Rob Portman: “I rise to thank Senator Murkowski for giving me this opportunity. She spoke earlier about the fact that we are going to…”

“I rise to thank Senator Murkowski for giving me this opportunity. She spoke earlier about the fact that we are going to talk about Keystone in an open process, going to allow amendments, which seems very normal, but in the Senate it hasn't been over the past several years. This amendment is one that results to energy efficiency. I strongly support the underlying bill, and we will talk about it in a moment, but I also support the strategy of saying let's produce more energy, but also let's use the energy that we have more efficiently. I believe those are complementary, and I believe it is consistent with creating more jobs in this country, making our businesses more competitive, and improving the environment. So I appreciate her willingness to allow us to move forward with this amendment. This energy efficiency amendment we are talking about is a key part of the ``all of the above'' energy strategy that a lot of us discuss, whether it is nuclear, renewable, oil, coal or gas, efficiency ought to be a part of it. It is an amendment that is the result of a lot of years of work by Senator Shaheen, who was mentioned earlier, myself but also Senator Hoeven, Senator Ayotte, Senator Franken, and many other Members of this body. Our cosponsors this afternoon are Senator Shaheen, Senator Ayotte, Senator Bennet, Senator Collins, Senator Gardner, and Senator Manchin. This is legislation that is clearly bipartisan and legislation that shouldn't be controversial.…”