Paul Tonko: “Absolutely. I was energy chair at the State assembly for the last 15 of my 25 years in the legislature, but then went…”

“Absolutely. I was energy chair at the State assembly for the last 15 of my 25 years in the legislature, but then went over as president and CEO with NYSERDA, the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority. We made it our goal to advance research, to make certain that we would incubate these ideas--these innovations, the cutting-edge technology-- that translate into jobs. Research equals jobs. I have advanced legislation that would slide subsidies that are given to the historically profit-rich in the tenure of capitalism--our goal here is to not feed the profit margin of our oil companies--over to cutting-edge technology, renewables, providing for consumer behavioral transitioning that enables us to grow American independence in the energy generation business. Why are we sending tens and hundreds of billions of dollars over to unfriendly nations to the United States for our dependency on fossil- based fuels when, in fact, we can encourage renewables here and energy efficiency, utilizing that as our fuel of choice to make certain that we reduce demand that then reduces bills that then allows the competitiveness of our businesses to be all the sharper? Those are the sorts of things in which we want to invest, and it's the going forward from that point. How about our infrastructure bank bill that would leverage public and private monies and that would stretch our opportunities to respond to that deficient infrastructure of which you spoke?…”