Political Quotes

“Mr. Chairman, I rise today to urge my colleagues to support my commonsense amendment to save consumers significant costs in heating and cooling their homes and businesses. I am joined by my colleagues Don Young of Alaska, Charles Bass of New Hampshire, and Paul Tonko of New York in this bipartisan, commonsense amendment. Now, it's important because buildings use more energy than either transportation or industry. Fully 40 percent of our energy is consumed by building systems and in homes. My friend Paul Tonko cited the figure that 70 percent of electricity in America is used in buildings. At a time of both record energy costs and record unemployment, we need to protect Americans from crushing energy costs by improving the efficiency of existing and new buildings and homes. It's not just an issue for cold weather regions like the State of one of my cosponsors, Representative Young of Alaska. It's also an issue for hot climates like what we have here in Washington, DC. Even at this late hour, at 8:30 p.m., you can just about hear the air conditioning straining to keep it cool in this Chamber. The cost for air conditioning the U.S. Capitol is a fortune. It is also very costly at my 13-foot-wide townhouse near the Capitol, and, of course, heating cost is a big issue in my home in Oregon.…”