Political Quotes

“Madam President, the bill before us supports clean energy and emerging technologies, so this is the perfect opportunity to update an outdated aspect related to a legacy energy source. Senator Udall of New Mexico and I have an amendment that will close a loophole in Federal energy policy. I want my colleagues to know--and I think they do--of my long support for renewable and alternative sources of energy, and so I agree with the aims of the Murkowski-Manchin Energy bill. The amendment Senator Udall and I have introduced is the same as the bipartisan bill we introduced last week. The title of that bill is the Fair Return for Public Lands Act. This bill was introduced 100 years to the date of the Mineral Leasing Act of 1920. This amendment would increase the royalty rates on Federal lands from 12.5 percent to 18.75 percent. Everybody here knows that a royalty is what the oil company will pay to a mineral owner--in this case, the mineral owner is the American taxpayer--and that royalty is paid for the right to extract oil and natural gas from the lands of the United States. The legislation modernizes the public lands leasing system, and it does this for the first time since royalty rates were set in 1920. The legislation increases both the share of royalties taxpayers receive from public lands leasing as well as the rental rates.…”