Political Quotes

“I am very disappointed at the actions of the Senate this evening: that we were not able to come together after all of the work and all of the support from groups across this country for energy efficiency legislation; that we cannot bridge our differences and get this bill done, despite the broad bipartisan support, despite the support of organizations from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce to the National Association of Manufacturers to the NRDC environmental groups to the painters union. We had groups across the political spectrum supporting this legislation--the Alliance to Save Energy, which was really the brain child behind this legislation. Yet we were not able to come together to support a bill that would have made progress on the jobs front, progress on savings for consumers, and progress on preventing pollution. I thank Senator Landrieu, who has chaired the Energy and Natural Resources Committee, and Senator Boxer, chair of the Environment and Public Works Committee, for their kind words about this legislation this evening. I also thank my partner, who worked as hard on this bill as I did, Senator Rob Portman from Ohio, and the good work of both his staff and my staff in trying to move this efficiency agenda forward. Unfortunately, we saw tonight that differences in this body have prevented positive progress.…”