Susan Collins: “I first want to thank the managers of this bill, Senator Domenici and Senator Reid, for bringing this appropriations…”

“I first want to thank the managers of this bill, Senator Domenici and Senator Reid, for bringing this appropriations bill to the floor in a bipartisan fashion and for making this time available to us tonight. I am very pleased to join with my good friend and colleague from the State of New York, Senator Schumer, in offering this important amendment to the Energy and Water Appropriations bill. As my colleague has explained, this amendment is straightforward. It would establish a Presidential commission to help us develop a comprehensive, sustainable energy policy. The time is long overdue for this Nation to have an energy policy. Unfortunately, the current administration has failed to develop one. Last year when the home heating oil crisis gripped the Northeast, the Energy Secretary, Bill Richardson, was very forthright. He admitted that the Federal Government had been caught napping and said that we simply were not prepared. Due largely to OPEC's anticompetitive manipulation of our oil markets, we have been experiencing dramatic price increases that have rippled throughout the four corners of this Nation. This year consumers have paid 47 percent more for gasoline. Truckers have paid 46 percent more for diesel fuel. And Northeasterners have paid 81 percent more for home heating oil than they did just one year earlier. In my home State of Maine, this problem is reaching crisis proportions.”