Political Quotes

“Seeing as there are no further Members to speak this evening, I will summarize. I mentioned earlier that coal-fired power had provided the energy for America's innovative engine for generations. We have now got new energy resources that have become available to us. I can remember--and I am sure many Members can--where they were the day that Neil Armstrong stepped foot out on the Moon. I am reminded of the excitement and the energy that we felt, the enthusiasm, the pride that we felt, when President John F. Kennedy announced that we were going to put a man on the Moon within the next decade. {time} 2130 That was in 1960, I believe, when he made that statement. It didn't take us until the end of the decade. We did it in 1969. Mr. Speaker, look what happened as a result of that. Every institution in America--academia, the medical industry, and the scientific community--everyone got behind the Moon race. We have got a stagnant economy struggling to get its feet underneath us in light of the staggering pressure from Federal regulations from the likes of the EPA, the Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement, the Interior, and so forth. Imagine what would happen if we had an all-of-the-above energy policy that sounded something like this: starting today, we are going to set a goal to become energy independent and secure by the year 2020. That is only 5 short years from now. But we have made tremendous progress.…”