John Hall: “Thank you, my colleagues. This is an important step we took today. Simply put, our success in ending our addiction to…”

“Thank you, my colleagues. This is an important step we took today. Simply put, our success in ending our addiction to foreign oil and fossil fuels is going to determine whether or not America will continue to grow and prosper in the 21st century. There is perhaps no other issue that could have as much of a profound effect on our economy as our ability to meet this goal of producing our own energy and new breakthroughs in ways of developing that energy. We have seen the terrible toll that the economic downturn has taken on working families over the past few months. Skyrocketing energy costs have made the burden harder to bear, and, at the same time, wages have stagnated, growth is far from certain, oil is over $100 a barrel, translating into homes in my district that are literally burning up their savings every time they burn oil to heat their home. I would remind those of you who don't know that you can call up your local distributor of heating oil if you, as my wife and I do, burn heating oil to heat your homes, and ask for biodiesel. Ask for a biodiesel blend. You will be surprised at how many distributors have it. We are currently burning in New York State, in my home in Dover Plains, a 20 percent soy-biodiesel blend, and that is that many barrels of oil less that have to come into the country from unstable parts of the world. Failure to take swift aggressive action would simply result in more of the same.”