Angie Craig: “when the chairman of the Energy and Natural Resources Committee of the Senate submitted these letters to the White House…”

“when the chairman of the Energy and Natural Resources Committee of the Senate submitted these letters to the White House urging them to become involved in this critical national issue, the response was limited to nothing. We even suggested in legislation that I first introduced, S. 1271, that the committee worked very hard on, that if they could not support the pending legislation, they should offer an alternative. Their answer was no answer. As a result of all of that, the White House never became a player in this most critical issue. The Department of Energy, under the direction of Hazel O'Leary, could not become a player because the White House had chosen a long time ago not to deal with this critical national policy, but to play politics on something that the public cries out for a solution. As a result of that, when the Chief of Staff of the White House, Leon Panetta, on July 15, submitted a letter, a veto threat, on S. 1936, many of us looked at that in an effort to analyze it to see whether the White House had in fact began to engage in this most critical policy issue. I must tell you, Mr. President, that the answer to that is no. The letter that comes from the White House is not a policy statement; it is in every regard a political statement. It is tragic at a time when many, many States of this Nation demand that this be a solution to a critical problem that the White House would only play politics.”