Wendy Sherman: “if I can just add some of the statistics to back this up. Earlier we were talking about getting plants permitted. During…”

“if I can just add some of the statistics to back this up. Earlier we were talking about getting plants permitted. During the 8 years in which we had a Republican governor, we had zero plants permitted. Just in the last 2 years under a Democratic governor, 14 plants permitted, seven are under construction, four of them are going to be on line this summer, another four or five will be on line before we hit the problems of next summer. We will have 8,500 megawatts on line. That is moving forward. But getting back to renewables and research, as I said, the budget put forward by the President cuts renewables and research and energy efficiency by about a third. We were talking about how successful energy conservation has been. Americans have saved 4 times more energy through efficiency, conservation and renewables over the last 20 years than has been produced from new sources, new finds, of fuel in the United States. And Americans have saved $180 billion, I might have thought it was $200 billion earlier, $180 billion over the last 20 years. That is just because we are using less energy than we would have, because we have got this technology and that is saving $200 for every dollar that the United States has invested in developing these renewables, developing conservation systems. If we go up to a wildlife refuge and we drill for oil, we get the oil, we destroy the environment, and then the oil is gone.”