Political Quotes

“Mr. President, the issue that is before us involves cogenerating facilities which create both heat and power. They are highly efficient and environmentally attractive. They exist in almost all of our States. Unfortunately, section 244 of the Senate energy bill before us would eliminate the provisions in current law which support both existing combined heat and power generating systems and new ones that are being developed. I believe that until competitive conditions in electricity markets make these existing requirements unnecessary, the changes that are incorporated in this bill are premature. Today, combined heat and power plants, which typically produce electricity and deliver steam used for manufacturing purposes, produce about 7 percent of our Nation's electricity. Combined heat and power facilities are, on average, twice as fuel efficient as conventional utility plants and thus produce about half the emissions of conventional utility plants. The U.S. Department of Energy and our Environmental Protection Agency have set the goal of doubling the Nation's capacity from combined heat and power facilities by 2010. Section 244 of the Senate energy bill runs counter to this goal by repealing, perhaps inadvertently, statutory support for existing and new combined heat and power generating facilities.”