Political Quotes

“Going back to the point I was making about more fuel efficient vehicles, a lot of people say if we are going to have more fuel efficient vehicles, they are going to cost more and they have to add things to these vehicles that will be expensive to consumers. But they fail to account for several things. One is that a more fuel efficient vehicle costs more money to operate. If it costs $1,200--and that is the estimate from the National Academy of Sciences--to put on the new fuel-saving technology, over the life of the car that same consumer will save $2,000 in terms of the gasoline they have to buy. Arguing that this is a consumer burden is plain wrong. In fact, most consumers are concerned about fuel economy; unfortunately, the Senate is not. The Senate has taken the position, which unfortunately major automobile manufacturers in this country espouse, that we should not be concerned about fuel efficiency and fuel economy. As a person who makes a point of trying always to buy American vehicles and having done that all my life, it is becoming increasingly apparent that Detroit is falling further and further behind when it comes to new, environmentally responsible technology to deal with fuel efficiency. What we have with the Levin-Bond amendment is a concession to the fact that Detroit continues to fail, Detroit continues to come in second when we deal with new technology. I am concerned about that. Our American automobile industry is critically important to our economy.”