Amy Klobuchar: “When you look at what we have done with oil companies, with the giveaways that we had for years and years and years…”

“When you look at what we have done with oil companies, with the giveaways that we had for years and years and years, this Senate was one vote short of blocking a filibuster. We tried to change that, tried to take some of those oil giveaways and put them in the hands--we see record profits from the oil companies--put them in the hands of some of these renewables producers. We were one vote short, but we have another opportunity. That is what the Senator from North Dakota is talking about, extending the tax credits for wind energy, solar, geothermal, and other kinds of renewables. We did it in the last bill we passed through this Senate. We were able to, with some of the economic work we did with the mortgage crisis, extend that tax credit for 1 year. But we would like to do it for longer. Senator Dorgan has a bill for 10 years. I have a bipartisan bill with Senators Snowe and Cantwell expanding it for 5 years. The problem is, it has been a game of red light, green light. It goes on again, off again. It is hard to follow that investment, to follow in the way that we would like and the way that happens in other countries because they never know. You can show, 8 months before these tax credits go off, that the investment decreases. This is no way to run a national energy policy. It is no way to run a national environmental policy.”