Ben Cardin: “let me thank both of my friends from New Mexico for their leadership on this bill. They have brought forward a good…”

“let me thank both of my friends from New Mexico for their leadership on this bill. They have brought forward a good bill--a bill that I am proud to support and a bill that I hope will be strengthened by the amendment process and that will allow us to become energy independent because we need to for national security reasons, for economic reasons, and for environmental reasons. But it is important that we get it right and that LNG facilities and terminals be placed in the right locations. My friend from New Mexico says this is a veto power by the State. It is not veto power by the State, no more so than you think FERC today has dictatorial powers on siting LNG plants. What my amendment is trying to do is to make sure our States work with the Federal Government and with our Federal agencies on appropriately siting LNG facilities. That is how federalism should work. I have confidence in my Governor. He was elected by the people of Maryland. He is going to do the right thing. He makes tough decisions. We make tough decisions. But we should work together because that is the way we are going to be able to get the type of energy policy in this country that will achieve all three objectives, and that is security for energy independence, economic security, and environmental security for this country. We need to engage our States. We should. This amendment does not change the law that was passed 2 years ago. FERC power remains the same.”