Political Quotes

“picking up on what my colleague from Connecticut said, which is nobody says this is a panacea, but all experience shows, both the Harvard study and the Department of Energy study, shows that about 20 percent, which would be about $25 a barrel drop in price, would occur because of this. There is plenty of blame to go around. Nobody is suggesting this is going to resolve the energy crisis. It is a short-term alleviation of high prices that would, in fact, allow us to take the steps that we have not taken for 20 years. And also in the last 5 or 6 years, when the Vice President derided conservation, you acknowledged on the floor the importance of conservation. It was dismissed as part of our arsenal in our energy policy. When those of us who talked about investing in new alternative energy, wind, solar, thermal, it was also dismissed, and continues to not only be dismissed, but vetoed. That, too, is unilateral disarmament by the United States. So you are right. There is plenty of blame to go around. But there are plenty of solutions to also be picked up. Conservation was denied as a national policy. And we have paid the price as a country. Alternative energy was denied and denied for years and issued veto threats by the President of the United States. And we pay the price because of that policy.”