Political Quotes

“Mr. President, if I may continue, I thank Senator Thune for his work. One point I think he made that is incredibly important: I think not all of our colleagues understand that the way it is under the current rules is VEETC, which has been in place to make sure we have an alternative to oil in this country, ends at the end of this year. The one piece of it that continues for another year is the cellulosic research, the cellulosic credit. But the rest of it ends at the end of this year. So instead of looking at a glidepath, as suggested in our bill, where we could take $1 billion and put it into deficit reduction, and take another $1 billion or so--which would be going right now as a credit-- and put that into the infrastructure, the alternative that is suggested by the amendment offered by our colleague from Oklahoma is just to cut it off today, basically, with a few days' notice. What I have heard time and time again from businesses--whether it is in the energy area or in the medical device area--is they want certainty. They do not want Washington just coming in with one day's notice and changing things. That is why I ask my colleagues to look at this bill as an alternative. We are glad to discuss details with them. One of the things we have tried to do with this bill is to acknowledge the emerging field of cellulosic with algae and other forms of research into biofuels. That would continue into next year.…”