Olympia Snowe: “I rise today not only to cast my support for the conference report to H.R. 6, an energy bill that touches on nearly…”

“I rise today not only to cast my support for the conference report to H.R. 6, an energy bill that touches on nearly every aspect of domestic energy production, consumption, and savings, but especially to compliment Energy and Natural Resources chair, Senator Domenici, for once again showing what a truly superb leader he is. He and Senator Grassley, chair of the Finance Committee, have been successful in reaching bipartisan agreement on comprehensive energy legislation--something that we have not been able to do since 1992, even though we have actively attempted to do so in the last three Congresses. I would have written a more ambitious bill that would have more aggressively reduced our Nation's dependence on foreign oil, but this is an improvement over the status quo. What this legislation does include is essential energy efficiency and conservation tax incentives that will make our Nation's energy policy more balanced. As a Nation, we must recognize that we must do more than just produce our way out of an energy crisis, we have an obligation to consume less as well. For instance, by improving fuel economy standards of our cars and trucks, we could have saved our Nation 1 million barrels of oil a day, as Senator Feinstein and I have attempted to do for these last several years.…”