Don Nickles: “I do not care how many times the Senator from Nevada waves that bill around, I remember there was a markup. I remember…”

“I do not care how many times the Senator from Nevada waves that bill around, I remember there was a markup. I remember putting several people in our committee through a very difficult markup to pass legislation, which they did. My colleague says, if you do not like the loan guarantees, strike it. The point is, we did not have a committee markup. If we had had a committee markup, I would have had an opportunity to strike it in committee. We would have had 20 people around the committee who would have maybe participated in this hearing and maybe had some impact, but we did not have that chance. I pointed out the $10 billion loan guarantee because I do not know where it came from. The point is, it would have been nice to have a markup so we could have discussed it. Maybe I would support it. I do not doubt it is a real national energy plus if we can get all the gas reserves that are just being pumped into the ground to the lower 48. That would give us some energy security. That is positive. I would like to see that happen. But I know one thing: I did not have any chance in committee to debate should we have a loan guarantee? Should we have cost shares? what kind of protection do we have for the Government? Is that the best way to go? I am interested in these things. Is this the correct alternative? I do not believe the hearing was to consider which alternative is the best. Maybe it was, and maybe it was just too close to September 11 and there were other things going on.”