Tom Udall: “I wanted to talk about an issue that I know is going to become a very serious issue in this session of Congress, and…”

“I wanted to talk about an issue that I know is going to become a very serious issue in this session of Congress, and that is a national energy policy. This administration is going to unveil in the coming weeks their plan for a national energy policy and I thought it was important to talk a little bit about what I think should be in that national energy policy and how we ought to look forward. Energy and energy issues are not just about today. I think the people of this country pay us to look out to the future, 25, 50 years, and put this Nation on a very strong basis where we can be energy efficient. Are we in that condition today? I do not think so. I think increasingly in recent years, we have gone up and up with imports. We have increased our dependence on foreign oil. In fact, in the 1960s we imported about 20 percent of our oil. We are approaching today about 60 percent of our oil. So we are getting heavily dependent on imports. Where is the foreign oil coming from that we are importing? Over 55 percent of that oil is coming from seven countries. They are in the Middle East, a volatile region, a region where there is always something going to happen that might impact the oil supply. So we need to look ahead.”