Wendy Sherman: “I want to shift just a little bit, because we are so preoccupied, quite naturally, with the short term in our own State…”

“I want to shift just a little bit, because we are so preoccupied, quite naturally, with the short term in our own State, and talk a little bit about conservation and how important it is. Now, the problem we have is that the President's budget and, frankly, this Congress, over its last 6 years of Republican control, has underfunded research, renewables and conservation; that, in fact, we have seen a tremendous savings of energy in this country due to our limited success in those areas. Even with that limited success, we have saved, I think the figure is a couple hundred billion dollars worth of energy, because we use renewables, because we have done the research, because we have conservation and greater efficiency. So what did the Congress do during the 6 fiscal years it was in control while President Clinton was in the White House? Every single year, the amount spent on conservation efficiencies, renewables and research was cut. The total cuts probably meant that during the 6 years, we did 4 years' worth of the research, at least the amount provided for in President Clinton's budget. But then, starting with that lower amount that is in fiscal year 2001, the President submits a budget that shows a one-third reduction from that lower amount in the amount spent on research, renewables, conservation and efficiency. Not good.…”