David Thomas: “I take a moment to talk about at least one of the pending matters. Certainly our focus is, and should be, on what is…”

“I take a moment to talk about at least one of the pending matters. Certainly our focus is, and should be, on what is happening in Iraq, supporting our troops, so we can support whatever needs to be done now as this war, hopefully, comes to a successful conclusion. In the meantime, of course, while we are aware we are not yet at that point, we have to continue with strong support and praise of our men and women. In addition, business goes on. Despite our interest in terrorism, despite our concern and support for Iraq, our lives continue. An important issue is energy. We have been through this a number of times before, and the unrest in the Middle East has something to do with it, although it is not the exclusive reason. We need to find ways, as we look forward, to supply ourselves with our electricity needs. Energy is at times taken for granted. We do not pay attention to it. Lights, automobiles, food--everything has to do with energy. As we all know, we depend on imports for 60 percent of our energy. Availability is threatened, from time to time, but economically we are better off producing here. We are in the process of working on an energy policy.”