Political Quotes

“I don't intend to use all the time that is remaining. I just want to make a couple of points to my colleagues as we close debate on the general debate on this bill. This isn't a new bill. A lot of us in this body on both sides support an all-of-the-above strategy. It includes safe nuclear. It includes clean coal. It supports energy efficiencies, renewables, wind, solar, and hydro. This bill, H.R. 3043, is not a new bill. In fact, the provisions, almost to a tee, in both the House and the Senate version last year in a bill that ultimately didn't get conferenced to President Obama, we didn't really have any disagreements on the hydro section. We came to an agreement and the House passed the bill as it relates to the hydro bill. And the Senate bill passed, as I recall it, 92-8, pretty overwhelming, pretty bipartisan. In essence, the same provisions that we have here. I got to say that, throughout the process, we listened to the concern raised by some of the stakeholders, including States and Tribes. We made a number of significant changes to the version of the bill as compared to the version again last year that added more strength, more hurdles to go through. The biggest change, frankly, that we made was taking the hammer away from FERC to compel agencies to stick to a deadline. Consequently, no permits are going to be granted by default because of a missed deadline.…”