William Tauzin: “I respect my friends, the gentleman from Nevada (Mr. Gibbons) and the gentlewoman from Nevada (Ms. Berkley), and I…”

“I respect my friends, the gentleman from Nevada (Mr. Gibbons) and the gentlewoman from Nevada (Ms. Berkley), and I appreciate the fight they are making on the floor today. I understand their concerns for their home State and for this decision. Outside of that, the opposition to this resolution basically comes from those who oppose nuclear energy. When we ask those Members what other energy would they support, we get some strange answers. If we suggest coal, they say, oh, coal can be pretty dirty, you know. You have to scrub it. Even if you scrub it, it produces CO2 and that may contribute to global warming, and golly, we had better not burn coal in America, even though 40 percent of our electricity comes from coal. Or we might say, would you support oil and gas development? And they say, no, wait a minute, the land is too pristine, and certainly not off my coast. Go do it in Louisiana, maybe, but do not do it anywhere else, please. Certainly do not do it in my State, off my coast or in my national wildlife preserve, even though you are willing to do it in your national wildlife preserves in Louisiana with no consequences, and, in fact, with good consequences. They do not like that. They do not like oil and gas. We ask, what about refineries for gasoline, for electric generation facilities? The answer is, not in my backyard.”