Gregory Meeks: “I too want to congratulate Chairman Hyde and Ranking Member Lantos for the strong bipartisan bill. This initiative…”

“I too want to congratulate Chairman Hyde and Ranking Member Lantos for the strong bipartisan bill. This initiative really talks about and reflects confidence in India as a global strategic partner. You know, the world is flat, and we have to have these partners in the world. What this does is, it says to India, because it is one of the world's largest democracies, that we understand and we recognize that. Also, we have to remember that this is about civil nuclear power. India has over a billion people and we have to figure out how we also make sure that we protect and preserve our environment. So what this does is recognize that the production of clean energy can reduce further pollution of the environment and decrease dependency on fossil fuels. In fact, if you look at the Indian CO<INF>2</INF> emission, a threefold increase in India nuclear capacity by 2015 would result in a reduction of over 170 million tons annually, or approximately the total current CO<INF>2</INF> emissions of the Netherlands. So I strongly support this bill.”