Angie Craig: “My guess is that most Senators understand the process and the procedure we are under, but there is a large body of…”

“My guess is that most Senators understand the process and the procedure we are under, but there is a large body of interest that does not understand what we are doing at all. It is called the American consumer. I can put it this way: The minority is trying to wrestle control of the floor away from the majority and set their own agenda. That is one way of looking at it. The other way of looking at it is to create an environment of false hope for that consumer who went to the gas pump today and paid more for gas than he or she has ever paid in their life. I question the integrity of Senators who will argue and opine the problems of energy but set in motion a procedural event that denies us the opportunity to produce for the American consumer a national energy policy. So go home to your voters and tell them it is no longer big oil's fault, that it is no longer the nuclear industry's fault, it is the politicians' fault because consistently over the last 5 years Democrats and Republicans alike have denied the American consumer a legitimate, comprehensive policy for national energy. So we are now held hostage for some 60 percent of our consumption by a foreign interest. Or we are held hostage by an environmental lawsuit that denies access. Or we are held hostage by the bickering of States who cannot agree that a transmission line ought to cross their territory. Those are the realities of where we are today.”