Chuck Schumer: “Dependence on foreign oil gets our foreign policy twisted in a knot, which, of course, saps our country of wealth every…”

“Dependence on foreign oil gets our foreign policy twisted in a knot, which, of course, saps our country of wealth every minute, every second, 365 days a year, and the American people want some change. They are willing to make some sacrifice and tighten their belts. As China is ahead of America in this area, the American people are ahead of this Congress. Again, we seem more concerned with feeding particular special interests, some good, some bad, than we do with coming up with a vision as to how we are going to reduce our energy independence. So is this bill an evil, horrible bill? No. The ethanol provision is odious, but the bill on balance may take a small, few steps forward, but not close to what is needed. I cannot think of an area, in a large policy way, where the needs and the political possibilities are not far ahead of what we have done tonight. I regret to say I am going to vote against this bill, not only because of the ethanol provisions in it, but because at a time demanding vision, at a time demanding foresight, at a time demanding an effort to solve problems that are only problems today but could become crises 5 years from now, we have done mostly the prosaic, the mundane, the expected. That is not what a great power does. That is not what true leaders do. That is what this bill does.…”