John Ensign: “over the last several weeks Senator Cantwell and I worked together in a bipartisan fashion to craft a renewable energy…”

“over the last several weeks Senator Cantwell and I worked together in a bipartisan fashion to craft a renewable energy package that would break the gridlock that has happened here in the Senate. There have been several good faith attempts to pass a renewable energy bill, but frankly, several of us, including myself, have objected to some of what are called offsets, the ``pay-fors'' in the bill. I believe very strongly in renewable energy but also know that this country will be dependent on fossil fuels for the next 20 to 30 years. We need more domestic supplies of fossil fuels and less reliance on foreign sources of fossil fuels. In the package that was put before us, tax incentives were going to be taken away from people who explore for domestic sources of fossil fuels. That was the reason I opposed the original renewable energy package. Senator Cantwell and I, along with our staffs, got together over the last several weeks and came up with a compromising provision that has no offsets. We encourage the continued development of solar, wind, geothermal, and biomass energies. There are several renewable energies out there and all kinds of new technologies that are coming on line. The more private investment and innovation that we have, the more alternatives and renewable energies we will see come into the U.S. markets.”