Byron Dorgan: “let me make a final point that I think is important. The mandate here is going to strengthen this country's national…”

“let me make a final point that I think is important. The mandate here is going to strengthen this country's national security and energy security. We can decide to do nothing. We can decide, as my colleague from Arizona has, that we ought to essentially ignore this and let State-by-State judgments be made. We can decide that whatever the free market determines is our future. But that, in my judgment, does not resolve the need for a national energy policy that stretches this country and moves it in a different direction--one that I believe will strengthen national security by reducing our reliance on foreign oil. Does anybody in the Senate want to stand at their desk in the Senate and say: We really think it is good for the country, we really believe it strengthens America's national security to have 57 percent of our oil coming from the Middle East or from foreign sources? Is anyone missing what is happening in the Middle East these days? Does anybody believe it does not injure our national security to be so dependent on that source of oil? If you believe--and I think almost everyone in this Chamber does believe--it actually hurts our national security to be that dependent, then we ought to strive as a nation to find ways to change that. I am not talking about Arizona, Alaska, North Dakota, or New Jersey by themselves. The Nation ought to strive to back away from that dependency.…”