budget he brought here to us. Then, that budget is rammed through both Houses, and this week they are going to ram through the tax cut that locks that budget in. Then, the President, having arranged for the passage of a budget that cuts by one-third the amount for conservation renewables and research, dares to have a press conference in which he says he wants to spend more money, tax credits he wants, expenditures he wants. What hot air it is to propose things only after one has maneuvered a budget through the House and the Senate that guarantees that there will not be a penny to do any of the things the President was talking about.”