John Ensign: “This country is facing high energy costs right now, with gasoline over $4 a gallon. Home heating oil is being affected…”

“This country is facing high energy costs right now, with gasoline over $4 a gallon. Home heating oil is being affected by the price of energy. Natural gas prices have gone up by over 70 percent. It is affecting literally every single family and business in the United States. We need to have a broad-based approach to finding all the sources of American energy we can possibly find to help make us less dependent on Middle Eastern oil and other energy supplies coming from outside the United States. It is important for our national security, and it is also important for our economic security. The amendment I wanted to offer to the housing bill deals with alternative renewable energies. These are energies such as solar, wind, geothermal, and many others. This amendment is identical to a bill Senator Maria Cantwell, a Democrat, and myself worked on together. In total, 45 Members have cosponsored this bill. We actually offered this legislation as an amendment to housing bill the last time that bill was on the Senate floor in April. At that time, our amendment passed with 88 yea votes and only 8 nay votes.”