Bill Cassidy

On June 29 an administrative court judge--the Department of Energy did not have the authority to close Yucca Mountain.

So what we have seen since, though, is not a recommendation that the President's blue ribbon commission is right, but rather a regulatory hurdle set upon regulatory hurdle set upon regulatory hurdle. Now we have a notice to lessees which…

I guess my concern is that whenever the EPA is giving oversight, ultimately it means that they really control the process.

As a Republican, of course, I would like to give more responsibility to the States than to the Federal Government.

Do I understand the new nuclear power plants or do I not understand correctly that they have to be built so that if there is a terrorist attack and a plane is driven into them that somehow it is still protected?

Knowing that we are not speculating on what happened in Japan but just to go to the point, the backup generators, to keep those cooling units running, we have proactively addressed this in this country and there is a way if Hurricane…

Now, let me ask because when I toured the nuclear power plant near my home--I am from Louisiana so it is the River Bend Nuclear Power Plant--and as I recall they were coming up with a failsafe mechanisms to keep the generators running even…

In effect, there is going to be a postmortem done on that accident and folks are going to go in there and see what went wrong.

Now, my concern, though, is is that we are racing ahead, but there are certain laws of physics.

My concern is--because obviously others have attempted to do this, so there is a renewable energy magazine, 'Renewable Power News,' which is kind of an advocacy group for renewable power.

If we can just stay on--just because I have limited time. I don't mean to interrupt. I don't mean to be rude.

But will it be adequate to say power in Washington, D.C., if we have windmills turning and the wind stops to blow or the night comes or the cloudiest day, will it have sufficient capacity to power Washington, D.C.?

Now, I am struck that you mentioned the subsidies, the heightened or continued subsidies for wind and solar and other renewables.

If we hurt those industries, we hurt those workers. Those good jobs and good benefits are now lost and they are shipped overseas.

It seems as if we are sending out something which the folks who are employed in that field have good jobs with good benefits.

It is sort of like Waiting for Godot, it never happens.

Now, I have here that we have been in the 8-hour ozone standard for over 3 years, and this has been communicated to region 6, that apparently two of the five criteria to be designated attainment area have been fulfilled, but that we can't…

I agree. They have been told that a policy which raises taxes for 10 years to pay for 6 years of government programs is fiscally sound. In fact, the Democratic treasurer of Massachusetts says that, ``If we implement this plan, we go…

If you don't control cost, you can't give access. Now Republicans have been proposing things. I was so pleased the President said we're the party of no and then he embraces our idea of HSAs, high-risk pools, and other things. So that's…

I understand, and I appreciate it. When you say that we are going to give a raise for primary care physicians, that is actually not included in this in terms of the Medicaid costs, so State Medicaid costs are now going to go up.

In my State, the first 3 years we are responsible for these additional costs is going to cost my State $600 million. Well, that is a savings to the taxpayer. Now it is just the State taxes that are going up instead of the Federal taxes…

That is correct. It is kind of a crazy thing where if an HSA is used for a generic price on an over-the-counter drug, which is what we are describing here----

Now, part of our issue is, how do we restore in part the distribution of the sediment from the Mississippi River to rebuild our vanishing coastline?

But my question is, frankly I have found in this Committee we are guided often by prejudice as opposed to science.

What I am very frustrated by is that I am from Louisiana.