Political Quotes

“Madam Chair, I thank the chairman of the full committee for yielding and rise to oppose the gentleman's amendment. I find it extremely shortsighted because in this particular program we have so many successes. We have built 15 advanced vehicle manufacturing facilities, one of the largest wind farms in the world; constructed the first nuclear power plant in the country in more than 3 decades, the largest photovoltaic generation facility of its kind, the largest concentrated solar power plant in the world. I can tell you this isn't just--this is new technology. This is like NASA at the beginning, where we have got private sector money involved but also public sector money. There will be some errors made, that is true. And let me tell you, the Chinese undercut the market. I have seen it happen. I am from the solar valley of Ohio, and I saw what the Chinese did. We still have First Solar, the best company in the country in terms of volume and so forth, and that was largely privately funded; but at the beginning it had some photovoltaic research dollars that came from the Department. So we are talking about inventing the future. This isn't quite the same as going out for a car loan, because when you have predators like China come and literally buy your technology from under you in your startup company, it is a very slippery playing field. I would say they have done a commendable job in embracing the future. I think the gentleman's amendment really is not constructive.…”