Max Baucus: “Yesterday, the Finance Committee passed the Energy Advancement and Investment Act. That measure passed by a vote of 15…”

“Yesterday, the Finance Committee passed the Energy Advancement and Investment Act. That measure passed by a vote of 15 to 5. That is a very broad-based, bipartisan majority for the Finance Committee amendment that is now pending on this energy bill. It is a major amendment. The committee spent a lot of time trying to figure out the best way for America to turn the corner, for the United States to begin to wean ourselves away from OPEC, to wean ourselves away from our reliance upon foreign oil, to try to enhance our national security, make the United States a little more able to determine its own destiny with respect to energy. In doing so, we therefore also created lots of incentives for American production of renewables, for renewable energy, conservation, hybrid automobiles, hybrid plug-ins, cellulosic ethanol--a whole multitude of ways to help America become much more self-sufficient and, hopefully, therefore, be able to get our gasoline prices down a little bit because at the current time we very much are in the throes of big oil's control as to what they charge at the gas pump.”