David Thomas: “I want to talk about the direction the Senate has been taking. Certainly, we have many things to do. We have moved…”

“I want to talk about the direction the Senate has been taking. Certainly, we have many things to do. We have moved through a number of important issues --the budget and meaningful tax relief. We now move to education and energy. I have to respond to the comments of the Senator from Illinois on energy and suggest this energy crisis did not just happen in the last 5 months. It is interesting to note that for the past 8 years we have not had an energy policy. We have let ourselves get into a position where we are totally dependent on OPEC and foreign production, and it has put us in this position. It is also interesting to note that it may not always be a shortage of oil but that refining may have something to do with it. We have not built any new refineries over the last number of years, and the idea of accusing someone of causing the problem--we need to take a look at it. We have many things to do, there is no question, but we need to deal with domestic production and we need to deal with the transportation of energy. We in Wyoming could produce energy for California if we had a way to get it there. We need refineries to refine gasoline. We need to get away from having to develop 15 types of gasoline. It is easy to get away from the facts and get off into blaming somebody for this behavior. The Senate needs to move on to education. It has been on this issue for quite a long time. It has not moved. We have had a certain amount of obstruction.”