Carol Shea-Porter: “I thank all those who worked so hard to produce this bill. Last year, the class of 2006 listened as Americans spoke out…”

“I thank all those who worked so hard to produce this bill. Last year, the class of 2006 listened as Americans spoke out demanding that we change direction in our energy policy. Americans, regardless of their political affiliation, understood that America was in an energy crisis, that we were too dependent on foreign oil, that we were unable to carry the message of conservation across this land, and that we had very poor gas mileage at a time when the technology has been in existence for many years. So Americans asked Congress to make this change, and we were sent to Washington to do that. And I am standing here today so proud to say that this is the day that we are going to answer Americans' concerns. We have now passed a bill, or will be passing a bill, that is not one that has everything that we wanted in it, obviously, but we have the direction and we have the energy and we have the resources and we have the plan. We are increasing the gas mileage. For the first time in over 30 years we are finally increasing our gas mileage. We are reducing our oil dependence on foreign nations. We have been forced to talk to foreign nations for our oil. That is the wrong approach in this country and an unnecessary approach. We are increasing biofuels, which will be our future, and we are growing jobs. This is critical for our economy right now. We are expecting that there will be 3 million new jobs across America because of our green incentive here.”