Byron Dorgan: “first I thank Senator Bingaman for this amendment. I support the amendment. It advances, improves and strengthens the…”

“first I thank Senator Bingaman for this amendment. I support the amendment. It advances, improves and strengthens the underlying energy bill. I know that the term ``renewable portfolio standard''--we have talked about that--is not necessarily something everybody understands. Much of what we do in the Senate sounds like a foreign language. Renewable portfolio standard. I think what this is is an American-made amendment, a home-grown energy amendment. It says what we ought to do is take charge and decide we are going to move in a different direction. My colleague said, and other colleagues have said, yes, we are going to continue to use coal, oil and natural gas, and I support that. We must continue to use fossil fuels. We also need to understand that we are increasingly dependent upon a supply of oil that comes from under the sands of the Middle East. A very small part of this world has an inventory of a very substantial part of the oil resources that exist in the world. To be hopelessly addicted to that oil--foreign sources of oil--makes no sense. So as we developed a new energy bill, I think we did an excellent job in the Energy Committee. I have complimented Senator Domenici and Senator Bingaman at some length about that. We have produced a bipartisan piece of legislation and brought it to the floor. During the debate in committee, we recognized that we would reserve this amendment for the floor of the Senate and debate it here on the floor.…”