Harry Reid: “I have spoken to the majority leader many times in the last week about this issue of energy policy. The majority leader…”

“I have spoken to the majority leader many times in the last week about this issue of energy policy. The majority leader, myself, and Senator Levin--if he were here--recognize the importance of developing an energy policy. I agree with my friend from Delaware. I was Lieutenant Governor of the State of Nevada during that time. I came back and had meetings with Vice President Ford as a representative of the National Lieutenant Governors Conference. The purpose of that meeting was to talk about energy. The first energy czar was a man named Bill Simon, who later came to the Department of Energy. There is no question we need to do something about energy policy in this country. There is no question about it. Senator Daschle, the majority leader, realizes that. He wants to move to an energy bill just as quickly as is possible. But we have lots of problems in this country as a result of what happened on September 11 in New York. It only exacerbates the problem as it relates to energy. We understand that. I have spoken to Senator Bingaman several times in the past week. He is doing his very best to report out a bill. I have spoken to the minority leader. The place that Republicans and Democrats want to go is basically the same. Probably 75 to 80 percent of the things that both parties want energywise we can all agree on. Some of the other things we can't agree on. One example, of course, is ANWR, which is a real problem.”