David Thomas: “I thank the Chair. As I have said before, energy is terribly important to all of us. It is particularly important to…”

“I thank the Chair. As I have said before, energy is terribly important to all of us. It is particularly important to those of us who come from producer States. But perhaps if you come from a part of the country where there is no production and the cost continues to go up, you are even more concerned. In New England, that is pretty much the case. In any event, we do have a problem in energy and we have to find solutions. We have two very different points of view in terms of what our needs are and how we meet them. Many wonder, of course, why gas and diesel prices are so high. Heating oil will be very expensive. I come from a production State, and it wasn't long ago that oil in our oil fields was bringing less than $10 a barrel. Now, of course, in the world price, we are up in the thirties. Part of that, of course--I think the major part--is that we have relatively little impact on the price. We have allowed ourselves, over a period of time, to become dependent upon importation of oil. We have not had, in my view, an energy policy.”