Political Quotes

“I rise to commend the chief sponsors of this bill in the Senate, Senators Domenici and Bingaman, who I think have displayed the sort of statesmanship and civility in working out this difficult legislation that I think all of us expect from this body. I also want to indicate the degree to which this bill takes significant steps in the right direction on energy policy. It helps us realize the promise of ethanol as a fuel alternative by requiring 7.5 billion gallons to be mixed with gasoline over the next few years. It provides a tax credit for the construction of E85 stations all over America--E85, a blend of ethanol and gasoline that can drastically increase fuel efficiency standards for our cars. It will provide funding for the clean coal technologies that will move America to use its most abundant fossil fuel in a cleaner, healthier way, including more low emission transportation fuels, and it will support the development of what we hope ultimately will be a 500- mile-per-gallon automobile technology. All of these things are wonderful and worthy of support. But I do have to say we have missed an opportunity and that is not the fault of the sponsors of this bill who have done yeoman's work. Rather, I think it is the timidity of all of us as a body in not addressing what has to be one of the most significant problems we face as a nation. The Department of Energy predicts that American demand for fossil fuels will jump 50 percent over the next 15 years.…”