David Thomas: “although it is morning business, I will talk about the energy policy we will be considering later today and for the rest…”

“although it is morning business, I will talk about the energy policy we will be considering later today and for the rest of the week. I am delighted we are going to work on that. We have been working on an energy policy for some time. We worked on it last year and passed it in the Senate and the House. Unfortunately, the system we used did not produce results and did not go through the committees; therefore, we had problems when we got to the conference committee. This year, we are back again and more committed to complete our work than we were last year. We should be. When we think about life, work, and the economy, what is more important than energy? Whatever we are doing, wherever we are, whether we are driving, riding, reading, cooking, energy is consumed. It is certainly something we need to think about, how it affects our lives and what impact we can have on energy. What we are talking about is an energy policy. It is important to remember that. We are not talking about an issue that needs to be resolved, a part of the energy issue that needs to be resolved this week or this month. We are talking about an energy policy. As we talk about it, I am hopeful we can try to see a vision of where we want to be in the future, what is necessary to be successful in the future, and that we can set this policy in terms of what we need to do 10 or 15 years from now.”