Angie Craig: “I speak not only as part of the Republican leadership in the Senate but as a member of the Energy Committee, a committee…”

“I speak not only as part of the Republican leadership in the Senate but as a member of the Energy Committee, a committee on which I have served for the 11 years I have been in the Senate. During those 11 years, I have had the opportunity to serve under three Presidents. For 8 of those years, I served under a Democrat President. During that time, he, I, his administration, and certainly all Members, attempted to shape a national energy policy for our country that never really got accomplished. During that time, we continued to grow very rapidly as a nation. We continued to consume up to a 2 rac{1}{2} to 3 percent increase in energy each year, although our country was only producing a 1 rac{1}{2} percent increase of total need. Of course, we know what happened as a result of that timeframe over the last 8 rac{1}{2} years: We grew increasingly dependent upon foreign sources of energy for our existence, at least in oil.”