Chuck Grassley: “last night, Senator Baucus and I, along with Chairman Domenici and Senator Bingaman introduced the Energy Tax Incentives…”

“last night, Senator Baucus and I, along with Chairman Domenici and Senator Bingaman introduced the Energy Tax Incentives Act of 2003 as an amendment to the underlying energy bill. We also submitted an amendment that contains technical and conforming modifications to the Finance Committee reported amendment. Those amendments are numbered 1424 and 1431 and are printed in the Record of Wednesday, July 30, 2003. These important tax initiatives were developed after several months of consultation between our Committee members, and voted out of the Finance Committee as a bipartisan product. In my estimation, the Energy Tax Incentives Act reflects a fair balance of the interests of the members and effectively supports the development of energy production from renewable and environmentally beneficial sources. I would like to briefly describe that amendment before I talk about the tax incentives part of the energy bill. For years, I have worked to decrease our reliance on foreign sources of energy and accelerate and diversify domestic energy production. I believe public policy ought to promote renewable domestic production that uses renewable energy and fosters economic development. Specifically, the development of alternative energy sources should alleviate domestic energy shortages and insulate the United States from the Middle East dominated oil supply.”