Byron Dorgan: “I know one of our colleagues drives one of the hybrid cars. I have seen it parked outside of the building when we have…”

“I know one of our colleagues drives one of the hybrid cars. I have seen it parked outside of the building when we have late votes. It is a car that runs on both gasoline and electricity. I understand they are very efficient. But the roads are not populated with many of those cars, largely because we have an energy industry and auto industry that moves down the road with the internal combustion engine, and they fight every step of the way on increased efficiencies people propose in Congress. Mr. President, I have told my colleagues this before, my first car was a 1924 Model T Ford. I bought an antique car and restored it. My dad told me where it was. He was hauling gasoline and was out on a farm and they had an old car in a granary. He told me about it and said you should write to this fellow and see if he wants to sell it. The guy had long since moved to Wisconsin. So I wrote to this fellow from Wisconsin and asked if he wanted to sell an old Model T stored in a granary for 30 or 40 years. I was a teenager. He said he would sell it for me for $25, and he sent me the owner's manual and the key. So I went out and hauled the old Model T in and restored it. It is interesting, that 1924 Model T Ford is fueled exactly the way a car built in 2001 is fueled. You pull up to a gas pump and you stick the nozzle in the tank and you pump gas in it.”