David Thomas: “I am delighted that we are now into the debate and soon the passage of our energy bill. This is a bill we have worked on…”

“I am delighted that we are now into the debate and soon the passage of our energy bill. This is a bill we have worked on for several years. It is a bill that is an energy policy for this country. It looks ahead through the years and tries to get an idea of what our needs are going to be and how we fill those needs. It is something we really need. Certainly, everyone recognizes increasingly the profound effect it has on our lives. Look outside at the thousands of cars. All of them are running on gasoline, of course. Look at electricity. We take it for granted. We turn the lights on, and we do not think of where it comes from or how it got there. Air-conditioning is the same. We have noticed that a lot the last few days. Think of what it would be like if we did not have air-conditioning. We would probably be on recess, and I would go back to Wyoming. All of our technology now is tied to computers. We do not think much about it. This is an opportunity for us to give some analysis to how we provide this and, of course, costs. We do pay some attention to the costs. We have talked about this for years, and we have had bills on the Senate floor. In the last session, we had bills passed in the Senate and in the House. We went to a conference in which they were put together. We came back to the Senate floor, and over a couple of smaller or singular items, we lost. So we have not had a comprehensive energy bill.…”