Political Quotes

“I rise today with conditional support for the Boehlert-Markey Amendment. The provisions in H.R. 4 on CAFE standards are not strong enough to adequately address the need to improve vehicle fuel efficiency. But, this amendment does not provide a sensible way to help U.S. manufacturers deal with the energy problems in this nation without jeopardizing U.S. jobs. We can do better for U.S. manufacturers and energy savings in this country. As this amendment makes its way through the legislative process, my support is conditioned on the following concerns being addressed. To begin with, the structure of the CAFE standards creates a competitive imbalance among the automobile manufacturers. I am uncomfortable with this regulatory impact and will work to see it minimized. By using a fleet average calculation, manufacturers who have product lines of smaller vehicles are better able to meet the CAFE standards than those for whom larger cars and trucks make up larger portions of their inventory. Thus it is much easier for some manufacturers to meet any increase in CAFE standards than it is for others.”